Review: The B.T.C. Old Fashioned Grocery Cookbook

The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from a Southern Revival

About the Book:

Locals go to the B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery in Water Valley, Mississippi, for its Skillet Biscuits and Sausage Gravy breakfasts, made-to-order chicken salad and spicy Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese sandwiches, and daily specials like Shrimp and Grits that are as good as momma made. The B.T.C.’s freezers are stocked with take-home Southern Yellow Squash Casseroles and its counter is piled high with sweets like Peach Fried Pies as well as seasonal produce, local milk, and freshly baked bread. 

“Be the Change” has always been the store’s motto, and that’s just what it has done. What started as a place to meet and eat s is now so much more, as the grocery has become the heart of a now-bustling country town. The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook shares 120 of the store’s best recipes, giving home cooks everywhere a taste of the food that brought a community together, sparking friendships, reviving traditions, and revitalizing an American Main Street.

My Comments:

If you are a fan of old-fashioned Southern food, this is the cookbook for you.  You can learn to make skillet biscuits to serve with sausage gravy (sorry the book does not give the calorie count or the fat grams, but the ingredient lists definitely tell you this is not a low-fat treat).  You can make gumbo or "Hotty Toddy Beer Chile" to serve while you cheer for the Ole Miss Rebels.  Vegetables are not steamed to a bright green; they are baked in casseroles with cheese and breadcrumbs (Southern Yellow Squash Casserole or Artichoke and English Pea Au Gratin) or with cheese, cream and cornbread (Cornbread squash casserole).  How does Honey Pecan Catfish sound?  If you are still hungry after the main course you can try Fried Pies, Charlie Brown Cookies or The Steel Magnolia Cake.  

The book itself is attractive and is a hardcover book printed on good quality paper.  There are photos of many of the recipes.  

Besides the recipes, the book contains features about small-town life in Mississippi.  You learn about football weekends, the milk man and the local drugstore.  They even mention that it is hot in the summer in Mississippi.

I'd like to thank the publishers for making a review copy available via the Blogging for Books program.  Grade:  B+  You can read an excerpt here.