Click To View Larger Image

• by:
• Editors of Cook's Country Magazine,

Building on the hugely successful Lost Recipes Contest of 2007 and the book it inspired, America's Best Lost Recipes, Cook's Country magazine asked home cooks to again participate in a project to preserve our country's culinary heritage. This time, readers from around the country were asked to send in recipes for their favorite family suppers.

Remember when a full-flavored, from-scratch dinner would bring everyone to the table? Whether the family gathered around a classic, rosy-pink roast beef with gravy, an old-fashioned tamale pie steamed in a Dutch oven, or a creative noodle casserole called Preacher's Delight with ground beef, tomatoes, and cream cheese, nothing could beat the flavor or comfort that came from a homemade meal. In an effort to preserve these old-fashioned meals, Cook's Country magazine asked its readers to submit their favorite dinnertime recipes and the stories behind them. Recipes were pulled from mothers', grandmothers', and great grandmothers' recipe boxes, and from a thousand submissions, our test kitchen tested and perfected the best to present here, in Cook's Country Best Lost Suppers.

For some readers, old-fashioned family dinners meant comfort foods like Pan-Fried Chicken with Milk Gravy or Creamy Chicken Pan Pie. For others it's their family's twist on an old classic, like a mahogany-hued, meltingly tender pot roast braised in coffee. Then there are the dishes of economy, quick-and-easy but still plenty big on flavor, like Chicken a la King, Clam Pie, and Creamy Chicken and Waffles.

Many dishes found in this book are quintessential, slow-cooked Sunday suppers that folks just don't make that often today, meals made maybe while the yard work was being done or the house was being cleaned, while others are creative family recipes you won't find anywhere else that pull together in a snap--Meat-za Pie, International Dateline Chicken, Cornbread Meatloaf. And there are numerous dishes that speak to our country's heritage, recipes with a story worth remembering, from regional favorites like Pennsylvania Dutch Slippery Chicken Bott Bie (a pot pie stew with handmade noodles) and the Midwestern favorite Cheese Frenchees (a deep-fried, crunchy-coated grilled cheese) to old-world classics brought through Ellis Island, like a creamy, rich beef goulash and classic Italian lasagna with handmade spinach noodles. Cook's Country Best Lost Suppers is a collection so appealing that it's sure to encourage families to once again enjoy dinnertime together.