Grandma's Forgotten Southern Recipes

How a family recipe vanishes

It usually happens in one sentence.

“She never measured anything.”

Maybe it lived on a stained card. Maybe it was a handful of this and a little of that. Maybe everyone assumed there would be time to ask later. Then one day, the person is gone—and the dish goes quiet too.

This book was made for that ache. June translates the old cues—how the dough should feel, when the gravy has cooked long enough, what “done” actually looks like—into instructions a modern cook can follow without taking the memory out of the food.

Open June's recipe box

Find the dish they still ask about.

Browse all eight sections, from breakfast biscuits and Sunday chicken to garden sides, pantry jars and desserts.

Part 1 · 15 recipes

Biscuits, Gravy & the Old Southern Breakfast Table

Morning food with a job to do: hot, filling, dependable, and worth getting out of bed for.

Grandma's Southern Buttermilk Biscuits
Sausage Sawmill Gravy
Country Ham with Red-Eye Gravy
No-Sugar Cast-Iron Cornbread

…and 11 more in this section

Fresh Southern buttermilk biscuits on a kitchen table

From kitchens across the country

“The biscuits rose two inches and split right open.”

★★★★★

4.97 out of 5 average rating Based on 340+ Southern cooks & family tables

Evelyn Richardson Nashville, TN · ✓ Verified Cook

★★★★★

Cooked: Grandma's Southern Buttermilk Biscuits (p. 15)

Evelyn's tall buttermilk biscuits baked in cast iron

Evelyn's Sunday batch

“My grandmother passed in 2004 without leaving a single measurement for her biscuits. Every batch I tried over the years turned into flat hockey pucks. June’s advice about keeping the fat ice-cold and not twisting the cutter made all the difference. The first batch rose two inches tall and split right down the middle with butter. My brother took one bite and went quiet. Worth ten times what June is asking.”

Marcus & Tanya Washington Atlanta, GA · ✓ Verified Cook

★★★★★

Cooked: Sunday Buttermilk Fried Chicken (p. 31)

Marcus's crispy golden brown fried chicken

Sunday dinner chicken plate

“Too many internet chefs try to get cute with fried chicken using weird seasoning powders. June respects the craft: an honest overnight buttermilk soak, seasoned paper bag dredge, and the wooden spoon test for oil temperature. Crust stayed shatter-crisp even as leftovers the next morning. Our church friends asked for the recipe before they left the table.”

Clara & Jim Holloway Asheville, NC · ✓ Verified Cook

★★★★★

Cooked: Slow-Simmered Soup Beans & Skillet Cornbread (p. 63)

Clara's soup beans with potlikker and raw onion

Mountain soup beans & cornbread

“I bought this for my husband Jim whose mother grew up in Harlan County. When he walked into the house and smelled the ham hock and potlikker bubbling on a rainy Tuesday, his face lit up like a kid at Christmas. June gets Appalachian cooking right—no sugar in the cornbread, screaming hot skillet, and sliced sweet onion on the rim. Pure home.”

Dorothy Jean Miller Charleston, SC · ✓ Verified Cook

★★★★★

Cooked: Old-Fashioned Banana Pudding (p. 111)

Dorothy's homemade banana pudding with toasted meringue

Made for church choir fellowship

“Not a single instant box or artificial tub in sight. June teaches the real stovetop egg custard the way my mama made it in the 1960s. The meringue browned to a golden crown and the wafers softened into cake overnight in the icebox. Took the whole 9x13 dish to choir practice and didn't bring home a single bite.”

Harold Pendelton Richmond, VA · ✓ Verified Cook

★★★★★

Cooked: Sausage Sawmill Gravy & Kitchen Guide (p. 18 & 125)

“The gravy ratio section in June's Kitchen Guide is worth the price of admission by itself. For thirty years my sausage gravy either came out paste-thick or separated into grease. June’s advice to brown the flour slowly into the sausage fat before adding warm milk cured that forever. Made it for my grandkids on Saturday morning and they asked for thirds.”

Sarah Jenkins Birmingham, AL · ✓ Verified Cook

★★★★★

Cooked: Cast-Iron Smothered Pork Chops (p. 44)

“What I treasure most is how clearly June writes. I propped my iPad up next to the flour crock, followed her warning about pan fond and onion browning, and ended up with the most tender, flavorful chops I've ever made. No weird specialty grocery runs required. Every pantry ingredient is something I already had in the pantry.”

🛡️

Try Every Recipe at Your Own Table for 7 Days Risk-Free

If June's instructions don't bring back the flavors you've been missing, just reply to your receipt for an immediate, full refund.

A cookbook that stays open on the counter

Every recipe answers the questions old cards left out.

June keeps the story attached to the food, then gives you the exact cues that make it work in your kitchen.

Old-fashioned chicken and dumplings in a serving bowl

At June's table

The person, place and reason a dish mattered—because food without its story is only half remembered.

What you'll need

Measured ingredients, ordinary equipment and yields that tell you how many chairs to pull up.

How June makes it

Plain steps with modern temperatures and timing, without turning supper into a science project.

June notices

The small warning that saves the dish: leave the dough alone, don't crowd the skillet, taste before the final salt.

What to look for

Texture, color, aroma and feel—the kitchen judgment older recipes assumed you already had.

Free Heirloom Gift

5 Forgotten Suppers by June Harper mini-PDF cover

8 pagesInstant PDF downloadZero cost

Try June's kitchen tonight

Get 5 of June’s Forgotten Suppers — completely free.

Not ready for all 101 recipes yet? Start with five of the most cherished, almost-lost suppers from June’s private kitchen notebook. Complete with exact measurements and the golden texture cues older cooks never wrote down.

01Cast-Iron Smothered Pork Chops & Rich Onion Gravy

02Brown-Butter Tomato Gravy & Fluffy Cathead Biscuits

03Quick Skillet Chicken & Fluffy Drop Dumplings

04Slow-Simmered Green Pole Beans with Smoked Ham Hock

05Warm Skillet Peach Cobbler with Cinnamon-Sugar Crust

These are the real pages

See exactly how the recipes are written.

Open a page. You can check the ingredients, steps, timing and the small cues that help you get it right.

Real photographyClear yields & timingStory + techniqueTexture cues

Ready to make one? The three pages above are only a taste. The full book puts 101 complete recipes and June’s kitchen guide in your hands today.

101 ways to bring people to the table

Not food for showing off.
Food for showing up.

Before-payday bean suppers. Fried chicken after church. Chow-chow when the garden won't wait. Peach cobbler when it can.

Fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, greens and cornbread — Sunday dinner

Soup beans with cornbread and raw onion — Before payday

Jars of chow-chow, pickled okra and preserves — Pantry shelf

Banana pudding and Southern pies on a kitchen table — Dessert after the dishes are cleared

After recipe 101

Know what to cook with it, too.

June’s final guide helps you build a full supper, save leftovers and put eight complete menus on the table.

Build a Supper That Feels Finished page from June's Kitchen Guide

Build a Southern plateFour jobs that make supper feel finished

The gravy ratioOne simple formula that ends the guessing

Biscuits & cornbreadCold fat, light hands, hot ovens and skillets

Frying without soggy crustHeat, space, patience and safe doneness

Make leftovers intentionalGive yesterday's supper one new job

Eight complete menusFrom a fish fry to the church basement plate

A note from June

No costume kitchen.

“I did not grow up in the Deep South, and I am not going to dress myself up as somebody else's grandmother for the sake of a story.”

June is clear about where this food comes from—Black Southern and soul-food traditions, Appalachian tables, Lowcountry rice kitchens, church suppers and family cookbooks—and she names those roots when they matter.

What she brings is a lifetime of watching ordinary people feed one another, plus modern testing where old instructions said only “a hot oven” or “enough flour.”

With love and a practical apron,
June Harper

Grandma's Forgotten Southern Recipes cover

The complete nostalgia edition

Next Sunday, make the dish they ask for.

Open the book tonight. Choose a recipe you remember. Follow the measurements, then trust the cues June gives you for the part older cooks did by feel.

101 complete recipesBreakfast through dessert
130 beautifully designed pagesReadable on phone, tablet or computer
June's Kitchen GuideRatios, technique, leftovers and 8 menus
Modern safety guidanceIncluding tested canning distinctions
Instant digital deliveryPrivate download after checkout

One-time purchase$19.95~~$47~~

No subscription.
No recipe app login.

7 days to cook from it. If the book doesn't give you one recipe or kitchen lesson worth keeping, reply to your receipt and receive a full refund.

Before you set the table

Questions, answered plainly.

Is this a printed cookbook?

No. This is a 130-page PDF available to download immediately after checkout. You can read it on any phone, tablet or computer, or print the pages you cook from most.

Are these just old recipes copied from somewhere else?

No. The recipes were written and standardized for this book after comparing historical cookbooks, foodways sources, community recipe discussions, modern test-kitchen technique and current safety guidance.

Do the recipes use hard-to-find ingredients?

Most begin with ordinary flour, cornmeal, beans, rice, eggs, milk, butter, onions, canned tomatoes and familiar meats or produce. June's own advice is not to buy a kitchen full of gadgets for this book.

Is this respectful of the traditions behind the food?

That matters here. The book distinguishes Black Southern and soul-food traditions, Appalachian cooking, Lowcountry foodways and other regional roots instead of flattening them into one imaginary kitchen.

What about food safety and canning?

The book pairs old-fashioned methods with current temperature guidance. Shelf-stable canning recipes are identified as tested methods; refrigerator pickles and relishes are clearly kept refrigerated.

What if it isn't for me?

You have seven days. Reply to your receipt email and ask for a refund—no form, no quiz, no hard feelings.

❦

Someone will ask how you made it.

Give them more than “a little of this.” Cook the dish, keep the recipe, and make it part of your table again.

Instant PDF · secure checkout · 7-day money-back guarantee

It usually happens in one sentence.

Find the dish they still ask about.

Biscuits, Gravy & the Old Southern Breakfast Table

“The biscuits rose two inches and split right open.”

Every recipe answers the questions old cards left out.

At June's table

What you'll need

How June makes it

June notices

What to look for

Get 5 of June’s Forgotten Suppers — completely free.

See exactly how the recipes are written.

Not food for showing off.Food for showing up.

Know what to cook with it, too.

No costume kitchen.

Next Sunday, make the dish they ask for.

Questions, answered plainly.

Someone will ask how you made it.

Not food for showing off.
Food for showing up.