White Trash Cooking

I must confess that I resisted buying this cookbook for many years. I am an avid collector of American Regional and International cookbooks, but found the title of this book offensive. I assumed it was written to mock rural whites, a people I know to be hardworking, self-reliant, and decent. I was wrong about this one. This book actually celebrates these people and their cuisine, and is one of the very best traditional American cookbooks in print. Great recipes for fried chicken, catfish, hushpuppies, collard greens, Hoppin John, cornbread, and biscuits, as well as rabbit, squirrel, and yes, even possum. The book has a folksy humor throughout, and the recipes are authentic. Books like this become even more precious as this and other American regional cuisines disappear under a blanket of bland corporate burger chains, sub shops, and pizza joints. Incidentally, several recent medical studies have shown that rural Appalachians who consume this traditional fare are far healthier than those who embrace the modern suburban diet of chain restaurant food! If you have any interest in traditional American cooking, this book is a must-own.

I bought this book years ago when it first came out, and absolutely LOVE it: great recipes, great pictures, down-home real food.Best recipe for biscuits I have ever seen-my book's permanentlystained from use! Even tried the potato chip sandwich, a littlesalty, but delish. You don't have to pay an arm and a leg for pretentious, overpric-ed "country peasant cuisine," you have it right here: polenta'sgrits, baby! A lot of these recipes are solid, delicious food,stuff we grew up on in the Midwest, stuff our granmas used tomake. And if you have ever attended a church social, you'll re-cognize many of the dishes in this awesome cookbook.It's worth it for the center photograph section, for a nostalgictouch, for in the rush to urbanize here in Florida, many roadsidefruit and vegetable stands have been zoned out of existence. Upin the Panhandle you might still find roadside boiled peanut sta-nds(now THAT'S some great eatin'!), and some produce stands-butif you can't go there-try this book-you won't regret it.You might approach this book thinking of it as a joke, or in a condescending approach to white trash(read American Peasants),but once you start to read the anecdotes and recipes, you gain anunderstanding and respect for these tenacious souls. P.S. Try the cheese grits-with Velveeta and Tabasco sauce-thatwill wake you up some!

Mickler's self-deprecating portrayal of Southern prole culture is absolutely hilarious! But, even 'though this book is laugh-out-loud funny, it is no mere joke-book. Make no mistake -- these are real recipes that work. I took this cookbook with me when my family was relocated, for my husband's job, to live in Silicon Valley for three months in a corporate apartment and forced to make do with a bare-bones kitchen containing three foil-thin skillets and a rectangular Pyrex baking pan. Amazingly, these recipes were simple enough that I was able to make easy and delicious meals everyday with a minimum of implements and without need for fancy ingredients. This is, simply put, real folks' home-cooking. By the way, you have got to try Irma Lee Stratton's Chocolate Dump Cake! It is the chocolate cake recipe I had been searching for, the moistest and fudgiest chocolate cake I have ever had. You won't even want to add frosting, it's that good!

This book is hysterical, tasteless and wonderful. To start off with, the recipes are authentic and they are tasty. Don't even think about looking for anything low cal here. The pictures are priceless, the short stories will keep you in stitches and the recipes will have everyone saying you are a wonderful cook. GET IT GET IT GET IT. If you are a fan of cookbooks you should not be without this one.