The New Southern Cookbook

“Every recipe in the South is worth its weight in gold…and it always comes with a story.” Most of us in the South love a good potluck meal or cookout. And it’s always a friendly competition to see who can create the best dish. Whether it’s time to whip out a favorite dessert, salad-and we use that definition loosely- or deviled egg recipe, you’re going to have to listen to a long backstory if you ask for the recipe. When we wrote The New Southern Cookbook: Classic Family Recipes and Modern Twists on Old Favorites we wanted you to feel as if you were sitting at the dinner table with us, listening to us reminisce about our childhood memories. Although they did limit us to 200 words or less on all the stories, so it won’t be quite as long as if we were talking to you in person!

This post may contain affiliate links. We receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from our links, which we’ll totally blow on ingredients for new recipes, y’all!

What’s in The New Southern Cookbook?

100 Recipes

The recipes cover everything from meats, appetizers, salads, bread, soups, desserts and drinks so you’ll be sure to find something to whet your appetite!
It’s a combination of Heirloom recipes, straight from our family’s recipe box. We’re talking Classic Fried Chicken, Angel Biscuits dripping with Sausage Gravy, and Southern Baked Banana Pudding. We’ve also included my aunt’s fabulous tea cake recipe that my son wanted to keep a secret! Is your mouth watering yet?

There are classic recipes that have been given a modern twist, including comfort foods like breaded pork chops with avocado peach salsa and chocolate pie made with an heirloom filling recipe but served in a coconut crust to make it gluten free.

And we’ve new recipes we’ve created over the years. Because we have so many food allergies in our family, we’ve added tons of Gluten Free, Dairy Free, and Vegan adaptions included in the tips, like our recipes for Squash Puppies (an adaption of the classic hush puppy) and carrot bread.

Cooking Tips

This book has something to offer for everyone from the beginning cook to the seasoned cook. As a matter of fact, when we were writing the book my mother-in-law asked me, “Did Brittany ever learn to cook?” She did. And if she can make these recipes, anybody can. She was a bad cook. Seriously bad. When she was ten she made exploding cupcakes. That was one hot mess. Another time, when she and her best friend were kids, they made a dish that poisoned her little brother.

Here’s one of our tips: Tired of crying every time you chop onions? To prevent tears, place them in the freezer for ten minutes before chopping.

Fun Trivia Facts

I’m a history buff and know the most useless knowledge. I’ve shared that knowledge with you in snippets throughout the book. You can find out one of the origins of the phrase “bringing home the bacon” or how long people have been eating sausage. If you’re wondering about that sausage fact, the first recorded instance of sausage was in ancient Sumer, now modern day Iraq, over 5000 years ago. Who hasn’t wanted to impress their friends with mostly useless food facts?

Angel Biscuits with Sausage Gravy

We’re even sharing one of the recipes from The New Southern Cookbook for our Angel Biscuits with Sausage Gravy. I first made this recipe in a Home Economics class in high school. Our teacher stretched these biscuits out to feed an entire class of thirty. We’ve made them lighter and fluffier so they make two dozen biscuits. If you don’t need two dozen biscuits, they can be frozen after they’re shaped and pulled out for a quick breakfast when you need them.

Sausage Gravy is a Southern staple, but it’s controversial. Have you heard of gravy wars? Me either. I made that up. But it’s a subject of serious bickering. Some people like thin gravy, some people like thick. When we had large extended family breakfasts we had to have two skillets of gravy, one thick, one thin, to please everyone. Depending on your tastes, adjust the amount of flour used in the recipe. Use 2 tablespoons flour for thin gravy and four tablespoons for a thicker gravy.

Printable Recipe

Angel Biscuits with Sausage Gravy

Recipe Type: Breads/Breakfast

A delicious flaky biscuit with creamy sausage gravy.

Ingredients

For the Angel Biscuits
1 package yeast
2 Tablespoons warm water
5 cups all purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup shortening (can use Crisco)
2 cups buttermilk
For the Sausage Gravy:
1 (16 ounce) package of ground pork sausage, hot or mild, crumbled
2 to 4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon black pepper (or to taste)

Instructions

For the Biscuits:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Pour water into a cup. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Allow to sit for five minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda until combined.
Cut in shortening until crumbs form.
Add yeast mixture to buttermilk and stir until blended.
Add buttermilk to crumb mixture. Mix until blended.
Place dough on a piece of waxed paper or a cutting board. Roll dough to ½ to 1 inch thick.
Use a biscuit cutter (or glass) to cut biscuits.
Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
For The Sausage Gravy:
Fry one pound of sausage in a skillet over medium high heat until done, approximately five to seven minutes.
Remove sausage from pan, leaving the fat from the sausage in the pan, and allow to drain on paper towels.
Stir the flour into the fat for about one minute or until blended, stirring continuously.
Slowly add milk to the flour mixture, stirring continuously, until mixture is blended.
Reduce heat to low. Simmer for two minutes. Remove from heat and stir in pepper to taste.
Stir in sausage. Spoon over biscuit halves.

Interested in purchasing a copy of The New Southern Cookbook: Classic Family Recipes And Modern Twists on Old Favorites?

It will be released by Rockport Press on September 18th, 2018. But it’s available now for pre-order! Use this link to purchase your copy-> https://amzn.to/2LUdLNk. It’s discounted for over $7 off right now too!