You know- those old, spiral-or plastic-tooth-bound cookbooks sold to support a high school marching band, a church, or the local chapter of the Junior League. These recipe collections reflect, with unimpeachable authenticity, the dishes that define communities; chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese, chess pie. When Southern Foodways Alliance began curating a cookbook, these spiral-bound, sauce-splattered pages served as a model.

Including more than 170 tested recipes, this cookbook is a true reflection of Southern foodways and the people, regardless of residence or birthplace, who claim this food as their own. Traditional and adapted, fancy and unapologetically plain, these recipes are powerful expressions of collective identity. There is something from- and something for- everyone. The recipes and the stories that accompany them came from academics, writers, catfish farmers, ham curers, attorney, toqued chefs, and people who just like to cook- spiritual Southerners of myriad ethinicities, origins, and culinary skill levels.