Though Joan E. Aller wasn't born on a mountaintop in Tennessee like Davy Crockett, she lives on a mountaintop in Tennessee. As newcomer from Fresno, California she witnessed the changes that development brought to the Tennessee mountains. She didn't like them. Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly: Recipes from Southern Appalachia represents her journey to capture the region's landscapes in photos and collect recipes representative of the region.
Cider Beans celebrates the region's food in full color. Landscape photos were shot by Aller, yet the food photos are by Ben Fink. Bed and breakfast inn owners shared their recipes, stories, and perspectives on the region with Aller, and that comprises Cider Beans' contents. Other recipes were provided by her friend John C. Rivers. Each recipe contains a few sentences about the bed and breakfast from which it originated, or sometimes a lengthy paragraph tracing a recipe's history if it's not affiliated with a bed and breakfast.
The first chapter introduces reader to the region by offering bits about its geography, history, and culture, and those morsels continue throughout as sidebars.Most natives can skip the introduction, but my sense is that the book was written to educate a different audience: strangers to the region.
Aller's presentation of the region reflects no ugliness, no evidence of poverty or undernourishment, no evidence of strip-mined mountain tops. No dawgs. No hollers. Cider Beans presents a bucolic, romantic vision of Southern Appalachia. I like it. It's lovely to see and I wish the other stuff, like reality, was so easily omitted from reality.
Cider Beans follows standard cookbook organization: breakfast, appetizers, soups & salads, vegetables & beans, breads, meats, desserts, and beverages. After beverages is the country store section which offers recipes for pickles, relishes, marmalades, jellies, and syrups. The breakfast recipes represent offerings from bed and breakfasts, not dishes that real Southern Appalachian people might eat on a daily basis. If you think about it, who stays in bed and breakfasts? Not locals.
Okay, once I stayed at a local bed and breakfast, but it was a hardship case. About a dozen years ago I selected my wedding date without any thought to regional events and how they might affect me or my wedding guests. There are two huge races in Bristol, Tennessee. One in March, one in August. Accommodations during those races are booked at least a year in advance. I didn't want to stay at my apartment on our wedding night, so my mom booked a room for my husband and me at the Blair Moore House in Jonesborough (it's much nicer in person than how their website depicts them).
But back to the review: The meals reflect their origins and their eaters, not so much the region. And yet, all these ingredients can be had, fairly easily, from most grocery stores and that makes the recipes accessible to a large number of cooks and eaters.
Don't get me wrong, Southern Appalachian staples appear throughout Cider Beans. What is a book about Southern Appalachian cookery without grits & redeye gravy, ramps with bacon, corn pone, burgoo, country ham, barbecue, and stack cake?
But who eats granola, breakfast pizza, brie with apricot, or trout cakes everyday? Tourists, the recently relocated, locals turned on to gourmet and organic food. Most definitely the upper middle class. Salmon patties made from canned salmon, rather than trout cakes, is a traditional meat dish here.
Consider the sidebars: An early one translates common phrases such as "Which one of them is the bell cow?" : Which one, in the group of ladies, is the leader? And the rest cover the gamut of topics including the Appalachian Trail, a recipe for 'warshing' clothes, okra, hogs, etc. The sidebars impart information about the unique qualities that combine to form that which is Southern Appalachia.
Yes, I have mixed feelings about Cider Beans. The photos are lovely, the recipes reflect health consciousness, the information about the region is correct. And though it celebrates the region, it doesn't represent our distinct flavor.
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