The Southern Slow Cooker: Big-Flavor, Low-Fuss Recipes for Comfort Food Classics [A Cookbook]

by Kendra Bailey Morris

A collection of 60 soulful, comforting, and wonderfully convenient recipes for Southern favorites—from Black Eyed Peas with Stewed Tomatoes to Country-Style Pork Ribs and Molasses Gingerbread.

Cooking delicious, soul-warming Southern food that the whole family will love has never been easier! Whether it’s a big pot of black-eyed peas, fall-apart tender pulled pork, or creamy apple butter, the greatest Southern dishes have one thing in they taste best when they’re cooked low and slow. With more than sixty recipes for down-home favorites, ranging from Chicken and Cornmeal Dumplings to Buffalo Stout Beer Chili to Brown Beans and Fatback, The Southern Slow Cooker is packed with real Southern flavor. Author Kendra Bailey Morris presents regional classics from all over the church potlucks, Cajun and Creole traditions in the bayou, even her West Virginia granny’s old recipe book. Morris carefully tested and adapted each recipe for the home kitchen, and the result is a treasure for busy home cooks everywhere. With hardly any active cooking time and featuring affordable ingredients, every dish is simple, convenient, and downright delicious. All of these satisfying, flavor-packed, and wonderfully simple recipes allow you to make the food you love in the time you have available—and will have you and your family begging for seconds.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

KENDRA BAILEY MORRIS is a cookbook author, food writer, recipe developer, and television host. Her writing appears in Better Homes and Gardens, NPR's Kitchen Window, CNN's Eatocracy, Saveur, Richmond Times Dispatch (where she was a food and recipe columnist for four years), the Associated Press, Washington Post, and Richmond Magazine. She served as a judge for the 2011 James Beard Awards, and has a master's degree in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Reviews

[Kasey Cocoa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would agree with the big flavor, but not the low fuss for the recipes. Yes, you use a slow cooker for every recipe, but many times you are also using the stove, microwave, grill, etc. There's enough information to make some very tasty meals, but it lacks very many photos of what they should look like when finished. With all the cookbooks out there for slow cookers, this one might have trouble keeping up.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd recently read another Southern cookbook that seemed to have a heavy emphasis on casseroles and canned products (almost a Semi-Homemade type of cookbook). This book was at the opposite end of the spectrum - a more gourmet approach to Southern food, with few to no processed foods involved.

I definitely liked the approach, but nothing really stood out to me as a recipe I had to try.

[Jamie Arledge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book didn't do a whole lot for me. I like nice and simple recipes without too many ingredients. I found most of these recipes to have more ingredients than I wanted to mess with. To be honest, I only marked 4 of these recipes that I'd actually choose to make.

I wish there would've been more pictures for the recipes, not to mention better pictures. The majority of the pictures didn't really appeal to me.

I also found this to be a very "wordy" cookbook. There was a lot of reading if you took the time to read it all. I prefer a basic cookbook where you get recipes and that's pretty much it. I don't need the background for every recipe.

[BookBec · Rating 3 out of 5]

The *best* red beans and rice recipe. Yum!
Ham and potato soup: not so exciting.

Some recipes don't seem very southern, while others showcase the southern tendency to sweetness (more than I can handle). An interesting book to look through, but not a keeper.

[Stefanie Foard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "low-fuss" is still more fuss than I want, but all the recipes sound yummy. I received an ARC of this from NetGalley.

[Tamera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once i got the book from the library, I recognized it as a slow cooker cookbook from Ten Speed Press which also published The Mexican Slow Cooker, and The Gourmet Slow Cooker. I would say less than half the recipes have photos, which is just wrong. Recipes are good and approachable, but they generally require extra steps such as browning, etc. What I liked is the recipes were homey things my hubby would eat. Sometimes recipes get too fancy and have unfriendly ingredients.

The introduction covers slow cooker basics, then it is divided into the following chapters and recipes:
1. Soul warming Soups, Stews, and Chilis- Moms fully loaded potato and onion soup, smoked ham potato and rice soup, zesty beef and cabbage soup, smokey navy bean soup, south of the mason dixon Manhattan clam chowder, blue crab and corn chowder with sweet corn relish, buffalo stout beer chili, chicken and cornmeal dumplings, Frito pie with chili con carne, aunt Barbara's beef stew

2. Low and Slow Meats- beer braised beef po'boys, rustic pot roast with bacon garlic and rosemary, porcupine meatballs, meatloaf with brown sugar BBQ sauce, pasta with three meat gravy, pork loin roast with rosemary balsamic vinegar and vanilla fig jam, soco baked city ham, Dr Pepper sorghum roasted ham, graham cracker ham stuff steaks, pork ribs with raspberry sorghum bbq sauce, country style pork ribs with bourbon and coke bbq sauce, cocktail wienies with grape jelly chili sauce (this is a classic sauce i have used with meatballs), Carolina style pork bbq sandwiches, west Virginia slaw dogs, red beans and rice with smoked sausage, cabbage with smoked sausage and apples, chicken with maple cider white bbq sauce, dry mustard rubbed shredded chicken, Cornish hens with apple butter bbq sauce, herbed turkey with cornbread dressing, shrimp creole

3. Vegetables and Sides - kale with ham hocks, shiny pole beans, nannies new potatoes in creamy gravy, cabbage and stewed tomatoes, moms creamy corn pudding, sausage stuffed acorn squash, brown beans and fatback, black eyed peas and stewed tomatoes, butter beans with ham hocks, buttermilk corn and chive spoonbread, orange sorghum sweet potatoes with cornflake topping, country breakfast apples, cinnamon and brown sugar oatmeal with maple candied bacon, country ham and eggs breakfast bread, red eye style, sausage and tater tot brunch casserole, creamy cheesy grits

4. Desserts and Sweets - buttermilk chocolate spice cake, molasses gingerbread, figgy bread pudding with walnuts and port,, gingersnap peach upside down cake, Granny,s no egg applesauce cake, chocolate and caramel black walnut candies, chocolate banana cheesecake in jars, lemon blueberry buckle, ginger ale baked pears

5. Southern Odds - apple butter, caramel sauce, peach mango jam, easy chicken broth, angel biscuits, cornbread, potato dinner rolls

[T · Rating 1 out of 5]

.5 a star. And only just barely.

Now...Maybe it's because I'm a dreaded Yankee (though I do have a Southern Grandma, bless my heart), but this cookbook had way too many recipes with way too many ingredients, way too many steps, and not nearly enough pictures. I mean, isn't the whole point of a crockpot tossing somewhere in the neighborhood of a half dozen or so ingredients in said pot and let it work its magic? The amount of pre-cooking some of these recipes had was just obnoxious.

I adore my crockpots. (Yes, plural. Don't judge me.) Crockpot cookbooks and food blogs dedicated to the majestic crockpot are my crack. This is the first crockpot cookbook in recent memory that I've read and not marked a single recipe to make.

Skip this one.

[Miss Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plenty of photographs and a nice, easy-to-read layout.

My favourites were:

Dr. Pepper Sorghum Roasted Ham
Carolina-Style Pork BBQ Sandwiches
Red Beans and Rice with Smoked Sausage

Honestly, pick any dessert because they are all winners!

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas... The beginning of more experimentation.

[Sandie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This cookbook was ok. I was expecting something else...I don't know what I was seeking, but something else.

[Kellea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great primer on simple Southern based recipes. I saw a few recipes I added to my must cook list.

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific recipes. Those of you familiar with chili dogs from Moore's Country Store (Lynchburg, VA) will find similar seasonings in the West Virginia chili dog recipe. HOWEVER, the consistency is not the same. (Call me to duplicate!)

We are trying a new recipe each week, so far all are fit for company: Zesty Beef and Cabbage Soup, Buffalo Stout Beer Chili, West Virginia Slaw Dogs, Shrimp Creole...and simmering right now, Smoked Ham, Potato and Rice Soup.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are just starting to cook, and looking for some slow cooker recipes, this book may help you. If you are an experienced cook, this may not be for you. There are many good, common recipes, and there are a few recipes that stand out, that I would like to try, including Aunt Barbara's Beef Stew.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cookbook creates dishes from my childhood solely in the slow cooker. You will be the consummate Southern cook, without all the fuss. It is full of comfort food, and mmmmm, the recipes will make you smile! Morris even includes drink suggestions for each meal. Enjoy!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great recipes I want to try. I love using my crockpot so this will give me some new things to try with it.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recipes Trying: Fully loaded potato and Onion Soup & Meatloaf with Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce.