Origin of Soul Food?

Question

In soul dishes you see a lot of things that you don't see in main stream American dishes. Things like chicken back, chitins, pig feet, and so on. I was wondering if this is because African American culture goes back to slavery times and these are parts of the animal that the slave masters didn't want to eat so they gave them to the slaves. What do you think?

Answer 1

this could not be further from the truth.

God sent us Soul Food in trade for the whole original sin escapade he out us through. At first it was going to just be Angel food cake, but that didnt have enough fat and calories to insure we die and go to heavan fast so he sent down soul food.

Aids is a whole other issue.

Answer 2

This is true, as far as I've heard.  Soul food meat is typically the leftovers "unfit" for the masters.  Sad, but on the other hand who knew it all could taste so good!!!

Answer 3

What you are calling Soul Food, we just call Southern food.  It usually means it's grown nearby, cheaper, easy to fix and tastes good.  Poor whites ate the same as poor blacks in the South.  Still do.

Answer 4

Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, typically associated with African Americans of the Southern United States. In the mid-1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning, "soul" was a common adjective used to describe African American culture, and thus the name "soul food" was derived.

The term soul food became popular in the 1960s, when the word soul became used in connection with most things African American. The origins of soul food, however, are much older and can be traced back to Africa. Many culinary historians believe that in the beginning of the 14th century, around the time of early African exploration, European explorers brought their own food supplies and introduced them into the African diet. Foods such as turnips from Morocco and cabbage from Spain would play an important part in the history of African American cuisine.

When slave trading began in the early 1400s, the diet of newly enslaved Africans changed on the long journeys from their homeland. It was during this time that some of the indigenous crops of Africa began showing up in the slaves' new home in the Americas. Tall tales of seeds from watermelons, okra and sesame being transported in the slave's ears, hair or clothing are perhaps based on fact[citation needed] given that that cross-pollination is known to occur in such cases. Some traditional African foods became commercially raised crops in America.

As slaves, African Americans would "make do" with the ingredients at hand. The fresh vegetables found in Africa were replaced by the throwaway foods from the plantation house. Their vegetables were the tops of turnips and beets and dandelions. Soon they were cooking with new types of greens: collards, kale, cress, mustard, and pokeweed. African American slaves also developed recipes which used discarded meat from the plantation, such as pig’s feet, beef tongue or tail, ham hocks, chitterlings (pig small intestines), pig ears, hog jowls, tripe and skin. Cooks added onions, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf to enhance the flavors. Many African Americans depended on catching their own meat, and wild game such as raccoon, possum, turtle, and rabbit was, until the 1950s, very popular fare on the African American table.

The slave diet began to evolve when slaves entered the plantation houses as cooks. Suddenly, southern cooking took on new meaning. Fried chicken began to appear on the tables; sweet potatoes sat next to boiled white potatoes. Regional foods such as apples, peaches, berries, nuts, and grains soon became puddings and pies; thus, soul cooking began to influence Southern food.

There was no waste in the traditional African American kitchen. Leftover fish became croquettes (by adding an egg, cornmeal or flour, seasonings which were breaded and deep-fried). Stale bread became bread pudding, and each part of the pig had its own special dish. Even the liquid from cooked greens, called potlikker, was consumed as a type of gravy, or drink.

After long hours of labor, the evening meal was a time for families to get together, and the tradition of communal meals was the perfect environment for conversation and the reciting of oral history and storytelling. Another tradition was the potluck dinner, with each family member bringing a different dish to the dinner. When it was their families' turn for a visit by the preacher, it was also common practice for black women to hold up Sunday lunches or dinners until he arrived. If the minister frequently graced one's family table, then that conferred upon the family a degree of prestige in the eyes of the congregation. The tradition of extended family, friends and neighbors gathering at one woman's household at Christmas and Thanksgiving because of her status as a cook also began with the preacher's approval.

After slavery in the United States came to an end, many poor African Americans could afford only the least expensive cuts of meat and offal. Subsistence farming yielded fresh vegetables, and fishing and hunting provided fish and wild game, such as possum, rabbit, squirrel, and sometimes waterfowl.

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 in the USA, especially in cities with large African American populations,