Rating: 
Summary: Every recipe you ever wanted is in this book
Review: That is,if you are a southerner or you appreciate southern food. OK,so the reviewer from New Jersy is upset because he doesn't get a recipe for lard and thinks the writer chefs should have spent more time out of the South-Miss Lewis spent a lifetime in NYC but thankfully,it didn't ruin her cooking.
The recipes are easy to follow,make sense,don't "weird-up" the classics by doing things like adding lemongrass to grits and the text is interesting.There are recipes for many different kinds of dishes. No,its not low fat but who cares? You gotta love these two for reminding me of when people dared save their bacon grease in a can!
The two chefs have a sweet relationship that was recently profiled in the NY Times.It comes through in Chef Peacocks writing.
This book resonated with me in an emotional way. If you grew upm with trditional southern food,or wish you had,buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: High-Maintenance Southern Cuisine
Review: This book has received the kind of reverential reviews that haven't been seen since Moses handed down tablets from Mount Sinai--and those didn't even have recipes! So with recommendations from the press in mind, I happily and blindly purchased this book.
The editorial comments in Saveur treat the book's editor as an infallible icon of publishing, but I see a lot of irritating problems in the book's production. Photos are haphazard, photo identification nonexistent. Is that Lane Cake on page 260? There are many repeated photographs throughout the book--two of Tea Cakes, two of Cornbread, just shot from different angles. This isn't a huge sin, but it isn't the way to show a publisher's confidence in a high-profile book.
Overall, this isn't Southern Cooking, but rarified Southern Cuisine. Many recipes require expensive or hard-to-find ingredients. Here's an example or two: The culinary pleasures of lard are extolled, but you won't find a recipe for homemade lard here. Why not? This is a serious flaw. The authors talk about good lard as if you can get it around the corner. In my neighborhood market, I have a difficult time even getting fatback to render into lard for the few recipes I have that require it. If they want to reach a new readership, they should not assume that everyone is a seasoned cook who knows how to make lard. Not to be rude, but if the authors spent more time outside of the South, perhaps they would have a better idea of what ingredients are truly available to their readers.
Pork Stock, an ingredient of many recipes, they ask you to simmer up 2 pounds of smoked pork shoulder (similar to expensive Smithfield ham). While they suggest using cheaper packaged ham bits, that grocery item is really only available in the south. There is a "Substitutes for Pork Stock" box on page 153. What this important information is doing over one hundred pages away from the Pork Stock recipe is a mystery, but it shows that someone was asleep at the wheel. (Or that, like many cookbooks these days, the Art Director is king, and that design considerations overrode simple common sense of what goes where.) Not that I relished the idea of turning pricey meat into stock, I went to the only website in the mail-order section for smoked meat, only to find that the link was incorrect and the new site only had hams.
Like many other chefs, they have fallen in love with the concept of brining, which adds eight hours of prep time to a simple dish like curried Country Captain. I am one home cook that questions the validity of bringing--I have been making fried chicken and roast chicken for years without brining and without serving dry food, and I find that it give all food a similar salty flavor.
All this is 'jes fine and dandy if you approach the book with realistic expectations--I fell for the hype. If you need yet another recipe for buttermilk biscuits (I learned about using soft wheat flour and homemade baking powder years ago, probably from one of Miss Lewis' other books), cheese straws, fried okra, and the like, then this is your glass of iced tea. While there is a certain amount of déjà vu, perhaps unavoidable in a Southern cookbook, I admit that I can't wait to make the Chocolate Cake, Braised Short Ribs and Thyme-Scented Loin of Pork with Muscadine Grapes and Port. Miss Lewis and Mister Peacock are clearly extraordinary cooks that deserve our respect, but they also deserve some editorial support.
Rating:
Summary: MASTERPIECE
Review: This book is so good, the instructions so clear and the results so reliable.
Since the origin of many/most recipes are true or variations of heirloom family recipes, some a century old, it would only make sense that this cannot be a low fat health conscious cookbook, but these are authentic recipes and soo good! You have to try the carrot cake and the many cakes as well as follow the delcious recommendations for menus!!
Everything I have made has been superb and that never happens with me!!! Get this book, you'll love it!
Rating:
Summary: It really is a gift!!
Review: This book is the best thing that has happened to me all summer. The book is a pleasure to read and all the recipes I've tried work. It's about the joy of preparing good, simple foods and the real gift of feeding people. Yummm.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, attractive and mouth-watering
Review: This collaboration of a descendant of slaves born before 1920 and a white son of modern rural Alabama, celebrates the variety and richness of southern cooking from Red Pepper Catsup to Catfish Stew. Arranged by course, from condiments to desserts (three chapters!) this book reflects the serious authority of its authors, particularly Lewis ("The Taste of Country Cooking"), who has won numerous awards over the years.From Blackberry Cordial and Smoked Pork Stock, Old Fashioned Boiled Dressing and Wilted Salad, to Slow-Cooked Oxtails, Spicy Collards in Tomato-Onion Sauce, Corn Pudding and Buttermilk Biscuits, the authors encompass the range of time-honored dishes, each prefaced with a touch of history or a word on technique. Emphasis is placed on quality of ingredients and, with the south's long growing season, the natural match of seasonal foods. This is a book that's nearly as nourishing to read as it is to cook from and comprehensive and elegant enough to be the only Southern cookbook you need.
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