soul food
, the foods and techniques associated with the
African American
cuisine
of the
United States
. The term was first used in print in 1964 during the rise of “Black pride,” when many aspects of African American culture?including
soul music
?were celebrated for their contribution to the American way of life. The term celebrated the ingenuity and skill of cooks who were able to form a distinctive cuisine despite limited means.
Although the name was applied much later, soul
food
originated in the home cooking of the rural South, using locally raised or gathered foods and other inexpensive ingredients. Following their emancipation from slavery in the 1860s, African American cooks expanded on the coarse diet that had been provided them by slave owners but still made do with little. Most of the foods they prepared were common to all the rural poor of the South?light- and dark-skinned alike?but these foods and food-preparation techniques were carried north by African Americans during the
Great Migration
and thus became identified with African American
culture
. African Americans were often employed as cooks in white households and in restaurants, and they incorporated the influence of their employers’ favoured dishes into their home cooking.
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Although there were regional variants, such as the Creole influence from Louisiana, many of the same foods were eaten throughout the South.
Corn
(maize) was raised as a staple, to be ground into cornmeal for
cornbread
and its local variants
hoecakes
, baked on a griddle, and
hush puppies
, usually fried with fish. Corn also provided
hominy
grits
, to be eaten as a breakfast food or a side dish.
Biscuits
were a popular form of bread.
Rice
was an important
staple
, especially in the Carolinas and in Louisiana.
Molasses
and a syrup made from
sorghum
provided sweetening.
Chickens and pigs could be raised on small-scale farms without special fodder, and
pork
, fresh or smoked, appeared in many dishes. The inclusion of smoked pork, often in the form of fatback or
bacon
, is a common thread in soul food dishes, as is the use of
lard
as
shortening
or for frying. All parts of the pig were used; sometimes only the bony or less desirable cuts were available for purchase. Pig’s tails, feet, ribs, ears, jowls, hocks, liver, and chitlins (
chitterlings; i.e., intestines) became part of the soul food
repertoire
.
Barbecuing
?the slow cooking of meat over a wood fire?became a specialty, with regional variations in sauces and seasonings. Opossums, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, and deer were hunted, and fish, frogs,
crayfish
, turtles, shellfish, and crabs were collected from fresh waters, salt waters, and marshes. Freshwater
catfish
was especially identified with soul food.
Vegetables of African origin, such as
okra
and
sweet potatoes
, were widely grown, as were
melons
, greens (including
mustard
and
collards
),
turnips
,
cabbage
, and beans. Greens, particularly collards, served as important sources of
dietary fibre
and vitamins.
Lima beans
, crowder peas,
black-eyed peas
, butter beans, and
green beans
were used fresh or dried. Spicy vinegar-based pepper sauce (
see
chili pepper
) remains a widely used condiment. Other popular dishes are fried chicken, short ribs of beef, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad. Desserts include
pies
and layer
cakes
, cobblers, and
puddings
, often incorporating
pecans
,
peaches
, and berries.
From the 1940s, soul food restaurants appeared in every large American city with a sizeable Black population and began to attract a
diverse
clientele
. More recently, health-conscious contemporary cooks have sought to limit the use of animal
fat
and salt, especially in light of the prevalence of
high blood pressure
and diabetes in the African American population. In particular, canola and vegetable oils and leaner cuts of meat became more widely used in the preparation of soul food; some cooks even prepared vegetarian equivalents to traditional soul food dishes.
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