"Sylvia's Soul Food" By Slyvia Woods and Christopher Styler, A Wonderful Soul Food Cookbook

In one of my frequent trips to what I call "junk stores", I found a wonderful little soul food cookbook called "Sylvia's Soul Food: Recipes From Harlem's World Famous Restaurant" by Sylvia Woods and Christoper Styler. Sylvia Woods either is or was the owner of a soul food restaurant in Harlem which has now morphed into a soul food empire according to their website. I have found what appear to be puffed descriptions of Mr. Styler which describe him as being a chef, writer, etc. but I suspect he wasn't much more than a ghost writer in this effort. The edition of the book which I found was a hardback printed by the William Morrow Company in 1992. The copies I find on the interet are very different from the plain red cover I found in a Goodwill store for $1.59. They all appear to be paperback with a gaudy photo montage on the cover. When I found the book, I scanned it and realized it has some very interesting recipes which are rarely found in cookbooks published anywhere. I have eaten and loved other people's versions of some of the recipes, never had a few others, and would love to try nearly all of them. This book is a little joy to behold and can be found fairly cheaply on most used book websites. However, if you order it from the used websites, be sure to know in advance if you are getting the hardback or the paperback versions. There is also a second cookbook from the restaurant which I have never seen. I'm surprised I never ran into it anywhere before, at least on the internet. The pork section of the book is a joy to behold especially if you grew up in the south or Appalachia. It contains a recipe for Backbone In Gravy and I have to admit I have never seen a backbone recipe in any cookbook anywhere, not even in one from some little southern church. I grew up on backbones and love them still today. But I have to admit that I almost totally eliminated pork from my diet about seven years ago when I realized that I had a totally blocked carotid artery and was facing a potentially life threatening surgery. As part of an effort to live as long as possible, I changed my diet drastically and took up daily exercise. But I can still exercise fond memories of grease and colagen up to my elbows and back to my ears on occasions. The cookbook also contains a recipe for Pigs' Tails. I have eaten a lot of pig tails in my time and love nothing in the world better than a large restaurant sized pot full of pig ears, tails, and feet cooked along with potatoes,carrots, and an onion or two. I also love that same large pot filled with organ meats at hog killing time. But I stopped that when it came to a choice of such foods or a coffin. But I did dearly love pork livers, kidneys, hearts, lungs or "lights", and spleens or "melts" as we called them when I was a boy. It is fun to find a cookbook and a big city restaurant which is proud of its pig tails, chitlins, and backbones. In this cookbook, there is even a recipe for Fried Chitlins. I have never seen a printed recipe for chitlins in my life. I also have to admit that I have never tried chitlins even though I spent years believing that "no hog should ever have to die in vain" and that we should "eat everything except the squeal". That recipe calls for the chitlins to be "thoroughly cooked to make them tender before they are quickly fried". I will say that in the right cook's hands I would try chitlins. But I have never been in a home where they were being cooked. A variant of the Fried Chitlin recipe is Chitlins and Maw which calls for 2 pounds of pork maw and 5 pounds of precooked chitlins.This is a boiled recipe and I can assure you that with 7 pounds of the two meats in the pot along with several vegetables it won't matter if an extra mouth or two shows up at the supper table. For those of you who don't know the term "maw" it is pork stomach or tripe. I have had tripe on a few occasions in a Vietnamese restaurant I love to visit and I like tripe a lot. In restaurants and butcher shops, tripe may have come from either cattle or hogs. The great recipes just go on and on in this book. The Beef section has Oxtails In Gravy and Grilled Beef Liver. All through my life I have eaten liver from beef, pork, and chicken; and, about two weeks ago I had chicken gizzards which can still be found on the menu of a local Lee's Famous Recipe. I have considered several times to buy an ox tail and cook it at home but never carried through with the idea In the Poultry section, there are recipes for Chicken And Dumplings, Turkey Wings And Gravy, and Roast Turkey. The book has a separate section devoted to Barbecue which has a great looking recipe for Barbecued Pigs Feet. I have eaten pig feet my whole life but never had the barbecued. This one is worth trying! The truncated Fish And Game section of the book is a disappointment after the great preceding sections on Beef and Pork. It only has six recipes but one of them is for Rabbit Flavored And Fried ang another for Hash Venison. But I must ask where are the recipes for alligator, muskrat, ground hog, elk, squirrels, bear, raccoon, and other wild game which many southern cooks are still cooking and eating regularly. The section labled Beans, Potatoes, Rice, And Salads has a recipe for Red Beans And Rice which uses a smoked ham hock instead of the andouille sausage which nearly all other such recipes for this dish use. It might be interesting done with the ham hock. It also contains another chitlin recipe called Rice And Chitlins Perlew which is worth investigating. This section also has recipes for pinto beans, butter beans, and lima beans. Nearly all of them use smoked ham hocks for flavoring. There is a separate section labled Vegetables And Greens which has the obligatory recipes for okra and collard greens. But it also has an interesting recipe for Collard Greens And Corn Meal Dumplings. I have never seen corn meal dumplings in my life and I'd love to try this recipe, or to try corn meal dumplings in the customary way that regular flour dumplings are usually made...like the BIG FLUFFY DUMPLINGS which my mother used to make. Yes, I know that it would be very hard to get fluffy corn meal dumplings since the nature of corn meal doesn't lend itself to fluff. The idea of corn meal dumplings is very intersting to me since one of my favorite occasional breakfasts is corn meal hoe cakes. A favorite supper for me is also fried cornbread and gravy which is made by slicing left over cornbread, frying it in bacon grease, removing the cornbread temporarily from the skillet before making the gravy, and then bathing the cornbread in the gravy. All in all, this book was one of best deals I have ever made for $1.59. If you like soul food, southern food, pork and beef innards and other southern, African American, or Appalachian foods, this is a great book to own.