Soul food

Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and

eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern
United States.[1] The cuisine originated with the foods that
were given to enslaved black people by their white owners
on Southern plantations during the Antebellum period;
however, it was strongly influenced by the traditional
practices of West Africans and Native Americans from its
inception.[2] Due to the historical presence of African
Americans in the region, soul food is closely associated with
the cuisine of the American South although today it has
become an easily identifiable and celebrated aspect of Fried chicken with macaroni and cheese,
mainstream American food culture.[3] collard greens, fried okra, and cornbread

The expression "soul food" originated in the mid-1960s,

when "soul" was a common word used to describe African-
American culture.[4]

Contents
Origins
Native American influence
Fatback
African influence
Cookbooks
Cultural relevance
Health concerns
Dishes and ingredients
See also
References
Further reading
External links Sweet potato pie

Origins
The term soul food became popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the midst of the Black Power movement.[5]
One of the earliest written uses of the term is found in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was
published in 1965.[6] LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) published an article entitled "Soul Food" and was one of
the key proponents for establishing the food as a part of the Black American identity.[5] Those who had
participated in the Great Migration found within soul food a reminder of the home and family they had left
behind after moving to unfamiliar northern cities. Soul food restaurants were black-owned businesses that
served as neighborhood meeting places where people socialized and ate together.[7]
Soul food recipes have pre-slavery influences, as West African and European foodways were adapted to
the environment of the region.[3] Many of the foods integral to the cuisine originate from the limited rations
given to enslaved people by their planters and masters. Enslaved people were typically given a peck of
cornmeal and 3-4 pounds of pork per week, and from those rations come soul food staples such as
cornbread, fried catfish, barbecued ribs, chitterlings, and neckbones.[8] It has been noted that enslaved
Africans were the primary consumers of cooked greens (collards, beets, dandelion, kale, and purslane) and
sweet potatoes for a portion of US history.[9]

Most enslaved people needed to consume a high-calorie diet, to replenish the calories spent working long
days in the fields or performing other physically arduous tasks. This led to time-honored soul food
traditions like frying foods, breading meats and fishes with cornmeal, and mixing meats with vegetables
(e.g. putting pork in collard greens).[10] Eventually, this slave-invented style of cooking was adopted into
larger Southern culture, as slave owners gave special privileges to slaves with cooking skills.

Impoverished whites and blacks in the South cooked many of the same dishes stemming from the soul
tradition, but styles of preparation sometimes varied. Certain techniques popular in soul and Southern
cuisines (i.e., frying meat and using all parts of the animal for consumption) are shared with ancient cultures
all over the world, including China, Egypt, and Rome.[11]

Introduction of soul food to northern cities such as Washington D.C. also came from private chefs in the
White House.[12] Many American presidents have desired French cooking, and have sought after black
chefs given their Creole background. The 23rd President of the United States Benjamin Harrison, and
former first lady Caroline Harrison, took this same route when they terminated their French cooking staff
for a black woman by the name of Dolly Johnson.[13]

One famous relationship includes the bond formed between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Zephyr
Wright. Wright became a great influence to Johnson in fighting for civil rights as he saw her treatment and
segregation as they would travel throughout the south. Johnson even had Wright present at the signing of
several civil rights laws.[12] Lizzie McDuffie, a former maid and cook to Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
assisted her boss during the 1936 election simply by making the president more relatable to black voters.
With public awareness of black Americans preparing food in the presidential kitchen, this in turn helped to
sway minority votes for hopeful presidential candidates such as John F. Kennedy.[14]

Native American influence

Southern Native American culture (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole) is an important
element of Southern cuisine. From their cultures came one of the main staples of the Southern diet: corn
(maize), either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy, in a Native American
process known as nixtamalization.[15] Corn was used to make all kinds of dishes, from the familiar
cornbread and grits, to liquors such as moonshine and whiskey (which are still important to the Southern
economy[16]).

Many fruits are available in this region: blackberries, muscadines, raspberries, and many other wild berries
were part of Southern Native Americans' diets, as well.

To a far greater degree than anyone realizes, several of the most important food dishes that the
Native Americans of the southeastern U.S.A live on today is the "soul food" eaten by both
Black and White Southerners. Hominy, for example, is still eaten: Sofkee lives on as grits;
cornbread [is] used by Southern cooks; Indian fritters -- variously known as "hoe cake" or
"Johnny cake"; Indian boiled cornbread is present in Southern cuisine as "corn meal
 dumplings" and "hush puppies"; Southerners cook their beans and field peas by boiling them,
as did the Native tribes; and, like the Native Americans, Southerners cured their meats and
smoked it over hickory coals...

— Charles Hudson, The Southeastern Indians[17]

African, European, and Native Americans of the American South supplemented their diets with meats
derived from the hunting of native game.[18] What meats people ate depended on seasonal availability and
geographical region. Common game included opossums, rabbits, and squirrels. Livestock, adopted from
Europeans, in the form of cattle and hogs, were kept.

When game or livestock was killed, the entire animal was used. Aside from the meat, it was common for
them to eat organ meats such as brains, livers, and intestines. This tradition remains today in hallmark
dishes like chitterlings (commonly called chit'lins), which are small intestines of hogs; livermush (a
common dish in the Carolinas made from hog liver); and pork brains and eggs. The fat of the animals,
particularly hogs, was rendered and used for cooking and frying. Many of the early European settlers in the
South learned Native American cooking methods, and so cultural diffusion was set in motion for the
Southern dish.

African influence
Scholars have noted the substantial African influence found in soul
food recipes, especially from the West and Central regions of
Africa. This influence can be seen through the heat level of many
soul food dishes, as well as many ingredients found within
them.[19] Peppers used to add spice to food included malagueta
pepper, as well as peppers native to the western hemisphere such as
red (cayenne) peppers.[9] Several foods that are essential in
southern cuisine and soul food were domesticated or consumed in
the African savanna and the tropical regions of West and Central
Africa. These include pigeon peas, black-eyed peas, okra, and Ham hock and black-eyed peas
sorghum.[19]

It has also been noted that a species of rice was domesticated in Africa, thus many Africans who were
brought to the Americas kept their knowledge for rice cooking.[20] Rice is a staple side dish in the
Lowcountry region and in Southern Louisiana. Rice is the center of dishes such as jambalaya and red beans
and rice which are popular in Southern Louisiana.

There are many documented parallels between the foodways of West Africans and soul food recipes.[21]
The consumption of sweet potatoes in the US is reminiscent of the consumption of yams in West Africa.
The frequent consumption of cornbread by African-Americans is analogous to West Africans' use of fufu to
soak up stews.[21]

West Africans also cooked meat over open pits, and thus it is possible that enslaved Africans came to the
New World with knowledge of this cooking technique (it is also possible they learned it from Native
Americans, since Native Americans barbecued as a cooking technique).[9][22]

Researchers state that many tribes in Africa utilized a vegetarian/plant based diet because of its simplicity.
This included the way food was prepared as well as served. It was not uncommon to see food served out of
an empty gourd. Many techniques to change the overall flavor of staple food items such as nuts, seeds, and
rice contributed to added dimensions of evolving flavors. These techniques included roasting, frying with
palm oil, baking in ashes, and steaming in leaves such as banana leaf.[23]

Cookbooks
Because it was illegal in many states for slaves to learn to read or
write, soul food recipes and cooking techniques tended to be
passed along orally, until after emancipation.

The first soul food cookbook is attributed to Abby Fisher, entitled

What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking and
published in 1881. Good Things to Eat was published in 1911; the
author, Rufus Estes, was a former slave who worked for the
Skillet cornbread Pullman railway car service. Many other cookbooks were written
by Black Americans during that time, but as they were not widely
distributed, most are now lost.

Since the mid-20th century, many cookbooks highlighting soul food and African-American foodways have
been compiled and published. One notable soul food chef is celebrated traditional Southern chef and author
Edna Lewis,[24] who released a series of books between 1972 and 2003, including A Taste of Country
Cooking in which she weaves stories of her childhood in Freetown, Virginia into her recipes for "real
Southern food".

Another early and influential soul food cookbook is Vertamae Grosvenor's Vibration Cooking, or the
Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, originally published in 1970, focused on South Carolina
Lowcountry/Geechee/Gullah cooking. Its focus on spontaneity in the kitchen—cooking by "vibration"
rather than precisely measuring ingredients, as well as "making do" with ingredients on hand—captured the
essence of traditional African-American cooking techniques. The simple, healthful, basic ingredients of
lowcountry cuisine, like shrimp, oysters, crab, fresh produce, rice and sweet potatoes, made it a bestseller.

Usher boards and Women's Day committees of various religious congregations large and small, and even
public service and social welfare organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
have produced cookbooks to fund their operations and charitable enterprises.[5] The NCNW produced its
first cookbook, The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, in 1958, and revived the practice in 1993,
producing a popular series of cookbooks featuring recipes by famous Black Americans, among them: The
Black Family Reunion Cookbook (1991), Celebrating Our Mothers' Kitchens: Treasured Memories and
Tested Recipes (1994), and Mother Africa's Table: A Chronicle of Celebration (1998). The NCNW also
recently reissued The Historical Cookbook.

Cultural relevance
Soul food originated in the southern region of the US and is consumed by African-Americans across the
nation. Traditional soul food cooking is seen as one of the ways enslaved Africans passed their traditions to
their descendants once they were brought to the US, and is a cultural creation stemming from slavery and
Native American and European influences.[21][9]

Soul food recipes are popular in the South due to the accessibility and affordability of the ingredients.[21][8]

Scholars have noted that while white Americans provided the material supplies for soul food dishes, the
cooking techniques found in many of the dishes have been visibly influenced by the enslaved Africans
themselves.[9] Dishes derived by slaves consisted of many vegetables and grains because slave owners felt
more meat would cause the slave to become lethargic with less energy to tend to the crops.

The bountiful vegetables that were found in Africa, were substituted in dishes down south with new leafy
greens consisting of dandelion, turnip, and beet greens. Pork, more specifically hog, was introduced into
several dishes in the form of cracklins from the skin, pig's feet, chitterlings, and lard used to increase the fat
intake into vegetarian dishes. Spices such as thyme, and bay leaf blended with onion and garlic gave dishes
their own characteristics.[23]

Figures such as LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Elijah Muhammad, and Dick Gregory played notable roles in
shaping the conversation around soul food.[5][21] Muhammad and Gregory opposed soul food because they
felt it was unhealthy food and was slowly killing African-Americans.[6] They saw soul food as a remnant
of oppression and felt it should be left behind. Many African-Americans were offended by the Nation of
Islam's rejection of pork as it is a staple ingredient used to flavor many dishes.[21]

Stokely Carmichael also spoke out against soul food, claiming that it was not true African food due to its
colonial and European influence.[21] Despite this, many voices in the Black Power Movement saw soul
food as something African-Americans should take pride in, and used it to distinguish African-Americans
from white Americans.[5] Proponents of soul food embraced the concept of it, and used it as a counterclaim
to the argument that African-Americans had no culture or cuisine.[9][21]

The magazine Ebony Jr! was important in transmitting the cultural relevance of soul food dishes to middle-
class African-American children who typically ate a more standard American diet.[25]

Soul food is frequently found at religious rituals and social events such as funerals, fellowship,
Thanksgiving, and Christmas in the Black community.[21][24][19]

Health concerns
Soul food prepared traditionally and consumed in large amounts
can be detrimental to one's health. Opponents to soul food have
been vocal about health concerns surrounding the culinary
traditions since the name was coined in the mid-20th century.

Soul food has been criticized for its high starch, fat, sodium,
cholesterol, and caloric content, as well as the inexpensive and
often low-quality nature of the ingredients such as salted pork and
cornmeal. In light of this, soul food has been implicated by some in
the disproportionately high rates of high blood pressure
(hypertension), type 2 diabetes, clogged arteries (atherosclerosis),
stroke, and heart attack suffered by African-Americans. Figures
who led discussions surrounding the negative impacts of soul food
include Dr. Alvenia Fulton, Dick Gregory, and Elijah
Hushpuppies
Muhammad.[5][21]

On the other hand, critics and traditionalists have argued that

attempts to make soul food healthier also make it less tasty, as well as less culturally/ethnically authentic.[26]

A foundational difference in how health is perceived of being contemporary is that soul food may differ
from "traditional" styles is the widely different structures of agriculture.
Fueled by federal subsidies, the agricultural system in the United States became industrialized as the
nutritional value of most processed foods, and not just those implicated in a traditional perception of soul
food, have degraded.[27] This urges a consideration of how concepts of racial authenticity evolve alongside
changes in the structures that make some foods more available and accessible than others.[28][29]

An important aspect of the preparation of soul food was the reuse of cooking lard. Because many cooks
could not afford to buy new shortening to replace what they used, they would pour the liquefied cooking
grease into a container. After cooling completely, the grease re-solidified and could be used again the next
time the cook required lard.

With changing fashions and perceptions of "healthy" eating, some cooks may use preparation methods that
differ from those of cooks who came before them: using liquid oil like vegetable oil or canola oil for frying
and cooking, and using smoked turkey instead of pork, for example. Changes in hog farming techniques
have also resulted in drastically leaner pork, in the 21st and late 20th centuries. Some cooks have even
adapted recipes to include vegetarian alternatives to traditional ingredients, including tofu and soy-based
analogues.[30]

Several of the ingredients included in soul food recipes have pronounced health benefits. Collard and other
greens are rich sources of several vitamins (including vitamin A, B6 , folic acid or vitamin B9 , vitamin K,
and C), minerals (manganese, iron, and calcium), fiber, and small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. They
also contain a number of phytonutrients, which are thought to play a role in the prevention of ovarian and
breast cancers.[31]

The traditional preparation of soul food vegetables often consists of high temperatures or slow cooking
methods, which can lead the water-soluble vitamins (e.g., Vitamin C and the B complex vitamins) to be
destroyed or leached out into the water in which the greens cooked. This water is often consumed and is
known as pot liquor.[24] Because it contains micronutrients from the greens cooked in it, pot liquor
contributes to the nutritional value of a meal when consumed.[32]

Peas and legumes are inexpensive sources of protein, and they also contain important vitamins, minerals,
and fiber.[33]

Dishes and ingredients

See also
American cuisine
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
Comfort food
List of American foods
Cuisine of the Southern United States
Native American cuisine
Soul Food Junkies, a documentary
Louisiana Creole cuisine
Cajun cuisine
African cuisine
Cuisine of New Orleans
Indigenous cuisine of the Americas
Black veganism
 West African cuisine
Ethnic cuisine
List of cuisines

References
1. " "Soul Food" a brief history" (https://aaregistry.org/story/soul-food-a-brief-history/). African
American Registry. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
2. Poe, Tracy N. (1999). "The Origins of Soul Food in Black Urban Identity: Chicago, 1915-
1947". American Studies International. 37 (1): 4–33. JSTOR 41279638 (https://www.jstor.or
g/stable/41279638).
3. "An Illustrated History of Soul Food" (https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2015/08/an-illustrated-histor
y-of-soul-food).
4. Ferguson, Sheila (1993). Soul Food Classic Cuisine from the Deep South (https://www.goog
le.com/books/edition/Discovering_Vintage_Washington_DC/hMd_CgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv
=1&bsq=soul%20). Grove Press. pp. 57–60. ISBN 9781493013418.
5. WITT, DORIS (1999). "Soul Food and America". Black Hunger: Soul Food and America
(NED - New ed.). University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816645510.
JSTOR 10.5749/j.cttttkdq (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.cttttkdq).
6. Rouse, Carolyn Moxley (2004). Engaged Surrender: African American Women and Islam.
Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, London, England: University of California Press. p. 106.
ISBN 978-0-520-23794-0.
7. Poe, Tracy N. (1999). "The Origins of Soul Food in Black Urban Identity: Chicago, 1915-
1947". American Studies International. XXXVII No. 1 (February): 4–17.
8. Covey, Herbert. What the Slaves Ate: Recollections of African American Foods and
Foodways from the Slave Narratives. pp. 105–110.
9. Whit, William C.; Hall, Robert L. (2007). Bower, Anne L. (ed.). African American foodways :
explorations of history and culture (https://archive.org/details/africanamericanf0000unse/pag
e/34). University of Illinois Press. pp. 34, 48 (https://archive.org/details/africanamericanf0000
unse/page/34). ISBN 9780252031854. OCLC 76961285 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/769
61285).
10. Bower, Anne. "African American Foodways: Explorations of History and Culture": 52.
11. "Fried Dough History" (https://web.archive.org/web/20081012194852/http://home.comcast.n
et/~osoono/history.htm). Archived from the original (http://home.comcast.net/~osoono/history.
htm) on October 12, 2008.
12. "The African-Americans in the White House kitchen" (https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/f
ood-dining/2017/02/13/the-african-americans-white-house-kitchen/NflSa3FIptIXVIzdVSgCC
K/story.html). BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
13. Miller, Adrian (3 June 2014). "African American cooks in the White House: Hiding in plain
sight" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/african-american-cooks-in-the-white-h
ouse-hiding-in-plain-sight/2014/06/02/c54cba10-e76a-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html).
Washington Post.
14. Miller, Adrian (3 June 2013). "African American cooks in the White House: Hiding in Plain
Sight" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/african-american-cooks-in-the-white-h
ouse-hiding-in-plain-sight/2014/06/02/c54cba10-e76a-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html).
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15. Dragonwagon, Crescent (2007). The Cornbread Gospels. Workman Publishing. ISBN 978-
0-7611-1916-6.
16. X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Grove Press, 1966
17. Hudson, Charles (1976). "A Conquered People". The Southeastern Indians. The University
of Tennessee Press. pp. 498–99. ISBN 978-0-87049-248-8.
18. Glitner, Scott (2006). Glave, Dianne D.; Stoll, Mark (eds.). "To love the wind and the rain" :
African Americans and environmental history. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
pp. 21–36. ISBN 9780822972907. OCLC 878132911 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/878132
911).
19. Hall, Robert L. (2012). Chambers, Douglas B.; Watson, Kenneth (eds.). The Past Is Not
Dead. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 292, 294, 297, 305.
ISBN 9781617033056.
20. Ann, Carney, Judith (2009-06-30). Black rice : the African origins of rice cultivation in the
Americas. Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 9780674029217. OCLC 657619002 (https://w
ww.worldcat.org/oclc/657619002).
21. Douglass, Opie, Frederick (2008-10-08). Hog & hominy : soul food from Africa to America.
New York. ISBN 9780231517973. OCLC 648458580 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/648458
580).
22. "Barbecue is more American than you think… it is a Native American culinary art" (http://ww
w.sofritoforyoursoul.com/baebecue-is-more-american-than-you-think-it-is-a-native-american-
culinary-art/). Sofrito for Your Soul. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
23. Arrington, Kathye Edwina (3 February 2013). "History of "Soul Food" ".
ProQuest 1283537628 (https://search.proquest.com/docview/1283537628).
24. Twitty, Michael (2017-08-01). The cooking gene : a journey through African American
culinary history in the Old South (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 9780062379290.
OCLC 971130586 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/971130586).
25. Henderson, Laretta (Winter 2007). " "Ebony Jr!" and "Soul Food": The Construction of
Middle-Class African American Identity through the Use of Traditional Southern Foodways".
Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS). 32 (4): 81–
97. JSTOR 30029833 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/30029833).
26. Jonsson, Patrick (February 6, 2006). "Backstory: Southern discomfort food" (http://www.csmo
nitor.com/2006/0206/p20s01-lifo.html). The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian
Science Publishing Society. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
27. Belasco, Warren (2008). Food: The Key Concepts. Berg. ISBN 978-1845206734.
28. Julier, Alice (2008). The Political Economy of Obesity: The Fat Pay All. Food and Culture: A
Reader: Routledge. pp. 482–499. ISBN 978-0415977777.
29. Guthman, Julie (2011). Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism.
University California Press. ISBN 978-0520266254.
30. Shelf, Angela. "African Vegetarian Recipes : The Ethnic Vegetarian" (https://web.archive.or
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2009. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
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WHFoods. 2006-05-04. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
32. Aubrey, Allison (7 August 2013). "Pot Liquor: A Southern Tip To Save Nutritious Broth From
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p-to-save-nutritious-broth-from-greens). NPR. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
33. "Beans and pulses in your diet" (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/beans-and-pulses-nutr
ition/). 27 April 2018.

Further reading
 Huges, Marvalene H. Soul, Black Women, and Food. Ed. Carole Counihan and Penny van
Esterik. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Bowser, Pearl and Jean Eckstein, A Pinch of Soul, Avon, New York, 1970
Counihan, Carol and Penny Van Esterik editors, Food and Culture, A Reader, Routledge,
New York, 1997
Harris, Jessica, The Welcome Table – African American Heritage Cooking, Simon and
Schuster, New York, 1996
Mitchell, Patricia (1998). Plantation Row slave cabin cooking: the roots of soul food. Patricia
B. Mitchell foodways publications. Chatham, VA: P.B. Mitchell. ISBN 978-0925117892.
Root, Waverley and Richard de Rochemont, Eating in America, A History, William Morrow,
New York, 1976
Glenn, Gwendolyn, "American Visions", Southern Secrets From Edna Lewis, February–
March, 1997
Puckett, Susan, "Restaurant and Institutions", Soul Food Revival, February 1, 1997

External links
Soul Food (https://curlie.org/Home/Cooking/World_Cuisines/North_American/African_Ameri
can/) at Curlie
What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking (https://archive.org/details/whatmrsfis
herkno00fishrich)

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