Anne Byrn’s “Baking in the American South” Takes the Cake

by

“Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving and identity.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

At a book-signing not long ago, someone in the audience asked Nashville-based, New York Times-bestselling cookbook author and food writer Anne Byrn why Southern food — and particularly Southern baking — has captured the American imagination. What makes it so special?

As the “Cake Doctor” and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Tennessean, Byrn has the bona fides to answer that question, if anyone does. But she didn’t have an immediate answer that day, the author remembers, so she turned the question over to the audience, who chimed in with many answers of their own: Southern baking is special because it’s your family’s cooking, because it has its own love language. It’s the biscuits. It’s the cornbread. Though no one agreed on the why of the matter, everyone agreed that Southern baking is special. The question stuck in Burn’s head, and she set out to answer it with Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories (Harper Celebrate).

The author’s curiosity and enthusiasm for the subject matter shine through on every page. And, of course, like every treasured recipe, it’s a bit personal too.

“I wanted this book to be representative of the South,” Byrn explains. “I wanted a diversity of people, a diversity of ages. I wanted to have cooks as well as some pastry chefs.”

Baking in the American South holds humble as well as over-the-top recipes. The author included 200 recipes from 14 states and wanted to make sure to find a balance between them, to depict the South and its cooks authentically.

In that, Byrn’s newest effort is a triumphant success. The book is a buffet of gluten-fueled gourmet delights, and the author has not neglected rice- and corn-based recipes either. Her measurements are as exact as any chef’s as she doles out delicious recipes alongside U.S. history lessons and heart-warming stories.

Starting from Scratch

Byrn’s beginnings as a writer can be traced back to her time breaking news stories as the editor of her high school newspaper, Logos II. “I really loved knowing what was going on,” she remembers. “I was always curious, and it was a great way to channel that curiosity.”

Byrn graduated from the University of Georgia with a portfolio full of news clippings. After learning of a job opening for The Atlanta Journal as a food writer, she interviewed for the position. “I had never written about food,” she says, but she thought “what the heck?”

“They asked me if I could fry chicken,” the author remembers, “and I said, ‘Oh yeah, I can fry chicken,’ because I used to help my mom.”

It was the perfect job for someone who liked to know what was going on. “There was a lot happening. It was Atlanta in the late ’70s, ’80s, and Atlanta was booming,” Byrn remembers.

“I grew up on the job,” she says. Byrn admits that sometimes it felt intimidating to interview people who had been cooking all their lives, who themselves were a thread in a much older tapestry of traditions. Her curiosity served her well, though, and she approached the work as a journalist. Whether she was learning about the pecan business or the shrimping industry, regional variations in cornbread recipes or subtle variations in sugar substitution plans, her strategy remained the same: Ask a lot of questions. “I never acted like I was a food expert,” she says.

That’s why, when The Atlanta Journal wanted her to review restaurants, she put her foot down. “I don’t have professional experience to do this. I mean, this is someone’s livelihood,” Byrn remembers thinking. So she took a leave of absence and went to France to study cooking.

Such is the level of her commitment. Byrn is not someone who trades in half-measures, and her attention to detail and passion for her work were put to use in the making of her cookbooks.

Baking Below the Mason-Dixon

Byrn’s newest cookbook is a treasure trove. Baking in the American South is a cornucopia spilling over with mouth-watering recipes, lush and literary remembrances, facts and historical context, and beautiful photographs — of the food, the chefs and cooks who’ve prepared it, and old, handwritten recipe cards. It over-delivers, and the reason why is clear: The author’s curiosity and enthusiasm for the subject matter shine through on every page. And, of course, like every treasured recipe, it’s a bit personal too.

“My mother was a really great baker. Being raised in the South, everything was homemade,” Byrn says of her childhood. She remembers her mother’s chess pie and banana bread, and her aunt’s banana pudding. They were sacred recipes for her family, Byrn says, and every family has their own.

Such is the story of Southern baking. It’s not one story, but an infinite number of individual stories, all of them regional and personal variations on a familiar recipe. Church gatherings, quiltings, barn raisings, funerals, graduations — the particular ingredients and the event for which the baked goods are made influence what is cooked and how it’s cooked.

“Land and climate in the South differ from the rest of America,” Byrn writes in Baking in the American South. “Sandy Gulf coastlines, snaky bayous, black-soiled farmland, lush river deltas, family farms where fig trees grow as tall as houses, and mountains encircled in a smoky blue haze define our land.”

The author’s indisputable familiarity with her subject matter lends her voice a confidence borne of experience. She has driven these Southern roads herself, for her family and her career. She has lived in the landscape, spoken to the people whose lives and livelihoods are intertwined with the land, and has told the story of the South and its culinary traditions as her career.

Her own family history with baking, her career, and her research have all influenced the making of Baking in the American South, making the final product almost as complex and nuanced as the history of the region it chronicles.

The Recipes Tell the Story

The South, more than any other region, bakes inside the home, though Byrn admits the Midwest is catching up. In this way, the home kitchen has become a central part of public, communal life in the South. There are many reasons for this. After the Civil War, while the North flourished, the South struggled. Urban centers in the North developed commercial bakeries, but the same trend was not as apparent in the South.

Byrn’s meticulously researched book explores the historical trends that shaped Southern society, and the ways those trends affected recipes. Take, for example, banana pudding. That sweet Southern staple is an example of the way different influences and regional access to goods changed a recipe that’s graced countless backyard cook-outs.

“The South has a decidedly English influence on a lot of its baked goods,” Byrn explains, noting that the British trend of stovetop custard, when combined with an easy access to bananas from coastal cities, helped birth the recipe.

“If you’re going to cook with an ingredient rather than just eat it out of hand, that means you have access to ingredients,” Byrn says. “If you have a lot of bananas on hand and they’re cheap, you’re going to make a pot of banana pudding.

“Bananas would be dropped on docks,” she continues. “Cooks in the South have foraged for food in all sorts of ways.”

The story of Southern baking traditions is one of resilience, of the search for deliciousness — for life’s fleeting small joys. It is a story of community and family, of scarcity overcome, and it is a story still being told today, in kitchens across America.

Chocolate Chess Pie

While chocolate chess pie is popular in almost every state, it is especially revered in Mississippi, where you’ll find it at funeral wakes, fancy dinner parties, and even filling stations. It’s just pantry ingredients, but when served warm with buttermilk ice cream, it’s suitable for royalty! Best of all, it is a good starter pie for beginning bakers to make on their own. Keep it uncomplicated like it was intended to be. Pass on the fancy chocolate and stick with basic cocoa powder. Opt for canned milk, not heavy cream. Save some time and buy a frozen piecrust. This recipe is adapted from the fan-favorite Junior League of Jackson, Mississippi, cookbook, Southern Sideboards (1978).

Serves 8 / Prep: 10 to 15 minutes / Bake: 40 to 45 minutes

1 (9-inch) pie crust

1/4 cup (25 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (175 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (96 grams) lightly packed light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick/57 grams) unsalted butter, melted

1 can (5 ounces) evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whipped cream or The Lee Brothers’ Buttermilk Ice Cream for serving

1. Crimp the edges of the pie crust and set aside in the fridge.

2. Heat the oven to 350°F, with a rack in the lower middle.

3. Whisk to combine the cocoa, both sugars, and the salt in a large bowl. Add the eggs, melted butter, evaporated milk, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour into the unbaked crust and place in the oven.

4. Bake until the crust has lightly browned and the filling has just set, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove and let cool for 1 hour, then slice and serve with whipped cream or buttermilk ice cream.

From Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories by Anne Byrn. Copyright © 2024 by Anne Byrn.