Righteous recipes: from Harlem to the Deep South, new cookbooks invite a fresh look at ethnic and regional cuisines.

The good folks of one of America's premiere churches have at last consented to share their collective culinary wisdom and storied food history in Food for the Soul: Recipes and Stories From the Congregation of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church. (One World/Ballantine Books, October 2005, $27.95, ISBN 0-345-47621-2).

Abyssinian, which will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2008, is one of the oldest black churches in the United States, and its culinary roots run deep and wide. Its members today represent many countries, and it attracts thousands of tourists from all over the globe. The 130 recipes from its members reflect this cosmopolitan heritage.

Traditional dishes such as smothered or flied chicken are here, but they are overshadowed by the updated and worldly tastes of contemporary urban America in recipes like Bahamian Seafood Cobbler, Escoveitched Fish, Sun-Dried Tomato and Black Olive Alfredo with Grilled Shrimp and Black Eyed Pea Fritters with Cherry Tomato Coulis. The emphasis is on healthy cooking, underscored in the Foreword by Carol Darden-Lloyd, coauthor of Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine (first published in 1978 by Doubleday) and the Introduction by the pastor, The Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts III.

"If we can take the scraps that were first given to us by the slave master and make those scraps taste so good that some church folk would fight the preacher before giving them up, we can certainly take foods that are truly good for us and make them taste even better," Butts writes.

Historical essays, personal recollections and photographs enrich the text.

More Cookbooks

Several other new books by authors of various cultures detail the rich, overlapping traditions of ethnic groups in the South.

Audubon Plantation Country Cookbook by Anne Butler Pelican Publishing Company, August 2004 $25, ISBN 1-589-80131-8

Butler, a white-crime novelist, writes about the fives and the cuisine of family, friends and neighbors near her ancestral plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Recipes are interlaced with vivid regional history and lore with generous notes on African Americans.

Beyond Grits and Gravy: The South's All-Time Favorite Recipes (Best of the Best Cookbook Series) by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley Quail Ridge Press, February 2004 $24.95, ISBN 1-893-06247-3

This one is all about the food--just 260 pages of tried-and-true recipes from beverages to desserts culled from popular regional cookbooks by two Southern cookbook editors. McKee is also the author of The Little

Gumbo Book (Quail Ridge Press, September 1986 [10th Printing, 2003]). It covers basics and infinite ways to vary the signature Cajun dish claimed by all Louisianians.

Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South by Marcie Cohen Ferris The University of North Carolina Press October 2005, $34.95, ISBN 0-807-82978-1

A Jewish native of Arkansas and anthropological historian examines the compromises, adaptations and challenges of a people adrift in a land where such forbidden foods as pork and shellfish were staples and familiar foods scarce. Ferris credits black women who shared their knowledge and learned to keep kosher as they cooked for or alongside Jewish homemakers.

History and Commentary Cornbread Nation 3: Foods of the Mountain South Edited by Ronni Lundy The University of North Carolina Press October 2005, $17.95, ISBN 0-807-85656-8

As the third UNC collection on the best of Southern food writing, this volume springs from the Appalachians, the Ozarks and "the hillbilly diaspora" with writers as diverse as its natives from poet Nikki Giovanni to newsman Rick Bragg.

Other Noteworthy Cookbooks

Mama Dip's Family Cookbook by Mildred Council The University of North Carolina Press October 2005 $24.95 (hardback), ISBN 0-807-82989-7 $15.95 (paper), ISBN 0-807-85655-X

Supper at Richard's Place: Recipes From the New Southern Table by Richard Jones Pelican Publishing Company, June 2005 $21, ISBN 1-589-80299-3

Angela P. Dodson, BIBR's executive editor, is a cookbook collector and a former food editor. She cooks when she is not reading or editing.