Back in 2021, while on a book tour in North Carolina, the baker, cookbook author, and fifth-generation Tennessean Anne Byrn found herself stumped by an audience member’s query: “What makes Southern baking so special?” A softball, at first blush, yet unable to formulate an answer, Byrn tried polling the audience: “It’s your mama’s cooking,” one person said; “it’s the biscuits”; “it’s the flour,” said another; “it’s the people.” But none of these responses, to Byrn, felt quite definitive.
Three years later, Byrn has her answer. It’s 485 pages, entitled Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories, and, yes, it feels definitive. For proof, thumb through to, say, Byrn’s cornbread chapter. There you’ll find twenty-two variations, from buttermilk corn muffins at Atlanta’s iconic Colonnade restaurant to Grand…
