The Potlikker Papers
John T. Edge tells the last half century of Southern history through what people cooked and ate. He starts with the cooks who fed the Civil Rights movement, moves through the rise of celebrity chefs and soul food, and ends with the immigrant cooks who are remaking Southern food today. Along the way he shows how race, money, and power run straight through the region's kitchens, and how a food once dismissed as backward became a shared American language. It is reporting and history told with appetite. Questlove named it among his favorite books.
What you might want to know about The Potlikker Papers
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A food history of the modern South, following cooks and meals from the Civil Rights era to today's immigrant kitchens.
Potlikker is the broth left over from cooking greens, a humble Southern staple. John T. Edge uses it as a symbol for the overlooked, often Black and poor, roots of Southern food culture.
The Potlikker Papers was written by John T. Edge, published in 2017 by Penguin Press.
The Potlikker Papers is 368 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Potlikker Papers takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Potlikker Papers is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
