Church and community cookbooks are a great southern tradition. The venerable collections of recipes gathered and shared grow into treasured possessions handed down through families, the go-to for instructions on how to make favorite dishes for every occasion.
Author and food historian Kat Robinson has collected hundreds of Arkansas cookbooks from all over the state and across the decades in an effort to preserve beloved family dishes representing what we once ate in The Natural State. This collection of delicacies has been gathered, curated and redacted from these culinary keepsakes.
Each of the recipes within this volume was recreated and photographed at the magnificent Culinary Suite at The Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs.
From three bean salad to squash fritters, Tallerine to green rice, sweet potato casserole to Coca-Cola cake, you'll find 100 mid-century delights within in full-color splendor.
Author Biography:
Kat Robinson is Arkansas's food historian and most enthusiastic road warrior. The Little Rock-based author is the host of the Emmy-nominated documentary Make Room For Pie; A Delicious Slice of The Natural State and the Arkansas PBS show Home Cooking with Kat and Friends, as well as the filmmaker of the 2021 documentary Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats and Cool Treats. She is a member of the ArkansasFood Hall of Fame committee, a co-chair of the Arkansas PieFestival, and the Arkansas fellow to the National Food and Beverage Museum.She has written eleven books on food, most notably Arkansas Food: The A to Z of Eating in The Natural State, an alphabetic guide to the dishes, delights and food traditions that define her home state. Two of her more recent travel guides, 101 Things to Eat in Arkansas Before You Die and 102 More Things to Eat in Arkansas Before You Die define the state's most iconic and trusted eateries. Robinson's Another Slice of Arkansas Pie: A Guide to the Best Restaurants, Bakeries, Truck Stops and Food Trucks for Delectable Bites in The Natural State outlines more than 400 places to find the dessert, an extraordinary accomplishment that took thousands of miles, hundreds of hours and so many bites to properly document and catalogue.In this book, Arkansas Cookery: Retro Recipes from The Natural State. Robinson examines mid-century cookbooks from all over Arkansas. Her collection of more than 400 20th Century cookbooks and research into shared recipes, cooking methods and flavors of the era has been brought together for this lovingly photographed collection of foods previous generations brought to the table. The recipes are all redacted and were prepared on location at The Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, The nostalgic Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats and Cool Treats, the companion book for the film of the same name, is her other 2021 work.Robinson shares her personal life experiences in A Bite of Arkansas: A Cookbook of Natural State Delights, her 2020 culinary memoir, which offers 140 recipes made by and photographed herself. She also edited and contributed to the collection 43 Tables: An Internet Community Cooks During Quarantine.Kat Robinson's work has appeared in regional and national publications including Food Network, Forbes Travel Guide, Serious Eats, and AAA Magazines, among others. Her expertise in food research and Arkansas restaurants has been cited by Saveur, Eater, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Outline, and the Southern Foodways Alliance's Gravy podcast, for her skills and talents related to food research and documentation.Her efforts have been celebrated in articles by Arkansas Good Roads, Arkansas Business, 501 Life Magazine, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She has served as the keynote speaker for the South Arkansas Literary Festival and the Arkansas Library Association Conference and has spoken at the Six Bridges Literary Festival, Eureka Springs Books in Bloom and the Fayetteville True Lit Festival.While she writes on food and travel subjects throughout the United States, she is best known for her ever-expanding knowledge of Arkansas food history and restaurant culture, all of which she explores on her 1200+ article website, TieDyeTravels.com. Robinson's journeys across Arkansas have earned her the title road warrior, traveling pie lady, and probably some minor epithets. Few have spent as much time exploring The Natural State, or researching its cuisine. The Girl in the Hat has been sighted in every one of Arkansas's 75 counties, oftentimes sliding behind a menu or peeking into a kitchen.Kat lives with daughter Hunter and partner Grav Weldon in Little Rock.
