Soul Food

The origins of soul food trace back to Africa. The word became popular in the 1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement was starting.

European explorers brought their own food supplies and introduced them into the African diet.   Foods such as turnips from Morocco and cabbage from Spain became part of the cuisine.

Some of the indigenous crops of Africa began showing up in the slaves' new home in America. As slaves, African Americans would "make do" with the ingredients at hand.   They were cooking with turnips and beets, greens: collards, kale, cress, mustard and pokeweed and developing recipes which used discarded meat from the plantation, such as pig's feet, beef tongue or tail, ham hocks, chitterlings, pig ears, hog jowls, tripe and skin.

Nothing was ever wasted in the kitchen.   Leftover fish became croquettes, stale bread became bread pudding, and each part of the pig had its own special dish.

After slavery in the US came to an end, many African Americans, being poor, could only afford the least expensive cuts of meat and offal.

While soul food originated in the South, soul food restaurants - from fried chicken and fish "shacks" to upscale dining establishments - exist in virtually every African American community today, many of which I have had the opportunity to dine at over my professional journey.

Whites and blacks in the South ate many of the same dishes, but styles of preparation sometimes varied, which tends to be more intensely spiced than European cuisine.

I learned this first hand when opening the very mainstream "NYC Motown Café" in 1994.   The restaurant was a themed eatery which captured the sounds of all the great Motown Artist and served many southern dishes.   During this time I learned that Soul food uses a great variety of dishes and ingredients, which made it very difficult to satisfy many of our African American customers.   We finally had to settle on one base recipe and deal with the many comments about what was missing or should be added.

Here are some of my favorites.

 

Meats

 

•  Chicken livers

•  Fried chicken

•  Fried whiting fish

•  Meatloaf with a brown gravy

•  Ribs

 

Vegetables

 

•  Black-eyed peas

•  Cabbage

•  Collard greens

•  Lima beans

•  Green beans seasoned with pork

•  Succotash

•  Mashed potatoes

•  Sweet potatoes

 

Breads

 

•  Corn bread

•  Biscuits

•  Johnny cakes

•  Hushpuppies