Filed under: Books, Southern States, Cookbook of the Day

There is no doubt that Matt and Ted Lee, the authors of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook are from the South. Putting the title of the book aside, their warmth and generosity are made very clear to the reader as soon as you begin to flip though the pages. And that is exactly the kind of feeling that draws people in to a cookbook and makes you want to try some of the recipes right away.

The book starts out by telling you a story about a quest for boiled peanuts in New York City and how two educated, but homesick, young Southerners turned to food in order to share the food and love of food that they grew up with. Had it been lengthened with a bit more detail, the introduction would have made an excellent book all on its own, but as it stands, the introduction feeds right into the recipes, which seem to all be classic Southern favorites, not approximations of them. They include: Boiled Peanuts (of course), Watermelon Rind Preserves, more than ten grits recipes, City Ham Steak with Red-Eye Gravy. Chicken Fried Steak, Clover Peach Fried Pie, pralines, hush puppies and biscuits. The book is 600 pages long, so you'll have to put in the time exploring the rest of the recipes yourself.

You'll also find sources for specialty ingredients, more stories and the histories attached to old and new Southern staples. And if you try some of the recipes out at home, you may just end up with some of your own stories to add.