Sara Spano cookbook available once again at Ledger-Enquirer office

If you've never had Country Captain prepared correctly, well, you're probably not from around here.

It's a chicken dish attributed to Mrs. W.L. Bullard, who had a summer home in Warm Springs, Ga., and often entertained President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he was a patient at the Warm Springs Institute.

If there is a centerpiece recipe in "Through the Years," the well-known cookbook amassed by the late Sara Spano, the former food editor at the Ledger-Enquirer, it's Country Captain. First published in 1985, the book has sold thousands of copies and is now being re-released.

You can get copies, which make great Christmas gifts, by coming by the Ledger-Enquirer's office on the first floor of the Hardaway Building, 945 Broadway, across from the RiverCenter. They're $15 apiece.

"Through the Years" has sections on hors d'oeuvres, such as cheese straws and meats, such as Country Captain, of course, and settin' hens, which some people call Cornish hens. There's a recipe for baked squirrel, in case you have some handy. There are salad and vegetable recipes, casseroles and bread recipes, such as Miss Ada's Hoe Cakes.

There is a section on jams, jellies and preserves, including old-fashioned peach pickles. And of course there is a section on desserts, with boiled custard ice cream and one called Better than Sex Cake. Really. And, for the unreconstructed, there is a recipe for Jeff Davis Pie.

Spano collected the recipes during her 29 years at the Ledger-Enquirer, many of them spent as food editor. Most of the recipes include the name of the person who contributed it. Readers will recognize many of the names.

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 8:53 PM with the headline "Sara Spano cookbook available once again at Ledger-Enquirer office ."