When the original
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture was
published in 1989, the topic of foodways was relatively new as a
field of scholarly inquiry. Food has always been central to
southern culture, but the past twenty years have brought an
explosion in interest in foodways, particularly in the South. This
volume marks the first encyclopedia of the food culture of the
American South, surveying the vast diversity of foodways within the
region and the collective qualities that make them distinctively
southern.
Articles in this volume explore the richness of southern foodways,
examining not only what southerners eat but also why they eat it.
The volume contains 149 articles, almost all of them new to this
edition of the
Encyclopedia. Longer essays address the
historical development of southern cuisine and ethnic contributions
to the region's foodways. Topical essays explore iconic southern
foods such as MoonPies and fried catfish, prominent restaurants and
personalities, and the food cultures of subregions and individual
cities. The volume is destined to earn a spot on kitchen shelves as
well as in libraries.