Graham cookbook offers
down-home culinary delights

When the call went out from former state agriculture commissioner James A. Graham for contributions of cookbook recipes, they came pouring in from family recipe boxes all across North Carolina. So you might say Jim Graham’s Farm Family Cookbook for City Folks: A Taste of North Carolina’s Heritage definitely has an authentic family flavor to it.

Published by the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation Inc., the new cookbook features more than 500 recipes gathered by the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and the N.C. Farm Bureau. Proceeds from the book’s sales go to the James A. Graham Scholars Endowment at N.C. State University, the Farm Bureau Foundations and the N.C. Extension and Community Association in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

But what really makes this cookbook special — and, like Jim Graham, a true North Carolina original — are the personal touches that come with each recipe.

Like mementoes in scrapbooks, a familial sweetness is found in these recipes that come with notes about the persons who created them and handed them down. No matter what recipe you choose from the cookbook, you can be sure it’s the genuine article, a meal plan lovingly created and preserved for posterity.

“This was my mother’s recipe and is great to cook on a cold, rainy day,” says Wake County’s Evelyn Stevens of her “Mom’s Brunswick Stew” recipe.

“A dear family friend, now deceased, shared this recipe with my mom. For large family gatherings, it is great and always receives rave reviews,” writes LaRue P. Cunningham, Forsyth County, about her “Tasty Chicken Casserole.”

Jessica Tice shares her mother-in-law’s Currituck County recipes for shrimp Creole and crab casserole and her grandmother’s recipe for mayonnaise cake and minute frosting. Meanwhile the recipe for “Healthy Pumpkin Bran Muffins,” sent by Jessica’s son Brandon Tice, came with this reminiscence:

“This recipe is special because I was the North Carolina State winner of the 1992 Martha White Muffin Mania Recipe Contest when I was a 4-H’er in the Currituck 4-H program. You won’t believe how many muffins my family ate till I got the recipe right, but it was worth it! We had a great time playing with the Super Nintendo that I won. Participating in the Currituck County 4-H program gave me many opportunities to learn about foods and nutrition, and how to prepare food.”

Six colorful dividers separate appetizers, soups and salads, breads, fruits and vegetables, entrees and desserts — recipes that are celebrations of North Carolina’s culinary heritage. From Ashe County comes “Wonderful Fudge.” From Gaston County comes “Dried Apple Cake.”

And from Rowan County by way of Raleigh comes a recipe with the note, “My mama always served this with pickles or slaw.”

That one is from the former commissioner himself — a recipe called “Jim Graham’s Tar Heel Brunswick Stew.”

—Terri Leith