The book includes favorite sweet treats like strawberry punch bowl cake
Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
If you’ve ever been welcomed to a Southern Appalachian dinner table or were lucky enough to grow up doing so regularly, you know good eatin’. Two authors native to Western North Carolina, Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley, have co-authored “Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food: Recipes and Stories from Mountain Kitchens,” full of more than 200 recipes presented with stories and photographs.
Recently released by The History Press of Charleston, S.C., the 250+ page book is a comprehensive presentation of recipes.
Casada, who grew up in Bryson City, has co-authored several cookbooks with his late wife Ann and more recently an autobiographical book, “Fishing for Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir.”
Pressley, of Brasstown, has taught cooking classes at John C. Campbell Folk School and written extensively on Appalachian culture, including food, on her daily blog, Blind Pig & the Acorn as well as on her Celebrating Appalachia YouTube channel.
The two connected because of Pressley’s blog, which she started in 2008, and became close friends along with Jim’s brother, Don Casada.
Jim was the one with the vision for the publication, believing it was the natural next step for Pressley. Given his experience in publishing, it soon became a partnership.
The book includes a glossary of Southern Appalachian food terms, a helpful tool for the uninitiated.
“There are enough off-beat terms in regional cooking that I thought a glossary of those terms might help so we did that it was an afterthought, in truth,” Casada said.
The first chapter is dedicated to corn, specifically cornmeal, followed by chapter 2 dedicated to breads beginning with the quintessential biscuit. Both Casada and Pressley knew corn was among the essential foods to include.
“I think immediately what comes to mind is our chapter 1 on corn; it played such a huge role in Appalachian households like mine that hold to the old ways,” Pressley said, adding she knew the book would also need recipes for biscuits and food harvested from the garden.
Other recipes were also a must-have from the start.
“Some are obvious, probably,” Casada said. “There’s no single recipe more readily identifiable for Southern Appalachia than stack cake. We knew there needed to be a stack cake recipe, and that pork having always been traditionally the meat of the mountains, there needed to be a number of recipes on it, and the first chapter is on corn and cornbread. And then, there were things like cobblers that were an absolute must and more traditional or widely used vegetables like potato dishes and leather britches or shucked beans.”
As you continue through the book, there are chapters on “Preacher bird,” or chicken, which was often reserved for celebrations in the past. Some older folks who grew up in Appalachia will likely enjoy seeing recipes for small game as well the chapter dedicated to gravy.
“One of the key intentions of the book was to celebrate the diversity of Appalachian food rather than the stereotype of it being a narrow and not very healthy,” Casada said.
“I grew up in a house where small game was an important and welcome addition to the family diet, as was trout on a regular basis,” Casada said.
The second half of the book is dedicated to vegetables and plants, starting with spring vegetables to summer and fall and winter vegetables. There’s a chapter on foraged foods including finds like morels and chanterelles and ramps. Then, there are recipes for pickling and preserving and finally desserts and beverages.
For Pressley, who gardens every year with her husband, the vegetable recipes were tantamount.
“The gardening is one of the most important, all the chapters from spring vegetables and root crops and the fruits, the bounty of nature whether it’s an apple tree you planted or the persimmon tree that’s growing wild; You couldn’t have had a cookbook without the things that are directly related to the land,” Pressley said.
Several recipes will be recognizable and pleasing to readers who are familiar with Appalachian fare.
“I think they will love all the corn recipes,” Pressley said. “The gravies, red-eye gravy and chocolate gravy is a great Appalachian recipe. Kilt lettuce is one of the rights of spring. There’s pickled corn and things like that I think people from here will recognize and enjoy.”
There are others too, like leather briches, which are dried green beans, that people might not cook anymore but remember from childhood and maybe be inspired to recreate today.
There are some surprises, too, including several recipes for ramps and how to make jellies from violets and dandelions.
The book, released just last week, is already receiving a great response. Pressley’s video announcing the book alone received more than 500 written responses in the first few days.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the response, I feel so blessed,” Pressley said. “It’s been amazing. I thought it would do pretty good, but I had no expectation it would do as well as it has.”
Both Pressley and Casada hope the book serves to carry on the food traditions they grew up with into the next generation.
“There’s no question in both of our minds, food is a bond, link or common ground that has historically been very important,” Casada said. “Sure, you get celebrations with all day singings with food on the grounds, but in addition to that, we wanted to emphasize the manner in which food has always symbolized togetherness a linkage between generations, families.”
Casada and Pressley have several book signings scheduled at regional Mast General Stores, which will also carry the publication. The first is scheduled Saturday, May 6 in Waynesville from noon-3 p.m. They will also be the guest speakers at the Swain County Genealogical & Historical Society meeting on Thursday, June 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Swain County Business Center.
The book is available for purchase at Citylights Bookstore in Sylva and online at Blind Pig & The Acorn blindpigandtheacorn.com and on Casada’s website jimcasadaoutdoors.com, as well as from Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Target and Bookshop.org.