2024 the best southern mac and cheese review

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In her first cookbook, a revered former cook at Savannah's most renowned restaurant divulges her locally famous Savannah recipes—many of them never written down before—and those of her family and friends

Hundreds of thousands of people have made a trip to dine on the exceptional food cooked by Dora Charles at Savannah's most famous restaurant. Now, the woman who was barraged by editors and agents to tell her story invites us into her home to taste the food she loves best. These are the intensely satisfying dishes at the heart of Dora's beloved Savannah: Shrimp and Rice; Simple Smoky Okra; Buttermilk Cornbread from her grandmother; and of course, a truly incomparable Fried Chicken. Each dish has a "secret ingredient" for a burst of flavor: mayonnaise in the biscuits; Savannah Seasoning in her Gone to Glory Potato Salad; sugar-glazed bacon in her deviled eggs. All the cornerstones of the Southern table are here, from Out-of-This-World Smothered Catfish to desserts like a jaw-dropping Very Red Velvet Cake. With moving dignity, Dora describes her motherless upbringing in Savannah, the hard life of her family, whose memories stretched back to slave times, learning to cook at age six, and the years she worked at the restaurant. “Talking About” boxes impart Dora’s cooking wisdom, and evocative photos of Savannah and the Low Country set the scene.

From the Publisher

Orphan One Hundred Cookies

Makes about 100 cookies

I got this cookie recipe with the wacky name from my Aunt Laura, who can’t remember who gave it to her. So these cookies have no home and no mama. They’re chewy, crisp, sandy, rich, buttery, and light, all at the same time. It’s hard to stop eating them, so it’s a good thing the recipe really does make a hundred cookies. They have a secret ingredient: crunchy Rice Krispies.

Directions

Set the oven to 350 degrees and adjust the rack positions to the top and lower thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and the two sugars until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the oil, egg, and vanilla and mix well. On low speed, add the flour mixture and then the remaining ingredients one at a time, beating until everything is mixed in well.

Measure out a tablespoon of cookie dough, roll it into a ball, and place it on one of the cookie sheets. Repeat to make more cookies, leaving at least 1-inch between them. Flatten each cookie with a fork to about 1/8-inch thick.

Bake, rotating the sheets at the halfway mark, until the cookies get slightly golden around the edges, 12 to 14 minutes. I like them chewy, so I cook them closer to the 12-minute mark; if you want them crisper, bake for 14 minutes. Don’t over-bake. Cool the cookies on the pans for 5-minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Let the baking sheets cool completely between batches and repeat with the remaining dough.

Store in well-sealed tins.

Tips

1. The bigger the cookies are, the chewier and softer they’ll be.

2. If you want to make smaller cookies, use a teaspoon of cookie dough rather than a tablespoon. The smaller cookies bake much faster; start checking at 9-minutes.

3. If your crisp cookies get soft, you can re-crisp them on a baking sheet in a 300-degree oven for about 5-minutes.

Ingredients 3½ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cream of tartar ½ teaspoon salt 2 sticks (½ pound) butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 1 cup light brown sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 1 large egg 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes 1 cup chopped pecans 2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips 1 cup Rice Krispies

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B010KNVMKI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Illustrated edition (September 8, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 8, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 67748 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 463 pages
Reviewer: KRL
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Real Deal
Review: This is the cookbook that I have been looking for all of my life! I am world travelled and simply love food - a true foodie. I have hundreds of cookbooks. But during the holidays I find myself in mourning. I've lost so many in my family - my mother, my grandmothers, aunts, and uncles. I am realizing that my generation has made a grievous error in letting the old ones go to their graves without learning the traditions. In today's society we praise the new and criticize the past. But past is not just prologue, it is history, it is tradition. On my mother's side (the side that hosted the holiday dinners) the people are from the South. The family settled in Cleveland, OH, by way of Florida, by way of Alabama (which they left because the Klan was after one of my great Uncles). As a child, during the holidays, I travelled to the Midwest to eat food that was decidedly Southern. It was delicious. But that isn't the whole story. Nowadays when people speak of Southern food or Soul food, they do so with a grimace, labeling it as unhealthy, the cause of diabetes, etc. Ironically, most of MY old ones, born and raised on this food, lived into their 90's. But in many ways this unhealthy designation is just another form of cultural denigration, while at the same time, every chef on the Food Network is incorporating those foods and methods into their own, so called gourmet cooking. Therefore, because society dismissed the old southern cooking as "not good enough", many who were raised with this kind of cooking chose not to preserve the memory of it, and, tragically, the memories of those who prepared it. This is a grievous mistake and I thank Dora for helping me just a little on my course correction.This book is beautiful and actually made me cry. It is exactly how I remember my family cooking. The recipes look amazing. I'll update my review when I have tried some, but I know that they are good because they are EXACTLY as ours were prepared. A couple are identical to the few I was able to snag for posterity. Her spirit and approach are the real thing. Not some chef TRYING to cook Southern, but a Southern cook trying to put into words what comes naturally to her. And those words are amazing. This book is well written and tells a story that needs to be told in the way it should be told.One last thing, please try to come off the high horse that I've seen so many on when reviewing this cookbook. For instance reviewers have scoffed at her use of Accent, Lawry's, Biscquick, margarine, etc. She labels Accent as "optional" - it's only recently that we have discarded this chemical for health reasons. People cooked with it for many years to enhance flavor. Lawry's is simply a mix of seasoning - the proportions of which have been copywrited and sold. Biscquick is simply a stabilzed baking mix. You could make it fresh if you want to, but many poor and busy people found it easier to buy it premade. Margarine, which I never touch, was put out as a HEALTHY alternative to butter a few decades back and an entire generation grew up using it as their butter and are accustomed to the flavor. I say this so that people see that many of these processed additives WERE a part of the organic evolution of black southern cooking. However if you read closely in the book, she sticks mostly to scratch. Finally, she talks about fry grease and people run for the hills. However if you'll stand still for a moment, all fry grease is is the grease that has been infused by the meat that was cooking in it. It is used as a flavoring IN LIEU of an unflavored oil. Ie: 2 tblsp of rendered bacon fat instead of 2 tblsp of olive oil. Not more fat, more flavor.At any rate, my point is not to convince anybody to eat Southern food. My point is that if Southern food was at all a part of your heritage, this book is for you. It is history as told by the cook. It is love through food. I might buy another copy just to give her the sale.

Reviewer: Cassandra Harper
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book!
Review: I really enjoyed Reading this book for Good Times stories; I actually enjoyed the reading more than the recipes. I learned how to prepare very tasty and nutritious recipes also.

Reviewer: Noel Cognito
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent recipes
Review: This book is excellent. Tried three of the recipes already and absolutely loved two. The third got mixed reviews but the dish was empty at the end of the night. Sooooo.

Reviewer: Angella
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Best soul food cookbook ever
Review: I love this cookbook. I've already made up the seasonings and cooked baked chicken called Dora's Chicken. It was delicious. I only gave it 4 stars because I wish it would have meal plan suggestions. Other than that this is beat soul food cookbook on the market.

Reviewer: Orlando Calliste
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I love it!!!
Review: One of the best recipes book. The ingredients are easy to find and the instructions simply and easy to follow.

Reviewer: J. Jackson
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: REAL food from a REAL cook -- and it's REAL GOOD too
Review: This book has everything I've ever wanted to cook -- plus a few cakes, pies and cookies. It reminds me of my momma, her momma and my dad's momma. Of the dozen or so "instructions" (when I cook I rarely measure, maybe weigh a few things and just follow along), there hasn't been a miss yet. My 7yo daughter asked if we could get Rice Krispies today to try the Orphan One Hundred Cookies :)Initially I borrowed this book from the local library, after searching the Cooking--Southern category; I ordered my copy from Amazon while still reading the introduction. I love learning a cook's history, their inspiration. It gives me a chance to learn their voice. And Mizz Dora is funny! She knows her stuff but she isn't pretentious. This is likely the first time I ever laughed out loud reading a recipe intro! Her instructions are clear, with a little straight-talk thrown in when needed. Most of the recipes are so straightforward that I feel confident "cooking as I go", checking on the steps to make sure I'm on track. My husband approves.When I sent my momma a picture of the hoecakes, she called me two minutes later and said, "When you make those, I'm coming over." She's from Alabama and swears her grandmomma aka Big Momma could have written this book. If she'd ever written out recipes anyway.For a cook who cooks by feel, I can't imagine how hard it was to write out ever step and every ingredient down to the last quarter-teaspoon of salt, but she did it. Mizz Charles turned out an amazing cookbook. I would proudly keep it on my shelf if I wasn't always flipping through it.{Prior to checking out her book from the library, I'd never heard of Dora Charles or whatever mess did or didn't happen regarding Paula Deen, so I can't comment about that. (It has nothing to do with the book anyway.)}

Reviewer: Benia
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very Nice
Review: I am from the South and her book is far more like the cooking I grew up with than many Southern cook books are. The recipes we have tried turned out well. I enjoyed her stories and life experiences. It adds a lot to the book. Really good pictures. A quality book.

Reviewer: Marie
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Beautiful book. Very intimate and personal with simple and honest recipes. Dora Charles have so much to tell and teach about cooking, history and life. It’s homemade family food at is best. Feels like you will eat something from her hands sitting at her table. Loved the book. I’m muslim so we don’t eat pork. I found on Divas can cook channel on YT that people use smoked turkey instead of pork. I am working on my homemade halal smoked turkey legs and wings before trying some of the recipes. I am on a southern food discovery mission and Madame Charles is my muse. Bravo to her, beautiful book!

Reviewer: Interested Party
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Beautiful photos—the extracts about her life and family are touching. Pleased with my purchase—can’t wait to try out her recipes.

Reviewer: MiaPiTiaci
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Lovely written, foolproof, well-tasting and authentic recipes! I'm deeply in love!Wer die Südstaatenküche kochen will, braucht dieses Buch! Es ist liebevoll geschrieben und die Rezepte sind absolut gelingsicher, wenn man sich die Tipps der Verfasserin zu Herzen nimmt. Ich bin überglücklich dieses Schätzchen gefunden zu haben!

Reviewer: Jared Purdy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: For those fans of southern African American and soul food, this book has some fabulous, easy to follow recipes and a collection of great photos. I added it to my library over the summer and have already made some of the dishes. There are a couple of some what unconventional dishes, such as roast Cornish hens stuffed with rice and rosemary. As a fan of Cornish hens, this is a recipe that I'll be trying. Loaded with many classics too.

Reviewer: Les
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A patiently worded, written and prepared journey into southern food. Puts you right at the table, for breakfast, making grits sandwiches. Lots of flavour in these recipes.