Soul Food versus Southern Food
What's the difference between "soul food" and "Southern food"? I mean, other than the racial background of the chef, what's the difference between the fried chicken, collard greens, candied sweet potatoes, etc, that we see in soul food places and the boarding house dishes served on lazy susans on Sundays?
I once wrote an article comparing two African American-run restaurants in Brooklyn. One was called "Soul Food Kitchen", and it was extremely down-home. Lots of lard, lots of crude ingredients made delicious. The counter woman there breezily chewed pieces of chopped barbecue between customers.
The other place place had an enormous kitchen filled with gleaming pots, sparkling clean walls and floor, and the chopping of the collard greens looked like a surgical procedure (down to the green scrubs, gloves, and hair nets). No lard, good ingredients, a bit more sophisticated cooking technique.
Both places were (and are) wonderful...I like both equally.
What I wrote in the article was that the chef/owner of the second place, Mrs. Gaither, might be insulted to hear her food described as "soul food", that soul food was more low class, and about cooking from deprivation. There's no deprivation in Mrs. Gaither's kitchen. I said that she's cooking proper Southern Cuisine, whereas Soul Food Kitchen was cooking to suit its name.
Did I get it right? Is it a question of attitude, of lard, of good ingredients and more sophisticated recipes? Or was I making a false distinction?
Lemme know what you think, y'all...
ciao
By Jim Leff
on Feb 24, 2000 10:28 AM
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Here's my two cents worth: The differences between the foods of Black and White Southerners are subtle. More caspicum pepper heat, a heavier hand with salt and pepper and a greater use of offal meat are comparative characteristics of Soul vs Country Cooking, Black versus White.
The term Soul food came into popular use at a time in the 1960s when Black nationalism was on the rise. It was in essence, a wresting of culinary control from Whites by Blacks, a renaming of the foods long associated with privation and slavery.
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great topic, guys.
Southerners have many distinctions in their food: some call it southern, some call it country cooking, some call it cracker cooking, soul food, etc. the only real distinction is that soul food (or black southern) is a bit greasier, and tends to be spicier.
the one thing that makes the food of the south stand out more than any other is the love associated with the food. southern tables have brimmed over with love for a long time.
a prevailing mystery to me has been this: why is it that southerners are the only ones who know how to fry a chicken? accept no substitutes--- pan-fried is the only real way to make fried chicken.
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John, I think you are right. Growing up in East Tennessee in the 70s, completely apart from black people, I never heard the term "soul food," only "southern cooking."
I only heard it called "soul food" when I came to New York.
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The difference, from what I can tell, is that if you're a Southerner, it's southern food, if you're not, it's soul food.
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The difference is in the taste of the food. I am no great chef, or master of big words, but I do know good food. Anyone who lives in the Atlanta area, can drive to Hodge's off of Candler road and I-20. You will find food that is very very good. Don't miss the cabbage, their black-eyed peas are ok, (the lima's are great)You MUST get their macaroni and cheese, taste the lemonade,try the collard greens and the turnip greens, indulge in a cobbler,(there is nothing else like their sweet potatoe cobbler)try the shredded pork or the bbq chicken. It's fast, it's cheap, and it's great soul food. Eat there once. and then compare the food of a "southern food restaraunt" and you may not know how the difference is achieved, but you'll taste it. Be warned, this is not an area of town that white people frequent, you may want to get your food to go if you think you'll be uncomfortable. Also, be prepared to wait in line if you go aroound dinner time on a Sunday, and the first Sunday of each month they are closed. (I drive 45 min to get there and usually buy three meals to eat throughout the week because it is so far, but it is the best I've had in Atlanta, and I've been to them all.) Enjoy
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As I was growing up, my dad use to say that "soul food" is just "southern homecooking." Believe me I was raised on cornbread, vegetables, and sweet tea. I agree with the lady that said, southerns call their food southern cooking.
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I saw a program on T.V about this subject and the information is just as you saw. With the soul food the roots come from slaves getting scraps of food and using many ingredients like lard, etc. ( not the best) to help make the food more delicious. Southern food is made with better ingredients and true they both taste the same -great, and in some dishes are just as unhealthy either way, but one has a deeper history (soul food), than the other. Not really a north or south thing and the nurishment differences are starting to diminish being that we are getting more information on and access to healthier foods and cooking styles. Soul Food may not have been the best to feed your body, but in the circumstances and times it was created, it fed your soul.
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an educated southern white women talked like blacks, because that was who taught them how to speak. The history of food is the same, a creole of people takin' the best of wherever they was from (indian, English, and Africa). Long live the goober (guba)!
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I grew up in a southern family and was always under the impression that soul food was a category under southern food for, basically, poor people food. Not to diminish its tastyness. I think soul food is enjoyed by both black and white southerners and it was created from using what was traditionally the cheaper bits of food. Things like chitlins', pigs feet, fried chicken, mac n cheese, corn bread, catfish, grits, hush puppies, greens, BBQ, chicken and dumplings, slaw, potato salad, sweet potato pie, Brunswick stew, etc. as well as meat from critters such as raccoon, possum, squirrel, etc.
I agree with what many have said before me regarding the seasonings. I've noticed that African Americans are a little more enthusiastic with the hot sauce lol.
Here's a list of what I think most southerners would consider southern food, but not necessarily soul food:
mint julep, lace cookies, rolls, spoon bread, tea cakes, aspic (?), ambrosia, coconut cake, gingerbread, lady Baltimore cake, pound cake, rice pudding, bread pudding, Robert E. Lee cake, trifle, mulled cider, Moravian spice cookies, chicken hash (capitolade), roast beef with yorkshire pudding (traditional on Christmas), greengage plum preserves, Smithfield ham, Tyler pudding pie, carpetbag steak (steak stuffed with oytsters), picallili sauce, chicken and oysters, beef and kidney pie, crab cakes, soft-shelled crab, crab Norfolk, deviled crab, crab claw soup, oyster and spinach soup, plantation skillet cake (served for breakfast in SC), country captain, she-crab soup, mincemeat pie, kilt (wilted) lettuce, beignets, pralines, pain perdu, boudin, terrapin stew, bananas foster, shad and shad roe, herring, summer pudding, plum pudding, English peas with butter or cream, leak and potato soup, watercress, morels, roast chicken (stuffed or not), roast pheasant or quail (traditionally served with currant or gooseberry sauce), pork roast, potted shrimp (shrimp paste), bluefish, spot, red snapper, eel, flounder, cheese straws, popovers, etc. etc. etc.
And of course, the two are not mutually exclusive from each other. Despite what many think, Southern food does not just equal soul food. I think with non-soul, southern food, you can see a more British influence, especially with things like roast beef with yorkshire pudding, mincemeat, oyster soup, potted shrimp, etc.
But lets face it, all forms of southern food, whether it's soul, tidewater, cajun, appalachian, etc. is the best type of American food out there :)
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Your post is really interesting to say the least. I would like to add some additional information. As an African-American, with familial Southern roots (Louisiana), I can say that Soul food was never impressed upon me as a category of food "under" Southern food. The cuisine is in a category of it's own. Because African slaves didn't have the ingredients from their homeland, they needed to improvise with what was available. Many of the foods we eat, look a lot like traditional African dishes - the spices/hot sauce, beans, grits, vegetables, jambalaya, gumbo, yams, etc. are very similar to what many African cultures eat. Even the bits of "undesirable" meats remind me of an African dish called tripe. If anything, I believe Soul food is an offshoot of traditional African food. In addition, many of the techniques like, frying and salting came from the need to preserve their food in the slave quarters, therefore the food isn't the healthiest. Because of this, most people I know don't eat it on a regular - it's considered a delicacy (certainly not, "poor people's food" LOL). So as you have mentioned, much of the food you list in the Southern category has English origins, Soul food has African origins.
In addition, there are a few dishes you list that have shown up on my table (and African-Americans would consider soul food): Ambrosia, pound cake, rice pudding, bread pudding, bananas foster, mint julep. I do know that bananas foster was invented by a Dutchman in New Orleans in the 50's, so it is quite possible these regional dishes were adopted into Soul food cuisine. Hence, the reason for seeing these dishes on menus in Soul Food restaurants. But, as I have not discovered the origin of these dishes, nor the differences between preparation, I cannot be 100% sure. For example, I do know that we don't put raisins in our bread or rice pudding.
Anyhoo, I do appreciate the list of Southern dishes - some of them sound quite tasty. ;-)
Also you may want to check out these links regarding the same discussion of Soul Food vs Southern food:
http://dougdemilo.newsvine.com/_news/2010/08/20/4941208-basic-gumbo-okra-or-file#c16801609
http://dougdemilo.newsvine.com/_news/...
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haute,
I was talking to an old cook from Lousiana, and she alleged that her white neighbors and she cooked the exact same, right down to the collard greens.
I def. agree that soul food takes a lot from Africa.
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I agree! Born and raised in the deep deep South (MS), we always called it southern cooking or country cooking. My grandmother's used hot fresh peppers, pepper sauce, Tabasco, and jarred peppers all the time. The food was not bland. Fatback, bacon, bacon grease, or ham hocks were used at every meal. Favorites were lima beans/green beans/all peas and okra from the garden along with cornbread and a big platter of sliced tomatoes, onions, and peppers. The best fried chicken ever. When I think of "soul food" it's while I'm eating one of those things and feel a comfort deep down, a sigh, a memory that nourishes my soul. To me, it never had anything to do with African-Americans - it was just the food we loved and were raised on. I still cook much of it today along with regional foods from Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama - we live in South Mississippi which is near New Orleans and much influenced by it, and remember: New Orleans food is greatly influenced by French, Spanish, African....etc. It is some of the best food in the world.
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Southern Food is a combination of old Scots-Irish (that's "Ulster Scots" for y'all Brits), Cherokee and Creek, Acadian, French, Caribbean, Spanish, Mexican, and plenty of African recipes which were applied to whatever ingredients were on hand in the garden, ranch, farm, or could be hunted from the local woods and swamps.
Soul Food, Cajun, Low Country, Mountain, Tex-Mex, and Cracker recipes are all styles of Southern cooking which have evolved after their own fashion.
The spices and names of the dishes might be different, but remember that y'all are talking about a conglomeration of cultures which spanned a quarter of a continent, which sometimes violently fought each other, and lived in places where they were geographically and culturally isolated for a very long time...
BTW, this thread is positively ancient.
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"BTW, this thread is positively ancient." I'm not sure if you were referencing me bringing up an older thread or not. I realized the last post was a few months ago, but I wanted to clarify a few things for anyone finding this thread as I did (through Google).
BTW: I, and other African Americans, would not classify Soul Food as a style of Southern cooking. It is an offshoot (or the result) of African cooking styles with similar ingredients. In addition, I find that many Southern dishes, have been heavily influenced by Soul Food dishes, most likely because many plantations had African-American slaves cooking for their slave masters, not to mention Blacks were cooking/cleaning for pennies for White households across the nation post-slavery through the 60s-70s. It is no wonder that many of our dishes were incorporated in Southern style cooking. But again, that is not to say that Soul food is under the category of Southern Food - quite the contrary. In fact, Soul Food is a cuisine that is shared by African-Americans all over the U.S, not just the South (due to migration after slavery). You would be hard pressed to find an African American in the U.S., that doesn't know what Soul food is and how it tastes (even if they've never been to the South). Soul Food isn't part of a regional culture - it's part of an ethnic culture. As an African-American, I find it odd that some believe we are/were not allowed to define our own culture and traditions.
P.S. Telling an African-American that Soul Food is categorized as style of (or "under") Southern food, is like telling a Jewish person that their food is American.
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This thread is ancient because it was started 10 years ago, which is frankly irrelevent, in my opinion.
You state that soul food is not a style of southern cooking because African-Americans across the country know it and eat it. That is true, but it overlooks the fact that (as you point out) this is due to the out migration of African-Americans following the Civil War. Soul food, by and large, originated with African-Americans living in the South. Therefore, it is logical to categorize it as a style of southern cooking, just like low country, NC bbq, Cajun, etc.
Your analogy with Jewish cuisine doesn't ring true because Jewsh cuisine did not originate in America. Soul food did originate in the American South. You seem to take this categorization as a pejorative, but I don't think anyone intends it that way. I certainly don't.
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I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. You can believe that soul food had it's origins in the South if you want to. It doesn't change the fact that ingredients that were selected and cooking styles were influenced and/or originated from Africa and by AFRICAN slaves who were kidnapped from Africa and brought to the south. Dishes were adapted like some Jewish dishes were modified after Jewish people arrived here. Deli anyone? Many dishes were adapted in New York and the East Coast, but we don't call their food "Eastern" food. The words "soul food" are synonymous with the words "African-American food." That is what I mean by our food is not region specific. It does not make logical sense to say African-American food is a Southern style of cooking, because 1.) the food originated from an ethnic group of people who originated from a locale outside of the U.S., namely AFRICA (comparable to Jewish people in America and their food), 2.) descendants of AFRICAN slaves are all over the U.S. & Canada - not just the south, and 3.) The location in the U.S. doesn't really matter. The North owned slaves too, before they decided to outlaw the practice. So it would be logical to deduce that African slaves were cooking there too. If you need further understanding, you can compare that to Jewish people establishing themselves on the South & East coast first, then migrating to the rest of the U.S. Their food is still Jewish food, it doesn't retain a regional label. Like I said before, I would think we would allow those whose culture it belongs to, to be able to classify and define their own food, rituals, and traditions themselves. It would be quite arrogant for an institution to deny that right (seriously, the irony of that statement is palpable). I'll repeat it again: I do not know one single African-American who would classify soul food as a subset of southern food. Southerner or otherwise. Point blank, period.
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"I guess we'll have to agree to disagree."
Yes, I guess so.
"It does not make logical sense to say African-American food is a Southern style of cooking, because 1.) the food originated from an ethnic group of people who originated from a locale outside of the U.S..."
Thats obviously true, however, it ignores the fact that the said style of cooking originated while an overwhelming majority of said people were living in the South.
"descendants of AFRICAN slaves are all over the U.S. & Canada"
Again, that's obviously true, but you ignore the fact that an overwhelming majority of African- Americans moved to the rest of the US and Canada from the South.
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JLA1960,
I am not ignoring the South. What I am saying is that the location of African slaves, doesn't particularly matter. African-American cuisine (i.e., soul food) would have existed if the South was there or not. The style of cooking/preparing food PREDATES the South. As I've stated before, cooking styles originated in AFRICA, not the South; ingredients were chosen based on similarities to AFRICAN ingredients. Cuisine may have been ADAPTED later in the U.S., but it ORIGINATES from African traditional cooking. In other words, if the colonies settled in the West, there would still be African-American cuisine/soul food. Furthermore, the "South," wasn't the South, until more land was stolen and the states formed. Before the American Revolution, the colonies owned slaves. After which, both the North and South owned slaves. The location is just semantics -- you can steal an area and call it what you want. It's the people that make and practice their own traditions - not the location they are transported to.
P.S. The term "soul" in soul food was used during the Civil Rights Movement by AFRICAN-AMERICANS, as a reference to our roots in Africa. Basically they renamed African "slave food" to "soul food" (I am now seeing that this may have been a mistake. It seems that so many people are confused). If you are to follow logic: Soul = Africa, and soul food = African- (American/Canadian/etc) food. Just an FYI, Afro-Canadians also have their version of soul food.
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so long as you leave sweet potato pie in southern cooking -- and NOT soul food, gal... you can say what you want about goobers! [ahem. guba]
And Jewish cooking does distinguish regional characteristics. You have german/polish jewish cooking, and Levant jewish cooking.
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chow, Also there is cuisine of the Sephardic Jews as well as the Jewish Quarter in Rome, Trastevere.
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Chow,
Ok, you betta watch who you're callin, gal -first and foremost. And don't try and play coy - I may not have been born in the South, but I know what it means.
Secondly, When I refer to Jewish people, I'm talking about the Jewish people that settled here between the early 1900s and after the World War. I know there are different Jewish cultures, but when I talk about brisket and deli, people will know what I mean.
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I think you greatly underestimate the influence of place in the creation of soul food. It wasn't simply a wholesale transfer of African ingredients and prparation methods. It was a partial transfer, which was then combined with existing ingredients and preparation methods in the South. Culturally and geographically, the South existed prior to the American Revolution. And soul food, as we know it in this country, most certainly is a product of the American South.
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JLA, the South wasn't the South until Europeans stole land from the native people. Like I said before, African-American cuisine would have existed whether the South was there or not. If the European settlers decided to colonize in the West, there still would have been African-American cuisine - a product of an ethnic culture- not a demographic region.
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Yep, and it would then be a subset of Southwestern cuisine, because it would have been influenced by the food and culture of the area, just as it was in the South.
And there weren't any Africans in the South until European colonization occured.
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doesn't this presuppose that everybody in one whole continent cooked the same way. Africa is a continent not a country. It's like saying European cooking which is clearly silly.
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In colonial Williamsburg, VA, slaves worked for their masters 6 days a week and worked for themselves on the seventh day. That was their day to tend to their gardens, make clothes, make and mend their own shelter, and do whatever they needed to survive. Their resources were very limited, so I imagine that a pot of greens turned out pretty much the same no matter what area they were from. It's not like one day they would decide to make choucroute, the next day paella.
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Africa is a huge continent with many, many different styles of cooking. Anytime people relocate (willingly or unwillingly) there is a natural process of adapting what foodstuff is available to the style/tradition/methods of cooking one is used to. This alchemy is what creates new styles.
The food which is now known as Soul Food has its roots in African traditions/methods/flavor profiles which adapted to what was available due to circumstance and availability in the American South. Yes, those of African decent
were also enslaved in the American North and some made their way to freedom in Canada. But we don't associate cod, cranberries, wild rice, maple products or lobster (which was once cheap and undesirable) with Soul Food - even though some of those of African decent had access to them.
I know a fair number of folks who have moved to the U.S. South from Africa (willingly) in recent years. We talk food a bit, and the majority seem to see aspects of their Africa in Soul Food, but view it as a distinctive genre of American cuisine.
Similarly those I know of African decent whose people were enslaved in the Caribbean cook in ways distinctly different from American Soul Food. Their ancestors came with African food traditions to a new place and their cooking evolved differently due to the distinctive influences and foods available in the islands.
Nothing is static. Place, time and availability all help change and temper the evolution of the foodways of all of our ancestors. Even those who stayed put in their ancestral homelands are not immune to this. Tomatoes and Italy pretty much illustrate that!
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I thank and honor the influences African slaves have on my food history, but I wouldn't make it an issue of color today. I was raised eating in the kitchens of black ladies, the women of my family were influenced and taught in part by black ladies souse, pickled pigs feet, liver, chitterlings, and other things some would consider soul food, are as much, if not more, a part of my diet and heritage than many African Americans my age.
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To this day there are definitely many white people in the South who would consider all that "black people's food." Or should I say, I'd be interested to see chitterlings on a restaurant menu where the customers are mostly white.
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meatn3,
"But we don't associate cod, cranberries, wild rice, maple products or lobster (which was once cheap and undesirable) with Soul Food - even though some of those of African decent had access to them."
Whose "We"? This is exactly my point. White people and people that aren't descendants of African slaves, are not the authority on African-American Cuisine (i.e., soul food). Please read ALL my posts, then re-read yours. You will see that everything you typed has already been addressed in one way or other.
P.S. I wanted to add to your comment regarding Carribean people: nice try. I have Carribean, Hatian, etc. friends as well. They have dishes very similar to our own. Some even call their food, Soul Food. What do we all have in common: we are people of African descent; our ethnic culture/traditions. The African Diaspora is far and wide. For more insight on that, you can read a little about Marcus Garvey (a Jamaican). Lastly, as I have stated in example before, I wouldn't categorize Jewish American food as "Eastern Food," as it makes no sense to limit an ethnic food to a region of the United States. I'd like to see you tell a Jamaican, that their food is "Northern," because many have settled there.
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"I'm not sure if you were referencing me bringing up an older thread or not."
Sorry, I saw that Jim Leff started this thread back in 2000, and I did a double take on the date. Personally I'm quite pleased that you found this thread, dusted it off, and tossed it back into circulation. It's a good topic for discussion.
As for your assertion that Soul Food isn't Southern food, that pretty much denies a good chunk of history. I'm not saying that Soul Food didn't have influences from outside of Southern culture, nor that African culture didn't influence Southern culture, because it's quite obvious that it did.
What I am stating is that Soul Food is a Southern style of cooking, which was transplanted to the major metropolitan areas of the north, due to the families of former slaves leaving for a better life up north between The Spanish American War and WWI. After that, Soul Food evolved in it's own direction.
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I'm glad to have found this thread as well. It seems as though many are misinformed about my culture. I'm glad to be able to enlighten those that may stumble upon this thread. BTW: Kitty revived the thread in June 2010 - the credit for resuscitation should go to her :-D. In response to the rest of your post, please see my response to jla1960.
P.S. You may want to check your facts about migration locations and time periods. I wouldn't want you to sound like you don't know what you're talking about if you ever decide to repeat that again. ;-)
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Please explain what facts deet13 has wrong regarding migration locations and time periods.
From the Houghton Mifflin Companion to US History:
The onset of the Great Migration--the mass movement of black people from the rural areas of the South to the cities of the North--came in the 1890s, as black men and women left to settle in eastern coastal cities such as Philadelphia and New York. The single largest movement of African-Americans occurred during World War I when approximately 500,000 people moved from the rural and small-town South into the cities of the North and the Midwest.
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Agree. Deet13's arguments are wrong on two counts. First, it's called Southern food because it originated in the South; there's no attempt by other regions or ethnic groups to hijack the food label. Second, the comparison of Jewish food to African food is inconsistent as there is no country named "Jewish". Those folks came from many parts of the world where they had established communities. It's a religion.
Also, she claims the ingredients are African when , in fact, with the exception of a few items introduced into the US (like okra), they were indigenous to the US or introduced long before the slave trade began.
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Mayor,
I wasn't sure if you meant me with regards to African ingredients. I just want to make sure that I made myself clear when referencing that many of ingredients that African slaves used were inspired by ingredients from Africa. Also, the words "food," and "cuisine" are interchangeable in my posts (where applicable).
Regarding Jewish people: I know what you mean with regard to their lack of a country/continent before the United Nations (U.S.A.) gave them Israel. There are those that will argue that they are a culture and ethnic group, as well as a religion (with new reports that Israelites are segregating cemetaries in order to separate themselves from Ethiopian Jews, it gets even more confusing). I have learned my lesson, and have stopped trying to have that discussion. In an attempt to make things easier to digest, I didn't use an obvious people/culture (like Japanese, or Mexican), because it seems that it's hard for some people to believe that descendants of African slaves once had a family history with a homeland other than the country they now reside in. All most people see is our skin color, not our rich cultural traditions and food ways. Is it no wonder that we try and cling to what is left, after so much has been lost and taken away? To JLA1960, if it isn't clear by now, I absolutely take any categorization of African-American Soul Food by an outside group as an insult, for reasons that I have made quite plain.
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can you have a chat with some of the folks on Field Negro's blog? they've got their own ideas on soul food, and you might find them an interesting contrast and inflection to your own beliefs.
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Hi Chowrin,
Keep in mind that.
1.) one "blogger," is not an authority, nor the voice of African Americans, on our culture. Neither is Jesse Jackson, or Al Sharpton, BTW.
2.) I have reservations about anyone naming their blog "Field Negro," whether it's satirical or not.
3.) My beliefs are not really an opinion. My thoughts on MY culture, are not only based on oral history, but on the countless hours that I have spent learning about my history, and taking Afro-Am courses.
Suffice it to say, that despite my reservations, I may take a look at his blog. Really disappointed in the name though - Kinda embarrassing to say the least.
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"a Field Negro is a strong person that refuses to bow down to anyone but God. A Field Negro can’t be bought with money or material things. "
Words and how we view them change over time - a fuller understanding of history allows us a clearer view than that through our own particular lens.
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meatn3,
Well, not in my circle it doesn't. I guess it's kind of like the N-word that way. You will find some of us that use it, and others that don't because it will always carry a negative connotation.
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ya mean like goobers? [catch the linguistic argument...]
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JLA1960,
Without going into a history lesson, there were slaves that were already living in the North when they were freed (btw: there were northern slaves up until the Civil war), there were tens of thousands (some say over a hundred thousand) that escaped from the South to the northern U.S. and Canada during slavery, and there were two Great Migrations. The Second Migration lasted until after WWII through 1970, where it is estimated that five (5) million people left. I'm a product of the last migration, as my paternal grandparents were in that one.
If you want all locations and further details you can search Wikipedia, or go to the website below (re: Second Great Migration) -- they have maps and everything.
http://www.inmotionaame.org/migration...
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On a lighter note...If you wanrt a good repertoire of Soul Food/Afro American, as it relates to Southern Cooking, and the companion recipes ; try and find the now out of print "PRINCESS PAMELA,S SOUL FOOD COOKBOOK'. The New American Library Inc. 1969.
Princess Pamela's description and feelings for the line where Southern Cooking ends and Soul Food/Afro-American begins is an interesting take on the subject from a Black Cook's perspective, and her family originally from the South, and ending up in NYC. Princess Pamela had a restaurant, "THE LITTLE KITCHEN", on 10th st. Manhattan.
If you find the book it will dispel a lot of the blather proffered on this thread.
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Princess Pamela's Soul Food Cookbook is readily available via internet search, but is fairly pricey. I am going to try to track down a cheaper edition as it sound's like interesting reading.
And, I know one thing for sure about Soul/Southern/Afro food: it tastes GREAT.
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mayor, WOW, my copy has a printed price of 95 cents at time of printing, 1969, and I just did a search, hoping to replace my tattered, stained, and falling apart copy. They are going for $155.00 for "collectible" copies; and $55.00 to 465.00 for "used". I guess I will just nurse my beat up copy along a little longer!!
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This might help inform the argument
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/boo...
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In the 37 years I lived in Nashville the differences between "soul food" and "Southern food" seemed both blurred and well defined. "Southern" places served catfish with fries and hushpuppies, "soul" places served catfish sandwiches on white bread, with or without pickles. The family-owned Swett's, originally a single cafeteria-style place near the TSU campus, and now expanded to the Farmer's Market and the airport terminal, offers almost the same fare as the white-owned "Southern" meat'n'threes, but with a much broader range of vegetables such as greens, cabbage and field peas, plus such specialties as pig knuckles and turkey wings. Until ten or twelve years ago the Daughters of Isis, an African-American women's service and social group, had a counter in the food building at the State Fair, offering the usual fried chicken and sweet-potato pies, but also pig knuckles and sometimes chitterlings. I almost got into an argument with the woman behind the counter, who could not believe this fat white boy was really wanting chit'lins, but I did, and got'em. It'll never be my favorite dish, but with plenty of hot sauce they were pretty good, and worth the effort … Another subdivision of "soul" in that part of the world used to be barbecue and hot chicken, and for the most part still is; the "mainstream" BBQ places tend to be bland and boring, while the good stuff was coming from backstreet operations like Crow's, just south of Ellington Parkway in East Nashville, and the sparkly-clean, well-lit Cantrell's on the other side of that road. I've been told recently that Cantrell's is still there. As for hot chicken, Prince's and Mary's are (or were?) the main proponents of this Black Nashville phenomenon, a variety of deep-fried chicken bathed (before and/or after frying) in a hot sauce of surprising vigor, and served, like those fish sandwiches, on slices of white bread, bones and all. A pepperhead friend of mine introduced himself to Mary's by demanding his chicken full-strength, which immediately drew a crowd to watch what would happen next. As expected, his experience was such that he was genuinely surprised afterwards to find his head still in one piece and his hair not actually on fire.
Of course foods, foodways and recipes are widely held in common, much more so than not. Everyone eats cornbread and grits and biscuits, ham and beans, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, and these things are prepared pretty much the same way in any house, black or white. But if you run across anyone who knows how to cook 'possum and has done so more than once, or knows someone who has, it's probably going to be a black person. And if you talk to someone about setting up a table for a holiday party and she insists that you HAVE to have tenderloin of beef, and maybe spiced round, either she will be white, or you are and she's a caterer.
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I'd disagree with anyone who made the concept of soul food a color issue. I daresay that if one were to see my weekly family dinners, they would be of identical quality and content of African American families throughout the south. I would also go as far as to say my great grandmother can cook chitlins that any Black person with a discerning pallette and an inherent knowledge of southern food would be proud to eat. If the difference has to be based on ethnicity, then it doesn't exist at all.
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That may be true in today's world, but there can't be much doubt that the genesis of this style of cooking was with slave cooks.
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Of course, but I would only go as far as to say that those slave influences have only became a working part of southern cuisine and are not, in fact, a separate "type" of cooking. Here inrural west TN, those who honor old southern food traditions have an awareness of coastal and lowland Carolina food, cajun and creole food, as well as Appalachian influenced food. No reason to claim soul food as a variation really, as slave cooking without a doubt influenced southern cooking as a whole.
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dailybread,
I never said cuisine was a color issue. I said soul food is African-American cuisine. It is a part of our ETHNIC culture and heritage. Just like Jewish food. Anyone can make it if they want, but don't try and re-label it, or re-categorize it. All that's been done before (re-labeling, conquering, redrawing maps, colonizing, etc, etc.). But in today's day and age, it's a little harder to get away with. Access to information makes it more difficult. Not to mention, the ethnic group whose cuisine it belongs to (African-Americans) are still here. As I've said before, I would never try and approach a Jewish person and claim such-and-such dish, or try and relabel it. And in all actuality, my opinion wouldn't really matter to that Jewish person, much as yours doesn't.
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Phaedrus has posted about a new book which is relevant to this thread:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/7582...
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I read the review, written by a Caucasian.
I particularly found it interesting that he says:
1.) "In the South, slave tastes DEFINED the cooking repertory in a wide arc that extended from the rice and seafood belt of the Carolinas to the Creole and Cajun lands of Louisiana. Elsewhere, BLACKS BROUGHT new flavors and dishes to white America in restaurants and markets, or on the sidewalk from food carts.
[If an ethnic group DEFINES something, wouldn't that "something," be categorized under it's defining category/group?]
2.) "The final course has not been served — which is another way of saying that, after more than 300 years, BLACK AMERICAN CUISINE is still vital and thriving. "
[Like I've stated before, one would be hard pressed to find an African-American that would say that African-American Cuisine is under the category of Southern food].
Other than his prolific use of the word "black," I have found little that I disagree with. In fact, much of his review is what I've been saying all along.
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It seems like everything there is to be said on this subject has already been said, and now the conversation is just going in circles, and growing increasingly unfriendly. We're going to lock it now.
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