One of truly unique to North America and original ethnic food groups, is the outgrowth of dishes thought up within the African American food culture in the south: Southern Soul Food.
(Photo Attributed to Author: Clancy Ratliff from St. Paul, MN, U.S.)
It started way back in the days of southern tobacco and cotton plantation owners who purchased slaves captured and brought over from Africa. The slaves were given the “undesirable” cuts of meats to eat: cow and pig intestines, feet, tongues, chicken feet, etc.
But these people were very creative, and they learned how to take the foods unwanted in the big mansion and prepare tasty meals with them.
The early African Americans were given enough “free time” to hunt their own wild game, so meals of alligator and frog, snake, etc., would also be found served on the humble wooden tables in the shacks their owners kept them in.
Eventually, and especially after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which freed the slaves, and began the painfully slow process of integration in the USA, African American food recipes soon caught on with the rest of the southern people. And over the past century and a half, the culinary phenomenon became known as Southern Soul Food, and is a favorite collection of ethnic dishes all over North America.
Try some. You’ll have to agree, it just feels good to to the soul, when you dig into some …
Southern Soul Food!
Please note: For your convenience, you can click on the recipes listed below and be taken directly to a page with just that one recipe on it, in printer-friendly format.
Here is the list, in alphabetical order:
Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Savory Southern Skillet Cornbread
Smothered Pork Chops – Soul Food Style
Sock it to Me Southern Soul Cake
Southern Fried Cabbage and Bacon
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