Try to find a used copy of the Prudhomme Family Cookbook, which I think is out of print. I have used it for years for fried chicken, marinated pork, cornbread, blackeyed peas, rice and gravy, chicken sauce piquante, roasts, etc. Don't let the BS about blackened this, blackened that throw you off. Nobody cooks that way in their homes. You need a commercial kitchen or some kind of heroic ventilation system to cook blackened stuff. No, these are everyday recipes from his brothers and sisters. Very detailed steps.
I like the Donald Link book mentioned above but it's a bit impractical if you are not in Louisiana. He says things like "Get a sack of oysters," "start with a bushel of live crabs," etc. I don't have access to that kind of stuff that way. But his recipe for chicken and dumplings is worth the price of the book itself, and very practical!
Talk about Good is a sentimental favorite since my mother even used it, but kind of amateurish by comparison. Directions like "Cook until done." That does not do me much good. Still, I can never seem to go to a family outing anymore without them asking me to bring the crab dip I make from a recipe in Talk about Good II!
Funny you mention the Prudhomme Family Cookbook. At work today I was digging in another fire stations cook book cabinet and found that one, and "borrowed" it, they did't deserve it anyway. It's definitely the country food I grew up with.
I also have a series of cook books I love that goes back quite a ways, kind of a novelty, I think the author was Mercedes Vidrine from Eunice, the first was Quelche Chose Bon, then a few others, Quelch Chose Doux, Quelche Chose Pimente, and one about seafood. You could tell those old cooks were being pinned down to amounts and weren't used to thinking in terms of measurements.
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
