Soul-Food-History derived from prized southern dishes during the American slavery era. It's an African American cuisine and Soul Food mostly known as Southern or comfort food, is the foundation for bringing back memories of family dinners and special celebrations. This method of cooking also introduced the foundation from which many popular dishes are made from today.
Between 300 -1619, the first group of Africans landed in America in Jamestown, Virginia. They brought food over to America including seeds of native crops. African American slaves were farmers, cattle raisers, and fishermen and introduced several plants such as black-eyed peas, okra, sweet sorghum, and watermelons as part of American’s crops and foods.
African American slaves were indentured servants and had to pay their due by giving up several years of their life. This made up the slave population in Southern America and was the beginning of soul food history.
YOUNG GIRLS PREPARED MEALS - Soul-Food-History
During that time in Soul Food history, young girls learned to prepare traditional foods such as fufu, which is made with vegetables and pounded yams. Fufu was often served with soup, stew, or roasted meat. The native foods were yams, vegetables, rice, and groundnuts. Africans were also very skilled in frying, roasting, grilling, boiling, and steaming their foods. They had special talents preparing wild game, and planting small gardens including wild greens and fruit. Women often worked 16 to 18 hours in the fields then prepared one-pot meals.
SLAVES PREPARED THEIR MEALS - Soul-Food-History
The slaves had to create their own dishes from the leftovers that their masters did not eat. They often exchanged recipes verbally with each other which led to the development of African American cuisine. This was how many of their foods were gathered for their meals.
Although they love cooking including pork, sweet potatoes, hominy, collard greens, and spoon bread, breakfast was considered the most important meal of the day. A typical breakfast consisted of hoecakes and molasses.
COOKING METHODS AND TECHNIQUES - Soul-Food-History
Cooking was mostly done on open pits or fireplaces with large swing black pots and big iron cast skillets and was prepared by black cooks. Using open pits or fireplaces are now used as grills for cooking.
The American slaves did not use measuring cups or measuring spoons. They had no cookbooks or formal training in cooking. They had no one to learn from but each other.
They also used large amount of fat, sugar, and salt to season their foods because it was cheap and readily available. Salt was also used as a preservative since there were no refrigeration or other methods to keep food cool.
When testing their food for doneness, they used their own senses, and when they felt the need, they added a pinch of this and a dash of that to enhance the flavor of a dish. They just knew by instinct when their food was done as many cooks know today. That’s also why you see many recipes that read “cook until golden brown.”
Cajun and Creole cooking was another familiar style of cooking and included such dishes as jambalaya, bread pudding, desserts, dirty rice, gumbo, and red beans and rice.
By the end of the Civil War, Black Americans cooked on cattle farms and were also pioneers as farmers survived off the land. During these hard times, they adapted their own cooking habits and techniques and formed many new ones along the way.
It was a great challenge to create good food with primitive tools and very limited ingredients. They also cooked such foods as biscuits, baked beans, numerous breads, like spoon bread, and barbecue.
AFRICAN AMERICAN CUISINE - SOUL FOOD/Soul-Food-History
In the 1960‘s , Southern-style cooking of Black Americans, now labeled as “Soul Food” was due to its roots in American slavery. It was also a reminder that African American slaves paved the way in the development of African American style cooking.
Many years ago, black cooks verbally exchanged recipes as they remembered them and today many Southerners still cook without a recipe, just by simply remembering main ingredients and adding seasonings to their taste. This way of cooking has produced many great cooks. This is what soul food cooking is all about.
When I was a young girl, I used to watch my grandmother in the kitchen as she prepared meals and hummed her favorite song, When You Hear of My Home Going. All of a sudden she would lift her hands toward the sky and say, “I wouldn’t take nothin’ for my journey”. I would always looked puzzled and used to wonder what she meant. Now I know exactly what she meant.
A special thanks to our ancestors for creating the African American cooking experience through soul-food-history. Today, people from all walks of life now enjoy southern and soul style cuisine. The foundation for soul food was laid many years ago, and today, the tradition lives on.
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