Synopses & Reviews
A nose-to-tail guide to the very best Southern pork recipes, from award-winning food writer James Villas Though beef, poultry, and fish all have their place in Southern cuisine, one animal stands snout and shoulders above the rest—the mighty pig. From bacon to barbecue, from pork loin to pork belly, James Villas's Pig: King of the Southern Table presents the pride of the South in all its glory. 300 mouth-watering recipes range from the basics like sausages, ribs, and ham to creative ideas involving hashes, burgers, gumbos, and casseroles.
A North Carolina native, Villas doesn't just provide great pork recipes but also brings the spirit of Southern cooking alive with tasty cultural and historical tidbits and favorite recipes from beloved restaurants like Louis Osteen's on Pawley's Island and Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill. With gorgeous full-color photography and recipes from Maryland to Louisiana and everywhere in between, Pig is the definitive take on the South's favorite animal.
- Includes 300 recipes for pork dishes of all kinds, including appetizers, soups, sides, rice dishes, and even breads
- Features recipes like Cajun Boudin Rice Sausage, Bacon-Wrapped Pork Loin with Dates and Walnuts, Mississippi Spice-Stuffed Baked Ham, and Collard Greens with Pork Belly
- Offers more than just recipes—the book includes a pig-parts primer, a glossary of pig cooking terms, and cooking tips and sidebars throughout
- Written by James Villas, winner of two James Beard Journalism Awards and former food and wine editor of Town & Country magazine for 27 years
Whether you're planning the perfect summer barbecue or just looking for new ideas for family dinners, Pig shares the secrets of great Southern cooking with every corner of the nation.
Review
[STARRED REVIEW] If pig is indeed king, then there is trouble at the castle, for Villas (Dancing in the Lowcountry) has stormed the gates and had at him, leaving no sweetbread, shoulder, or chop untasted. So let the commoners rejoice: here are 300 recipes from Southern hog heaven that are juicy, flirtatious, and, at times, scary. Brave hearts will want to immediately dive into the Variety and Special Meats chapter for some deviled pork liver; hog's head stew; and brains and eggs. The upper crust might prefer a pork pie. Choices include spicy Tennessee sausage; Pork, Apple and Raisin; or Bacon and Corn. A section on barbecue and ribs includes both North and South Carolina styles of BBQ and half a dozen sparerib options. And where lesser authors might stray off-topic when moving to side dishes, Villas, with 13 cookbooks and two James Beard awards under his belt, knows better. All 39 vegetable and rice dishes are chock full of oink, from the mushy turnips with bacon and pork to the slab bacon hoppin' John. Similarly, there are 20 breads that are decidedly not fat-free. That other Southern king, Elvis, would surely have appreciated the bacon-peanut butter muffins, perhaps chased down with a lard hoecake or some bacon-grease hush puppies. (May) (PublishersWeekly.com, February 16, 2010)
Synopsis
From breakfast and barbecues, to pig pickin's and church benefits, pig really is the king of the Southern table. Three hundred classic and modern Southern recipes feature pork in all forms, including bacon, sausages, ribs, ham, and more. And the variety of dishes is even more diverse, from roasts, hashes, and burgers, to soups, gumbos, and casseroles. As in all of acclaimed author James Villas's cookbooks, this is more than just a collection of recipes. It's an authoritative tome by a renowned expert on Southern cooking, with the fascinating culture and history (sometimes dating back centuries) explained for nearly every recipe, making this cookbook truly as interesting to read as it is to cook from. Villas provides recipes to illustrate the difference between North and South Carolina barbecue. He offers more than twenty ham recipes, with versions from Georgia, Mississippi, and New Orleans. As a native of North Carolina, Villas presents family recipes from home kitchens like Aunt Bunny's Bacon and Sausage Souffle and Maw Maw's Mustard Pork Chops and Dumplings in Cider, as well as ones from best-loved restaurants such as the original Louis Osteen's on Pawley's Island or Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill. In addition to the recipes, there is a head-to-tail Southern pig parts primer, a glossary of Southern pig cooking terms, informative tips and sidebars throughout, and a full-color insert of gorgeous food photography.
Synopsis
"Pig is so good you can taste it. Villas brings all of his expertise and passion into this wide-ranging, highly readable discourse on the lordly staple of Southern cookery."
—John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
"No one is more qualified to write about the 'King of the Southern Table' than the King of Southern Cooking himself, James Villas. The book is loaded with mouthwatering recipes and does double duty as an anthropological text—Villas shows us that the many different Southern tribes have different uses for the mighty pig. So it is that we are given North Carolina Eastern-Style Chopped or Pulled 'Cue, Lowcountry Chicken and Ham Perloo, and dozens of dishes in between, including Tennessee Sausage Spoon Bread and Bill Neal's Braised Pork Chops with Limas and Whole Garlic I'm dying to try. With pig , the noble Villas has given us his usual definitive work."
—Julia Reed, author of Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties and The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story
"What a book! A Southerner weaned on pork, a connoisseur of 'cue and country ham, of sausage, souse, and scrapple as well as all the fresh cuts, Jim Villas knows the 'King of the Southern Table' better than anyone. He writes with passion and authority, tells you exactly what you needto know about pork, then dishes up a juicy everything-but-the-squeal collection of recipes—some homespun, some high-on-the-hog, and many as easy as one, two, three. If you like pork, you'll love pig. And that's a promise."
—Jean Anderson, author of A Love Affair with Southern Cooking
Synopsis
Though beef, poultry, and fish all have their uses in Southern cookery, one animal stands snout and shoulders above the rest—the mighty pig. Whether served with coleslaw or baked beans, potato salad or collard greens, the pig holds pride of place on the South's dinner table.
In Pig, James Villas, the award-winning author of The Glory of Southern Cooking and The Bacon Cookbook, shares 300 mouthwatering recipes that hail from every area of the South—Mississippi Smothered Pork Cutlets; Kentucky Scramble; Sullivan's Island Bacon and Shrimp Bog; Louisiana Red Beans and Rice with Pickled Pork; and Georgia Ham Hock, Bacon, and Chicken Chowder, to name just a few. With gorgeous full-color photography and recipes from the Mason-Dixon to the Gulf of Mexico and everywhere in between, pig is the definitive take on the king of Southern cuisine.
A North Carolina native, Villas doesn't just present the region's best pork recipes but also brings the spirit of Southern cooking alive with tasty cultural and historical tidbits and favorite recipes from beloved restaurants like Louis Osteen's on Pawley's Island in South Carolina and Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He examines every part of the pig and shows you what to do with each—hocks to trotters, pork belly to fatback—and even includes a glossary that covers virtually every dish you can think of, from Cajun boudin sausage to traditional salt pork.
Ideal for summertime pig-outs and soul-satisfying family dinners alike, pig happily shares the secrets of great Southern cooking with every corner of the nation. So, whether you're a lapsed Southerner who wants to recreate the tastes of home or a Yankee looking for a new thrill, this is the perfect down-home cookbook for every pork lover.
About the Author
James Villas was the food and wine editor of Town & Country magazine for 27 years, and his work has appeared in Food & Wine, Saveur, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, The New York Times, and many other publications. He has written 15 cookbooks and books on food, including two that were nominated for James Beard Awards and featured in Food & Wine's annual "Best of the Best." He has won two James Beard Journalism Awards, most recently for an article in Saveur, and was named Bon Appétit's Food Writer of the Year for 2003. He is also the author of The Glory of Southern Cooking and The Bacon Cookbook, both from Wiley.
Table of Contents
Preface: A Passion for Pig.
Introduction.
A Southern Pig Primer: From Head to Tail.
A Southern Pig Glossary.
Smithfield: King of Southern Hams.
Southern Country Hams.
The Gospel of Southern Barbecue.
Southern Bulk Pork Sausage.
Appetizers and Salads.
Soups, Chowders, and Gumbos.
Stews, Casseroles, and Stratas.
Chops, Cutlets, and Steaks.
Pies, Loaves, Hashes, and Burgers.
Roasts.
Ham.
Sausage and Bacon.
Barbecue and Ribs.
Variety and Specialty Meats.
Vegetables and Rice.
Breads.
Acknowledgments.
Index.