Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghost ties recipes, historical snippets, and traditions of an African American family’s history from slavery to the present.

As the author remembers and shares the past, she brings stories and dreams of how people of color survived times of famine and fullness through food, sharing the load and keeping the faith.

The recipes are a tribute and remembrance but at the same time bring to the present legacies from the past and how it impacts the author’s world and thoughts today.

The recipes and the reminiscing about the lives of her ancestors and how she provided for her own children resonates because people of color are still intertwining tradition with tribal remembrances.

This is more of a heirloom book full of stories, history accented by recipes that warm your heart. The book is from the heart honoring ancestors and their stories as well as the story of the family. The book provides a small look into the past for this family and all those before of us. Done wonderfully like you are hearing the stories of the family while enjoying a meal and being provided someone's history of the past and their steps towards the future. Like you are looking through a family album with a recipe book. Inspires me to write down the recipes and the stories of my past for future generations to understand where they come from so they know where they are going..

Thank you to the author for sharing the story and recipes, Netgalley and the publisher.

This book was really enjoyable and really well balanced. I loved the recipe and the stories! Recipes with history and connection have so much warmth to them.

What a gem! Wonderful histories, wonderful food, great research. I loved the ph0t0graphs and got so much out of reading this book.

This book is not really a cookbook but stories about the authors ancestors and growing up with food being the centerpiece for the family.
I really enjoyed the stories so much and it reminded me of times I had growing up.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts left me speechless. It is truly a love story told to honor the food, family, and culture that shaped author Crystal Wilkinson’s life. The book is full of stunning photographs, of both dishes created from the book’s recipes as well as the author’s family photos to accompany stories of generations of her Appalachian Kentucky family. In reading this book, not only did I learn about the history of black Appalachians, I also was greatly convinced of the importance of passing kitchen knowledge on from one generation to another, as much of what this book describes is becoming a lost art. I cannot think of a better way for Wilkinson to honor her ancestors than through lovingly crafting this book. I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy.

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

One of the most fascinating and educational cookbooks that I have had the pleasure of reading in years is a true gem in terms of old-fashioned, simple, but well-executed recipes, as well as a treasure-trove of historical information about Appalachian peoples of color. Documented with family genealogy, poignant anecdotes, and lovely photographs, former Kentucky Poet Laureate and O. Henry Prize-winning writer, Crystal Wilkinson’s, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks,” is a gastronomic feast for the eyes and stomach.

From fluffy scratch biscuits; to sizzling cast iron skillet cornbread; decadent Indian corn pudding; sinfully rich and buttery chess pie; and authentic burnt-sugar caramel icing (just like my great granny used to make)—these are just a smattering of the homey goodness readers will find in “Kitchen Ghosts.” There are also a few more recipes for exotic local mountain dishes—like sautéed Fiddlehead Ferns—that will make your special meal absolutely gourmet.

I’ve always considered Cookbooks great treasures of any society because they get to the heart and soul of the local culture almost better than other forms of anthropological research because eating is a primal necessity, and what people eat and how it’s prepared reflects not only on the availability of resources, but also the ancestral traditions of those combining ingredients to make a tasty meal for those they love. Crystal Wilkinson’s, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks,” is just such a culinary masterpiece.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Crystal Wilkinson, and Publisher Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

The title pretty much says it all: Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks. Cookbook author and former Kentucky poet laureate Crystal Wilkinson has compiled recipes and stories from her ancestors, who lived in Indian Creek in Eastern Kentucky. Wilkinson’s family goes back in that area to 1808, when the slave-owning white Wilkinsons brought an enslaved 13-year-old girl with them from Virginia. That girl, Aggy, grew up to marry white Tarlton Wilkinson and became a freedwoman and bore him 10 children. She is also — among others — the inspiration for this cookbook.

Wilkinson weaves in some interesting family history, but — as with all cookbooks — the centerpiece are the recipes culled from her ancestors and extended family. The Appalachian cookery includes the expected, of course, such as Hot Milk Cake, chicken and dumplings, Chess Pie, Pine Lick Mutton Leg and Gravy, Pimento Cheese with a Kick, Classic Benedictine, corn pudding, blackberry jam, Grandma’s Blackberry Cobbler, skillet cornbread — unsweetened, as they like it in Kentucky. But Wilkinson throws in some surprises, as well: greens without bacon or ham, Sautéed Fiddleheads, fried plantains, Creamy Tomato Soup, Chicken Salad with Curry, Wild Berry Lemonade, The Dark Crystal Latte.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Clarkson Potter Publishers and Ten Speed Press in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t even know where to begin. This was a powerful one. I received this as an ARC and I am counting the days till I can buy it for myself. I am from the western North Carolina part of the Appalachian Mountains. This area is so rich in history and culture but it is often missed out on a legacy that is almost hidden and that is the Black Appalachians. I was so in love with the book. The story telling paired with all the wonderful recipes are absolutely amazing. I love the history of the book, all the old pictures, which are a passion of mine. I loved reading how she grew up and how food became important. I come from the same family history of generations of cooks as the women in our family did whatever they could to make magnificent meals from limited sources. They made everything count and our families were blessed for it. I really loved learning about the history of her Appalachian roots and how they shaped her into who she is. The chicken and dumplings is an all time favorite of mine growing up, along with soup beans, pulled pork and my favorite angel food cake. The recipes were so well written and easy to understand. I loved this book and I keep going back to read it again. I will be buying this as a gift for my daddy whose love of our Appalachian history continues with me. You will love the food, the history and the love in this book. Enjoy.
I highly recommend this to any history buff, any down home cook or any of my Appalachian neighbors to enjoy

I took my time with this book, savoring the stories and memories tied to each recipe. The narrative brought each recipe to life. I cannot wait to try some of the recipes in my own kitchen.

I have been reading this on off and on as I really want to take it all in and devour the recipes and the stories. I really enjoyed it and felt by the end I knew the family and wanted to go and have dinner with them.

Five generations of family and food. I love that. Recipes. I love that. Photos, letters, memories. I love that. I don't think there is anything I didn't love about this book. A wonderful book of family stories and recipes. If you love food and love memoirs this is the book for you.

The layout makes it very easy to read and the recipes, well yes I will have to try some of them for sure. Yum. Can't wait. We need more books like this as it reflects true family life in places we may never see or visit. It is real and it is wonderful.

Thank you NetGalley and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

A treasure trove of family stories and recipes! There are not many books about African American communities in Appalachia, and this book highlights the strength of those communities, the essense of previous generations still present in heart, and the food they shared. I'd love to have a seat at the author's table to hear her family's stories firsthand and sample some of the recipes her family passed down in a small recipe box. The photos of the people and the food were nicely done. I wish there had been more photos.

I received a free copy of this book by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful history of Crystal Williams and her family in Appalachia, includes recipes and stories. The book talks about five generations of African American women and extended family. Williams includes photos, letters, and her memories, as well as perfected recipes passed down from her grandmother to her grandchildren. The author wrote so beautifully about cooking with her grandmother as a little girl, the pride of her talented and hardworking grandmother baking daily for the family. The recipes are great classics - berry lemonade and cobbler, biscuits, jam cake! Loved reading this book and learning more about Appalachia from the perspective of women.

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts

Cooks who saw apparitions in the corner of kitchens. Whispers heard while stirring pots. Recipes handed down for generations. Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is a book made from scratch. Memories and experience fuel this work of Crystal Wilkinson as she pieces back together memories of her people and the central role that cooking, food, foraging for cultivated vegetables and wild ones give the sense of a people who were just as much a part of Appalachia as any other folks. Appalachia is often mythologized to be a bastion of poor white workers of coal mines and such. Wilkinson is a product of that area as well where her people stretch back through the annals of time into the 1500s. Whites and Blacks were not bosom friends but forced neighbors by nature and it’s press on their world.

Memories of the women of her family are intertwined with actual recipes. Turnip and mustard Greens with kale instead of the usually touted Deep south collards. There are poke greens (called poke salad in other areas of the south) which are known to be poisonous, but knowing when to harvest and how to cook them has been a means of culinary survival. Cakes are filled with homemade jam instead of buttercream icing and topped off with cooked icing such as caramel. Spices are strong in the cakes as well. Dandelions, the scourge of many folks who don’t want them in their yard provide the leaves to also make greens. Chickens, cheaper than pork and beef are a necessary staple of protein.

Wilkinson notes that she would cry during hog killing season and the butchering of cattle. It must have stuck with her as she’s adjusted recipes that would have traditionally called for meat to season the pot with other ingredients she claims are just as tasty.
Eggs came to bear a sadness for Wilkinson’s grandmother lamenting the past when the last of her chickens were killed by dogs or foxes. Wilkinson finds them disgusting in the raw but will use them for a core ingredient in other dishes. Green beans and new potatoes and mutton bear witness of a Sunday go to meeting meal in baskets.

She speaks to the viability of gardens during the covid pandemic and her daughters raising their own food in their back yards.

Then there are the ghosts of her blood who come back to give her a sense of her past and place. It’s as haunting as the recipes. The sentiment behind the food and recipes weaves together a human family that made me think of my own. Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is a good read and an inviting recipe book.
Wilkinson’s people’s land called Indian Creek no longer belongs to them having been sold off still bears memory and a present-day pain when she visits there. She belongs to that land and it has made her into the person that she is with her people. But it’s not a total loss. Recipes remain and Wilkinson has seeded her reader’s minds with the bounty of her inherent memory in our own kitchens. All is not lost.

I received a copy of "Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, by Crystal Wilkinson. This is a unique book. The author shares her generations of family recipes. Her family comes from the Appalachian south. She shares fond memories of her family get togethers. with this she shares the recipes that have been served for over 150 years. Some of them going back to relatives who were slaves. She has chapters focusing on holidays and church gatherings and the recipes and delicious dishes that were served. in her book are shared recipes for pork, wonderful desserts, Breakfast recipes, blackberry recipes. and so many other wonderful recipes that her family enjoyed over the years. Wow. all I know is I wish I could sit at that table and sample some of these delicious meals. I enjoyed reading this book. only thing is I had to read it on my phone, guess I am old gal who has never read a book on my phone. First time for everything I guess. I would give this book a 4.5.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

What a magnificent title for this culinary journey through the Appalachian hills of Kentucky! Wilkinson is a natural storyteller, and reminisces about her family’s history while sharing the recipes passed down from one generation to the next. Her recollections are vivid, and it was easy to picture women stringing green beans, using their dresses pouched between their knees. This is truly a cookbook written with love and it will touch your heart from the first page, which features a photo of her great-grandparents. Wilkson writes that she wishes her ancestors could step out of the photo, telling her their thoughts on the life they made for their descendants, what their eyes have seen, and where their old shoes have walked. Wilkinson shows how we use food for healing, love and care, as well as how it tethers us to the past. There are beautiful photos of each recipe, but I especially loved the pages with her kitchen ghosts’ aged, tattered and stained recipe cards.

https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/

Thank you for giving me access to an arc.

I cannot explain it but this book felt like a warm hug. A mixture between a memoir and recipes, it felt like a conversation with a family member. This felt so incredibly intimate and I felt so lucky to be able to read it. Our food history is so intertwined with our human stories. Food is not just sustenance and we see this in here. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time. I can’t wait to get a copy of this when it comes out.

Good recipes are most fun if they are shared, and even better if they are heirloom recipes from families. Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks . Crystal Wilkinson (who is a cook and an award winning poet), not only shares recipes from generations of her family who settled in Appalachia, but tells wonderful stories of the ancestors who prepared them. The stories are well-written, historical, and fascinating. Wilkinson has a gift and brings out the personalities of those who developed the recipes, making it seem like we are making recipes from beloved friends and relatives. According to Wilkinson, she feels her ancestors’ presence when she is making the recipes; readers should be so lucky.

The recipes represent southern cooking at the highest (and most delicious) level. The recipes are written in the traditional manner with the ingredients listed, followed by step-by-step instructions. This makes it easy for both beginning and advanced cooks to enjoy preparing and presenting the recipes to those they love to feed.

One of the best parts of this book is that there are beautiful photographs, not only of the people in the stories, but also of the mouthwatering recipes.

This is a book that most readers will want to curl up in a corner and read cover to cover. It is historical, and includes recipes that most of us will want to make. Readers will also fall in love with Wilkinson’s family and wish they were a part of it. Five well-earned stars!

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

My mother was the very model of a modern mid-century housewife, cooking for her family using the latest in convenience foods: condensed soups, processed cheese, and boxes of dry casserole helpers. But Thanksgiving and Christmas were two occasions when she went traditional with roasted turkey, real mashed potatoes, the works. When I turned the page and saw Crystal Wilkinson’s recipe for Vegetable Soup with Hamburger, it took me right back to our home on Sussex Drive, my mother standing in front of the stove, “veggie-burger soup” on the stove and cornbread in the oven. It was our Christmas Eve meal. I thought, as a white suburbanite, I would be reading Wilkinson’s words in the abstract, but it turns out I have my own kitchen ghosts.

Crystal Wilkinson is a former Kentucky poet laureate and O Henry award winner and her writing is beautiful and evocative. She starts a few generations in the past, sharing stories of family gatherings, church meetings, survival (while enslaved and during the depression), gardening, and other traditions that led to family recipes. I loved looking at the beautiful photos as much as I enjoyed the poetic writing. I may not make any of the recipes but that’s not the point. Reading this beautiful book, we learn a great deal about a black Appalachian culture that might otherwise be forgotten.

Many thanks to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

Let's start with the title on this book. Was there ever a more well-crafted, evocative title? I certainly don't think so. It's what drew me in. Going deeper into the meaning of it, and the framework of the book, you get a combo cookbook, combo memoir, combo history/sociological lesson; and it's really just a well-done mix of topics. I also appreciated the photography and family memories shared as well.

The author, Wilkinson, uses family history, whether through oral storytelling, written down recipes, or others, to tell of the cooks that came before her. Her family crafted foodways in Appalachia and kept traditions strong, caring for their families and trying to show that love with food. I know the first thing you think of when you think Appalachia is not black families, and that is why this book so deeply resonates (and is touched upon by the author as well). The area is rich in history, but it's not just the mountain men you see in popular media. Families eked out a living and learned to use the availability of goods around them.

I can't say I've made any recipes from this book yet, which I normally try to do before writing a review, but that's no fault of the authors. I just haven't had the time/energy. But there are plenty in here that I would like to try. And honestly, just reading about them was enough. I was hit with memories when I came across the popcorn balls recipe. It brought me back to my grandfather, preparing tons of them for a fundraiser for his social club every year, storing them in trash bags in an unused staircase in the house, the air smelling like candy. I recently just hit the anniversary of his death and this first year has been tough; he's one of my kitchen ghosts and the author's messages resonated with me as a result.

We all have our ghosts, but a kitchen ghost is not a bad thing to have.

Review by M. Reynard 2023