A Taste of Mayberry

Cookbook writers Jim Clark and Ken Beck are the first to admit they don’t know how to cook.

“If there is anything I can make, it is popcorn and peanut butter sandwiches,” Beck said.

Despite ineptitude in the kitchen, the duo are the baby boomer authors of one of the hottest cookbooks on the market, “Aunt Bee’s Mayberry Cookbook,” (Rutledge Hill Press, $12.95), which features down-home recipes inspired by the beloved sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show.”

The book is dedicated to the late actress Frances Bavier, who so charmingly brought Aunt Bee to life on the series, which aired on CBS from 1960 to ’68 and lives on in reruns.

Clark, a Nashville-based writer, founded the Andy Griffith Rerun Watchers Club in 1979 and co-authored with Beck, an editor at The Nashville Tennessean, “The Andy Griffith Show Calendar” and “The Andy Griffith Show Book.”

When they were approached last fall by the cookbook publishing house of Rutledge Hill Press, Clark and Beck immediately agreed.

“Who better than Aunt Bee to have a cookbook?” Clark asked. “Ken and I knew a lot of good cooks who had some recipes. We got recipes from all across the country, including from fans and good cooks. We asked them to send the best recipes, the ones that were tried and true.”

The two also asked surviving members of the cast and crew to contribute recipes. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts--Andy and Barney--did not respond. “I guess the reason for Andy Griffith (not responding) is that Aunt Bee was cooking for him,” Clark said. “I guess Don Knotts didn’t have one of his own to send in.”

Beck’s wife, mother and grandmother supplied several of the recipes. “My grandmother is a great country cook; in fact, she almost makes Aunt Bee look like a sooner,” Beck said, laughing. “She gave us Aunt Bee’s Fried Chicken, Grandma’s Biscuits, a corn recipe and a caramel pie that’s just a killer, nothing but sugar. She is like Aunt Bee, but only nicer.”

According to Clark, the book’s desserts have been the biggest hit with readers. “There’s one called Aunt Bee’s Apple Pie, which probably because of the name, if nothing else, says Mayberry,” Clark said. “But it also happens to be from one of the best cooks, Patsy Curtis, who happens to live in Nashville.

“There’s also one called Opie and Leon’s Buttermilk Pie, which Ron Howard’s mother submitted and who said it was his favorite dessert when he was a little boy. It is absolutely delicious. It’s easy to make and impossible to mess up.”

Julie Pitkin, “Aunt Bee’s” food editor, tested most of the recipes. But both Clark and Beck admit no one tried out Ernest T.’s Possum and Sweet Taters, Old Man Kelsey’s Barbecued Raccoon, Briscoe Darling’s Hoot Owl Pie or Lefty’s Alligator Done Right, which calls for five pounds of alligator tail meat.

Both Clark and Beck have been in a Mayberry state of mind since they were boys. “For me it is great entertainment,” Clark said. “It’s got good morals and it is wholesome.”

“When it first came on the air I was in third grade,” Beck said. “In our family, the show was pretty much like a religion. Every Monday night, everybody stopped what they were doing and went into the den and watched ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ together. At that time I pretty much related to Opie. Now that I am a father, I look at the show more through the eyes of Andy. My two children love watching it.”

“The Andy Griffith Show” airs Sundays at 6:05 a.m. on TBS, Mondays-Fridays at 9:30 a.m. on KTTV and 3:35 p.m. on TBS.