What is Southern Soul Food?
Born of Poverty but Cooked with Love - Down Home Cooking Survives
If you hear the term soul food, check for soul food recipes, or visit a Southern-themed restaurant featuring soul food, you’re generally getting the rich tradition of excellent African-American food fare.
Selections are broad including various dishes depending on the area of the South. The South is, after all, a big geographic area with many traditions even in a niche area like “soul food.” Some typical examples of soul food would include fried chicken, chicken fried steak, chicken and dumplings, fried pork chops, wilted lettuce, greens, green beans seasoned with fat back (pork fat), black eyed peas, breaded okra, and cornbread – to name just a few traditional dishes.
How Did Soul Food Originate?
During the unfortunate time during the history of the United States when slaves were imported from Africa, plantation owners provided cheap and less desirable food supplies to slave families. Slave owners had to provide food (to protect the investment in human labor), but they did not send over what would be considered the "good food." For example, slaves might get the chicken backs which can be cooked down with dumplings added for a solid meal or beans of various types which are cheap but can be doctored up with pork fat to make a filling and tasty main dish.
African-Americans took the foods provided and applied cooking techniques from Africa as well as from the various kitchens of plantation owners where some of the slave women had the chance to work with high quality foods. These women combined their own cooking traditions along with new ones and came up with various ideas to produce tasty dishes for their own families and friends.
If the slave owners did not want the small intestines of the butchered hogs, then slave cooks would take those and make chitlins or chitterlings (depending on the area of the South). LIkewise, chicken livers could be fried and served with gravy. And, there were a variety of greens that were cooked and seasoned and served with bread like hoe cakes.
Wild game also rounded out meals, so squirrel, rabbit, even possom were served as well as fish and frog legs.
A Missing Link
Many people think that all (or most) white Southerners were rich and owned slaves, but that was not the case. As in any society, there were only a few in the South then (or now) who were rich (and could afford slaves and fancy foods).
Certainly, white Southerners had freedom (which is of great value), but typical white Southerners scrambled to put food on the table too, especially those who settled in the rugged Appalachian mountain area (now known as a poverty belt in the United States).
Soul food is, therefore, part of the culture for poor whites as well, although that is seldom mentioned. Many rural white families were large and worked hard to eke a living off the land. If a hog was nurtured and butchered, all parts were used. Even the pigs’ feet were pickled and jarred for later use. Skin was fried and brains were scrambled with eggs and liver was ground for mush to be fried as a main meat.
The common thread is that poverty demands creativity, and excellent cooks (both black and white) learned to gather poke greens for salads, use stale bread in puddings, and wild strawberries for pies. It was simply a matter of survival, but putting some “soul” into the food so that the family ate well regardless of the base ingredients.
Modern Soul Food
Some of the soul foods fell by the way. While some Southern families (both black and white) still make and serve chitlins and some still can pigs’ feet, that is not so common today. Pig ears, beef tongues, and dandelion wine are rare in the South bu seen occasionally.
Pork skins, on the other hand, are mass marketed and are similar to potato chips but thicker and puffier. In some areas, pickled eggs are still available and usually with red dye which makes the eggs (and fingers) reddish. Gravy of many varieties continues to be popular as well as biscuits and often combined with milk gravy for a delicious breakfast.
And, most towns have one or more restaurants (fast food and/or sit down) where fried chicken and other deep fried dishes are served. These are cooked now in healthier oils rather than the more traditional lard.
Pass the Tators
Soul food was born of necessity, but the popularity is tied to the heart and love that women (and some men – consider the popularity of Southern pork barbecue) put into feeding families under difficult circumstances. If the supplies weren’t fancy, the final product still could shine.
As Dolly Parton says, “You’re only poor if you choose to be.” While the rich may have dined “high on the hog,” the poor found ways to make the dregs not only palatable but now quite popular or even exotic and considered fine dining in some areas.
Pork Skins are Now Sold to the General Public
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