Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans . Originating in the American South from the cuisines of African slaves transported to the Thirteen Colonies during the colonial history of the United States , soul food is closely associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States . The expression "soul food" originated in the mid-1960s when " soul " was a common word used to describe African-American culture . Soul food uses cooking techniques and ingredients from West African , Central African , Western European , and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas .
125-511: Soul food is a type of cuisine. Soul Food may also refer to: Soul food The cuisine was initially denigrated as low quality and belittled because of its origin. It was seen as low-class food, and African Americans in the North looked down on their Black Southern compatriots who preferred soul food (see the Great Migration ). The concept evolved from describing the food of slaves in
250-1006: A Dream Speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King ate at a soul food restaurant called the Florida Avenue Grill. During the years of the civil rights movement, other civil rights leaders and activists met at the restaurant, planning and strategizing for the movement. Before King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, he ate at the Four Way restaurant and had fried catfish and lemon icebox pie. Throughout his civil rights career, King frequented several soul food restaurants where he ate and met with other local and national civil rights leaders. After King's assassination, riots broke out in Washington D.C. , and
375-566: A Swiss village that are believed to date back to the Stone Age . Archaeological evidence suggests that these peas must have been grown in the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions at least 5,000 years ago and in Britain as early as the 11th century. The soybean was domesticated around 5,000 years ago in China from a descendant of the wild vine Glycine soja. The oldest-known domesticated beans in
500-603: A book about the Black Church and soul food in 2021 titled, The Spirit of Soul Food: Race, Faith, and Food Justice . According to Carter, soul food in the African-American community is food that fights injustices centered around the lack of access to food, as some Black Americans live in poverty and Black churches on Sundays and during the week prepare meals to feed their community. Legume Legumes ( / ˈ l ɛ ɡ j uː m , l ə ˈ ɡ j uː m / ) are plants in
625-753: A book, Bound to the Fire How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine , that explains how recipes prepared by enslaved cooks in Virginia contributed to some of the well-known fried and baked meat and vegetable dishes in American southern cuisine. The foods from West-Central Africa brought to the United States by way of the trans-Atlantic slave trade were used by enslaved cooks and combined with North American ingredients using West African, Native American, and European cooking methods to create meals that in
750-507: A botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. Most legumes have symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in structures called root nodules . Some of the fixed nitrogen becomes available to later crops, so legumes play a key role in crop rotation . The term pulse , as used by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
875-538: A bottle" to make sauces poured over fish and meats. Frederick Douglass Opie, writing in his book Hog and Hominy , describes the origins of soul food in Africa: "African women cooked most meats over an open pit and ate them with a sauce similar to what we now call a barbecue sauce, made from lime or lemon juice and hot peppers." "Slaves made up a large percentage of the Texas population by 1860. During this time they brought with them
1000-552: A church service where the congregation was served food. He wrote: "There are some, when preaching, only preach three-quarters of the truth, or less, when serving up dishes of soul-food to suit the palates of those they must please." The term soul food became popular during the 1960s and 1970s in the midst of the Black Power movement . One of the earliest written uses of the term is found in The Autobiography of Malcolm X , which
1125-597: A common soul food item to eat in Black communities in Maryland and in Harlem, New York . During the blues and jazz era, musicians and singers performed and practiced late into the night and stopped at black-owned restaurants for food where cooks prepared fried chicken and waffles for their customers. Nightclubs in Black communities in the United States during the Jim Crow era were called
1250-694: A delicacy in other cultures. Due to the time it takes to clean pig intestines, chitterlings were preserved for special occasions and holidays. Some cooks season chitterlings with onions, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, and butter. Booker T. Washington explained in his writings that enslaved people ate chitlins during the Christmas season. Christmas in Virginia was a time when slaves hired to work on other plantations came home to visit their families at their enslaver's plantations. Enslaved families were supplied with food that consisted of chitlins, sausage, and side meats. After
1375-413: A diet of perennial grasses. Factors include larger consumption, faster digestion, and higher feed conversion rate . The type of crop grown for animal rearing depends on the farming system. In cattle rearing, legume trees such as Gliricidia sepium can be planted along edges of fields to provide shade for cattle, the leaves and bark are often eaten by cattle. Green manure can be grown between harvesting
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#17328486464641500-491: A diversity of foodways enabled by their access to seafood. During slavery times, Gullah people in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia practiced a fishing culture that came from West Africa and made canoes similar in appearance to the ones in sub-Saharan Africa . Gullah people passed down their fishing traditions and prepared meals of fish using local ingredients from the region, developing fish dishes that are still
1625-684: A grand barbecue". Other Emancipation Day celebrations were celebrated with a barbecue feast, a tradition that originated in the slave community . After the American Civil War , 4 million African Americans were freed from slavery. They celebrated their newly won freedom with barbecues and Emancipation Day celebrations and prepared soul food meals. Two months after the Civil War ended in April 1865, slaveholders in Galveston, Texas refused to tell their slaves
1750-399: A high-calorie diet to replenish the calories spent working long days in the fields or performing other physically arduous tasks. The slave owners would have smoked ham and corn pudding while the enslaved were left with the offal . The leftovers and scraps from meals cooked for the "big houses" (plantation houses) were called " juba " by the enslaved. They were put in troughs on Sundays for
1875-567: A kettle produced a vitamin-packed beverage called pot liquor that was consumed by the enslaved during the Antebellum era to maintain their health. White plantation owners ate the greens prepared by their slaves and left the green liquid (broth) for the slaves to drink not realizing the nutrients was in the broth. Pot liquor (also called potlikker) has Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and iron. The enslaved and their descendants created healing remedies using pot liquors. Slave gardens were important in
2000-599: A legacy beyond good cooking". Soul food restaurants in Atlanta, Georgia served as the primary meeting places for numerous civil rights leaders and supporters of the movement. Many politicians and civil rights leaders gathered to discuss plans about the movement at Paschal's Restaurant on West Hunter Street. In the 1950s and 1960s, civil rights icons such as Andrew Young , John Lewis , Martin Luther King Jr. , Julian Bond , Adam Clayton Powell Jr. , and Jesse Jackson frequented
2125-420: A military presence, like France, Germany, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand, it was easy for these entrepreneurs to find the cheap ingredients they needed for their recipes, because the locals ate similar foods: chicken, fish, greens, okra, pork, sweet potatoes." The introduction of soul food to cities such as Washington, D.C. , Baltimore , and Harlem came during the Great Migration as African Americans moved to
2250-624: A pamphlet titled, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen . A cookbook published in 1900 in the city of Charleston, South Carolina had recipes used by formerly enslaved Gullah people. Benne seeds from sesame , a plant native to West Africa, were eaten raw with sugar or milk. Enslaved people also made cakes, wafers, and brittles from them for white plantation families whom they called " buckra " (a Gullah word for white people). Archeologist, historian, and former professional chef, Kelley Fanto Deetz, wrote
2375-781: A part of Gullah culture. Author Amy Lynne Young's research at the Mary Plantation in Louisiana showed the differences in foodways between enslaved people living inland versus those living along the Atlantic coast. Families in coastal areas had access to a variety of meats from land and sea animals, especially those who lived on the coastlines and barrier Sea Islands . Inland slaves' choices of meats were limited, consisting of game such as rabbit and squirrel, farm chickens, pigs, and leftover animal scraps. Vegetables were locally gathered or grown in their gardens. Young suggests enslaved people living along
2500-461: A plant-based protein source in the world marketplace. Products containing legumes grew by 39% in Europe between 2013 and 2017. There is a common misconception that adding salt before cooking prevents them from cooking through. Legumes may not soften because they are old, or because of hard water or acidic ingredients in the pot; salting before cooking results in better seasoning . Legumes are
2625-503: A preferred method of cooking because it added flavor and spice to food. Slaves barbecued their foods for special occasions and on their days off. Henry Bland,a former slave who lived in Georgia, said slaves had July 4 (Independence Day) off from work, allowing them to barbecue food, play ball games, wrestle, and play music. A former slave named Callie Elder from Georgia said her grandfather cooked catfish with lard, salt, and pepper, and rolled
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#17328486464642750-574: A result, over 10,000 African Americans became free on that day. However, their freedom was not official in government writing until the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year's Day in 1863. Thousands of newly freed people celebrated their freedom with food, song, and dance. Charlotte Forten , the first black teacher at the Penn School on St. Helena Island in Beaufort, attended
2875-1557: A serious pest to broad beans and other beans. Common hosts for this pest are fathen, thistle and dock. Pea weevil and bean weevil damage leaf margins leaving characteristics semi-circular notches. Stem nematodes are very widespread but will be found more frequently in areas where host plants are grown. Common legume diseases include anthracnose , caused by Colletotrichum trifolii ; common leaf spot caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae ; crown wart caused by Physoderma alfalfae ; downy mildew caused by Peronospora trifoliorum ; fusarium root rot caused by Fusarium spp.; rust caused by Uromyces striatus ; sclerotina crown and stem rot caused by Sclerotinia trifoliorum ; Southern blight caused by Sclerotium rolfsii ; pythium (browning) root rot caused by Pythium spp.; fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum ; root knot caused by Meloidogyne hapla . These are all classified as biotic problems. Abiotic problems include nutrient deficiencies, (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, copper, magnesium, manganese, boron, zinc), pollutants (air, water, soil, pesticide injury, fertilizer burn), toxic concentration of minerals, and unfavorable growth conditions. Seed viability decreases with longer storage time. Studies done on vetch , broad beans , and peas show that they last about 5 years in storage. Environmental factors that are important in influencing germination are relative humidity and temperature. Two rules apply to moisture content between 5 and 14 percent:
3000-963: A significant source of protein , dietary fibre , carbohydrates , and dietary minerals ; for example, a 100 gram serving of cooked chickpeas contains 18 percent of the Daily Value (DV) for protein, 30 percent DV for dietary fiber, 43 percent DV for folate and 52 percent DV for manganese . Legumes are an excellent source of resistant starch ; this is broken down by bacteria in the large intestine to produce short-chain fatty acids (such as butyrate ) used by intestinal cells for food energy . Forage legumes are of two broad types. Some, like alfalfa , clover , vetch ( Vicia ), stylo ( Stylosanthes ), or Arachis , are sown in pasture and grazed by livestock. Others, such as Leucaena or Albizia , are woody shrubs or trees that are either broken down by livestock or regularly cut by humans to provide fodder. Legume-based feeds improve animal performance over
3125-546: A staple in Southern cuisine . One enslaved African aboard a slave ship recalled later that all they ate were yams on the voyage from Africa to Charleston, South Carolina . Slave ships were provisioned with African vegetables, fruits, and animals to feed the enslaved people bound in chains below the ships' decks. These items were later planted and used in the New World for food and as cash crops . The introduction of African plants to
3250-403: A variety of ways to season and add spice using hot sauces they prepared. The research shows that white plantation families more often used plates and flatware, indicating that they ate meals consisting of individual cuts of meats and vegetables that were not blended into one dish like the stews made by enslaved people. Enslaved people living on plantations located along the Atlantic coast developed
3375-467: A washpot full of peas for a meal or two and roasted potatoes around the pot in the ashes." Some slaves did not receive enough food from their enslavers as some slaves starved and consequently were malnourished. House slaves and field slaves had different diets. House slaves ate the leftovers they prepared for white plantation families such as individual cuts from meats like chicken, turkey, or fish, along with pies and seasoned vegetables. Slaves working in
3500-609: Is a bird indigenous to Africa imported to the Americas by way of the slave trade; the bird was brought by the Spanish to the Caribbean, and introduced to the South of what is now the United States in the early 16th century. Guinea fowl became a source of meat for enslaved Black Americans and eventually part of the subsistence culture of the whole region. On American plantations, enslaved people consumed
3625-557: Is an African crop that was brought to South Carolina in 1730 during the slave trade. Thomas Jefferson noted how enslaved people prepared stews, baked breads, boiled their greens with sesame seeds, and made sesame pudding. Slaves ate sesame raw, toasted, and boiled. It was used as an ingredient for baked breads in colonial America and is still used in the present day. Some slaves grew herbs in their gardens to add flavor to their food. Other cooking techniques were boiling and simmering food in an earthenware or iron pot known as colonoware. Salt
3750-428: Is reserved for legume crops harvested solely for the dry seed. This excludes green beans and green peas , which are considered vegetable crops. Also excluded are seeds that are mainly grown for oil extraction ( oilseeds like soybeans and peanuts ), and seeds which are used exclusively for sowing forage ( clovers , alfalfa ). However, in common usage, these distinctions are not always clearly made, and many of
3875-597: Is sweet potato pie. Enslaved people also consumed pot liquor , the liquid left behind after boiling greens. George Key, who was born enslaved in Arkansas, said: "We had stew made out of pork and potatoes, and sometimes greens and pot liquor, and we had ash cake mostly, but biscuits about once a month." Making pot liquor continued after emancipation. Jackie Torrence, an African American storyteller, remembers her grandmother making pot liquor from mustard greens, collard greens, pinto beans, peas, and white potatoes as gravy. Pot liquor
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4000-448: Is their versatility, often assuming multiple roles concurrently. The extent of these roles is contingent upon the stage of maturity at which they are harvested. Grain legumes are cultivated for their seeds, for humans and animals to eat, or for oils for industrial uses. Grain legumes include beans , lentils , lupins , peas , and peanuts . Legumes are a key ingredient in vegan meat and dairy substitutes . They are growing in use as
4125-418: Is therefore a necessary ingredient in the production of proteins. Hence, legumes are among the best sources of plant protein. When a legume plant dies in the field, for example following the harvest , all of its remaining nitrogen, incorporated into amino acids inside the remaining plant parts, is released back into the soil. In the soil, the amino acids are converted to nitrate ( NO − 3 ), making
4250-505: The Chesapeake Bay and prepared seafood meals. In Virginia's nearby creeks and rivers, slaves caught catfish, crayfish, perch, herring, and turtles for food. White plantation owners in Virginia rarely provided food to feed their slaves. To supplement their diets, enslaved people relied on Igbo methods such as hunting, fishing, and foraging for food and prepared meals that were influenced by Igbo culture. Chambers wrote: "Slave owners stinted
4375-524: The Chesapeake region of Maryland grew fish peppers in their gardens. After national emancipation many African Americans got into the seafood industry. By 1864, almost half of all watermen in Maryland were former slaves. They became skilled in netting shrimp, gathering oysters, and fishing. During the American Civil War, some enslaved people in Maryland ate clabber milk, fish, and cornbread. After
4500-743: The Chitlin' Circuit , named after the dish that was usually associated with Black southerners and soul food. The Chitlin' Circuit was given its name by entertainers because it included black-owned night clubs that served chitlins (chitterlings) and soul food. During the civil rights movement , soul food restaurants were places where civil rights leaders and activists met to discuss and strategize civil rights protests and ideas for implementing social and political change. Paschal's Restaurant in Atlanta, like Georgia Gilmore's eatery in Montgomery, had an imporatnt part in
4625-527: The National Park Service and professor George Estabrook explained that enslaved people supplemented their diets "By boiling black-eyed peas, turnip greens, and pork fat in a single kettle and serving the mixture with grits made from home-ground corn, slaves cooked up meals that satisfied their dietary requirements, as well as their appetites." The black-eyed peas were a source of protein and the greens provided fiber and vitamins C and A. Boiling greens in
4750-592: The War of 1812 and traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a city that had Black Americans working in the culinary industry. There, he settled in the free Black community and found work catching oysters. Gaining his freedom in 1819, Downing, his wife, and sons moved to New York City, where the Hudson River provided work for New York's African American men working on the water harvesting oysters. By 1825 he had opened an oyster cellar, "Downing's Oyster House", on Broadway Street, in
4875-742: The black locust ( Robinia pseudoacacia ), Kentucky coffeetree ( Gymnocladus dioicus ), Laburnum , and the woody climbing vine Wisteria , have poisonous elements. Neanderthals and early modern humans used wild pulses when cooking meals 70,000 to 40,000 years ago. Traces of pulse production have been found around the Ravi River ( Punjab ), the seat of the Indus Valley civilisation , from c. 3300 BC. Meanwhile, evidence of lentil cultivation has also been found in Egyptian pyramids and cuneiform recipes . Dry pea seeds have been discovered in
5000-405: The polyculture practice known as coconut-soybean intercropping . Grain legumes are grown in coconut ( Cocos nuficera ) groves in two ways: intercropping or as a cash crop. These are grown mainly for their protein, vegetable oil and ability to uphold soil fertility. However, continuous cropping after 3–4 years decrease grain yields significantly. A common pest of grain legumes that is noticed in
5125-433: The transatlantic slave trade and were grown by enslaved people on plantations in the New World and used to make sweet sauces. According to research by scholars at Mercer University , white plantation families initially refused to eat African foods prepared by their slaves, although in many plantation kitchens enslaved African women were the primary cooks. These women passed down cultural knowledge of cooking techniques to
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5250-488: The "queen of soul food." Food historian Adrian Miller studied soul food's development in Maryland and in Northern American states. Soul food in Maryland's Black communities added local flavors from seafood from the Chesapeake Bay . People in Maryland fried chicken in shallow fat in a frying pan, covering it with a lid, thus frying and steaming the chicken, which was served with waffles. Chicken and waffles became
5375-513: The 17th century were necessary for survival that later influenced the foodways of southern Americans generally. Enslaved Africans in the American south contributed their own influence to the American barbecue tradition. The first people to barbecue food in North America were Indigenous people/Native Americans . West and Central Africans had their own method of barbecuing food that they brought to
5500-553: The American Civil War, cornbread, pigs' feet, hogs' ears, peas, and chitlins were prepared for Booker T. Washington's daughter, Portia Washington Pittman , 87th birthday. Freedom seekers (runaway slaves) foraged, fished, and hunted for food on their journey to freedom on the Underground Railroad . With these ingredients, they prepared one-pot meals (stews), a West African cooking method. Enslaved and free Black people left food outside their front doors to provide nourishment to
5625-571: 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. Cooking chitlins was time consuming; field slaves slow cooked their pig intestines while they were working in the field. 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. Chitterlings are considered
5750-446: The American South, and therefore they flourished once they had been planted hopefully by the slave in the garden space allotted to him on his owner's plantation'". Another way rice, okra, and millet came to North America was by enslaved African women on slave ships hiding the seeds of rice, okra, and millet in their braided hair as a precaution against an unknown future in the new land where they would be forced to work. The guineafowl
5875-519: The Americas and the West Indies. The Hausa people in West Africa had a term for barbecue, babbake . This term is used "...to describe a complex of words referring to grilling, toasting, building a large fire, singeing hair or feathers and cooking food over a long period of time over an extravagant fire". The blending of Native American and African styles of barbecuing meat contributed to the creation of
6000-455: The Americas that shaped American cuisine was part of what is called the Columbian exchange . Researchers from Mercer University Libraries explain: "The foods selected to bring to America were brought over for specific reasons. 'They all remain palatable long after harvesting and were thus ideal for use on the slow voyage from Africa. Secondly, they are all the edible parts of plants that thrive in
6125-703: The Americas were found in Guitarrero Cave , an archaeological site in Peru , and dated to around the second millennium BCE. Genetic analyses of the common bean Phaseolus show that it originated in Mesoamerica , and subsequently spread southward, along with maize and squash, traditional companion crops. In the United States, the domesticated soybean was introduced in 1770 by Benjamin Franklin after he sent seeds to Philadelphia from France. The International Year of Pulses 2016
6250-460: The Atlantic Ocean caught crab and made stews with the crab meat in a pot with okra, sometimes adding a sauce. Cooking seafood with okra is a traditional cooking method from West Africa that slaves continued on Southern plantations. Some of these recipes made by former slaves were published in African-American cookbooks. The earliest such cookbook was self-published in 1866 by Malinda Russell as
6375-615: The Burroughs plantation in Franklin County, Virginia by the National Park Service showed that enslaved people there had a diet of cornbread, pork, chicken, sweet potatoes, and boiled corn for breakfast. Along the coast, enslaved people ate oysters and seafood. Booker T. Washington was born enslaved in Franklin County, Virginia in 1856 and wrote an autobiography titled, The Story of My Life and Work and Up from Slavery , that explained
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#17328486464646500-527: The Civil War had ended and they were free. On June 19, 1865, United States Brigadier General Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston and issued General order No. 3 . This order enforced the Emancipation Proclamation which declared enslaved people in Texas were now free. To celebrate their freedom, African Americans in Galveston, and other Black communities in the United States, gathered at public parks and prepared red foods that represent
6625-542: The Emancipation Day celebration at Camp Saxton and recorded in her journal they ate roasted oxen and barbecue. Susie King Taylor , a Geechee woman born enslaved in Liberty County, Georgia , wrote in her memoir that she had also attended the Emancipation Day celebration at Camp Saxton: "It was a glorious day for us all, and we enjoyed every minute of it, and as a fitting close and crowning event of this occasion we had
6750-479: The Jim Crow era and helped in the fight against segregation laws by allowing white and Black people to eat together. In Montgomery, Alabama , civil rights protestors convened and organized for the movement at soul food restaurants because they provided a safe haven and a place to eat and relax. Martha's Place and Chris' Hotdogs were visited by protestors. During this period of activism, Jereline and Larry James Bethune,
6875-555: The North looking for work. Sylvia Woods was born in Hemingway, South Carolina in 1926. When Woods was a teenager she moved to Harlem and worked in a Brooklyn factory. In 1954, Woods changed jobs and started working at Johnson's Luncheonette located in central Harlem. Seven years later, Woods and her husband purchased the luncheonette and opened it as a soul food restaurant in 1962, calling it Sylvia's Restaurant . Sylvia Woods became known as
7000-561: The Sea Islands of South Carolina celebrated their freedom on New Year's Day at Camp Saxton in Beaufort with food and barbecues. Black people in the barrier islands of South Carolina became free early during the American Civil War after the Battle of Port Royal on November 7, 1861, when many of the plantation owners and white residents fled the area after the arrival of the Union Navy and Army. As
7125-581: The South became sharecroppers and cooked what was available in their region. This created regional styles of cooking with similar dishes passed down orally in Black families . Due to slave laws, it was illegal in many states for slaves to learn to read or write. Soul food recipes and cooking techniques were passed down orally until after emancipation. The first soul food cookbook is attributed to Abby Fisher , entitled What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking and published in 1881. Good Things to Eat
7250-587: The South, to being taken up as a primary source of pride in the African American community even in the North, such as in New York City, Chicago and Detroit. Soul food historian Adrian Miller explains the difference between soul food and Southern food is that soul food is intensely seasoned and uses a variety of meats to add flavor to food and adds a variety of spicy and savory sauces. These spicy and savory sauces add robust flavor. This method of preparation
7375-545: The Southern United States and brought to North America under the slave trade. Among the Yoruba and Bakongo people, the color red represents power, sacrifice, and transformation. The red foods eaten at Juneteenth are, watermelon, red lemonade, and red velvet cake . In addition to red foods, BBQ, fried foods, and other cooked meals are prepared to celebrate the day of freedom. After emancipation , many Black Americans in
7500-474: The Southern United States for both slave owners and slaves. Many of the foods integral to the cuisine originated in the limited foodstuffs that poor southern subsistence farmers had at hand. This in turn was reflected in the rations given to enslaved people their enslavers. Enslaved people were typically given a peck of cornmeal and 3–4 pounds of pork per week, and those rations formed the basis of African American soul food. Most enslaved people needed to consume
7625-508: The United States where Jim Crow laws , racism, and lynchings were widespread. African American service men and women opened soul food restaurants in Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan and introduced African-American cuisine to people in foreign countries. In the 1920s through the 1940s, African-American culture was popular in France. French people enjoyed jazz , African-American dance , and cuisine. Food historian Adrian Miller explains
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#17328486464647750-420: The United States. The foods enslaved people prepared in the kitchens for white plantation families influenced the diets and cooking methods of European Americans. Research from slave narratives showed enslaved people cooked sweet potatoes by roasting or frying them in lard . Sweet potatoes were mashed and sweetened with molasses . A traditional soul food dessert in Black families for Thanksgiving and Christmas
7875-557: The animal. Soak it in salted or vinegar water for two hours. Put the pieces in a pan of water, and parboil until slightly tender, but not real done. Dust in a mixture of seasoned flour, salted and peppered to taste, and fry in hot fat until golden brown." Black Americans in St. Mary's County created recipes during slavery that were passed down orally in their families. To add heat and flavor to seafood dishes, enslaved and free Africans in Baltimore and
8000-451: The area where the barbecue was held, chop and burn the wood for cooking, dig the pit, butcher, process, cook and season the animals, serve the food, entertain the guests and clean up afterward. Given the racial dynamics of the antebellum South, enslaved African Americans were forced to do that work. The media, in turn, took note that a barbecue, as a social event, was a black experience from beginning to end." On Fourth of July celebrations,
8125-511: The back of the restaurant. Atlanta's oldest black-owned restaurant, the Evelyn Jones Cafe, was founded in 1936 by Evelyn Jones and her sister. In the mid-1940s, Evelyn and her husband, Luther Frazier, enlarged the restaurant and renamed it Frazier's Cafe Society. It is located at 880 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (then known as West Hunter Street). The Jones family challenged Jim Crow laws when they allowed whites and blacks to eat together. It
8250-463: The book because they were safe havens for African Americans to eat. One restaurant listed in the Green Book was Swett's, which opened in 1954. The Black Church (African-American churches) played a key role in Black communities as they provided food and a place of worship. Researchers from PBS explained: "Religion played a key role in the proliferation of soul food, as well as the diversification of
8375-673: The catfish in cornmeal before baking. Former slave Clara Davis from Alabama cooked catfish using tomatoes and potatoes or prepared baked catfish with a tomato gravy and sweet potatoes. Slaves in the South fried catfish in lard or other fats and seasoned their food with salt acquired from evaporated sea water. Enslaved people made use of fruits like apples and peaches that had been introduced to North America by European colonists. Some fruits, such as apples, were battered and deep fried in oil, fruit fritters were also fried, and peaches were stewed. Former slaves Mose King from Arkansas and Rose Williams from Texas described eating goat . Mary Minus Biddie
8500-422: The children. Older slave women were preferred as cooks by white plantation families because they were seen as nonthreatening, knowledgeable, and skilled in cooking. Time spent in the kitchen was time that enslaved mothers could spend bonding with their children and teaching them about life, culture, and foodways. In African societies and during slavery, women were the primary cooks. The role of enslaved Black women in
8625-437: 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. In the basement of his restaurant, Downing and his eldest son George hid people who were escaping slavery and seeking freedom. Downing became known as the "Oyster King of New York". In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration paid American writers to gather stories from
8750-544: The civil rights movement. Upon returning to Atlanta from Montgomery, Martin Luther King got permission "to bring his team members and guests to Paschal's to eat, meet, rest, plan, and strategize." As the Atlanta History Center explained: "Throughout the civil rights movement in Atlanta, soul food restaurants were hubs of change where civil rights leaders could convene, converse, and strategize, and in times of terror and violence, these places were retreats where leaders could plan their next tactical moves, giving many of these spots
8875-646: The coast consequently had a more diverse diet than inland slaves. This demonstrates regional styles of cooking soul food based on local ingredients. Frederick Douglass explained in his autobiography that because enslaved people living on the Eastern shore of Maryland near the Choptank River received the bare minimum in food from their enslavers, they fished for food to supplement their diet, catching turtles, fish, and eels. Douglass wrote: "The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal". Another way they supplemented their diet
9000-531: The color of freedom. These celebrations are called Juneteenth , which became a national holiday under the Biden Administration in the year 2021. According to food historian Michael Twitty , the reason African Americans eat red food on Juneteenth is that it reminds them of the blood of their ancestors that was shed during slavery, and the cultural colors of the Yoruba and Bakongo people , who were enslaved in
9125-458: The cuisine. Black churches, crucial during slavery and in the Civil Rights movement, were also crucial as gathering places, where Black communities could eat and rejoice over plates of chicken and dumplings, black-eyed peas and rice, red drinks, and the classic Black American church dish, fried catfish and spaghetti". Chris Carter is an African American pastor and professor of history who published
9250-447: The current barbecuing culture in the US. During slavery times, white plantation owners left the labor-intensive work of preparing and barbecuing food to their slaves. Food historian Adrian Miller explains the history of Black people and barbecue during slavery: "Blackness and barbecue were wedded in the public imagination because old-school barbecue was so labour intensive. Someone had to clear
9375-475: The definition of "blackness", or "soul", became part of everyday discourse in the black community. This style of cooking is celebrated in the month of June, called National Soul Food month. During the period of the transatlantic slave trade , enslaved people ate African foods aboard slave ships . These included rice , millet , okra, black-eyed peas, yams, and legumes such as kidney beans and lima beans . These crops were brought to North America and became
9500-482: The diet he grew up with as an enslaved child. Washington's mother was an enslaved plantation cook who prepared meals for the white families. Booker T. Washington's mother cooked over an open fireplace or in skillets and pots. Washington, his mother, and siblings ate out of pots and skillets while white families ate from plates and flatware using forks and spoons. His mother prepared one-pot meals for her family using local meats, vegetables, nuts, and berries, combining all
9625-426: The dishes Posey made were influenced by West African, European, and Native American foodways. He created dishes of veal, roast beef, and duck, along with puddings and jellies prepared in a way not unlike that of other chefs, but creating his own sauces and flavors. Posey was never given his freedom, and eventually escaped from slavery. James Hemings (brother of Sally Hemings ) was born enslaved in colonial Virginia and
9750-442: The eggs of the guinea fowl, as well as cooking the meat with rice like their West-Central African forebears. Enslaved Africans in the South continued to prepare their traditional dishes of guinea fowl and plant foods native to West and Central Africa. They adapted European and Native American foods and cooking methods to create new recipes that were passed down orally in Black families and later published in African-American cookbooks by
9875-724: The end of the American Civil War . Soul food recipes have pre-slavery influences, as West African and European foodways were adapted to the environment of the region. Soul food originated in the home cooking of the rural Southern United States or the " Deep South " during the time of slavery, using locally gathered or raised foods and other inexpensive ingredients. Rabbits, squirrels, and deer were often hunted for meat. Fish, frogs, crawfish, turtles, shellfish, and crab were often collected from fresh waters, salt waters, and marshes. Soul food cookery began when African American/Black American enslaved people learned to make do with what they were given to eat by their enslavers: leftovers and
10000-554: The enslaved prepared barbecued food for white politicians and their enslavers. Enslaved people brought their own influences on the creation of barbecue sauce . Hot and sweet sauces are used in West and Central African cuisine to add flavor, heat, and moisture to food. In 1748, Peter Kalm, a Swedish-Finnish botanist, noted enslaved Africans in Philadelphia cultivated guinea peppers and the pods were pounded and "mixed with salt preserved in
10125-464: The family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses . Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, but also as livestock forage and silage , and as soil-enhancing green manure . Well-known legumes include beans , chickpeas , peanuts , lentils , lupins , mesquite , carob , tamarind , alfalfa , and clover . Legumes produce
10250-792: The field ate leftover animal scraps, offal , and whatever food they could find in their environment. Some field slaves rarely ate regular hearty meals. 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. Louisiana slave records showed enslaved people ran away because of inadequate food and overwork. To survive, slaves stole food from their enslavers, killed cattle from nearby farms, and hunted and fished for food. Research from
10375-421: The food they grew to their enslavers. Chitterlings (also known as chitlins) are cleaned pig intestines; they are cooked in a pot and seasoned. This food has been associated with enslaved Black people in the American South; however, eating animal innards (intestines) is practiced in other cultures such as Asia, Europe, and West Africa. The Hausa people in West Africa eat chicken intestines. Enslaved Africans in
10500-418: The foodways of Black Americans in Virginia. During the slave trade, about 30,000 Igbo people were imported from Igboland to Virginia. Igbo people in West Africa ate yams, okra, poultry, goats, and fished for their food. Okra, yams, black-eyed peas, and other African foods were brought to Virginia and enslaved Igbo people cooked these foods and prepared stews as one-pot meals. Enslaved people fished for food in
10625-659: The freedom seekers. The meals created on the Underground Railroad became a part of the foodways of Black Americans called soul food. For example, Thomas Downing was born enslaved in 1791 on Chincoteague Island , on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He learned how to harvest clams , oysters , and terrapin from the Chincoteague Bay , a lagoon of the Atlantic Ocean between Chincoteague and Assateague islands, and prepared meals from this seafood. Downing left Virginia during
10750-456: The global spread of soul food: "The global spread of soul food really took off after the end of World War II. After the war, recently discharged black military veterans in the European theater stayed overseas to open and operate restaurants. At first, they cooked mainly for African Americans who were active-duty military and serving at nearby bases. In some of the countries where the United States had
10875-496: The idea of cooking over an open fire and dousing meats with a sauce, that sounds an awful lot like the barbecue sauce we know today." After the American Civil War, a Black pitmaster named Arthur Watts, brought his family's barbecue sauce recipe and barbecuing methods to Kewanee, Illinois and became a well-known pitmaster. In African-American communities , barbecuing food became a preferred method of cooking during Emancipation Day celebrations. On January 1, 1863, Gullah people in
11000-607: The ingredients in a pot to make a stew. This way of cooking is still done in West Africa and continued in the Southern United States with enslaved families. Enslaved people at the Burroughs plantation had a variety of vegetables with which to make stews; they were: "Asparagus, beets, beans, black-eyed peas, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, garden peas, Irish potatoes, kale, lettuce, lima beans, muskmelons, okra, onions, peppers, radishes, tomatoes, turnips, and watermelons would be planted, ripened, and harvested from spring through fall". According to Chambers's research, Igbo Africans influenced
11125-501: The kitchen and as mothers led to racist stereotypes portraying them as Mammys . Slave narratives revealed continued African methods of cooking, heating, and seasoning food. Enslaved people roasted and heated their foods using ashes from fire pits, a traditional cooking method in Africa. This method was passed down orally in Black families in the Antebellum South, and slave narratives explained how slaves cooked food this way. The word "ash"
11250-521: The last generations of African Americans born into slavery that are called slave narratives . Alongside the narratives are collections of recipes for sauces, desserts, and cooked meat and seafood dishes made by formerly enslaved African Americans. These records have been studied by John Blassingame , Michael Twitty , Jessica B. Harris , and other historians as they reveal the food culture and diets of enslaved people. The narratives show how enslaved people created new dishes that influenced Southern cuisine in
11375-675: The leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Stokely Carmichael , asked the owner of Ben's Chili Bowl restaurant to remain open to provide food for police officers, student activists, and firefighters as they worked together to stop the riot. Authors Hoekstra and Khan explained in their book, The People's Place: Soul Food Restaurants and Reminiscences from the Civil Rights Era to Today , that soul food restaurants served as places to bring communities and families together in times of trouble during
11500-461: The life of the seed will last longer if the storage temperature is reduced by 5 degree Celsius. Secondly, the storage moisture content will decrease if temperature is reduced by 1 degree Celsius. Cultivated legumes encompass a diverse range of agricultural classifications, spanning forage , grain , flowering, pharmaceutical/industrial, fallow/green manure, and timber categories. A notable characteristic of many commercially cultivated legume species
11625-432: The main crop and the planting of the next crop. Legume species grown for their flowers include lupins , which are farmed commercially for their blooms as well as being popular in gardens worldwide. Industrially farmed legumes include Indigofera and Acacia species, which are cultivated for dye and natural gum production, respectively. Fallow or green manure legume species are cultivated to be tilled back into
11750-510: The nitrogen available to other plants, thereby serving as fertilizer for future crops. In many traditional and organic farming practices, crop rotation or polyculture involving legumes is common. By alternating between legumes and non-legumes, or by growing both together for part of the growing season, the field can receive a sufficient amount of nitrogenous compounds to produce a good result without adding nitrogenous fertilizer. Legumes are often used as green manure . Sri Lanka developed
11875-404: The owners of the restaurant Brenda's BBQ, also in Montgomery, taught African Americans how to register to vote and how to read a ballot when Jim Crow laws and literacy tests prevented Black people from voting. Civil rights activists frequented the restaurant for moral and financial support. The owners also helped to print out fliers for the movement and allowed protestors to have secret meetings in
12000-506: The restaurant, staying late into the night talking about civil rights strategies and politics. Several soul food restaurants were located on West Hunter Street because Jim Crow laws restricted where African Americans were allowed to operate their businesses. In 1963, a few days before the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington D.C., where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his I Have
12125-416: The road as they faced possible violence from white supremacists. Black people needed to know what places were safe to stop for food, gas, and motels. In 1936, an African American postal worker from Harlem, New York, named Victor Hugo Green created The Green Book for Black people to travel safely in the Southern United States, where Jim Crow laws were widespread. Several soul food restaurants were listed in
12250-452: The same dishes stemming from Southern cooking traditions, but styles of preparation sometimes varied. Certain techniques popular in soul and other Southern cuisines (i.e., frying meat and using all parts of the animal for consumption) are shared with cultures all over the world. The earliest use of the word "soul food" to describe a type of cuisine is found in a 1909 published memoir of a former slave named Thomas L. Johnson. Johnson described
12375-404: The slave community, it supplemented slaves nutrient-deprived diet because their slaveholders did not provide enough food to feed them. Slaveholders allowed their slaves to grow food in gardens because it saved their enslavers money, giving them an excuse not to buy food for their slaves. Some slaveholders provided the enslaved seeds to grow their own food. Slaves also made money by selling some of
12500-460: The slaves pounded and mixed with beans and boiled into hominy". A few enslaved chefs had some degree of autonomy because of their cooking skills, such as Hercules Posey and James Hemings . Hercules Posey was the enslaved cook for George Washington at Mount Vernon in Virginia. Posey's dishes were so popular among elite White families that he had quasi-freedom to leave the house on his own and earn money selling leftovers. According to historians,
12625-633: The slaves to eat. The term "juba" occurs in numerous African languages, and folk knowledge records that early on it had the meaning of "little bits" of food. Archaeological and historical research concerning slave cabins in the Southern United States indicates that enslaved African Americans used bowls more often than flatware and plates, suggesting that they primarily made stews and "gumbo" for meals, using local ingredients gathered in nature, vegetables grown in their gardens, and leftover animal scraps rejected by their enslavers. This process allowed enslaved people to create new dishes, for which they developed
12750-400: The slaves, throwing the people back onto their own resourcefulness for sustenance. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, masters provided slaves with only the barest necessities. Weekly or monthly rations consisted of salt fish and/ or pork, corn or cornmeal, and salt and perhaps molasses. The largest plantation holders usually doled out salted herring as well as smoked pork and corn, which
12875-467: The soil in order to exploit the high levels of captured atmospheric nitrogen found in the roots of most legumes. Numerous legumes farmed for this purpose include Leucaena , Cyamopsis , and Sesbania species. Various legume species are farmed for timber production worldwide, including numerous Acacia species and Castanospermum australe . Some legume trees, like the honey locust ( Gleditsia ) can be used in agroforestry . Others, including
13000-452: The special ability of fixing nitrogen from atmospheric, molecular nitrogen (N 2 ) into ammonia (NH 3 ). The chemical reaction is: Ammonia is converted to another form, ammonium ( NH + 4 ), usable by (some) plants by the following reaction: This arrangement means that the root nodules are sources of nitrogen for legumes, making them relatively rich in plant proteins . All proteins contain nitrogenous amino acids . Nitrogen
13125-419: The spiciness, or heat of their food. Bob Jeffries, the author of Soul Food Cookbook , explains the difference between soul food and Southern food: "While all soul food is Southern food, not all Southern food is soul. Soul food cooking is an example of how really good Southern [African-American] cooks cooked with what they had available to them." Impoverished White and Black people in the South cooked many of
13250-501: The third-largest land plant family in terms of number of species, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae , with about 751 genera and some 19,000 known species, constituting about seven percent of flowering plant species. Many legumes contain symbiotic bacteria called Rhizobia within root nodules of their root systems (plants belonging to the genus Styphnolobium are one exception to this rule). These bacteria have
13375-410: The tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania are minuscule flies that belong to the family Agromyzidae , dubbed "bean flies". They are considered to be the most destructive. The host range of these flies is very wide amongst cultivated legumes. Infestation of plants starts from germination through to harvest, and they can destroy an entire crop in early stage. Black bean aphids are
13500-452: The undesirable parts of animals such as ham hocks, hog jowls and pigs' feet, ears, skin, and intestines, which white plantation owners did not eat. Soul food was created by enslaved African Americans, who created meals out of minimal ingredients. Slaves combined their knowledge of West-Central African cooking methods with techniques borrowed from Native Americans and Europeans, thus creating soul food. Pork and corn were two staple items in
13625-535: The varieties used for dried pulses are also used for green vegetables, with their beans in pods while young. Some Fabaceae, such as Scotch broom and other Genisteae , are leguminous but are usually not called legumes by farmers, who tend to restrict that term to food crops. The FAO recognizes 11 primary pulses, excluding green vegetable legumes (e.g. green peas) and legumes used mainly for oil extraction (e.g., soybeans and groundnuts) or used only as seed (e.g., clover and alfalfa). Legumes are widely distributed as
13750-576: The war, Maryland became known for its crabbing industry, and Maryland deep-fried crab cakes became a part of soul food cuisine. Enslaved fishermen in Virginia caught fish to feed their families and the slave community. The Encyclopedia of Virginia explains the history of free and enslaved Black fishermen: "Enslaved workers also received fish considered undesirable by whites, such as garfish , whose red flesh Niemcewicz explained 'is little esteemed, serving only as food for negroes', and black catfish, which held less appeal for whites than white catfish, which
13875-513: The way slaves cooked them was given in an 1879 cookbook: "Put them in the oven and let them cook until done. Lay them on a dish and set near the fire. Take out the bacon, sprinkle one spoonful of flour in the gravy and let it brown. Then pour in one teacup of water, one tablespoon of butter and some tomato or walnut catsup. Let it cool, and then pour it over the squirrel." Barbecuing and preparing barbecue sauce and hot sauce were done to season lower grades of meats. Enslaved people living near rivers and
14000-551: The women in her family. Gilmore's restaurant provided food for civil rights leaders during the Montgomery bus boycott , and her soul food was a favorite among Martin Luther King Jr. Several soul food restaurants served black and white people before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , which made segregated facilities illegal. During the Jim Crow era in the 20th century, it was not safe for Black Americans to travel on
14125-544: Was 'considered excellent'. Enslaved workers also fished in their time off to supplement their rations." At George Washington 's residential plantation in Virginia, Mount Vernon , enslaved cooks there prepared corn meal pancakes, "hoe cakes", individual cuts of meat, and seasoned cooked vegetables for the Washington family, while the enslaved people primarily ate corn meal and salted fish. The diet of slaves in Virginia generally included meat from farm animals, vegetables, blackberries, walnuts, and seafood. Historical research at
14250-401: Was a former slave from Florida and said enslaved people cooked goat in a smokehouse. David Goodman Gullins was a former slave from Georgia and said they prepared barbecued goat. Goat is a traditional meat in West Africa and was commonly cooked and eaten in the American south by slaves. Enslaved people also barbecued squirrels . One recipe for barbecued squirrels that might have been similar to
14375-435: Was also used as a healing remedy to treat earache and ingrown toenails. A former slave named Wesley Jones from South Carolina gave a recipe to make a vinegar-based barbecue sauce using black and red peppers and vinegar . Wesley said slaves barbecued meats often, smoking and basting their meats with this homemade barbecue sauce; they would stay up all night slow cooking the meat. Other slave narratives described barbecuing as
14500-469: Was appended to the name of some of the food thus prepared, as in "ash cake" and "ash roasted potatoes". Enslaved people placed food directly on hot ashes or coals to roast or bake their foods. Pots and pans were also placed on top of hot ashes and coals to cook food. Some slaves heated or cooked their foods by putting them on leaves placed on top of the hot ashes. A former slave, Betty Curlett from Arkansas, told of roasting her potatoes on hot ashes: "They cooked
14625-514: Was associated with a shared history of oppression and inculcated, by some, with cultural pride. Soul food was eaten by the bondsmen. It was also the food former slaves incorporated into their diet after emancipation. Therefore, during the 1960s, middle-class blacks used their reported consumption of soul food to distance themselves from the values of the white middle class, to define themselves ethnically, and to align themselves with lower-class blacks. Irrespective of political affiliation or social class,
14750-969: Was by growing vegetable gardens; they grew corn, potatoes, peas, beans, herbs, and melons. They did not have fat or cooking oil to cook their food. Slaveholders in Dorchester County, Maryland rarely fed their slaves. To supplement their poor diets, enslaved people in Dorchester fished for food in the Choptank River and hunted game on land. The animals they caught for food included rabbit, turtle, duck, goose, turkey, pigeon, woodpecker, possum, raccoon, skunk, deer, and muskrat . They cooked vegetables such as okra, corn, leafy greens, and sweet potatoes that they grew in their gardens. From these various food sources enslaved people created their meals. Researchers at St. Mary's County Library located in Maryland documented an African American muskrat recipe. "Skin and disjoint
14875-690: Was declared by the Sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly . The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was nominated to facilitate the implementation of the year in collaboration with governments, relevant organizations, non-governmental organizations and other relevant stakeholders. Its aim was to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition . The year created an opportunity to encourage connections throughout
15000-403: Was influenced by West African cuisine where West Africans create sauces to add flavor and spice to their food. Black Americans also add sugar to make cornbread, while "white southerners say when you put sugar in corn bread, it becomes cake...". European immigrants seasoned and flavored their food using salt, pepper, and spices. African Americans add more spices, and hot and sweet sauces to increase
15125-512: Was published in 1911; the author, Rufus Estes, was a former slave who worked for the Pullman railway car service. Many other cookbooks were written by Black Americans during that time, but as they were not widely distributed, most are now lost. The global spread of soul food came during World War I and World War II . Thousands of Black Americans enlisted in the army as soldiers and nurses. Some Black soldiers chose to stay overseas than return to
15250-772: Was published in 1965. LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka ) published an article entitled "Soul Food" and was one of the key proponents for establishing the food as a part of the Black American identity. Those who had participated in the Great Migration found within soul food a reminder of the home and family they had left behind after moving to unfamiliar northern cities. Soul food restaurants were Black-owned businesses that served as neighborhood meeting places where people socialized and ate together. According to author Laretta Henderson, middle-class African Americans embrace their "blackness" by preparing and eating soul food. Henderson wrote: In its culinary incarnation, "soul food"
15375-615: Was the first interracial restaurant on West Hunter Street. The cafe also served as a location for civil rights leaders to meet. The foods the restaurant served were Virginia baked ham, pork chop dinner, jumbo shrimp, roast beef, and other classic Southern dishes. Club from Nowhere was a black-owned soul food restaurant that opened in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, operated by civil rights activist Georgia Gilmore . Gilmore's fried chicken , macaroni and cheese, stuffed pork chops, stuffed peppers, and coleslaw were popular among her black and white customers. These were dishes she learned how to make from
15500-461: Was the head chef for Thomas Jefferson . Hemings combined African, French , and Native American food traditions. While enslaved, Hemings traveled to Paris, France with Jefferson, where he trained under French chefs and learned how to make macaroni pie (today called macaroni and cheese ). Hemings introduced and popularized macaroni and cheese in the United States; it later became a common side item in soul food dishes in Black communities. Sesame
15625-427: Was used to preserve meats for weeks until consumption. To sweeten their food and beverages, slaves used molasses . They also made blackstrap molasses, a very dark molasses with robust flavor, by cooking the juice of sugarcane low and slow. Other sweet sauces created and used by slaves were sorghum syrup, similar to molasses, made by cooking the juice of the sorghum plant . Sorghum seeds came from West Africa by way of
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