Land of Cotton: A Collection of Southern Recipes

Shop Notes: 

Personally, from a modern cooking perspective, I love that this cookbook contains recipes and ideas for a wide variety of high/low cuisines.  Everything from a ketchup and boozy rendition of "Bourbon Franks" to almost every Southern vegetable dish imaginable.  This book is a truly delightful read and you can put dinner on the table and mix up some Halloween face paint without ever having to fire up the internet.

From the Publisher:

Land of Cotton is one of those quintessential cookbooks that belongs in anyone's Southern (or American) cookbook collections.  The introduction to this fantastic collection of recipes indicates that "The recipes in Land of Cotton have met the ultimate test - the family dinner table.  From quiet, special times for family and friends to grand celebrations, these southern treasures are presented to you with pride and delight." 

Historical Note:  

At Blackbird Cookbooks, we love to cook and eat, but one of our major goals in focusing on cookbooks and foodways is that it allows us the opportunity to evaluate and document the complex role of cookbooks and cooking in the larger historical and social record.  Particularly in the Southern realm, these discussions can often be complicated and uncomfortable, but we firmly believe in documenting the facts as we know them to help ensure the accuracy of the historical record and highlight the stories behind the recipes themselves.

While the recipes in Land of Cotton reflect a wide swath of Southern and Alabaman foodways, it should be noted that the original beneficiary of this cookbook, John T. Morgan Academy, occupies a problematic section of the Civil Rights' struggle in the South.  The school has been known as a "segregation academy." Which means that it was started in the 1960s as a way to continue to keep both black and white students segregated in Selma, Alabama despite the federally-mandated orders to desegregate Southern schools.  John Tyler Morgan himself was a Confederate General, Grand Dragon in the KKK, and a six-time senator that introduced numerous vigilante bills in the years after the Civil War that would preserve the pre-war social order.  John T. Morgan Academy remained segregated until 2008, a change that only came about because of the efforts of the modern social justice work in the Selma area.

 Condition: Used, Very Good, Discoloring related to age.  If multiple copies are in inventory, customers will receive best quality copy in priority of order received.