Including more than 170 tested recipes, this cookbook is a true reflection of southern foodways and the people, regardless of residence or birthplace, who claim this food as their own. Traditional and adapted, fancy and unapologetically plain, these recipes are powerful expressions of collective identity.

Everybody has one in their collection - one of those old, spiral- or plastic-tooth-bound cookbooks sold to support a high school or a church. These recipe collections reflect, with unimpeachable authenticity, the dishes that define communities. When the Southern Foodways Alliance began curating a cookbook, it was to these sauce-splattered pages that they turned. Including more than 170 recipes, this cookbook is a true reflection of southern foodways and the people.