African American Books - Page 2

Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African-American Churches

Joyce White

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: William Morrow Cookbooks Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $1.78

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When Joyce White moved to New York City from Alabama, she left small-town life behind and landed ajob as a food editor at a major women's magazine. Weekends, however, found her visiting churches in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvestant, looking for a taste of home. Food has long been a part of the spiritual life of African-American churches, and what she found there, along with what she missed from home, was the comforting blend of cooking and fellowship that feeds both the body and soul.

In this warm and joyful collection, White offers more than 150 recipes for the foods that worshipers look forward to after services, and she captures the spirit of these sociable meals with warm, conversational and occasionally poignant reflections from African-American churchgoers around the United States.

"We don't just come to church service and leave," says a retired nurse who directs hospitality for a large church in Los Angeles. "Many of us stay here half the day. That way we get a chance to rub shoulders and see what is going on or going wrong with each other."

From delicious renditions of classics such as Sugar-Crusted Biscuits to updated favorites such as Black Beans with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, as well as special fare for entertaining and Kwaanza, the pages of Soul Food are alive with the spirit and love of African-American churches -- and the terrific food to be found there.

Rufus Estes' Good Things to Eat: The First Cookbook by an African-American Chef (Dover Cookbooks)

Rufus Estes

Amazon Price: $9.95 List Price: $9.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Dover Publications Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $4.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Nice Collectible 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This is a good book to add to your collection if you are into collecting cookbooks or African American collectibles. There is a very brief introduction by the author of his life. It doesn't go into a lot of detail of his experiences as a chef but names a few places where he worked. Some of the recipes may be familiar to the seniors out there. I remember my grandmother preparing dishes that were similar in nature to some of the recipes listed.

Obviously, this isn't a cookbook like the ones of our generation. The recipes are very brief, don't always list proportions, and are skimpy in preparation detail. If you purchase this and decide you want to try something, make sure you read the recipe over a few times to ensure that it flows and will work. For example, the fried chicken recipe instructs you to steep the chicken but there isn't enough liquid mentioned in the recipe for that, and the instructions on cooking the marinade are vague as they only specify that the liquid is heated. Since the marinade or steeping liquid includes carrots and turnips (yes, really) you have to assume that either water or broth was used and the mixture cooked until at least those vegetable were softened.

I suppose the recipes are in the tradition of the cooking like Grandma used to do, a pinch of this or a spoonful of that with most of the detail being committed to memory!

The title says that this is the first cookbook by an African American Chef. However, there is another book (available at Amazon), "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking" that was published in 1881.

Editorial Review:

Includes nearly 600 mouth-watering recipes: chicken gumbo, chestnut stuffing with truffles, cherry dumplings, southern style waffles, and scores of other dishes from haute cuisine to family-style meals. Of special value to anyone interested in the African-American experience.

The Kitchen Diva! The New African-American Kitchen

Angela Shelf Medearis

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lake Isle Press Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $13.60

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

More than a cookbook 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The New African-American Kitchen is much more than just a cookbook. This is a beautifully presented book that provides historical information and an insight into the cultures that brought us this wonderful food. The Kitchen Diva's personality comes through loud and clear and this cookbook is a wonderful addition to any kitchen.

Editorial Review:

This title is a compilation of recipes from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas collected from slave quarters, plantations, church suppers, family reunions, ancient celebrations, and modern ethnic kitchens. It also includes numerous vegetarian dishes, calls for organic ingredients, and offers information and recipes that address ways to combat diet-related illnesses from diabetes to heart disease.

The Ebony Cookbook: A Date with a Dish

Freda DeKnight

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $6.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

great cookbook 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is a very good book it has some recipes my mother use to make.

Best Kept Secret 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book twenty years ago and discovered that some of the recipes in the book were the very same as the ones the women in my family have used for decades.
I used it so much that I needed to replace it. For the woman who feels challenged when it comes to culinary skills, I highly recommend this book.
No one will ever know your secret, until you choose to share it!

disappointed 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

wish there were pictures of the recipes, might give it away as a gift.

too old 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Im a new cooker and this book isnt for newbies. Too hard to understand and very old recipes.

The Ebony Cookbook 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Was kind of disappointed when I received this cookbook, first there was no photo's of what the food is suppose to look like, sometimes it's good to see what the food is suppose to look like when it is prepared, gave it to he library.


(Kelis's Grandma)

Cooking with Heart and Soul

Isaac Hayes, Susan DiSesa

List Price: $27.95 By: Putnam Adult Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $0.86

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Long before Isaac Hayes became the voice of "Chef" on the wildly popular and irreverent television show South Park, he was a food lover. His fondest and most enduring memories are those associated with his Tennessee boyhood and helping his grandmother to prepare traditional Southern soul food. Before becoming an Academy Award-winning composer, Hayes was a short-order cook. And somewhere in a career spanning more than four decades, he was a single father who cooked for five children and shared recipes with friends, professional chefs, and family. The commercial successes in music, film, television, and radio came and went and came again-but always there was the food.

Cooking with Heart and Soul is pure Isaac Hayes-one part hot buttered soul, one part chocolate salty balls, and a big helping of comfort. It's a mix of traditional home cooking and healthy eating, with a touch of the gourmet-and lots of stories from a life lived to the fullest. This is a rare collection of recipes and reminiscences that reveals Isaac's passionate and eclectic interests from soul food and soul music to superstars and super-nutrients. It is as inspiring and satisfying as his Mama's Fried Cream Corn recipe.

Plantation Row Slave Cabin Cooking: The Roots of Soul Food (Patricia B. Mitchell Foodways Publicatiopns)

Patricia Mitchell

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The New Soul Food Cookbook: Healthier Recipes for Traditional Favorites

Wilbert Jones

List Price: $14.95 By: Citadel Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $3.50

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

healthier eating 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I am enjoying the recipes in this cookbook for healthier eating even though I'm not a diabetic. They are still flavorful and tasty. I think anyone could benefit from these recipes to have better eating habits.

Editorial Review:

A collection of more than one hundred soul food dishes, including appetizers, breads, entrees, desserts, and much more, offers traditional African-American fare with a difference, as it shows how to prepare delicious meals with healthy low-fat ingredients.

If I Can Cook/You Know God Can (Bluestreak Series)

Ntozake Shange

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Experience African-American experience through culinary hist 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I am not an African-American but through Shange's words I can feel the grief, the sorrow, and the triumphs of the African-American experience. By talking about food, which everybody needs and relates to, she paints a far more vivid picture of the African people in the Diaspora than a scholarly historian might. Many of her recipes call for ingredients I've hardly heard of, but her evocative descriptions of the food almost make me able to taste it.

Editorial Review:

Ntozake Shange offers this personal culinary memoir, with dashes of literature and pinches of music, in her rousing tribute to black cuisine as a food of life that reflects the spirit and history of a people. With recipes such as "Collard Greens to Bring You Money," Shange introduces us to 'Afro-Atlantic foodways:' a cuisine born on the slave ships of the Middle Passage, and shared by all members of the African Diaspora. If I Can Cook/You Know God Can is a vivid story of the migration of a people that opens our hearts and minds to what it means for "black folks in the Western Hemisphere to be full."

Celebrating Our Mothers' Kitchens: Treasured Memories and Tested Recipes

National Council of Negro Women

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Succulent Dishes 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I love this book. I use it almost every week to prepare Sunday dinner. All the recipes are easy to follow and the dishes tastes just like mama's and grandma's soul food cooking.
You won't be disappointed with this book. It's a Godsend.

Needs a little something more 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Most of these recipes are not the versions that your grandmother made. Some of them are things that your mama never would've thought about cooking. A lot of them are the quickie or new versions. You may want to consider the Ebony Cookbook or Slyvia's or the grand dame of black heritage cookbooks, Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine.

Editorial Review:

This flavorful book honors our mothers' influence by documenting more than 200 favorite family recipes.

Remember stirring moments in your own kitchen as you read Mother Memories, pearls of wisdom passed from mother to daughter, and browse through a splendid collection of African-American Heritage Recipes.

Highlighting the list of recipes are: Creole Gumbo, Collard Greens with Smoked Turkey, Black Eyed Pea Fritters, and Maply Sweet Potato-Banana Pudding.

A portion of the proceeds benefits The National Council of Negro Women, Inc.

Southern Soul Food: Mom's Favorite Family Recipes

William J. Middleton

Amazon Price: $14.00 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Mill City Press, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $11.11

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good Recipes for What You have on Hand 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I marked so many pages in this cookbook for recipes I want to try(I am a mom of a large family and I cook from scratch several times a week)!This cookbook has good, filling, nutritious recipes that the family will love (and the kids will eat).At the same time, it also has recipes that "use up" odds and ends that I had around here that I was wondering what to do with.There are some diverse recipes, but they do not use hard-to-find ingredients. Most of these recipes use what I personally have on hand in my pantry, and they would use up some of the things that I need to use up.This is a good cookbook.The budget conscious family would especially like this, because these recipes will make your food dollar stretch further. (and they also taste good!) :)

Editorial Review:

Southern Soul Food: Mom's Favorite Recipes is a delightful collection of recipes destined to produce real home-cooked "comfort food." Not only does the book present recipes that will delight your palate, it also includes a helpful guide to the ingredients used and an analysis of their health merits.