River Road Recipes: The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine

This is the classic book your grandma kept close by in the kitchen, and had the occasional stain on those pages used most. But, this book being first published in the late fifties, means all of the recipes date earlier than that.It is full of references to food products that modern home cooks may not be familiar with. I am nearing 50 years old, and there are ingredients I've never heard of.Then there are the bizarre and questionable recipes. "South Louisiana Red Beans" appears early in the book, and calls for a pound of sliced pepperoni. I grew up in Jefferson, Louisiana, literally 2 blocks away from River Road, and walking distance from the Huey P. Long bridge. I have NEVER heard of anyone putting pepperoni in their red beans.Now there are certainly some great recipes inside, lots of good oyster and shrimp recipes to try. The recipes are supposed to have been tested, but some of them (especially in the "How Men Cook" chapter) are so vague in their descriptions that you are left wondering how to make any sense of them. There is a recioe called simply, "Bar-Be-Cue" that makes a lot of assumptions about your setup, and could really use a lot more explanation.All that said, I am sure many of these recipes were flat out delicious when cooked by their various authors. But writing recipes for a broad audience is nowhere near as easy as making some notes to pass on to your kids, who are already mostly familiar with how you cool.I would love to see a modern chef go through this book and edit the recipes (changing only the instructions, and only making substitutions where absolutely necessary due to unavailability of 1950s era food products) with goal of making these recipes accessible to 21st century home cooks. Phrases like "Cook over a medium charcoal fire." are meaningless without more context. Is this in a classic ena.eled steel kettle grill? A pit dug in the ground? Lid open or closed? If you had this author's charcoal grill, you could expect it to work. But his grill was purchased (or made at home) over a half century ago. There is a sauce recipe (serves 50 people) that doesn't even list proportions. I bet of all the books sold, maybe only a handful of people have tried making that recipe in the last half century.Anyone ever heard of "salad seasoning"? I bet when the book was first published you could go to the grocery store and ask for it and get exactly what the author intended you to use. Now? No telling what you'd end up with when asking for salad seasoning.So, just be aware that there are some real treasures in this book, and there are also some recipes that sound really good and you will want to try, but are either incomplete, imprecise, or refer to ingredients that are either ambiguous or unavailable.Experienced cooks will have an easier time making sense of the remaining viable recipes than beginners as well.As someone who grew up seeing this book in my grandmother's kitchen, I have a fond connection to it and even bought this new copy to save hers from getting damaged. That's why it pains me so much to give it less than 5 stars. Its like a vintage sports car in a way. Surpassed by modern analogs, but beloved for the fond memories it evokes.

This is like a cooking bible for a Cajun. This is my second addition of this. I love the recipes the are easy to do but they are old school ones!

Love this cookbook. It is the original go to for Louisiana home cooking. Just bear in mind the recipes were created at a time before we were health conscious. With that said these are a great starting point and you can modify the recipes to fit your dietary preferences.

This cookbook has been in my family for years. My grandmother had it and when I saw it, I had to get a copy. Best cookbook!

So many different recipes!!!

Came exactly as described and very fast!

Good southern recipes

I bought this cookbook a LONG time ago after a visit to New Orleans, where I become captivated by the cuisine. To say I used it is an understatement. I bought this copy when my original one was falling apart. I think I'm going to appreciate the hard cover.

I found this book a delightful cookbook with easy to follow recipes and tasty dishes.

All the recipes I rmembered on my trip to New Orleans in the seventies. Brought back some tasty recipes.

Thank you!