The Taste of Country Cooking

A stunning 50th anniversary edition of one of the most beloved cookbooks of all time, by “the empress of Southern cooking” (The New Yorker), beautifully repackaged and redesigned, with a new foreword by Toni Tipton-Martin With the publication of The Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis proclaimed the food of the American South as one of the world’s great cuisines. From Baked Virginia Ham and Corn Muffins to Oyster Stew and Lemon Meringue Pie, Miss Lewis (as she was almost universally known) extolled the virtues of the good food of her childhood, spent in a Virginia farming community founded by her grandfather and his friends after emancipation. A celebration of eating locally—decades before “farm to table” became common parlance—the book catalogs the joys of cooking with the seasons: the field greens and salads of spring, pan-fried chicken and crushed peaches in summer, baked ham and sweet potatoes for fall, and hearty soups and stews during the cold winter months. An affirmation of a distinctly American way of eating, half a century after its publication, it remains the definitive book on Southern cooking.