If you’ve spent any time around country-rock musician Hannah Dasher – whether online, onstage, or now on the page – you already know she doesn’t do anything halfway. Her debut cookbook, Stand By Your Pan, is exactly what you’d expect from her: bold, funny, unapologetically Southern, and packed with personality.
But here’s the thing – this isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a full-on extension of who she is.
Raised just up the road from Savannah in Springfield, Dasher brings a Lowcountry sensibility to everything she touches. And while her career in Nashville as a recording artist continues to grow, this book feels like a love letter to where she came from – and the flavors that shaped her.
The origin story alone tells you everything you need to know.
“I loved to eat and I loved to cook,” she said. “I was home visiting my mother … and she goes, ‘Sally, you’re a lot of fun, you really ought to have a cooking show. You should call it Stand By Your Pan.’ And I was like, ‘Mama, that’s brilliant.’”
That moment stuck. She went out and trademarked the name almost immediately. Fast forward through a pandemic, a viral social media run, and a whole lot of recipe testing, and now here we are – with a cookbook that feels both nostalgic and fresh at the same time.
Flipping through Stand By Your Pan, you’ll notice something right away: These recipes are approachable. We’re talking biscuits, pound cakes, macaroni and cheese, collard greens – the kind of dishes that define Southern kitchens. But Dasher isn’t just handing you the basics. She’s giving you her version of them, shaped by years of traveling, tasting, and tweaking.
I spoke to her last month ahead of a downtown Savannah book signing event. My immediate take away was “Hannah is a hoot!”
“Traveling the world as a touring musician … it took leaving home to realize all soul food’s not created equal,” she said. “What we do in the Lowcountry … is very special. And my goal was to give you my versions of these things.”
That perspective shows up in dishes like her fried chicken livers with port wine sauce (inspired by a Savannah favorite) or her rich, over-the-top desserts that don’t hold back. This is not a light cookbook. It’s indulgent, comforting, and meant to be enjoyed.
And honestly, that’s kind of the point.
“I don’t want anyone to grow up without home-cooked meals during the week at least a few times,” Dasher said. “There’s really something special about that.”
There’s also something refreshing about how she talks about cooking. No pretension. No gatekeeping. Just a desire to keep these traditions alive – especially for a younger generation that might not have grown up in the kitchen.
She even pushes back a little on the “perfect” cookbook standards.
“I had to fight with the editor to get certain things in here,” she said, laughing. “Fancy cookbook chefs … they only do things in 25-degree increments. But not if you want the right texture on your pound cake.”
That kind of honesty is what makes this book stand out. It’s not about perfection – it’s about flavor, feel, and experience. And yes, sometimes that means baking a cake at 315 degrees because that’s what actually works.
Speaking of cake, if there’s one recipe she lights up about, it’s her chocolate creations. “My triple chocolate pound cake is probably my favorite,” she said. “It’s rich and chocolatey… and it’ll hurt people’s feelings, it’s so good.”
That line alone should sell a few copies.
Beyond the recipes, Stand By Your Pan reads like a personal conversation with Dasher. Her humor, her storytelling, even her larger-than-life personality (including references to her now-famous “hoochie grandma”) are baked right into the pages.
“This is a cookbook unlike any others,” she said. “It’s a good read, even if you never cook out of it … it’ll leave you in a better spot. You’re gonna laugh.”
And she’s right. You will.
At a time when food content can sometimes feel overly curated or overly complicated, Hannah Dasher brings it back to something real. Good food. Good stories. A little bit of chaos. And a whole lot of heart.
Whether you’re an experienced home cook or someone who’s just trying to figure out how not to ruin a batch of biscuits, Stand By Your Pan meets you where you are – and invites you to have some fun with it.
You can find the cookbook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever you order your books.
