Rating: 
Summary: The Carolina kitchen
Review: "Mama Dip's Kitchen" by Mildred Council is a great cookbook of traditional Carolina recipes -- recipes for the sort of dishes made by "dump" cooking, i.e., you "dump" the ingredients into the pot without precise measuring, but by an process of improvisation guided by experience. Of course, there are measurements provided, but Ms. Council makes clear that adapting the recipes to your liking is part of the learning process. There are more than 250 recipes for things like chicken pie, pork chops, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, poundcake, and banana pudding, arranged into chapters on breads and breakfast dishes; poultry, fish, and seafood; beef, pork, and lamb; vegetables and salads; and desserts, beverages, and party dishes. An additional plus to this cookbook is the introduction by the author which is a mini-biography of her life with food, starting with learning to cook for her family on the farm, then working as "domestic help" in a white family's kitchen (and inventing a dish on the spot), and finally opening and operating a restaurant that has become an institution. Get this book for anyone who likes traditional southern cooking.
Rating:
Summary: YUM-YUMMM
Review: I have made alot of dishes from this cookbook. So many of the dishes are easy to make. I have gotten a few of these cookbooks to give to friends after they had something that I have made from it. I love Mama Dip's, her pecan pie is off the hook {that means good}!!!!
Rating:
Summary: i loved this book
Review: Mama Dip is a remarkable lady and her cookbook makes you feel as though you are right in North Carolina sitting at her table. The recipies are wonderful. Not all soul food or Southern cooking is the same. Different regions do things in entirely different ways and I enjoyed trying her variations on dishes I'm was familiar with as well as totlally new things.
Rating:
Summary: A taste of my child hood.
Review: My mother was a "dump" cook and when she died her receipes died with her. Thanks to Moma Dip, I have been able to relive my childhood. Her dishes are a taste of the South. I made the Banana Pudding today, and it was so good. Her receipes are not complicated and uses ingredients we all have in our pantry. This is down home comfort food. If you enjoy Southern cooking, then you will enjoy this cookbook.
Rating: 
Summary: Ketchup & margarine? Come on Mama
Review: Nobody wants to dis' an elder, least of all me but come on Mama Dip, whaz up with all that ketchup and margarine? A whole bottle of ketchup in one recipe a 1/2 bottle of ketchup in another and always margarine, margarine, margarine. Those two ingredients are not great for us--ketchup is loaded with sugar and most margarines have trans fatty oils, not good for the veins. I bought the book because I love to learn about black food history but also because I wanted to use the recipes. I feel let down on the recipe part but blessed that she shares her inspirational personal stories.
Rating:
Summary: Mama Dip's Kitchen
Review: So often, cookbooks have ingredients that are difficult to find, or recipes that just don't fit into your everyday schedules and tastes...NOT this one. This is one of the best cookbooks that I've ever found. It has good, common-sense cooking in it....and delicious recipes....lots of comfort food, too. It would be a wonderful addition to any kitchen, and will be a book that you reach for time and time again.
Rating:
Summary: Great Starter Recipes
Review: The recipes found in this book are a great place to start if you're trying to impress your new in-laws, or family. You will have to add seasonings here and there to put your family's mark on the dishes, but her measurements are accurate, and her instructions are precise. Rather than intimidate the novice cook, she offers some dishes that don't necessarily have to be made from scratch; a blessed opportunity to cheat a little when you're running low on time.
I highly recommend the recipes for Sunday Cornbread, and biscuits. They come out perfect every time!
Rating:
Summary: Mama Dip's Kitchen
Review: This book starts out with a delightful autobiographical story of Mildred Council and her life of cooking for her large family, and later opening a restaurant. She talks about using local, seasonal ingredients. Unlike most foodies, this knowledge was necessary for survival of her poor sharecropper family. I found this short story worth the price of the book alone.A transplanted Midwesterner in California, I bough this book to expand my cooking skills to include southern cooking / soul food. The recipes are all pretty simple, suspiciously simple suggesting a few trade secrets have been left out. Ms. Council admits as much, encouraging the reader to experiment and play around with her recipes. That's nice, and I respect Mama Dip's need to hold family/trade secrets, but I would have preferred more insight into how to experiment, to guide the reader. (A good example is Paul Kirk's Championship BBQ Sauces, where the secrets are not revealed, but plenty of insight is given for the reader to develop their own secret sauce.) Thankfully, there are cooking tips here and there, often given out in a folksy manner. Certainly one of the best things about this book is that with so many simple recipes, everyone will benefit from it. Some of the recipes were surprisingly good in their simplicity. The Creole Shrimp, Fried Okra, and Fried Catfish turned out great. (Per Mama Dip's encouragement, I added a couple of my own ingredients to the mix.) The Baked Beans had a muddy taste, without much character to it. A couple others turned out a little bland. I have some philosophical differences with Mama Dip's Pecan Pie recipe. For the record, I think it needs brown sugar and perhaps some other ingredients for a richer, deeper flavor. Using light Karo syrup, butter, sugar, eggs, and pecans, and nothing else, I think Mama Dip's pecan pie tastes too light. (Of course, nobody is asking me to make my Pecan Pie on the Today Show as Ms Dip has, but that's what I think.) The fact that this book has resonated so well with Southern reviewers certainly means a lot, but I can't give a book five stars that seems to give out a number of incomplete recipes, and gives the reader little insight on how to round them out. And not everything turned out great. But don't get me wrong, I loved reading this book, and it's been a good tool to expand my cooking skills to include Southern Cooking/Soul Food.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Base for Southern Soul Cooking
Review: This book starts out with a delightful autobiographical story of Mildred Council and her life of cooking for her large family, and later opening a restaurant. She talks about using local, seasonal ingredients. Unlike most foodies, this knowledge was necessary for survival of her poor sharecropper family. I found this short story worth the price of the book alone. A transplanted Midwesterner in California, I bough this book to expand my cooking skills to include southern cooking / soul food. The recipes are all pretty simple, suspiciously simple suggesting a few trade secrets have been left out. Ms. Council admits as much, encouraging the reader to experiment and play around with her recipes. That's nice, and I respect Mama Dip's need to hold family/trade secrets, but I would have preferred more insight into how to experiment, to guide the reader. (A good example is Paul Kirk's Championship BBQ Sauces, where the secrets are not revealed, but plenty of insight is given for the reader to develop their own secret sauce.) Thankfully, there are cooking tips here and there, often given out in a folksy manner. Certainly one of the best things about this book is that with so many simple recipes, everyone will benefit from it. Some of the recipes were surprisingly good in their simplicity. The Creole Shrimp, Fried Okra, and Fried Catfish turned out great. (Per Mama Dip's encouragement, I added a couple of my own ingredients to the mix.) The Baked Beans had a muddy taste, without much character to it. A couple others turned out a little bland. I have some philosophical differences with Mama Dip's Pecan Pie recipe. For the record, I think it needs brown sugar and perhaps some other ingredients for a richer, deeper flavor. Using light Karo syrup, butter, sugar, eggs, and pecans, and nothing else, I think Mama Dip's pecan pie tastes too light. (Of course, nobody is asking me to make my Pecan Pie on the Today Show as Ms Dip has, but that's what I think.) The fact that this book has resonated so well with Southern reviewers certainly means a lot, but I can't give a book five stars that seems to give out a number of incomplete recipes, and gives the reader little insight on how to round them out. And not everything turned out great. But don't get me wrong, I loved reading this book, and it's been a good tool to expand my cooking skills to include Southern Cooking/Soul Food.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, wonderful story......
Review: This unique book is actually two books in one - a cookbook of easy, delicious recipes for everyday fare; and the inspiring story of Mama Dip's life. I loved both!!
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