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HomeCookbooksSoul Food CookbooksSoul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South |
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|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 41 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 42 found the following review helpful:
 Outstanding in every way Feb 17, 2001
By Niel Rishoi
You might call this a "complete" book on authentic soul food cooking. Sheila Ferguson outlines the history and origins of soul food, and the importance it placed in the Southern home. She gives intriguing historical details, as well as mildly entertaining anecdotes of her family, and their traditions. Best of all, Ferguson has a wonderful sense of humor, and the delightful exaggerations of expressions are charmingly all in good fun. The recipes themselves are explained with breezy enthusiasm, and are carefully outlined, so that the novice on soul food cooking is led in all the right directions. Everything I've made has proved outstanding; the buttermilk biscuits recipe is the best ever - they were high, light and fluffy. And by the way: unlike many other Southern type cookbooks, which disappointingly advocate using only chemically altered, bland shortening in recipes, Ferguson freely uses lard, bacon fat and butter. It's unbelievable how much better, and lighter textured biscuits and pie crusts are with lard. The BBQ sauce is the best I've ever had, flavorful, rich and satisfying. It was good to know about how to cook greens, and Ferguson certainly espouses their value highly. When it comes to fried chicken one won't find a better guide than here: nothing is left to chance, and the cook won't go wrong following these pointed instructions. In short, this book "sold me" and then some, on soul food - highly recommended.
22 of 22 found the following review helpful:
A Cooks Companion! Jan 17, 2000
By Tonya Alston Maxwell
I have many cookbooks and this is one of my new favorites! My step-mom bought the last store copy as a Christmas present for my sister. After flipping through its pages, my step-mother and I decided we each MUST have this book...I ended up getting it for Christmas from someone else and now I'm buying it for my step-mom. With that being said, the best Red Beans and Rice recipe that I ever made, came from this book! The only way to make cornbread is by baking it in a cast iron skillet and although I have a great recipe of my own, Ms. Ferguson's recipe is superb!
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 damned authentic from what I ate as a chile! May 28, 1998
a white friend cooked up some great soul food. How'd you do this I demanded. she showed me the book. ALL my childhood favorites were in there, everyone I could think of to look up. I bought the book within the week.
36 of 41 found the following review helpful:
 Authentic Recipes, but Not Fool Proof Directives Nov 24, 2001
By Stephanie Rose Bird
"conjurer2"
As a fellow native of the East Coast I found "Sheila Fergusons Classic Cuisine from the Deep South" heart warming and authentic to the region. When I looked at the photographs of her family I felt like I could have been looking through my own family albums. The only difficulty I had with the book is that
some of the recipes failed or where hit or miss, particularly baked goods, which may indicate poor directions or inaccurate measurements. With greater consideration for accuracy this book could be truelly outstanding, but as it stands it brilliantly encapsulates a particular regional cuisine, with text illuminated by fascinating photographs, while containing recipes that work well only occassionally.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Nothing to add to any recipe Sep 12, 2006
By M. Hill
"cookbook collector"
The southern recipes are accurate to a fault. This is authentic soul food cuisine. I have found that sometimes I have had to reduce some of the richer ingredients for a "healthier" meal. This is the first cook book I have used that you can just follow the recipe and you do not have to add a thing. The flavoring is just right!
See all 41 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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