The larder : food studies methods from the American South / edited by John T. Edge, Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt, Ted Ownby.

"The sixteen essays in The Larder argue that the study of food does not simply help us understand more about what we eat and the foodways we embrace. The methods and strategies herein help scholars use food and foodways as lenses to examine human experience. The resulting conversations provoke a deeper understanding of our overlapping, historically situated, and evolving cultures and societies. The Larder presents some of the most influential scholars in the discipline today, from established authorities such as Psyche Williams-Forson to emerging thinkers such as Rien T. Fertel, writing on subjects as varied as hunting, farming, and marketing, as well as examining restaurants, iconic dishes, and cookbooks. Editors John T. Edge, Elizabeth Engelhardt, and Ted Ownby bring together essays that demonstrate that food studies scholarship, as practiced in the American South, sets methodological standards for the discipline. The essayists ask questions about gender, race, and ethnicity as they explore issues of identity and authenticity. And they offer new ways to think about material culture, technology, and the business of food. The Larder is not driven by nostalgia. Reading such a collection of essays may not encourage food metaphors. "It's not a feast, not a gumbo, certainly not a home-cooked meal," Ted Ownby argues in his closing essay. Instead, it's a healthy step in the right direction, taken by the leading scholars in the field"-- Provided by publisher.

"This edited collection presents articles in southern food studies by a range of writers, from established scholars like Psyche Williams-Forson to emerging scholars like Rien Fertel. All are chosen for a combination of accessible writing and solid scholarship and offer stories and historical details that add to our understanding of the complexities of southern food and foodways. The editors have chosen to organize the collection by methodology in part in order to escape what reader Belasco calls "the tradition-inventing, nostalgic approach of so many books about regional foodways." They also aim to advance the field by presenting articles that represent a range of tools and methodologies from disciplines such as history, geography, social sciences, American studies, gender studies, literary theory, visual and aural studies, cultural studies and technology studies that make up the amazingly multifaceted world of academic food studies, in hopes that this structure can help further a conversation about best practices"-- Provided by publisher.

Athens : University of Georgia Press, [2013]

388 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

First edition.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cookbooks and ingredients. "Everybody seemed willing to help" : The Picayune Creole cook book as battleground, 1900-2008 / Rien T. Fertel -- The women of St. Paul's Episcopal Church were worried : transforming domestic skills into saleable commodities in Texas / Rebecca Sharpless -- Prospecting for oil / David S. Shields -- Bodies of the dead : the wild in southern foodways / Wiley C. Prewitt Jr. -- People and communities. The soul of the South : race, food, and identity in the American South / Beth A. Latshaw -- Italian New Orleans and the business of food in the immigrant city : there's more to the muffeletta than meets the eye / Justin A. Nystrom -- Mother corn and the Dixie pig : native food in the native South / Rayna Green -- A salad bowl city : the food geography of Charlotte, North Carolina / Tom Hanchett -- Spaces and technologies. Eating technology at Krispy Kreme / Carolyn de la Peña -- "America's place for inclusion" : stories of food, labor, and equality at the Waffle House / Katie Rawson -- "The customer is always white" : food, race, and contested eating space in the South / Angela Jill Cooley -- Material cultures. The "stuff" of southern food : food and material culture in the American South / Marcie Cohen Ferris -- The dance of culinary patriotism : material culture and the performance of race with southern food / Psyche Williams-Forson -- "I'm talkin' 'bout the food I sells" : African American street vendors and the sound of food from noise to nostalgia / Jessica B. Harris -- On authenticity. Edgeland terroir : authenticity and invention in new southern foodways strategy / Andrew Warnes -- Conclusion : go forth with method / Ted Ownby.