This is a list of soul foods and dishes. Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans that originated in the Southern United States during the era of slavery. It uses a variety of ingredients and cooking styles, some of which came from West African and Central African cuisine brought over by enslaved Africans while others originated in Europe. Some are indigenous to the Americas as well, borrowed from Native American cuisine.Ferguson 1993 The foods from West-Central Africa brought to North America during the slave trade were guinea pepper, gherkin, sesame seeds, kola nuts, eggplant, watermelon, rice, cantaloupe, millet, okra, black-eyed peas, yams, and legumes such as kidney beans. These crops became a staple in Southern cuisine in the United States. Soul food dishes were created by enslaved Black Americans using minimal ingredients because slaveholders fed their slaves. Historian John Blassingame's book published in 1972, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, was researched from a collection of slave narratives. According to Blassingame's research, some enslaved people received the bare minimum in food and had to supplement their diets by hunting, fishing, and foraging for food. From their limited food sources enslaved African Americans created their meals and new dishes called soul food.
Many of the meals prepared by enslaved people were later published in African-American cookbooks after the American Civil war. The dishes the enslaved and their descendants created influenced American southern cuisine. They created gumbo, an adaptation of a traditional west African stew; stewed tomatoes and okra; corn cakes, shrimp and grits; hoppin’ John, jambalaya, red rice and other rice-based dishes; collards and other greens; chow-chow and other pickled vegetables; boiled peanuts and peanut soup; and chitlins and cracklings, among other foods."
Meat dishes During slavery, pork was a main source of meat for enslaved Black Americans. Slaveholders only provided their slaves the parts of the pig they did not eat such as innards (chitlins), pigs' feet, pigs' ears, and pigs' tail. To supplement their diets, enslaved people hunted and fished for food. Some meat soul foods and dishes include:
Name Image DescriptionBuffalo ribsA dish consisting of the breaded and deep fried ribs of the buffalo fish. Pictured is a live buffalo fish. Catfish Catfish are abundant in rivers and streams in the United States and enslaved people fished for this food and baked catfish by dredging them in cornmeal and was added with other vegetables to make a hearty meal. Pictured is fried catfish served with a cream sauce with cornbread and dirty rice on the side. Chipped beef on toastPressed, dried, and salted beef with a bechamel sauce, served on toast. Additional toppings, gravy, or beef stock may also be added. Chitlins Chitlins are cleaned pig intestines; they are cooked in a pot and seasoned. The Hausa people in West Africa eat chicken intestines. Enslaved Africans in the American South continued their traditions of cooking, seasoning, and eating animal innards. Enslaved people added extremely hot peppers for additional flavor and spice to their chitlins. The parts of the pig that white plantation owners did not eat they gave to the enslaved which they used to season food and prepared one-pot meals, soups, and chitlin dishes. Crabs After the American Civil war, African American men made up of half of watermen in the crabbing industry in the Chesapeake Bay area. They were skilled in catching fish, crabs, and oysters. African Americans living along the Atlantic coast and Gulf Coast created soul food dishes using seafood, preparing them in one-pot stews that became gumbo and other classic dishes. Fatback Fatty, cured, salted pork, especially the first layers of the back of the pig primarily used in slow-cooking as a seasoning. Pictured is breaded and fried fatback. Fried chicken A dish consisting of chicken pieces usually from broiler chickens that have been floured or battered and then pan-fried, deep fried, or pressure fried. The seasoned breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior.
Chicken and waffles, in particular, is a soul food dish associated with special occasions. Fried fish Any of several varieties of fish, including catfish, whiting, porgies, bluegill, sometimes battered in seasoned cornmeal. Adapted from method of frying chicken. Guinea fowlA bird indigenous to Africa and was brought to the Americas by way of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Guinea fowl became a source of meat for enslaved and free African Americans and eventually part of the subsistence culture of the whole region. On American plantations, the enslaved consumed the eggs of the guinea fowl, as well as cooking the meat with rice like their West-Central African ancestors. Gumbo Louisiana gumbo has influences from West African, French, Spanish, and Native American cuisines. Gumbo in Louisiana has a roux for thickening and as a sauce. Gullah "gumbo" in the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia is a tomato base. In the records of slave narratives, slaves made gumbo as a meal. One slave narrative had a recipe for gumbo made by a former slave. The recipe included peppers, onions, rice, chicken and shrimp meat. Ham hocksTimothy Williams In Changing Harlem, Soul Food Struggles 5, 2008 New York Times Typically smoked or boiled, ham hocks generally consist of much skin, tendons and ligaments, and require long cooking through stewing, smoking or braising to be made palatable. The cut of meat can be cooked with greens and other vegetables or in flavorful sauces. Hog jowl Cured and smoked cheeks of pork. It is not actually a form of bacon, but is associated with the cut due to the streaky nature of the meat and the similar flavor. Hog jowl is a staple of soul food, but is also used outside the United States, for example in the Italian dish guanciale. Hog maw The stomach lining of a pig; it is very muscular and contains no fat. As a soul food dish, hog maw has often been coupled with chitterlings, which are pig intestines. In the book Plantation Row Slave Cabin Cooking: The Roots of Soul Food hog maw is used in the Hog Maw Salad recipe. Jambalaya In the records of slave narratives, formerly enslaved people from Louisiana made jambalaya as a meal with rice, pork or chicken, red pepper, onion, lard, salt and pepper. Oxtail The tail of cattle, oxtail is a bony, gelatin-rich meat, which is usually slow-cooked as a stew or braised. Oysters Enslaved and free Black Americans living near the Atlantic Ocean caught oysters for food and prepared soul food meals from this food. During slavery, Thomas Downing was a free black man who lived in New York and was known as the "New York Oyster King." By 1825 he opened an oyster cellar, "Downing's Oyster House", on Broadway Street, in the city's business district. There he served raw, fried, and stewed oysters, oyster pie, fish with oyster sauce, and poached turkey stuffed with oysters. Pickled pigs' feet Slow cooked, sometimes pickled or often eaten with a vinegar based sauce. Pigs' feet Pigs' feet in soul food is a European influence as they are eaten in Europe. African Americans use pigs' feet to season their vegetables. Also during slavery, some white plantation owners gave the parts of the pig they did not eat to their slaves. The feet of pigs: the cuts are used in various dishes around the world, and their usage increased in popularity during the Great Recession. Pork As a meat dish, such as ham and bacon, and for the flavoring of vegetables and legumes, gravies and sauces. Slaveholders did not provide enough food to feed their slaves and only gave enslaved people a daily diet of pork, cornmeal, and molasses. From their limited food sources, slaves seasoned their vegetables and other food using pork fat (lard) and pork meat. This became a food tradition after emancipation in Black families to season vegetables and stews with pork meat. Pork ribs The ribcage of a domestic pig, meat and bones together, is cut into usable pieces, prepared by smoking, grilling, or baking – usually with a sauce, often barbecue – and then served. The method of barbecuing is of Native American and West African influence. The Hausa word for barbecue is babbake. West Africans brought their methods of barbecue and making barbecue sauce to North America. African Americans use Native American and West African techniques of barbecue. Poultry Giblets, such as chicken liver and gizzards.Mike Royko July 20, 1994 Page: 3 Chicago Tribune Pictured is a chicken gizzard dish. Shrimp and grits Shrimp and grits is a seafood dish that was prepared by African Americans living near water sources such as the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia and in Louisiana. This dish has become a common Southern dish prepared and eaten in different areas in the South. Turkey Black Americans flavor their vegetables, collard and turnip greens using turkey necks. Turkey necks are placed in a pot of boiling water with greens and the fat from the meat adds flavor and seasoning to vegetables.
Vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits
Beans, greens and other vegetables are often cooked with ham or pork parts to add flavor. To supplement their diets, enslaved African Americans grew vegetables and fruits in their gardens to make one-pot stews and "gumbos." Since the late 20th-century and into the 21st-century, some African Americans create vegan soul food meals. Several Black chefs have opened vegan soul food restaurants to cook healthier foods rooted in African American culture. Researchers at the University of Guelph noted the importance of leafy greens in African-American cuisine: "Leafy greens, both indigenous to Africa and those used in African-American cuisine, are highly nutritious, rich in calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, potassium, zinc, iron, folic acid and vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B5, B6, and E, and are useful in promoting brain function, immune system health, and hormone production."