|
Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South | 
 enlarge | Author: Marcie Cohen Ferris
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $19.72
You Save: $10.23 (34%)
New (22) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $16.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 170419
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 344
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0807829781
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5676
EAN: 9780807829783
ASIN: 0807829781
Publication Date: October 10, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Since early colonial times in America, Jewish southerners have been tempted by delectable regional foods. Because some of these foods--including pork and shellfish--have been traditionally forbidden to Jews by religious dietary laws, southern Jews face a special predicament. In a culinary journey through the Jewish South, Arkansas native Marcie Cohen Ferris explores how southern Jews embraced, avoided, and adapted southern food and, in the process, have found themselves at home. From colonial Savannah and Charleston to Civil War era New Orleans and Natchez, from New South Atlanta to contemporary Memphis and across the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, Ferris examines the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history. She demonstrates how southern Jews reinvented traditions as they adjusted to living in a largely Christian world where they were bound by regional rules of race, class, and gender. Featuring a trove of photographs, Matzoh Ball Gumbo also includes anecdotes, oral histories, and more than thirty recipes to try at home. Ferris's rich tour of southern Jewish foodways shows that, at the dining table, Jewish southerners created a distinctive religious expression that reflects the evolution of southern Jewish life.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Lots of research, not many insights March 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a wonderful topic for a book -- how Southernness and Jewishness came together in the Jewish kitchen. Cohen Ferris, herself a Jewish woman from a small town in Arkansas, has done exhaustive research, no doubt a labor of love, and has perpetuated many people's memories.
The problem with the book is that it is quite repetitious. Ferris Cohen correctly points out that the culture and history of Atlanta, New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta, and so on are all distinct from each other. Then, however, she spends much of her time recounting menus of long-ago occasions and concluding, over and over again, that the balance between kosher and non-kosher food and between European and American Southern delicacies was important and hard to navigate, because food is so important in daily life.
It is not so much a question of Ferris Cohen's writing style but of the fact that she seemed compelled to put on paper all of the results of her painstaking interviews. Perhaps a more insightful historian could have made more of Ferris Cohen's material, but this book just seemed too long.
 Matzo balls and memories May 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a Deep South Jewish expatriate, I can't say enough about how thoroughly Marcie Cohen Ferris did her research. There is no doubt that she has covered the differences-and similarities-of the various southern states with great heart and accuracy! The sheer volume of names of those she got family information from is more than admirable. The book belongs in every Jewish household-northern and southern! And non-Jewish readers will get a wonderful picture of the influence food had in Southern Jewish homes-part of American culinary history.
Okay book May 15, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Good book if your into a history lesson but I was looking for more receipies.
Outstanding & interesting May 12, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a wonderful compilation of Jewish history of the South and Jewish food of the South. Fascinating reading about the history and excellent eating. Enjoy!
 Too much starch in the matzo balls July 10, 2006
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Fascinating subject matter as I grew up in an area where Jews were a vocal and very assimilated minority. The author's extensive research came to the same conclusions in every chapter: it was hard to keep Kosher in the South and black household help did much of the cooking. As a Jewish woman I am proud of our reputation for a sense of humor and delicious cooking. There are very few recipes; even those were not particularly tempting or typical. The book's major flaws lie in the author's dry, labored, one-note writing style that had me laboring to stay awake.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
