Rice: A Savor the South Cookbook

Savor the South Cookbooks

by Michael W. Twitty

Among the staple foods most welcomed on southern tables-and on tables around the world-rice is without question the most versatile. As Michael W. Twitty observes, depending on regional tastes, rice may be enjoyed at breakfast, lunch, and dinner; as main dish, side dish, and snack; in dishes savory and sweet. Filling and delicious, rice comes in numerous botanical varieties and offers a vast range of scents, tastes, and textures depending on how it is cooked. In some dishes, it is crunchingly crispy; in others, soothingly smooth; in still others, somewhere right in between. Commingled or paired with other foods, rice is indispensable to the foodways of the South.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, History, Cooking, Food and Drink, The United States Of America

110 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2021

About the author

Michael W. Twitty is a food writer, independent scholar, culinary historian, and historical interpreter personally charged with preparing, preserving and promoting African American foodways and its parent traditions in Africa and her Diaspora and its legacy in the food culture of the American South. He is also a Judaic studies teacher from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area and his interests include food culture, food history, Jewish cultural issues, African American history and cultural politics.

Michael created Afroculinaria, the first blog devoted to African American historic foodways and their legacy. He appeared on Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmerman, Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, and lectured to more than 200 groups including Yale, Oxford and Carnegie Mellon Universities, the Smithsonian Institution, Colonial Williamsburg, and spoken around the world from the MAD Symposium in Copenhagen to the Barbican Theatre in London to Jerusalem's Jewish Film Festival on culinary justice and the African American impact on Southern foodways and the complexities of his identity as a gay, African American, Jewish man. He was recently named one of 50 people changing the South by Southern Living and one of the Five Cheftavists to Watch, as well a TED Fellow.

Reviews

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of 25 titles in the Savor the South cookbook series. Rice is written by African American and Jewish American foodways historian Michael W. Twitty. He has written extensively on African foodways and their connection to Southern cooking and the African Diaspora in America. This particular book looks at how rice was brought to and cultivated in the South from Africa and its influence on Southern dishes. There are six sections to the book that includes recipes for basic rice to southern classics like Hoppin' John and Jambalaya.

This is a great little microhistory and cookbook.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Savor the South Cookbooks series is a project of the University of North Carolina Press to preserve and promote the foodways of the Old South. The approach is to produce numerous small cookbooks, each on a single subject, to create a sort of culinary library. Examples are the outstanding volumes "Bourbon" (2013) and "Pecans," both by outstanding food writer Kathleen Purvis. To this collection, food historian Michael W. Twitty has added his volume on "Rice." Twitty is the author of the James Beard Award winning "The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South" (2017). That book is a memoir and a study of the origins of Southern cuisine. In it, he argues strongly for the proposition that the cooking of the Old South derives in large measure from the cooking of West Africa. Much of this argument carries over into his book on "Rice." As expected, there are recipes for jambalaya, red beans and rice, chicken and rice, and Moros y Cristianos. Less expected are his recipes for okra soup, Limpin' Susan, and rice bread. I appreciated the scholarship. I enjoyed the stories. And I will shamelessly steal many of his ideas and claim that they are my own!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Savor the South cookbook series, so I was excited to check out this new one. And I know Michael Twitty from his book The Cooking Gene, so I knew this would give a good history of rice and cooking with rice in the South. Twitty does a great job with the Introduction that covers the history of rice and cooking with rice in the South. Then the recipes are divided into categories like "the basics," "deep origins," and "southern classics." Each recipe has a paragraph at the top that explains the dish or the chef's inspiration for the recipe. There are definitely a few recipes I'd like to try and overall this is another good addition to the Savor the South series.

[Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been on the hunt for a Hoppin' John recipe and--lo and behold--I stumble upon this book while visiting friends in Chicago. Sometimes the universe knows exactly what you need and provides it. I appreciated the history of rice in Southern cuisine as much as the lovely collection of carefully curated recipes. Can't wait to make some of these for my mother-in-law.

[Allyson Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough, thoughtful survey of the origins and importance of rice in Southern foodways. Twitty ties the history of rice growing and consumption to West Africa, and masterfully draws the parallels between Southern rice traditions to those of contemporary West Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Also, the recipes are wonderful and easy to follow. If you love rice and want to explore fun and interesting ways to prepare it, buy this book!

[thefourthvine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to know how to rate this book, because it's a good cookbook but just not very good for me specifically. These recipes have a lot of meat -- appropriate for the American South, I know, but not great for a vegetarian. Also, none of these recipes makes any suggestions for those of us who cook rice in something other than a pot on the stove. Again, very reasonable! Twitty is a food historian, and this is a book series intended to capture historical recipes. But just not very useful for me.

It's interesting, and I'm glad I read it once. I'm also glad it's going back to the library now; I wouldn't really be able to use it if I owned it. (But that doesn't mean other people, especially people who eat meat, wouldn't love to cook from it.)

[Altary · Rating 5 out of 5]

so many diverse recipes for rice and all of them are great

[Ifrah Akhtar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have developed an interest in Michael Twitty’s work ever since reading his Cooking Gene book. This book focuses on rice with a brief history of how rice became a staple in the Americas. The recipes are accessible and easy to understand, which is important for a cookbook. These recipes are rooted in the history of the southern region of America but also of the people that migrated there. I’ve saved quite a few and once I make them, will update this review with my thoughts.

[Alicia A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this on my kindle to check it out and I absolutely will be buying the hardback for my kitchen. Every recipe is stellar and exactly what you want in a Southern Rice cookbook. The opening forward chapter is informative and exactly what we've all come to expect from Twitty who is a superior teacher of the difficult but ultimately triumphant journey of the United States. HIGHLY recommended.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised to find little mention of the role of the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America, particularly Brazil, in Twitty's short introduction, but no matter. It's a short book. And I would have liked to read something about southern rice production today. Looking forward to trying some of the recipes, especially the shrimp rice.

[R.]

I haven’t cooked out of this book yet but I love the reminder of just how African southern foodways are. I’m not sure if everyone knows this and it’s just me but reading Twitty is always a welcome reminder.

[Margery Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

really great. loved his other cookbook too. def a lot of things I'll cook in this

[Alexander Mansour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing groundbreaking, but a solid compilation of recipes.

[DK Simoneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I really enjoyed the history and recipes I found it to me a little short. Eager to try a few.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

good cookbook

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

History in a small grain of rice 🤗. Recipes presented with love.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did anyone test these recipes? Nothing coming out great and directions aren't always clear. I loved the history of rice portion and would have ate up more of that.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really love how this is laid out into different origins of recipes, like "deep origins," "the basics," "taste transitions," "diverse approaches," and "southern classics." I think this is a really good way to spread out these different types of recipes that all have rice in them but are very very different recipes. I didn't see a single picture in this cookbook and that makes me really sad, because I haven't heard of a lot of these recipes and I always like to see a picture of it to get a feeling of what they're supposed to look like when I make the recipe at home.

[April Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting cookbook! In addition to some delicious sounding recipes (OMG I want to eat everything!), Twitty provides so much history throughout the book, and gives context to so many recipes Americans tend to think of as their own (spoiler alert: a huge chunk of Southern cooking comes from the enslaved African people that were brought here). Some recipes I was familiar with, and many were new to me, and they all sound amazing! You'll never think of rice as boring again!

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love Michael Twitty - both his books and listening to him. The best cookbooks are from people who just get excited about food. He's so passionate about the history of dishes, and I love it. Plus, now that I eat as much rice as pasta (unfortunately), I need to get more creative than 'white rice today, brown rice tomorrow' - and this book does the trick. Also a bonus, small enough to be portable, easy to mark up and bend, and easy to use in a small kitchen.