Earlene Tatum · Leflore County, Mississippi 356 secrets · 17 chapters · 8 files 30-day money back

A Mississippi Yard and Kitchen — No. I

The amounts she never gave.The reasons she never explained.

She could not have written a recipe if you had paid her. She could only have shown you.

Callie Mae raised me at her stove and at her fire, in Leflore County. There was no man in that yard to build it, so she built it, and I learned the pit and the pot off the same hands. She never wrote down one word of either — it was just what people did, the same as sweeping a floor. By the time I understood it was worth something, she was gone, and a good deal of it went with her. This is what I could still remember, set down on purpose. The fire first.

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The fire chapters alone: her hand for a dial, coals on one side, the coffee can and the rag, the brown paper sack, and why the brisket goes on fat side down and never turns.

The book, the large-print edition and the measure card

I. Everything that comes with it

Eight files, in your email in one minute.

Each part can be had on its own at the price beside it. I sell it as one thing because it was never really eight things.

$27 $144 You keep $117
of what it is worth
My Grandmother's Soul Food Secrets 166 pages. 17 chapters. 356 entries, every one with the amount beside it and the reason under it. The fire first — the pit, the sauce, the rack and the brisket — and then the kitchen.
$27
The Large-Print Edition The same book in big type, one column, for reading while you cook.
$17FREE
The Measure Card “A pinch.” “A hot oven.” “A mess of greens.” Turned into real cups, degrees and pounds. Eight tables.
$14FREE
The First Skillet Three things to make this weekend, in order, that teach you the whole method. Each one under six dollars.
$19FREE
What Every Plate Costs Price per cooked pound for every cut. Cost per plate for every pot. The arithmetic, and where the numbers came from.
$12FREE
Write Down Your Own People's Blank pages to set down your own grandmother's, before it goes with her. Print as many as you need.
$12FREE
What She Said While She Cooked Ten recordings, nineteen minutes. Me telling the stories behind the secrets, out loud, the way they were told to me.
$24FREE
Lifetime updates Every new secret I set down, emailed to you free, forever.
$19FREE
Total value$144
You pay today $144 $27

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Eight files · in your email inside a minute · thirty days to change your mind

II. The money

The knowing is the treasure.
The grocery bill is just the bonus.

Callie Mae did not cook this way to save money. She cooked this way because it was the only way there was, and then she got so good at it that when there was money she never changed a thing. But the money is real, so here it is, plain.

What a cut really costs, once the bone is gone

Cut Price per lb Per lb of meat you eat
Oxtail $12.40 $27.55
Beef shank $5.20 $8.00
Beef neck bones $4.60 $7.67
Smoked turkey wing $2.60 $4.33
Whole chicken $1.49 $2.29

Same animal. Same pot. Same three hours. An oxtail costs three and a half times what a neck bone costs for the same meat in your mouth, and there is a whole chapter in here on why.

What a pot costs, per plate

Pot Feeds Per plate
Neck bones over rice 8 $2.86
Collard greens with a hock 8 $1.48
Smothered chicken thighs 6 $1.40
Baked mac and cheese 12 $1.03
Butter beans with jowl 8 $0.52
Skillet cornbread 8 $0.14

From the pit

What What I paid What it comes to
A whole brisket, fourteen pounds, cap left on $71 Twelve people with bread — $5.92 a plate
The Saturday sauce, a jar and a half $2 Against $6.49 for a bottle that is mostly sweet water

The knife the store offers to take to that brisket costs you nothing at the counter and about a third of the meat by supper. That is in Chapter IV.

One person, one month

Eating out — restaurants, drive-thru, coffee, delivery $379
Cooking out of this book $86
Kept $293 a month

That is $3,516 a year, for one person. Your number depends on how often you eat out now, so run it against your own statement rather than mine. And then set the money aside, because it is the smallest thing in here.

III. Inside the book

Open it anywhere and cook from that page.

Every entry stands on its own: what to do, the amount, and the reason underneath. Each chapter opens with a photograph and ends with the short version — every secret in that chapter on one page, for the days you only want reminding.

Three pages from inside the book

IV. From under the videos

What people have said to me.

“I hate the term "fall off the bone." A rib is not supposed to be sloppy and wet.”

Joe — under the ribs video

“Can you imagine the taste of these ribs, she is so in tune with her ribs that she learned. I love when i get to learn from my mistakes when I cook. Wish i could have a taste”

David — under the ribs video

“Mrs. Tatum you are wonderful in every way and a very good teacher i am dlighted to see you you are in Greenwood and i am from Clarksdale but i now live in Pearl here in Rankin county Ms. I wish you much happiness with your channel. We was with the military many years and moved back to the state in 1989. I am Rosemary”

Rosemary — Rankin County, Mississippi

“Thank you for the information I grew up on neckbones and other cuts of meat like that. Keep doing what you're doing.”

Gail

“Mrs. Tatum i do agree with you about the oxtails beef or pork neckbones instead of the smoked ones for me.”

Rosemary

Comments left under Earlene's videos, quoted as they were written, spelling and all. Nobody quoted here has read the book.

Earlene Tatum in her kitchen

V. Who is doing the writing down

I am Earlene Tatum.

I am sixty-six years old and I have lived in Leflore County, Mississippi my whole life.

My grandmother Callie Mae raised me at her stove. I was seven the first time she stood me on a milk crate and put my hands in a bowl. She did not tell me how much water. She put my hands in it and let me feel when it was right.

She ran the fire too. A hole behind the smokehouse with an icebox grate across it, the Saturday before every fifth Sunday, and no man in the yard to do it for her. I have kept a fire the way she kept hers for fifty years. I have not put a sheet of foil on a rack since the summer my daughter was two, and I have not put a knife to the fat on a brisket since 1989.

She never wrote a word of it down, and it would not have occurred to her that anybody would want one. You do not write down how to sweep a floor.

What is in this book is what I could still remember, with the amounts she never gave and the reasons she never explained. There is a great deal I could not remember. That is why the back of the book is blank pages, so you can set down your own people's before it goes the same way.

I am no chef and I am no doctor. I know these things because I lived them and because one woman taught me. That is the only kind of knowing a Mississippi kitchen ever cared about.

VI. Asked and answered

Your questions, plainly.

Are these the real old recipes, or dressed-up modern ones?

The real ones. They came out of one kitchen in Leflore County — my grandmother's, and mine after hers. Where the videos hold the amount back, the book gives you the measured starting point.

Do I need a cast iron skillet?

No. Every recipe works on a modern range, gas or electric or glass top. The iron makes it better, and there is a chapter on keeping one if you have inherited it.

I cook on a kettle grill, an offset smoker, or no fire at all. Does the fire part work for me?

The fire chapters are written for a hole in the ground and a kettle with a lid: coals on one side, meat on the other, the hole in the lid over the meat. An offset smoker is that same idea with the firebox built on, so everything carries straight over. If you have no yard, Chapter I ends with the oven version — a wire rack over a pan, as low as the oven goes, uncovered — and the brown paper sack works on any counter. What the oven cannot give you is the smoke, and I will not pretend it can.

Is this hard cooking?

No. Every entry gives you a plain starting point with real amounts, and the by-feel part comes later with the pan. Start with The First Skillet, which is three things and a weekend.

Is it healthy?

It is honest food and I am not going to pretend otherwise. There is fat in it because there was fat in it. I am not a doctor and I do not give advice about anybody's health. What I will say is that a pot of beans and a skillet of cornbread has fed people well for a very long time.

What exactly do I get, and how?

Seven PDFs and a folder of recordings, in your email within a minute of paying. Nothing ships. There is no account to make and no subscription. Pay once and they are yours to keep and to hand on.

What if I do not like it?

Email me inside thirty days and the money comes back the same day, no questions. You keep the files. I would rather you had them than not.

VII. Her cooking, in your hands

Before the last hands that hold it are gone.

More than the money, what you are keeping is the knowing.

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Thirty-day money-back guarantee. Cook one thing out of it. If it is not what you hoped, email me inside thirty days and every dollar comes back — and you keep the book and every file with it.