soul food

soul food
soul-food, adj.
traditional black American cookery, which originated in the rural South, consisting of such foods as chitterlings, pig knuckles, turnip greens, and cornbread.
[1960-65, Amer.]

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      the foods and techniques associated with the African American cuisine of the United States. The term was first used in print in 1964 during the rise of “black pride,” when many aspects of African American culture—including soul music—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.

      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. 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. African Americans were often employed as cooks in white households and in restaurants, and they incorporated the influence of their employers' favoured dishes into their home cooking.

      Although there were regional variants, such as the Creole influence from Louisiana, many of the same foods were eaten throughout the South. 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 (biscuit) were a popular form of bread. rice was an important staple, especially in the Carolinas and in Louisiana. molasses and a syrup made from sorghum provided sweetening.

      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 (barbecue)—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 sweet potatoes (sweet potato), were widely grown, as were melons (melon), greens (including mustard and collards (collard)), turnips (turnip), cabbage, and beans. Lima beans (lima bean), crowder peas, black-eyed peas (cowpea), butter beans, and green beans (green bean) were used fresh or dried. Spicy vinegar-based pepper sauce (see chili pepper (pepper)) remains a widely used condiment. Other popular dishes are fried chicken, short ribs of beef, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad. Desserts include pies (pie) and layer cakes (cake), cobblers, and puddings (pudding), often incorporating pecans (pecan), peaches (peach), and berries.

      From the 1940s, soul food restaurants appeared in every large American city with a sizeable black population and began to attract a diverse clientele. 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.

Anita Wolff

Additional Reading
The history, recipes, and techniques of African American cooks from all areas of the South were popularized by a number of cookbooks that are notable as memoirs as well as recipe collections. These include Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Vibration Cooking; or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl (1970, reissued 1992), on soul food of the Carolinas; Edna Lewis, The Taste of Country Cooking (1976, reissued 2006), on Virginia; Leah Chase, The Dooky Chase Cookbook (1990), on New Orleans; and Sylvia Woods and Melissa Clark, Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook: From Hemingway, South Carolina, to Harlem (1999), on South Carolina. Norma Jean Darden and Carole Darden, Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family (1978, reissued 2003), relates the authors' travels through the South to research their family history. Also notable are National Council of Negro Women, The Black Family Reunion Cookbook: Recipes and Memories from the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (1991); Jessica B. Harris, The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking (1995); and Sheila Ferguson, Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South (1989).Anita Wolff

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Universalium. 2010.

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