Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue
Edited by Lolis Eric Elie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 296 pages. $17.95 paper.

Although there are other foods that cover the geographic expanse of the United States, none exemplify the themes of unity and diversity in the way that barbecue does. Whether it's beef or pork, chopped or pulled, served with or without sauce, barbecue stands unrivaled in its great regional variation.

Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue, edited by Lolis Eric Elie, is the second volume in a series on the best of Southern food writing collected by the Southern Foodways Alliance. It is the first book to take a serious look at barbecue from myriad viewpoints, and it is the most complete barbecue anthology ever assembled. Even the most devoted barbecue fans will find many new and surprising insights in this collection of 43 newspaper columns, magazine pieces, poems, and essays. Included are such diverse topics as the history of pigs in America, the Caribbean origins of barbecue, the role of black chefs in the history of Texas barbecue pits, and the best time of the month to make South Carolina barbecue hash.

In "Cheer Up Mama," Peter Kaminsky writes about his pilgrimage to Mitchell's Barbecue in Wilson, North Carolina, and reveals how the old-school, woodsmoke barbecue tradition was passed from one generation of pit masters to the next. Ripley Golovin Hathaway's "In Xanadu Did Barbecue" chronicles the 150-year evolution of today's national enthusiasm for barbecue--including the introduction of such familiar backyard mainstays as the charcoal briquette, the Japanese hibachi, and the Weber grill. In "We Didn't Know from Fatback," Marcie Cohen Ferris offers her perspective on the challenge of respecting Jewish dietary laws in Memphis--a city in which, historically, barbecue is synonymous with pork. And in "When Pigs Fly West," Lolis Eric Elie demonstrates that great barbecue knows no geographic boundaries in his celebration of two great barbecue restaurants in San Francisco's Bay Area: Memphis Minnie's and KC's Bar-B-Q.

In addition to pieces that celebrate barbecue's place in the pantheon of American food, Cornbread Nation 2 also includes a host of selections on other Southern culinary traditions and foodways. Pat Conroy explores the natural pairing of funerals and food in "Love, Death, and Macaroni." Calvin Trillin documents his yearning for Louisiana boudin in "Missing Links." Molly O'Neill charts the rise of the Mississippi-made Viking range to trophy stove status in "The Viking Invasion." And John Martin Taylor ponders the widespread (if less-than-universal) appeal of boiled peanuts in the South.

Lolis Eric Elie notes that, "like cornbread, barbecue is a food that unifies the vast expanse of the American South, an ever larger portion of the American mainstream," and offers Cornbread Nation 2 as "a State of the Culinary Union. A Snapshot. A reporting on how it is now." Featuring contributions from many leading lights--as well as emerging voices--of Southern foodways, Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue is a book to be read, studied, and, most of all, savored.

Henry Mencken
Henry Mencken, is a native of Maryland, writes about food and drink for a number of publications.