Cross Creek Cookery

First published in 1942, Cross Creek Cookery was compiled by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings at the request of readers who wanted to recreate the luscious meals described in Cross Creek -- her famous memoir of life in a Florida hamlet.

Lovers of old-fashioned, down-home cooking will treasure the recipes for Grits, Hush-Puppies, Florida Fried Fish, Orange Fluff, and Utterly Deadly Southern Pecan Pie. For more adventuresome palates, there are such unusual dishes as Minorcan Gopher Stew, Coot Surprise, Alligator-Tail Steak, Mayhaw Jelly, and Chef Huston's Cream of Peanut Soup.

Spiced with delightful anecdotes and lore, Cross Creek Cookery guides the reader through the rich culinary heritage of the deep tidal South with a loving regard for the rituals of cooking and eating. Anyone who longs for food -- and writing -- that warms the heart will find ample portions of both in this classic cookbook.

Upon reading the book I was immediately reminded of the "Alice B. Toklas" cookbook. The structure and literary emphasis are much the same. Thus, for the same reason, it's a joy to read even if one doesn't cook!

However, like "Toklas", the recipes are also a treasure. Many of the recipes contain ingredients too exotic for the average cook, but many more are easily prepared. This can also be a pleasurable and valuable resource for those, like me, who enjoy reading and preparing recipes from old cookbooks. Our eating styles have changed enormously in the nearly sixty years since Rawlings wrote this book.

If you are a fan of Rawlings, buy the book whether you ever plan to cook any of its recipes. Its reasonable cost is a further bonus!


Fantastic recipes of Southern cooking   May 9, 1999
 24 out of 24 found this review helpful

As the other reviewer has mentioned, this is a collection of recipes, filled with anecdotes of central Florida life in the 1930s and 1940s. The recipes are fantastic and one wants to try all of them (although it may be difficult to prepare alligator-tail steak). And, what a pleasure it is to read a cookbook written by an accomplished author. You just keep picking it up.


MKR "took more pride in her cooking than in her writing"   August 1, 1997
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

It is evident from her cookbook that Marjorie tasted of nearly everything and learned to make delicious dishes out of some very odd things: Poke Weed (on toast), Pot Roast of Bear, Smother-Fried Squirrel, Gopher Stew, Coot Surprise, Jugged Rabbit, a host of Pilaus, and an infamous blackbird pie. Of course this book is not simply a culinary freak-show. There are dozens of recipes for desserts, seafood, meats-found-at-the-A&P, jams, and soups, featuring ingredients of which we are all familiar and unafraid. She was proud to share them and claimed each recipe was nothing short of first-rate. Included among these is her piece de resistance, Crab A La Newburg, and the best Strawberry Shortcake ever. Accompanied by anecdotes of Florida rural living in the 1930s and 1940s, this book is a delight and an excursion from a mundane kitchen