New Southern Basics: Traditional Southern Food for Today

After eating at Belle Meade and getting hooked on the cheese grits and fried chicken, I had to buy the cookbook. This one does not disappoint. Everything I have made from this is wonderful. Fried green tomatoes, bread pudding...all of it fabulous. It is also easy enough for every day cooking. With the exception of occasional ingredients that are local specialties (poke salet, spiced round) there aren't quirky ingredients or overly complicated recipes. It might be the one cookbook on my shelf I couldn't live without.

For a Northerner who can't cook (i.e. follow dirctions wellwhen cooking) and doesn't particularly like to cook, I LOVED this cookbook. Now you may be asking yourself why a self described non-cooking woman would by this book. It's very simple. I've eaten the wonderful food Martha Stamps cooks up at her restaurant at the Belle Meade Plantation. I'll also confess that initially I purchased the book just because I loved the tea punch and knew I'd never remember the recipe until I got home from Nashville.What I found not only by eating at her restaurant but by actually reading the cookbook is that her passion for cooking is clearly evident. While the recipes can stand on their own, what makes this cook book so special are the details about Martha and her family that accompany the recipes. It is clearly evident that cooking is not just a vocation for her but a passion. These recipes aren't just thrown together, they have a history to them.Even if you buy this book for just one recipe - it's worth it.

This cookbook is wonderful!I was looking for a cookbook that had the recipes that my Grandmothers, from Southern Illionis, would cook when I would visit every summer. What you will find most amazing about this cookbook is that you will have many of the ingredients in your panty. (Even if it's not stocked with fancy foodstuff!)My husband thinks the meatloaf recipe is simply the best and raves and raves about it! The cheese straws I made for a Thanksgiving were all devoured in one night! As did they love the pimento cheese. The beef stew is wonderful as is the pot roast, chicken and dumplings, chicken salad, and the maccaroni and cheese is great. I've made the beef stew. Oh my goodness, was it good! Oh and the recipe for Banana Nut Bread is the best I've ever made, per my neighbors, my doctor, his wife, and even my Mama. Forget about my kids, I make double and triple batches and it's gone within a few day! For a Christmas get together I made the fudge pie and bought peppermint ice cream.(I had been out all day and was so tired, it really is an easy dessert!) The men loved it even more than the kids! If Mrs. Stamps ever reads these reviews: Please get another cookbook out with some "More Southern Basics". When I use this cookbook I am always thinking about my Grandmothers. They loved their men and their children, grandchildren and great grand-children, and most of all they loved who they were - Women raising a family, being smart, yet furgal when it came to providing for those they loved. And so proud. Can a cookbook evolve all this emotion? Yes it can and it does.

This is the kind of book that reads as much as a novel as it does a cookbook. With little anecdotes, rememberances, and stories accompanying almost every recipe, it is a delight to read and can be done so in one sitting. Being born and raised far from the South, some of the recipes sounded a little unusual to me, but no less intriguing. The recipes are easy to follow and often use ingredients that are already in the pantry or cupboards. So many of the recipes can be classified as "comfort food", as they are not only pleasing to the stomach but bring back those feelings of contentment so many people feel after a favorite meal. After trying Phelps-Stamps recipe for Scalloped Potatoes, I will never again make them from a boxed mix. Her recipe is just too easy and the result is too delicious to ever go back to its "convenience based" counterpart. And this is a sentiment I find myself discovering over and over as I try more recipes from the book. As a cookbook collector with over 100 books in my collection, "The New Southern Basics" cookbook is a favorite and one I find myself reaching for quite often.

This is one of the freshest and loveliest books on Southern cooking to appear in years. Martha Stamps approaches the food with the authority of the professional cook that she is, but she does so gently, with grace and a refreshing sweetness, and without intimidating the reader with her credintials. Writing in clear, down to earth prose with an unapologetic love for her subject, she never preaches. You feel as if you are sitting on Stamps's porch shelling peas while she talks about what we might have for supper. This book belongs in the library of anyone who is interested in Southern cooking, or American regional cooking, or just good cooking period.Damon Lee Fowler (author, Classical Southern Cooking).