Soul food, the foods and techniques associated with the African American cuisine of the United States, is more than just a meal; it's a symbol of heritage, resilience, and community. The term "soul food" first appeared in print in 1964 during the rise of “Black pride,” when many aspects of African American culture were celebrated for their contribution to the American way of life.
The term celebrated the ingenuity and skill of cooks who were able to form a distinctive cuisine despite limited means. The moniker soul food was introduced in the late 1960s, the history of the food began long before that. The movement, both political and social in nature, encouraged racial pride and equality for people of African descent.
While it can be a creatively crafted meal using an assortment of Southern meats, spices, vegetables, and desserts, the food represents a history of survival and pride.
How Today's Soul Food Was Passed Down From Slavery
The Roots of Soul Food
Although the name was applied much later, soul food originated in the home cooking of the rural South, using locally raised or gathered foods and other inexpensive ingredients. Following their emancipation from slavery in the 1860s, African American cooks expanded on the coarse diet that had been provided them by slave owners but still made do with little. Soul food is the cuisine that was developed by African Americans, most of whom first came to the United States enslaved.
It integrated a people’s culinary memories from the African countries of their heritage with the foods of the American Indians and American South. The enslaved people had to make-do with whatever their “masters” gave them in payment for their work or whatever they could grow, hunt, or fish. African Americans were often employed as cooks in white households and in restaurants, and they incorporated the influence of their employers’ favored dishes into their home cooking.
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During the transatlantic slave trade, beginning in the 16th century, West African slaves arrived on the southeastern coast of the United States, along with crops such as black-eyed peas, okra, sweet potatoes, rice, and melons. With these crops, African slaves were influential in shaping Southern American cuisine by incorporating greens, rice, and other vegetables into the food they prepared.
For example, Hoppin’ John, a rice and pea dish, resembles the West African dish Waakye that is native to Ghana. Other dishes such as collard greens and gumbo resemble West African stews.
Ingredients and Techniques
Although slave cooks used prime cuts of meat and the best vegetables to prepare slave owners’ meals, they could not use the same ingredients for themselves. They were given scraps and other undesirable parts of meat like stomach lining, tongue, pig ears, and hogs’ heads. They had no access to oil or butter, so they used animal fats for frying, baking, and cooking. Vegetables could only be used if they grew them on their small plots of land.
Despite being given scraps, slaves created hearty meals like oxtails, slow-cooked cow’s tails served over rice, or chitterlings, the small intestine of a pig boiled in water or broth and served with a spicy sauce.“Our ancestors used spices and flavors to mask the smell of certain meats. They would add peas, okra and greens to make something substantial in order to work in the field. Black slaves had to be resilient and make something edible with what they had. Survival was based on their creativity and sheer determination, from which soul food was invented.
Corn (maize) was raised as a staple, to be ground into cornmeal for cornbread and its local variants hoecakes, baked on a griddle, and hush puppies, usually fried with fish. Corn also provided hominy grits, to be eaten as a breakfast food or a side dish. Biscuits were a popular form of bread. Rice was an important staple, especially in the Carolinas and in Louisiana.
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Chickens and pigs could be raised on small-scale farms without special fodder, and pork, fresh or smoked, appeared in many dishes. The inclusion of smoked pork, often in the form of fatback or bacon, is a common thread in soul food dishes, as is the use of lard as shortening or for frying. All parts of the pig were used; sometimes only the bony or less desirable cuts were available for purchase. Pig’s tails, feet, ribs, ears, jowls, hocks, liver, and chitlins (chitterlings; i.e., intestines) became part of the soul food repertoire.
Barbecuing-the slow cooking of meat over a wood fire-became a specialty, with regional variations in sauces and seasonings. Opossums, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, and deer were hunted, and fish, frogs, crayfish, turtles, shellfish, and crabs were collected from fresh waters, salt waters, and marshes. Freshwater catfish was especially identified with soul food.
Vegetables of African origin, such as okra and yams, were widely grown, as were melons, greens (including mustard and collards), turnips, cabbage, and beans. Greens, particularly collards, served as important sources of dietary fiber and vitamins. Lima beans, crowder peas, black-eyed peas, butter beans, and green beans were used fresh or dried. Spicy vinegar-based pepper sauce remains a widely used condiment.
Other popular dishes are fried chicken, short ribs of beef, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad. Desserts include pies and layer cakes, cobblers, and puddings, often incorporating pecans, peaches, and berries.
The Great Migration and Beyond
Most of the foods they prepared were common to all the rural poor of the South-light- and dark-skinned alike-but these foods and food-preparation techniques were carried north by African Americans during the Great Migration and thus became identified with African American culture.
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Because writing and reading were illegal in many states, soul food recipes and cooking techniques were passed along verbally. Soul food is no longer prepared out of necessity but has become part of the African American culinary tradition. Family recipes have been passed down from one generation to the next. The complex preparations and intricate flavor profiles differentiate one family’s recipe from the other.
From the 1940s, soul food restaurants appeared in every large American city with a sizeable Black population and began to attract a diverse clientele.
Today, soul food is much more than food eaten and prepared by Black people. While it can be a creatively crafted meal using an assortment of Southern meats, spices, vegetables, and desserts, the food represents a history of survival and pride. “Soul food is generational, it’s communal,” Chef FiFi Jackson of Ambitious Food Truck says. Similar to my experience at the church picnic those many years ago, the food brings us together. Families share recipes that had been in their family for generations.
With every dish, the African American experience is shared with the world. “Soul food has become very popular in the last 20-25 years,” Chef Mobley says. When asked if soul food would ever go away, Chef Mobley shook her head no. “What once was considered slave food, and had so many stigmas attached to it, is now celebrated. I think it may get healthier or more organic and sustainable, chefs will become more creative and continue to elevate the dishes. Especially in larger cities. But I think it will continue to grow and grow. It won’t leave, it’s the food our ancestors taught us how to cook.
Modern Interpretations
More recently, health-conscious contemporary cooks have sought to limit the use of animal fat and salt, especially in light of the prevalence of high blood pressure and diabetes in the African American population. In particular, canola and vegetable oils and leaner cuts of meat became more widely used in the preparation of soul food; some cooks even prepared vegetarian equivalents to traditional soul food dishes.
When you think of Soul Food, do you think of comfort foods served at family gatherings and holidays that bring feelings of home? Traditional African American comfort foods include homemade macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, red beans and rice, cornbread, seasoned greens, mashed potatoes and gravy, and ice-cold sweet tea.
Common foods of African heritage are based heavily on whole plant foods. Choose rich, colorful foods like beans, fruits, whole grains, and vegetables that are rich in nutrients and low in unhealthy fats, and don’t forget colorful spices like paprika, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. Entrées like Jamaican Jerk Chicken or Spicy Southern Barbecued Chicken paired with Good-for-You Cornbread, Caribbean Pink Beans and a mixed salad makes a tasty meal.
Smokey Ham and Bean Soup or Smothered Greens will satisfy your soul with less salt and fat. I hope you’ll try these and other revised versions of traditional African American foods. Diabetes and heart disease don’t have to be part of our heritage.
The Enduring Legacy
Soul food is important to my family not only because it is a symbol of our black heritage. It also allows our family to have traditions that are continuously passed down to different generations. By continuing Sunday dinners, soul food at weddings/funerals, every generation can interact with each other and develop lovely memories that will last forever. My mom said that “soul food may not be the healthiest of foods however it is extremely important to keep our family happy.”
She went on to explain that her mom used these recipes to start up discussions about life, relationships, and would even use them as a way to resolve her children’s disputes. My grandmother always said, “That a smile will always be plastered on one’s face when eating soul food.
Soul food means so much to the African American community because it reflects the struggle we had to overcome to be recognized by America. The African American History Museum in Washington, DC documents the life, history, and culture of African Americans. The exhibits are laid out in a way that people have to walk through every decade to glimpse the changing history.
