Loretta Lynn Was a Passionate Home Cook Whose Chicken and Dumplings Dish Was a Family Favorite

The country music icon, who died on Tuesday, was an amateur chef — and even released a cookbook in 2004

Published on October 6, 2022 04:15PM EDT

Loretta Lynn was a longtime country music icon — but friends and family say she was also legendary in the kitchen.

On Tuesday, the "Coal Miner's Daughter" singer died at age 90 on her beloved Tennessee ranch. Aside from forging a trailblazing path in the country music industry, she was passionate about her time in the kitchen and even released a cookbook of her favorite recipes in 2004.

Lynn's ranch, located in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, has been a popular tourist destination for fans, but was also the location of the late singer's private home where she hosted Christmas celebrations for her family.

Her children and several grandchildren would meet at "Memaw's" Tennessee home on Christmas Eve for holiday singalongs and the matriarch's chicken and dumplings. "Everybody holds hands and prays before the meal," granddaughter Tayla told PEOPLE in 2016 of holidays in Hurricane Mills. "It's love and hugs and good food." As for everyday snacks, her family revealed in the same 2016 issue that her favorite treats to indulge in were peanut brittle and ice cream.

Lynn remains an icon to her fans, peers and fellow artists. Among them is Jack White, who produced her 2004 Grammy-winning album Van Lear Rose and considered Lynn "an absolute genius. She was the greatest female singer-songwriter of the 20th century." White knew her musical magnificence but also experienced her culinary mastery.

In 2004, Lynn told PEOPLE that she cooked for The White Stripes singer when he visited her Hurricane Mills farm. "I fixed chicken and dumplings and homemade bread, and he said that was the best bread he ever ate," she said.

Her chicken and dumplings recipe is one of many Southern-style dishes Lynn included in her 2004 cookbook You're Cookin' It Country. In November 2021, her official Instagram account posted her iconic recipe, calling it a "family favorite." The book contained recipes from her youth as a child in Kentucky's coal-mining country and from her life as a world-renowned artist cooking dinners for fellow celebrities.

The musician had been taking care of a home and feeding a family from a young age. Married at 15 to a moonshine runner six years her senior, Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn, Loretta was a mother of four by the time she turned 20. She started writing songs on a $17 guitar her husband bought her and singing in honkytonks to make extra money.

In 1960, she signed her first record deal and released her first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl." A string of Top 10 hits followed: "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)," "Fist City."

Lynn battled several health complications over the past few years, beginning with a stroke in 2017. Despite her struggles, she continued to be a force in the country music scene with iconic album releases like her 50th studio album Still Woman Enough, which was released in March 2021.

"I went through a lot and I put up with a lot," Lynn told PEOPLE in 2010. "Every song I wrote came from my heart."