“VICTUALS: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes”--Author Ronni Lundy and photographer Johnny Autry have wonderfully captured the essence and timelessness of the Appalachian region of America and the amazing spirit of its people (see my review)

Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes

Victuals is an exploration of the foodways, people, and places of Appalachia. Written by Ronni Lundy, regarded as the most engaging authority on the region, the book guides us through the surprisingly diverse history--and vibrant present--of food in the Mountain South.

Victuals explores the diverse and complex food scene of the Mountain South through recipes, stories, traditions, and innovations. Each chapter explores a specific defining food or tradition of the region--such as salt, beans, corn (and corn liquor). The essays introduce readers to their rich histories and the farmers, curers, hunters, and chefs who define the region's contemporary landscape. Sitting at a diverse intersection of cuisines, Appalachia offers a wide range of ingredients and products that can be transformed using traditional methods and contemporary applications. Through 80 recipes and stories gathered on her travels in the region, Lundy shares dishes that distill the story and flavors of the Mountain South.

MY REVIEW:  While reading “VICTUALS: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes”, I was humming, tapping my feet, grinning, and “itchin’ to get to the kitchen”. Author Ronni Lundy and photographer Johnny Autry have wonderfully captured the essence and timelessness of the Appalachian region of America and the amazing spirit of its people. I was born and raised in the beautiful mountains of Virginia, where I still reside. This is the land of my mother and her family. My father and his family were from the hills of East Tennessee. I laughingly and proudly call myself a “Mountain-Billy”. I have many friends and acquaintances from the proud state of Kentucky, and I long ago embraced, and was embraced in return, by the people of the marvelous mountain state of West Virginia. “VICTUALS” (the term is also plainly called “vittles”) offers an inside look at an area of our country which is frequently stereotyped. It’s a way of life where great poverty often exists alongside great pride. Traditions that will never die out are buffeted by the encroachments of modern society. Appalachia is a country within a country where a violin became a fiddle, and the music and dance of Scottish-Irish heritage became known as “Blue Grass”. It’s where you fix up a “mess of kress”, make apple butter outdoors in a big copper kettle over a wood fire, and you cook a pot of beans or a pan of greens with a ham hock or a hunk of fatback or side meat. You make perfectly delicious and golden-crusted cornbread in a well-seasoned and blackened old cast iron skillet, and you wait, impatiently for hand-cranked vanilla ice cream served with fresh peaches or strawberries. Author Ronni Lundy and photographer bring to vivid life the fine food and fine folks of the Appalachias. This is a journey you don’t want to miss. Along the way, enjoy these scrumptious vittles: “Karl Worley’s Roasted Chicken & Dumplings”; “Mama’s Mashed Potatoes”; “Killed Lettuce”; “Country Ham, Ramps, and Taters”; “Old-Style Vanilla Ice Cream”; “Real Cornbread”; “Buttermilk Brown Sugar Pie”; “Mountain Green Beans & Taters”; “Pork & Kraut in Cider Gravy with Noodles”; “Old-School Tomato Gravy”; and many, many more equally memorable recipes. Born in Corbin, Kentucky, RONNI LUNDY has long chronicled the people of the hillbilly diaspora as a journalist and cookbook author. She is the former restaurant reviewer and music critic for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, former editor of Louisville Magazine, and has contributed to many national magazines. Her book Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken was recognized by Gourmet magazine as one of six essential books on Southern cooking. In 2009, Lundy received the Southern Foodways Alliance Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award. She has contributed to Eating Well, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Esquire, and other magazines.

Book Copy Gratis Clarkson Potter Publishers via Blogging for Books


Ronni Lundy

“Victuals is a testament to the power and the beauty of a web society, a society of connections, not tribalism. What is best about the region and what has sustained us in the region are those webs of connection. What I would hope for this humble little cookbook to just be one more voice in that conversation. ~ Ronni Lundy 

Born in Corbin, Kentucky, Ronni Lundy grew up in Louisville well aware that her mountain roots made for a distinctive upbringing. After graduating from college and living for a spell out West, Lundy returned home and worked as a journalist for the Louisville Times, covering the new American and international roots music scenes. That led to her first cookbook, Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken (1991), a compendium of Southern recipes with contributions from country musicians. Her second book, Butter Beans to Blackberries (1999), captures the bountiful Southern garden. These first two books celebrated Appalachian life, according to Lundy. For her most recent, Victuals (2016), she wanted to understand the region’s “darkness.” Honest and insightful—not to mention the winner of two James Beard Awards—Victuals quickly joined the pantheon of American cookbooks. Ronni Lundy’s work uncovers not just the contradictions inherent in the Appalachian regions but of the South and the entire nation.

http://ronnilundy.com/