Dolly Parton says she learned to cook out of ‘necessity.’
The singer, 78, who will soon release a new album based on the songs her family sang as she was growing up, has published a new cookbook of her family’s favorite recipes.
Parton teamed up with her look-alike younger sister, Rachel Parton George, 65, to compile Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals, which arrived on store shelves Tuesday, September 17.
The Grammy winner was the ninth of eleven living children born to her parents Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and would pitch in when her mother needed help.
‘We’d have to climb up on the chairs to peel potatoes, turnips or whatever,’ she told People.
Dolly Parton, 78, has teamed with her sister, Rachel Parton George, 65, to compile a new cookbook of their family’s favorite recipes
‘We were really helping out when Mama was not well, or in bed with a kid or having a new baby or whatever… so my first [lesson] came out of just really being a necessity of us helping mom as the older girls.’
Rachel relayed that her love for making meals came from a bit of small praise from her father.
‘My mama probably just wanted me out of the way, so she pulled up a chair and had all the things and she had it in a bowl,’ she recalled. ‘And she said, “Here, you get to make cornbread tonight.” So I was working hard at making that cornbread.’
She remembered her father’s reaction to tasting her dish. ‘He said it was the best cornbread he had ever eaten. And I believed it. From then on, I loved to cook.’
Mealtime was a time for the family to be together.
‘That was breakfast, lunch and dinner. We called it breakfast, dinner and supper,’ the 9 to 5 singer explained.
‘When we were growing up, it was a must that we all kind of be around the table after Daddy got home from work. It was just a thing that we had in our house to sit around the table and talk, and eat with a mouthful.’
Their family lived off the land and would often eat squirrel or rabbit for dinner.
Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals was published Tuesday, September 17
The cookbook contains 80 traditional Southern dishes such as ham and biscuits, spare ribs, meatloaf, shrimp and dip, strawberry shortcake and banana pudding
‘Mama used to make a groundhog. That was Daddy’s favorite thing. A groundhog is just like a big fat hog that runs around in the woods. But mama used to call them whistle pigs because they were that much like a pig. It tastes very much like a pig, but I wouldn’t want to eat one now,’ she said.
The cookbook contains 80 traditional Southern dishes such as ham and biscuits, spare ribs, meatloaf, shrimp and dip and strawberry shortcake. In spite of that, the Silver and Gold artist said, ‘Southern food is healthier than people assume it is.’
‘And Rachel has a way of not going overboard these days. You can learn to cook good southern food without putting as much grease, lard, bacon grease, whatever you do, or butter,’ she said.
All of the dishes in the book include one special ingredient. ‘It’s just like Mama said, “It’s just got love in it,”‘ she explained.
