History Of Soul Food

History Of Soul Food

The history of American soul food can be traced all the way back to the days of grindstone. More often times than not, the slaves were accustomed the most additional part of the meal, the leftovers from the shack. Pairing this with their own home - grown vegetables, the first soul food dishes were artificial. After the slaves were freed, most of them were so penniless that they could only fit out the most useless, inexpensive cuts of meat available to them. ( The leftover, unwanted parts of a repelling identical as trash, tongue, ears, and knuckles ). As in the days of elbow grease, African - Americans used their own home - grown vegetables and things they could grasp or kill to complete their meals.
In the modern United States, soul food has truly evolved. It has become part of the African - American culture, bringing family members together on all occasions from birthdays to funerals, to spend time together preparing meals. The history of soul food is mainly an said one; recipes were never really written down so while two families may be preparing selfsame meals, chances are that they don ' t taste very much alike. Different ingredients, cooking methods, and techniques go into preparing soul food meals, causing the end results to come out differently.
One of the most distinct and widely - recognized characteristics of African - American soul food is the gospel that hot sauce and more intense spices are incorporated into meals as often as possible. For this basis, soul food is not for those who can ' t take the heat or are prone to heart burn!
Another representative of true African - American soul food is that void is ever wasted. Having originated from the leftovers of just about contrivance. Stale bread was quickly converted into wrapping or a bread pudding. Over ripe bananas were whipped up into banana puddings, and other ripe fruits were put into cakes and pies, and leftover fish parts were made into croquets or hush puppies.
Sunday dinners are of course the times when soul food is most commonly seen on tables. Sunday dinners are a time for African - American families to get together to prepare and partake in a sizeable meal. Sunday dinners normally take up the integrated day ( normally adjacent a sanctuary mishap ), and family members come from wide and broad to partake in this meal together. Sunday dinners took hamlet in the contour of potlucks, also, where various family members keep a dish or two and appearance a big, fine meal. Collard and mustard greens, kale, ribs, corn larder, fried chicken, chitlins, okra, and yams are all excellent examples of African - American soul food that might be endow at a Sunday meal.
Soul food is not recurrently a healthy option for a person that must detector their diet. Fried foods are regularly prepared with hydrogenated oil or lard, and they recurrently boost to be flavored and seasoned with pork products. Since this may be what contributes to approximating a high rate of African - Americans that are significantly ample, soul food preparation methods are now slowly primary to be refined, bringing a lot more healthy options to the goodies. Moderately than the increasingly touchy pork products, use of turkey - based products is becoming more and more popular as time passes. The fried foods that are so sweetheart of the culture can now be prepared using a lower fat canola or vegetable oil.