Book Review: The Peach Truck Cookbook by Jessica and Stephen Rose

The Peach Truck Cookbook: 100 Delicious Recipes for All Things Peach
by Jessica N. Rose and Stephen K. Rose (641.634 Ros)

Jessica and Stephen Rose turned a love of peaches into a business model — selling the luscious fresh-picked fruit out of the back of their classic ’64 Jeep pickup. They then proceeded to gather recipes for the best ways to make use of this fruit in a farm-to-table cooking model. The Peach Truck Cookbook is the result of their years of recipe collecting, and making contact with chefs and other culinary types in the Nashville area.

This book opens with some background on the Roses, on peach growing (the many varieties), and on the history of peaches in culinary use. The bulk of the book is peach recipes, though, broken into the following categories: Breakfast, Small Bites, Lunch, Sides, Supper, Drinks, Dessert, and a final chapter called Pantry, which talks about the many ways in which peaches can be saved or preserved for year-round use when it isn’t “peach season”.

I’ll have to admit — Peaches are my all-time favorite fruit, and a good peach-blueberry pie is my absolute favorite dessert. I’d substitute it for a cake on my birthday, given the choice. The recipes in this book are intensely mouth-watering to a peach lover. Some are simple but many are exotic, and each and every one is accompanied by a very artsy photograph, showing the finished product. You’ll be enthralled by things like “Peach Dutch Baby”, “Peach Candied Bacon”, “Stone Fruit Crostini”, “Peach Jalapeno Cornbread”, “The Grilled Cheeserie’s Shaved Peach Melt”, “Peach Tamales”, “Savory Peach Fritters”, “Avocado Peach Salad”, “White Pizza”, “Peach Glazed Ribs”, “Peach Prosecco Granita”, “Burger Up’s Peach Truck Margarita”, “Peach Pavlova”, “Pearson Farm Bourbon Peach Bread Pudding”, “Peach Rum Conserve” and so many more.

There are fascinating sidebars about the Rose family, and about their many friends and recommended establishments in the Nashville area. But they never stray too far away from the peachy keen recipes!

The Peach Truck Cookbook should be essential reading for peach lovers, or fans of “southern” food. I loved this one, and will probably buy a copy for my own cookbook collection!

[ official thepeachtruck.com web site ] | [ publisher’s official The Peach Truck Cookbook web page ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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