Southern Provisions: The Creation & Revival of a Cuisine

by David S. Shields

A look into the agricultural and culinary history of the American South and the challenges of its reclaiming farming and cooking traditions.Southern food is America’s quintessential cuisine. From creamy grits to simmering pots of beans and greens, we think we know how these classic foods should taste. Yet the southern food we eat today tastes almost nothing like the dishes our ancestors enjoyed, because the varied crops and livestock that originally defined this cuisine have largely disappeared. Now a growing movement of chefs and farmers is seeking to change that by recovering the rich flavor and diversity of southern food. At the center of that movement is historian David S. Shields, who has spent over a decade researching early American agricultural and cooking practices. In Southern Provisions, he reveals how the true ingredients of southern cooking have been all but forgotten and how the lessons of its current restoration and recultivation can be applied to other regional foodways.Shields’s turf is the southern Lowcountry, from the peanut patches of Wilmington, North Carolina to the sugarcane fields of the Georgia Sea Islands and the citrus groves of Amelia Island, Florida. He takes us on a historical excursion to this region, drawing connections among plants, farms, growers, seed brokers, vendors, cooks, and consumers over time. Shields begins by looking at how professional chefs during the nineteenth century set standards of taste that elevated southern cooking to the level of cuisine. He then turns to the role of food markets in creating demand for ingredients and enabling conversation between producers and preparers. Next, his focus shifts to the field, showing how the key ingredients—rice, sugarcane, sorghum, benne, cottonseed, peanuts, and citrus—emerged and went on to play a significant role in commerce and consumption. Shields concludes with a look at the challenges of reclaiming both farming and cooking traditions.From Carolina Gold rice to white flint corn, the ingredients of authentic southern cooking are returning to fields and dinner plates, and with Shields as our guide, we can satisfy our hunger both for the most flavorful regional dishes and their history.Praise for Southern Provisions“People are always asking me what the most important book written about southern food is. You are holding it in your hands.” —Sean Brock, executive chef, Husk“An impassioned history of the relationship between professional cooking, markets and planting in the American South which argues that true regionality is to be found not in dishes, but in ingredients.” —Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Food, History, Cookbooks, Food and Drink, Food Writing, Cooking, Nonfiction

418 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 23, 2015

Reviews

[Danielle T · Rating 5 out of 5]

This caught my attention because the opening discusses the revival of Carolina Gold rice, partially from the efforts of Clemson researchers. Unlike other food histories, this one examines not just the cooks but also the markets and growers of the antebellum period as tastes, preferences, and habits have changed over time (I never realized there was such a multitude of pea types...) A little on the drier side (with extensive footnotes, primarily as citations) but very informative for anyone curious about the food culture of the Lowcountry (especially Charleston and Savannah).

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shields is making the argument that Southern food is made on the reputation of its agricultural landscape, on the many varietals of fruits and vegetables (and wild game, and pork) that have been innovated in the landscape over time, and that we have forgotten to maintain the meaningful link between our understanding of what we grow and what we consume. He argues this through a long explanation of Southern agricultural innovation (traced through ag journals directed at farmers and marketers of the era), then moves back to stories of famous restauranteurs and market managers/suppliers of the 19th century to trace the prominence of these innovations, then back again to agriculture. It is unfortunate that this great argument is mired in so much detailed recounting of the names and places of the era, because then his book actually starts to read more like a trade journal than a historical presentation of a moment in history. True, he notes that demand for specific foods at the restaurant table (of the best caterers of the South) and at the market changed the way farming operated, and as such obliterated many of the heirloom and distinctive varietals that gave the South its historic flavor. Yet he is ultimately driven by his own desire to look at how one would reconstitute the regional flavor, a project that emerges out of his own work with the Carolina Gold Foundation. When so much attention is paid to the plants, the seed, the soil, the supply, the people in this story tend to feel fairly ephemeral. Yet maybe this is also one of the inadvertent morals of Shields' story--that there were people behind each of the decisions made in the rise and fall of Southern food, and because our narratives of Southern food have not maintained links to the field and farm, we have forgotten the link to the work required to make these tastes available. As a result, this feels in some ways like a commodity study of lost flavors, not particularly mournful, but not particularly hopeful toward a future resurrection.

[Margaret Sereno · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the story of food in North America.
Canvasback duck was not available in Europe, and it is among the many American varieties of food featured in this collection of stories about food and people in the New World. There are spell-binding stories about American food production on the land, food gotten through fishing and hunting, food grown on trees, food processed by machines, food prepared in kitchens both domestic and commercial, and food marketing. And, all the stories are true stories! All based on verifiable facts!
Chronicling an important journey in American culture, during which people from different cultures ate together for the first time, the writer describes the food Americans chose to eat. The index to this book is a treasure for anyone who appreciates American culture

[Timbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scholarly yet accessible history of Southern foodways that illuminates the shared ancestries, regional differences, and resurgences of food growing, marketing, and preparation. Fascinating!

[Nicole Wedemeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

For being an academic book, this is readable. ;) It covers in several essays which cover focused subtopics, the history of food in The South; not just the consumption of food, but also it's preparation and marketing. I was particularly interested in the chapter on early restaurants in New Orleans, because I am currently writing a book on the city's history.