A Southerly Course: Recipes and Stories from Close to Home

In the highly anticipated follow-up to her bestselling Screen Doors & Sweet Tea, Martha Hall Foose shares recipes and stories that are even closer to her home and heart.

A Southerly Course delves deep into Mississippi Delta flavors and foodways, where Martha finds inspiration in local ingredientsâ from figs and sweet potatoes to crawfish and venison. In her signature style, she pairs each recipe with an anecdote or words of advice, her memorable tales about each dish lingering long after the last bite has been polished off.

Martha’s beloved Southern cuisine is a fresh take on homey favorites fiercely protected by the locals, including Skillet Fried Corn, Sweet Pickle Braised Pork Shoulder, and Blackberry Jelly Roll. Dishes such as Sweet-and-Sour Salsify and Peanut Chicken, on the other hand, reflect the influence other cuisines have had on Southern cooking. Martha’s lifelong bond with Mississippi is most apparent when she introduces her friends and family; she dedicates Burgundy Duck to a fiery group of women duck hunters called the Swamp Witches, while her cousin’s new wife inspires Korean-style Grilled Green Onions. And in recalling her former neighbor, the famed author Eudora Welty, she reveals the secret to a perfect Custard Pie.
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With more than 100 recipes and beautiful color photographs, this book is a wonderful, personal look into the South that Martha loves. Gather around her table in A Southerly Course for unforgettable food and vivid stories, both hallmarks in a rich Southern tradition.


From the Hardcover edition.

Martha Hall Foose is the James Beard Award–winning author of the bestselling cookbook Screen Doors & Sweet Tea. Born and raised in Mississippi, she attended the famed pastry school École Lenôtre in France. She returned to Mississippi and opened Bottletree Bakery—a Southern institution in Oxford—and later, with her husband, Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood. The former executive chef of the Viking Cooking School, Martha was a food stylist for the movie The Help, based on the bestselling novel of the same name. She makes her home on her family’s farm in Tchula, Mississippi, with her husband and their son. Visit Martha at www.marthafoose.com.