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Sit down with a frosty glass of sweet tea and visit for a while with Mrs Emily Meggett, matriarch of Edisto Island and elder of the Gullah Geechee community. In this book, you’ll find rich nuggets of American history tucked in between some of the best Southern cooking there is. The recipes here rely on fresh, seasonal flavors, abundant produce and seafood, as well as the rice that is the basis for all Geechee cooking. The recipes are sized to share and are perfect for feeding a family or entertaining. Recommended By Deana R., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The first major Gullah Geechee cookbook from "the matriarch of Edisto Island," who provides delicious recipes and the history of an overlooked American community
The history of the Gullah and Geechee people stretches back centuries, when enslaved members of this community were historically isolated from the rest of the South because of their location on the Sea Islands of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Today, this Lowcountry community represents the most direct living link to the traditional culture, language, and foodways of their West African ancestors.
Gullah Geechee Home Cooking, written by Emily Meggett, the matriarch of Edisto Island, is the preeminent Gullah cookbook. At 87 years old, and with more than 50 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Meggett is a respected elder in the Gullah community of South Carolina. She has lived on the island all her life, and even at her age, still cooks for hundreds of people out of her hallowed home kitchen. Her house is a place of pilgrimage for anyone with an interest in Gullah Geechee food. Meggett's Gullah food is rich and flavorful, though it is also often lighter and more seasonal than other types of Southern cooking. Heirloom rice, fresh-caught seafood, local game, and vegetables are key to her recipes for regional delicacies like fried oysters, collard greens, and stone-ground grits. This cookbook includes not only delicious and accessible recipes, but also snippets of the Meggett family history on Edisto Island, which stretches back into the 19th century. Rich in both flavor and history, Meggett's Gullah Geechee Home Cooking is a testament to the syncretism of West African and American cultures that makes her home of Edisto Island so unique.
Review
"A living legend whose name must be known." BJ Dennis, Gullah Geechee chef, oral historian, and advocate
Review
"Emily Meggett's community knowledge, culinary wisdom, and sense of place are gifts from the heart and the hearth to be cherished." Toni Tipton-Martin, award-winning author of jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking and The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks
Review
"Miss Emily Meggett's food is the most pure distillation of Lowcountry cuisine-an unadulterated taste of what it means to make the most from what's around you when farming, fishing, preserving, and foraging are the means to put food on the table. Her message, the way Miss Meggett sees the world and the people in it, is founded in humanity and love for thy neighbor. Miss Meggett is an American legend. Her walk deserves to be celebrated."
Vivian Howard, winner of James Beard, Peabody, and Emmy Awards, host of A Chef's Life and Somewhere South on PBS, and author of Deep Run Roots
About the Author
Emily Meggett is the 87-year-old matriarch of the Gullah community on Edisto Island, South Carolina. She has been featured on television and in print by PBS, the Food Network, Bon Appétit, Eater, and NPR. She is also a member of the family who was raised in the Point of Pines cabin, a 19th-century slave cabin from Edisto Island that has been relocated to Washington, DC, as the central exhibit of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Her website is www.motheroftheisland.com/. Meggett lives in Edisto Island, South Carolina.