ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not Southern but I liked learning about Southern Snacks. Everything in this book was drool worthy. 3.5 stars for Southern Snacks.

The recipes included range from well known favorites to some new twists on old favorites. The author also includes information about the recipes and some of the ingredients. The book is well organized. Enjoy trying some of these fun snacks at your next party.

This is a cookbook I enjoyed. Easy and inexpensive ideas for food full of flavor. A great nod to the south and it’s amazing cuisine.

Something about southern cooking appeals to almost everyone no matter where in the country they live. When we think of southern food, most of us think of the fat-laden comfort foods like fried chicken or shrimp and grits, but southerners offer appetizers that are just as appealing. Perre Coleman Magness, a veteran cookbook author who specializes in southern food, has outdone herself with her cookbook Southern Snacks: 77 Recipes for Small Bites with Big Flavors. This delightful cookbook is loaded with recipes that will make even the most amateur cook a star at her own party. Just the dips alone at the beginning of the cookbook are reason enough to purchase this cookbook. Magness includes decadent hot dips such as Hot Vidalia Onion Dip (delicious), Mississippi Sin, and Creamy Collard Dip, Pimento Cheese Style, as well as cold dips like the iconic Benedictine, a Kentucky staple, and must-serve dip or spread for fancy sandwiches on Derby Day. Another fabulous and addicting dip is Carolina Caviar.

The great snacks don’t end there, however, there are recipes for Fried Grits with Tomato- Bacon Jam, Crab Cake Bites with Artichoke Tartar Sauce, and Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Biscuits and Green Onion Butter. Magness has even included a take on the famous Kentucky Hot Brown.

There are photographs of most of the recipes, and the instructions are easy to follow. Most importantly, the recipes turn out picture-perfect. This is one of those cookbooks that belongs on the shelf of anyone who entertains, since it has both quick and easy snacks, and some that are more involved for fancier parties. Highly recommended.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

A cook book with southern recipes. For me some like the Smokey butter bean spread, Bourbon spiked caramelized onion bacon bean dip, and the Hollywood fried pickles were just a few that stuck out for me and ones that I am going to try. The book is easy to follow and is broken down in sections from dips, spreads, butters, deep fried, fish, and drinks. There even was a cheese cake made with ham. Along with the recipes there are pictures that add to this book.

There is no doubt that Southerners like to eat and there are many great cooks in the South. So, I was looking forward to Southern Snacks: 77 Recipes for Small Bites with Big Flavors. But, many of the recipes in this book are uninspiring and others simply don’t sound very appealing or even original. To add insult to injury, the photographs that accompany the various recipes are rather dull looking. But, even so, I did find a few recipes that I would like to try. I just wish there were more that had caught my eye.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

I didn’t care for this cookbook. The recipes were not approachable and most of them were fried or used cream cheese or a food processor. I don’t have the latter so already many of the recipes would have been difficult to make. In the commentary section of one recipe she mentions that traditionally that particular recipe used dried beef. She goes on to say that she had never used it and didn’t know if it was still available to buy. Bless her heart, a southerner who has never had one of my favorites, chipped beef gravy! (For the record, it’s available in every store I have ever looked for it in.) I would have also liked to see photos for more recipes.

Perre Coleman Magness certainly knows his Southern dishes as is evident in Southern Snacks. There are a variety of small delicious bite-size recipes in this book along with some wonderful tales to go with them. I loved the story of Hollywood even though I am not a dill pickle fan.

The recipes are categorized into groups such as Dips and Spreads; Cheese, Please; Deep-Fried Love; Seafood and Eat It; The Meat of the Matter; The Garden Path; Nuts for Snacks; and Lagniappe. It has been said that here in the South we fry everything, but that chapter is not the longest, but it does have some interesting, mouth-watering recipes such as corn fritters with spicy honey.
This is a cookbook that any South cook would be proud to own. Buy it for yourself, then give a copy as a gift.

Southern Snacks by Perre Coleman Magness includes 77 recipes. Some of the recipes are in most southerners arsenal including cheese straws and comeback sauce. A few were new to me such as the collard pimento cheese dip. I was slightly offended at the thought of adding anything except salt to the water for boiled peanuts. Good boiled peanuts do not need anything else. Of course each southerner has his/her own family twist on most recipes. It is a nice mixture of traditional and new.

Just didn't appeal to me. Many,of the recipes seemed to be out of junior league/community cookbooks or national brand recipes. The pictures were bland and fairly colorless. The blurbs seemed self congratulatory, many saying how everyone loves this dish and it is always gobbled up.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy from University of North Carolina Press for my unbiased opinion of the book. OMG, this cookbook had me salivating from the first recipe page. This book makes me feel that I am back south of the Mason-Dixon line! I gratefully tried hot Vidalia onion souffle, Kentucky beer cheese, party tomato pies, Bama wings with white sauce, and beef tenderloin with blue cheese biscuits and green onion butter. I loved it all!!! I really enjoyed all the side stories, helpful hints, and buyers reference guide in the back. This will be my new go-to party recipe reference guide!

There are so many good ideas in this new book, Southern Snacks, by Perre Magness! Besides the recipes, there are tips on preparing and serving. Being a Southerner, I already have quite a few of the recipes (cheese straws, anyone?), but there are a few new ones I'll try, like the field pea hummus. The photos are terrific and the overall tone of the book is homey and comforting.

Being a real Southern Girl and all from the Great State of NC, I love to cook. And if you love to cook and/or would like to try some wonderful country cooking then this is the cookbook for you. The recipes are just like the ones my Grandma makes and if it’s something I forgot or don’t have the recipe the recipe for I can flip to it in my handy dandy Southern Snacks cookbook. You can tell the author put a lot of work into this crafting just the right snacks. I can’t wait until this is published so I can go out and get the physical copy for my own kitchen. #SouthernSnacks #NetGalley #Yummy

I loved every recipe I found in this book. The colorful design, the great photos that accompany each recipe, and the notes about the inspiration or original source for the recipe.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It had great tips and stories.

I enjoyed seeing "You don't need a silver fork to eat good food" as this is the case. Mississippi Sin is a great recipe and one I've never heard of. Texas Crabgrass, while it's a great name, I don't think of it as a Southern Snack or one I would want to see in this book. It seems to be your run of the mill spinach dip. I enjoyed Carolina Caviar. Some of the pictures, while beautiful, still seems to be more on the upscale and some in which would be perceived to use a "silver fork". The color choice for the pictures are also very bland. The south isn't all about being indoors and serving your food. What about sitting on your big front porches with a spread and some ice tea! I really wanted a cookbook with true southern "snacks" that you don't often hear of. I did also like Country Ham Cheesecake, never heard of that one. Too middle of the road for me.

Yumi! I just can't wait to make some of the recipes found in this book! The recipes in this cookbook feature small bites, local and fresh ingredients, and would be perfect for anyone needing to bring a dish! While I was going through the different recipes I could see these being huge hits for tailgating, potlucks, game nights, and family get togethers. The only reason this cookbook didn't get a 5/5 was because there wasn't a dessert section. I can't recommend this enough!

I loved every recipe I found in SOUTHERN SNACKS ... and there are 77 for “small bites with big flavors!”Adore the colorful design and really pretty photos in this terrific cookbook by Perre Coleman Magness, cook and writer behind the website The Runaway Spoon, which focuses on creative recipes with a Southern slant. Every kind of snack ... for a football game, party, special occasion ... is featured, many inspired by southern community cookbooks, home cooks, and chefs who put new twists on southern flavors. I want the Field Pea Hummus, Sweet Tea Pecans, Louisiana’s Natchitoches Meat Pies, Charleston’s Benne Wafers ... and hey, if I can admit it, the Fried Dill Pickles. Major yum! Along with recipes you’ll find fine Southern stories and lore, just perfect to read while fixin’ up your next Southern Snack. I’m in Heaven, y’all! 5/5

Pub Date 10 Sep 2018

Thanks to University of North Carolina Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#SouthernSnacks #NetGalley

Thanks for letting me review this book. I saw many yummy recipes I cant wait to try. I think this will fit right into the way my family already eats.

Yum! Yum! Yum! I think that pretty well sums up the Southern Snacks cookbook by Perre Coleman Magness. The author has compiled a lovely collection of recipes you can snack on morning, noon or night. Some of the recipes you'll find include:

Hot Vidalia Onion Souffle
Traditional Cheese Straws
Cheddar and Pepper Jelly Crumble Bars
Hollywood Fried Pickles
Comeback Sauce
Smoked Catfish Spread
Sweet Tea Brined Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Tea Mustard
Kentucky Hot Brown Bites
Cherry Tomatoes with Creamy Buttermilk Dip
Zucchini Cornbread Bites
Barbecue Peanuts
Boiled Peanuts
Cream Cheese Wafer Biscuits
Firecrackers

You will also find food lore and color photos sprinkled throughout the cookbook.

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

No thank you ma'am.

I asked for this book because I wanted to know what snacks beyond boiled peanuts and crayfish bites are "southern" snacks. Ms Magness, who grew up in Memphis, has made a particular study of lady's league and church recipe books from around the region. To collect these books she has also travelled and eaten her way across Tennessee and the Delta. She presents her reminiscences of growing up with southern snacks, her travel experiences, and her versions of the classic recipes in this small cookbook.

I don't think her effort is a success. Some of the recipes are national recipes of the 1950s and are not southern in any way. The "Field Pea Hummus" is essentially the one off a package of dried beans. The selection of recipes and order of presentation is not particularly creative. The prose can be awkward and ungrammatical. A small handful of interesting recipes does not make up for many pages of ordinary stuff that is similar to ideas found anywhere online.

I am looking at an ARC and so I can't be sure how the final version will look, but the photos in front of me are not very appealing, with poor contrast and no vibrancy. Some of the dips look gray, which is not good. There are lots of photos at the beginning (dips and spreads and the crackers) but by the time you get to the seafood and meats chapters the photos are few and far between, even for dishes like "tamales" which are a version of Swedish meatballs that have nothing to do with real tamales (just as the "mangoes" where I come from have no relation to real mangoes) there is no accompanying photo.