Sook’s Cookbook is one of the most unusual cookbooks around. I found it on Amazon. It’s written by Marie Rudisil, who is author Truman Capote’s aunt. Sook was the matriarch of the Faulk Family whose collection of recipes were legendary among her Alabama peers. Capote’s favorite recipe from her was for lemon meringue pie. I’m making that tonight.
It’s an endlessly charming collection, describing various family member recipes through the ages, especially from the black maids and cooks from the slavery era to more contemporary times. These women created black Southern cuisine as we know it today.
I recently prepared the Roast Chicken, based on Scriptural Precepts described in the book. It’s basically a roast chicken put on a bed of vegetables and bathed in nearly 2 sticks of butter. I brined the chicken first, which gave the bird wonderful flavor and moistness as brines do. I used Erin French’s basic brine (found in her cookbook, “Lost Kitchen.”) It’s flavored with juniper berries, which have become hard to find. In the past I’ve had no problem, but a recent search in Whole Foods and Hannaford yielded nothing. But keep a jar in stock—however you find it—because they add wonderful flavor to brines and other preparations.
I don’t generally buy farm birds because they’re so expensive and often not worth the premium price just because of their exalted heritage. The breast meat is not plentiful on these birds and they get so much exercise free-roaming around yard that they work off the fat that less rigorously raised birds contain.
