Cookbook Club

Cookbook Review: Still We Rise

By: Erin Byers Murray
COVER Still We Rise

As much as I love a good biscuit, I’ve never been much of a biscuit-maker—I usually leave it to the professionals. It might be because my mom wasn’t a biscuit baker—she, too, left it to the professionals, preferring one filled with sausage and cheese from a certain orange-hued Southern fast-food chain when we were on road trips. My mother-in-law, Becky, whom I adore, inherited her mother’s flour sifting cabinet, which sits in her kitchen—it earned its nicks and pockmarks thanks to many years of handmade biscuits and pies. Early in our marriage, Becky often greeted us with biscuits when we would visit but quickly admitted to me that though she loved her own mother’s biscuits, the ones she served us were usually straight from the freezer.

I’m not sure that being born into (or marrying) a biscuit-making family is a requirement for making expert biscuits at home. But as I learned from reading Erika Council’s new cookbook Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes (Clarkson Potter, 2023), it certainly prepares one well for it. I was drawn to Council’s manifesto on biscuits because when it comes to these Southern staples, I still have a lot to learn—specifically how to make a consistently good biscuit from scratch—and she’s the right teacher. Council comes from honest-to-goodness biscuit royalty as the granddaughter of Mildred Edna Cotton Council, who founded Mama Dip’s Kitchen in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1976, which her daughters and granddaughters still run today.

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Date Published: 10.07.23
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About The Author

Erin Byers Murray

Erin Byers Murray has been digging into stories about food and wine for more than twenty years. Based in Nashville, she is the editor-in-chief of The Local Palate and has authored or co-authored half a dozen books, including deep dives into oysters and grits, as well as several cookbooks. Her work has been published in multiple publications, including Food & Wine, Wine & Spirits, the Boston Globe, and three editions of Best Food Writing.

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