Dolly Parton Shares Secret Family Recipes In New Cookbook

Dolly Parton is bringing a taste of her Southern roots to the table with her latest release, a new cookbook filled with cherished family recipes.

In “Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals,” the iconic country star opens up her kitchen and shares a collection of beloved recipes from her childhood, including something that she calls “left-handed gravy.”

From savory comfort foods to sweet treats, Dolly Parton’s cookbook, which she wrote with her sister Rachel Parton George, offers a personal glimpse into her culinary traditions as a child in a family of 11 siblings.

The Parton family’s life story has now inspired a new cookbook, “Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals – A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food,” which will hit shelves on September 17.

While music has long been the Parton family’s calling, Parton and her sister have revealed that eating is their ultimate pastime.

For the Partons, music and food go hand in hand, which inspired them to pen their new cookbook. It’s a heartfelt tribute to the dishes that defined their childhoods and still influence their lives today. When speaking to People Magazine, they take a nostalgic trip back to their family kitchen, where the aroma of fresh bread brings back cherished memories.

“It’s always bread that takes me back to our childhood home,” Rachel told the outlet. “Cornbread.”

“I still love the smell of bread cooking,” Dolly added. “Whether it just be some loaf bread that Rachel’s doing or some cornbread. I just think nothing says [home] more than just the smell of bread.”

Growing up in Tennessee, Southern cooking was a cornerstone of the Parton family’s cuisine. This included buttery, mouthwatering cornbread made from scratch, a staple that played a role in their meals.

“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,” Rachel recalled. “And she said, ‘Here, you get to make cornbread tonight.’ So I was working hard at making that cornbread.”

She recalls how proud her dad was when dinner was served that night, a moment that has stuck with her ever since. “He said it was the best cornbread he had ever eaten. And I believed it. From then on, I loved to cook,” she added.

Dolly learned to cook “out of necessity,” she told People.

“We’d have to climb up on the chairs to peel potatoes, turnips or whatever. We were really helping out when Mama was not well, or in bed with a kid or having a new baby or whatever,” the singer said. “So my first [lesson] came out of just really being a necessity of us helping mom as the older girls.”

With 12 kids and 14 mouths to feed, mealtime demanded a high level of skill, coordination, and negotiation.

“Everybody knew to be there at the right time,” Rachel recalled. “We wanted to be together.”

“That was breakfast, lunch and dinner. We called it breakfast, dinner and supper,” Dolly then added. “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.”

In addition to homemade cornbread, the sisters recalled making what they called “left-handed gravy,” because their dad was left-handed.

“There was two or three of us in the family that were lefties,” Dolly said. “So if Daddy was making his gravy, when our mom would be sick he’d make the breakfast, he’d stir it with his left hand.”

“We always thought that his gravy was so much better than Mama’s because it was left-handed gravy,” Rachel added.

“And it was,” Dolly then said.

Many may not realize that “Southern food is healthier than people assume it is, anyway,” according to the “9 to 5” artist. “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.”

When it comes to meat, the sisters said their mom “used to make groundhog” which was their dad’s “favorite thing.”

“A groundhog is just like a big fat hog that runs around in the woods,” Dolly explained. “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.”

“We always loved rabbit and squirrel, because our brothers hunted with our uncles and dad,” the artist added. They would often bring home rabbits and squirrels and that’s some of the best eating you’ve ever had.”

“Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals” is out on September 17 and contains more than 80 family recipes.