The best cook in the world /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2018]Description: pages cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781400040414
- 1400040418
- 9781432852061 (lg. print)
- 641.5975 23
- TX715.2.S68 B725 2018
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Biography | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | B BRAGG BRAGG (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610021415554 | |||
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Large Print | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book - Large Print | Large.Print B BRAGG BRAGG (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 2 | Available | 50610022581727 | |||
Standard Loan | Tri-Community Library Adult Nonfiction | Tri-Community Library | Book | 641.59/BRA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610021396820 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the beloved, best-selling author of All Over but the Shoutin' , a delectable, rollicking food memoir, cookbook, and loving tribute to a region, a vanishing history, a family, and, especially, to his mother. Including seventy-four mouthwatering Bragg family recipes for classic southern dishes passed down through generations.
Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook. She measures in "dabs" and "smidgens" and "tads" and "you know, hon, just some." She cannot be pinned down on how long to bake corn bread ("about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the mysteries of your oven"). Her notion of farm-to-table is a flatbed truck. But she can tell you the secrets to perfect mashed potatoes, corn pudding, redeye gravy, pinto beans and hambone, stewed cabbage, short ribs, chicken and dressing, biscuits and butter rolls. Many of her recipes, recorded here for the first time, pre-date the Civil War, handed down skillet by skillet, from one generation of Braggs to the next. In The Best Cook in the World, Rick Bragg finally preserves his heritage by telling the stories that framed his mother's cooking and education, from childhood into old age. Because good food always has a good story, and a recipe, writes Bragg, is a story like anything else.
Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook. She measures in "dabs" and "smidgens" and "tads" and "you know, hon, just some." She cannot be pinned down on how long to bake corn bread ("about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the mysteries of your oven"). Her notion of farm-to-table is a flatbed truck. But she can tell you the secrets to perfect mashed potatoes, corn pudding, redeye gravy, pinto beans and hambone, stewed cabbage, short ribs, chicken and dressing, biscuits and butter rolls. Many of her recipes, recorded here for the first time, pre-date the Civil War, handed down skillet by skillet, from one generation of Braggs to the next. In The Best Cook in the World, Rick Bragg finally preserves his heritage by telling the stories that framed his mother's cooking and education, from childhood into old age. Because good food always has a good story, and a recipe, writes Bragg, is a story like anything else.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Prologue It Takes a Lot of Rust to Wipe Away a General Electric (p. 3)
- 1 "'Them Shadows Get to Dancin'" (p. 31)
- Butter Rolls
- 2 "Salt Is Good" (p. 52)
- Cream Sausage Gravy, Buttered Grits with a Touch of Cheese, Sliced Tomato, the Perfect Fried Egg
- 3 A Man Who Knew Beans (p. 71)
- Pinto Beans and Ham Bone, Creamed Onions, Buttered Boiled Potatoes, Carrot and Red Cabbage Slaw, Cornbread
- 4 Sweeter, After the Frost (p. 93)
- Collard Greens, Baked Hog Jowl, Baked Sweet Potatoes
- 5 "A Chicken ... Ain't Likely to Ketch On" (p. 104)
- Chicken Roasted in Cider with Carrots, Turnips, and Onion, Chicken Gravy, Mashed Potatoes
- 6 The Fourth Bear (p. 120)
- Cornmeal Porridge with Chicken and Watercress, Stewed Cabbage, Fried Apples
- 7 The Falling Cow (p. 131)
- Beef Short Ribs, Potatoes, and Onions
- 8 "Hard Times, Come Around No More" (p. 145)
- Sweet Potato Pie, Sweet Potato Cobbler
- 9 "A Ham Hock Don't Call for Help" (p. 166)
- Pan-Boasted Pig's Feet (with Homemade Barbecue Sauce), Chunky Potato Salad
- 10 Cakes of Gold (p. 177)
- Meat Loaf, Scalloped Potatoes, Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
- 11 Sis (p. 187)
- Sis's Chicken and Dressing
- 12 The Second Ghost (p. 208)
- Cracklin Cornbread
- 13 Bitter Weeds (p. 227)
- Poke Salad
- 14 Still Hard Times for an Honest Man (p. 243)
- Vegetable Soup in a Short Rib Base
- 15 The Pie That Never Was (p. 260)
- Chocolate Pie, Toasted Coconut Pie, Buttermilk Pie
- 16 Ribs in the Dead of Night (p. 271)
- Spareribs Stewed in Butter Beans
- 17 Clementine (p. 281)
- Fried Chicken, Fried Chicken Gravy (Water Gravy), Fresh Green Beans with Golden Potatoes
- 18 Tomatoes Without Taste, Tomatoes Without End (p. 298)
- Ham and Redeye Gravy over Fresh Diced Tomato
- 19 Didelphis Virginiana (p. 312)
- Baked Possum and Sweet Potatoes
- 20 Stairway to Nowhere (p. 322)
- Real Biscuits, with Sausage, Ham, Fatback, Fried Potatoes, Spanish Scrambled Eggs
- 21 People Who Cook (p. 341)
- Buttermilk and Cornbread Patties
- 22 Blackberry Winter (p. 347)
- Wild Plum Pie, Blackberry Cobbler
- 23 Till It Thunders (p. 356)
- Turtle Soup
- 24 Offerings (p. 371)
- Smothered Cubed Steak
- 25 Government Cheese (p. 382)
- Cheese-and-Sausage Pie, Macaroni and Cheese, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Pear Preserves or Muscadine Jelly
- 26 Sometimes the Pies Just Call Your Name (p. 396)
- Pecan Pie
- 27 Red's (p. 402)
- The Hamburger Steak with Brown Gravy, The Immaculate Cheeseburger
- 28 "When Momma Was All Right" (p. 418)
- Tea Cakes
- 29 Monkey on a String (p. 423)
- Barbecued Bag Bologna Sandwich Dressed with Shredded Purple Cabbage Slaw
- 30 Edna's Ark (p. 438)
- Fried Fresh Crappie, Hush Puppies, Tartar Sauce
- 31 Staggering to Glory (p. 445)
- Barbecued Pork Chops and Ham Slices, Deviled Eggs, Baked Beans with Thick-Cut Bacon, Jalapeño Cornbread
- 32 The Runaway 457
- Roast Turkey
- 33 "Untimely Figs" (p. 466)
- Ray Brock's Fig Preserves
- 34 Spring (p. 477)
- Fresh Field Peas with Pork, Stewed Squash and Sweet Onions, Fried Okra, Sweet Corn, Fried Green Tomatoes
- Epilogue: The Recipe that Never Was (p. 486)
- Quick Fried Apple Pies
- Acknowledgments (p. 489)
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Here is a beautifully written memoir by a man who can't cook very well-at least according to his mother. And that mother, Margaret Bragg, is the central figure in this culinary history from author Bragg, who is known for family stories (All over but the Shoutin'). Bragg comes from a long line of adept cooks, and this story begins with his great-grandfather Jimmy Jim teaching Bragg's grandmother Ava to cook when she was a newlywed. Other legendary family cooks make appearances, along with family legends of all kinds. For Bragg, food and stories go hand in hand, and Margaret is not only the chief cook, she is also the chief storyteller. These accounts are more than entertainment; they are a way for people to survive hard times. We should all be so lucky to sit at the elbow of a great cook as they work and pass along family knowledge. VERDICT For readers who crave soul with their recipes (some 75 here), this is a fitting tribute to foodways that are fast slipping away.-Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
Cookbooks don't translate easily to the audiobook format, but Bragg, reading in a friendly Southern drawl, manages to effortlessly transform this collection of his mother's Southern comfort food recipes into an utterly captivating listening experience. This is largely due to the narrative component of the book, which includes stories from Bragg's mother's life in the South and is intertwined with 75 recipes for dishes including "fried chicken, potato salad, and slab of pie," which Bragg's grandmother served his grandfather at a barn dance and which helped to seal her fate as his future wife. The recipes themselves are rooted in the oral tradition, and many of them include measurements such as "enough" and temperature guidelines such as "you'll know." Bragg clearly developed each recipe while observing his mother in the kitchen. He captures his mother's razor-sharp judgment and confidence as well as her frequent disclaimer of "Some people may do it that way, but I don't." As with his previous audiobooks, Bragg renders the banter of his blue-collar Southern family with pride and heart. This is that rare food-centric audiobook to savor. A Knopf hardcover. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Many an adoring son thinks his momma is the world's best cook, but that opinion usually springs from affection more than objective evaluation. In this case, Pulitzer Prize-winner Bragg (who previously paid tribute to his mother in All over but the Shoutin', 1997) has credentials to back up the claim. Bound by scarcity, provincialism, and personal adversity, Bragg's momma produced remarkably good, tasty food for family and community from aging, unreliable stoves and well-seasoned, cast-iron cookware. Although his momma never cooked from a book, Bragg has penned recipes to give readers essential instruction for emulating her kitchen accomplishments. This is genuine locavore cuisine without pretense, art without artifice. Bragg's translation of the uncertainties of his mother's cooking into modern, scientific recipes may sap some spontaneity, but he generously preserves a way of life that has endured in America's backcountry. His prose evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of a rural Alabama kitchen and transforms apparent poverty into soul-satisfying plenty.--Knoblauch, Mark Copyright 2018 BooklistKirkus Book Review
Heartfelt, often hilarious stories from an Alabama kitchen, a place from which issue wondrous remembrances and wondrous foods alike.Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Bragg (My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South, 2015, etc.) matches the tales he assembled about his father in The Prince of Frogtown (2008) with an equally rough-and-tumble collection of folk wisdom served up courtesy of his mother, who "cooked for people she'd have just as soon poisoned, and for the loves of her life." There's an aching nostalgia throughout, not just for years gone, but also for a way of life that seems to have faded away, a Southernism of which "our food may be the best part left." It's a food that African-Americans call "soul food" because it transcends bodily pain and torment and, Bragg writes, offers "a richness for a people without riches." Over the course of this long narrative, the author's mother turns over the stage to other relatives, and webs of stories are spun, to say nothing of well-observed notes on old-fashioned Southern foodways: raccoon is stinky, snapping turtle is sometimes eaten, "but that, too, is complicated," and tomatoes are to be cherished if you can find one that tastes like a tomato, to say nothing of a chicken that tastes like a chicken. Bragg's mother is a worthy guide throughout, unyielding in her judgment: "Use brown eggs when you can get 'em," she warns. "They're more like real eggs." In this inauthentic world, there's nothing like some comfort food: greens, grits with just a little hint of cheese, fried chicken, and black-eyed peasnot to mention ham and redeye gravy ("smoked ham steaks can be used as a shortcut, if you are a Philistine"), government cheese, fried bologna sandwiches, and fried okra (not battered, since it "defeats the purpose of fresh food").Affectionate, funny, and beautifully written: a book for every fan of real food. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Rick Bragg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1996. A national correspondent for the "New York Times", he lives in Miami, Florida.(Bowker Author Biography)
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