"Soul Food" is ethnic food of the African American culture. The "Southern" food that I cook including BBQ IS NOT "Soul Food".

The local AME Minister does not come by and pray "AMEN, Glory Hallelujah" over my food as it’s cooking.

A lot of Afro-American restaurants cook "Southern" style food and call it "Soul Food". That does not make it so, as the food and preparation style originated outside of the African, slave or Afro-American cultures.

Just my 2 cent worth.

I’m no expert, Dr, just my observations growing up. I would say the White bbq descended from the Southern Country Tradition as discussed previously. The Black BBQ is pretty well documented as to Henry Perry’s path from Memphis and steamboats to KC, and Arthur and Charlie Bryant being from Texas.
I went to school with both Riekes, immigrant truck farmers, and Quicks, thus my knowledge of white folks BBQ
It’s alll good.
http://www.centredaily.com/living/food/story/198298.html

quote:

Originally posted by bill voss
In KC growing up, BBQ was always classified as "White" or Black", because of taste, method, and Origin. Black was always spicier, smokier, White less so. Migration patterns meant 2 styles in one. This line is obscured now more than 40 years ago, I think. So if you think Soul Food is descended from Slave food, then that’s why I say they can be related, but not necessarily.

Bill,
I d have to ask where did the original cooking method come from? Maybe that s the difference in opinion here. My contention here is scrap meats were not high on the list of effluent people in the early days.Who was poor, slaves in the south, and non slave blacks, in the north.

But poor people no matter what their color were forced to eat what ever they could afford. So came ribs and BBQ because they were considered scrap cuts.

I m not saying your wrong in differences in taste, spiciness, or even style but please just go one step back to the people that started the wonderful thing we call BBQ today.

It was poor people that were forced to eat the lesser cuts of beef and pork and the ingenious ways they figured out to make those cuts tender, juicy, and a delight to us all.

One last thought, lets compare it to another popular food item, chicken wings. I doubt anyone will deny that they were a popular item within the black and poor community for years and years. You could buy them for 10 cents per Lb. But after the Anchor Bar started selling them their popularity soared and so did the price. Chicken wings were a scrap meat, no demand and thus cheap prices but poor people smoked them, fried them and thus consumed them for years and years, because they were cheap. Then more effluent people discovered them and now the demand and price per Lb is outrageous

Jack

In KC growing up, BBQ was always classified as "White" or Black", because of taste, method, and Origin. Black was always spicier, smokier, White less so. Migration patterns meant 2 styles in one. This line is obscured now more than 40 years ago, I think. So if you think Soul Food is descended from Slave food, then that’s why I say they can be related, but not necessarily.

quote:

Originally posted by salindgren
I never acquired a taste for Bar-B-Que or Soul Food, per se. I’ve always been kind of vegetarian, so I can’t comment much about ribs and such. I think the line between BBQ & SF is so blurred that no one can separate them.

Where would you place New Orleans cuisine? I mean, I’m pretty sure BBQ would include ‘gator tails, right? But what about mudbugs? Are crayfish soul food? I guess they are not BBQ. No sauce involved. What’s interesting about both BBQ, as I understand it, and SF, is a kind of childlike blandness, wherein there is NOT a lot of spiciness per se. New Orleans is spicy, but regular SF just is not. And BBQ can be tangy, or whatever, but not hot the way chili is, right? BBQ seems to be based on sugar and smoke. Which is fine. I happen to like something with more bite, but that’s just me.

Scott,
At 51 you truly have lead a sheltered life.

First of all I promise you there is NO LINE between BBQ and SOUL FOOD.
BBQ (smoked meats) are spicy. If it s not your doing it wrong.
Good BBQ (smoked meats) requires NO SAUCE. It s a method not a recipe.

More importantly food from New Orleans is spicy and most of it was originally a mixture of French and Poor People s Food. Soul Food/ Country Food they are interchangeable, is what ever was very readily available and thus cheap, in any particular area. The people in the New Orleans area were of two classes and both lived to eat. The difference between Creole and Cajun cooking is simple. Creoles were rich planters and their kitchens aspired to grande cuisine. Their recipes came from France or Spain as did their chefs. By using classic French techniques with local foodstuffs, they created a whole new cuisine, called Creole cooking.

If you look up Creole in the dictionary you’ll find:
3: a person of mixed French or Spanish and black descent speaking a dialect of French or Spanish
4 a: a language evolved from pidginized French that is spoken by blacks in southern Louisiana. How could it not be Soul Food?

On the other hand, the Acadians, pronounced <uh-CADE-ee-uns>, later contracted to Cajun, were a tough (very poor, mixture of whites, blacks, and slaves) used to living under strenuous conditions. They tended to serve strong country food prepared from locally available ingredients, crab, river shrimp, lake shrimp, oysters, crawfish, freshwater and saltwater fish, plus squirrels, wild turkeys, ducks, frogs, turtles, pork, homemade sausages, beans of all kinds, tomatoes, okra, yams, pecans, oranges and wines, liqueurs and brandy. It was pungent, peppery and practical since it was all cooked in a single pot. Thus Cajun cuisine was born. They were poor, how poor were they? They only had one pot. LOL

Blacks were almost always poor as were many many whites, as per above. So in New Orleans you had farm pigs, rice, mud bugs, seafood, and wild game be it gators, rabbits, deer, fish, wild pigs, and the list goes on and on. People as I touched on earlier, ate what they could shoot, trap, raise, trade for, or could be grown on very small plots of land or in gardens.

In the fall after harvest, people met in villages, or towns and traded what they had an abundance of for what they were short of. When they met they exchanged methods of cooking, or preparing what ever they were presenting for trade. Today we call them recipes.

Smoking foods especially all meats was a way to preserve them, because there were no refrigerators or ice. You had two choices in that period, one was kill and butcher the hog or hogs if you were rich enough to have a couple, and render the fat. As you had big cast iron pots of hog fat you cut and smoked the pork chops and other parts of the hog. After smoking you put a one or two-i,2,348217.034,1,22370,70.226.208.107
348250,348217,348217,2007-12-12 00:15:37,RE: Is BBQ related to Soul Food?”

quote:

Originally posted by iqdiva

Here you are Foodbme…I hope you like this puddin’…It’s one of m family’s all-time favorite comfort foods :

" MISS SUSAN’S BISCUIT PUDDIN’ "

My family’s recipe originally called for whole sweet milk , which to Southerners means just regular whole milk.But,I use evaporated milk because it gives a richer taste…If you can’t have sugar , you can substitute Splenda…

6 cold biscuits , I use good old fashioned homemade Southern biscuits leftover from breakfast
1 cup evaporated milk
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter , melted
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup evaporated milk

Soak crumbled biscuits in hot water for a few minutes; add sugar, butter, nutmeg, raisins, beaten eggs, and milk, mixing after each addition. Pour into 1-quart greased baking dish; bake in preheated 350� oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until browned.

THANX Diva!! I make killer biscuits almost every weekend and there’s always some left. I’ll sure give this a whirl! Sounds great! [:p][:p][:p][8D]

This is an interesting little topic, isn’t it? I’m from Dallas, but I never acquired a taste for Bar-B-Que or Soul Food, per se. Perhaps because I was in CT from year 5-10. Whatever. There are things associated with both that I love. Cornbread. Hush puppies. Corn on or off the cob. Tater tots. Biscuits (no gravy, just butter please). I guess the tater tots are pretty white trash, like me. I’ve always been kind of vegetarian, so I can’t comment much about ribs and such. And I’m 51! Also, I don’t know from okra and collard greens. I think the line between BBQ & SF is so blurred that no one can separate them. One of the most successful "BBQ" operations here in Downtown LA is called "The Original Texas Bar-B-Que King", and it’s a total blend of BBQ & SF. A really funky place, with 55 gallon drums as smokers, etc, and run by black folks, with macaroni & cheese, chili fries, the whole enchilada. So go figure.
Here’s another question… Where would you place New Orleans cuisine? I mean, I’m pretty sure BBQ would include ‘gator tails, right? But what about mudbugs? Are crayfish soul food? I guess they are not BBQ. No sauce involved. OK, off topic.
As for the German influence, well, I never thought about that before, but it is true that many Germans arrived in Texas a long time ago. I don’t see them contributing a lot to BBQ, BUT: the theory about Chicken Fried Steak is somewhat plausible. I’m sure any Irish arriving on these shores also brought yummy potato concepts along. Off topic again, what’s interesting about both BBQ, as I understand it, and SF, is a kind of childlike blandness, wherein there is NOT a lot of spiciness per se. New Orleans is spicy, but regular SF just is not. And BBQ can be tangy, or whatever, but not hot the way chili is, right? BBQ seems to be based on sugar and smoke. Which is fine. I happen to like something with more bite, but that’s just me.

-Scott Lindgren [email protected]

"Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, typically associated with African Americans of the Southern United States. In the mid-1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning, ‘soul’ was a common adjective used to describe African American culture, and thus the name ‘soul food’ was derived."

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_food

Do you know what " Soul Food " really means ? I believe that it can refer to any food that is made with " Soul " ( aka: tender loving care & heart ) !

I personally think soul food has origins of "farm food". My Mother grew up in Michigan, where her grandfather started a lumber yard with $10.00 from a sponsor. He died forty years later, and people came from hundreds of miles to pay honor to him.They made cornmeal stuffing, bbq ribs, fried chicken, gizzards,chicken, and such. She had her first "Manhatten Cocktail" there too.

I’m sorry … I shouldn’t read " hot water "…It should read " hot milk "… I had one of those recurring " senior moments "…I’m sorry…

Here you are Foodbme…I hope you like this puddin’…It’s one of m family’s all-time favorite comfort foods :

" MISS SUSAN’S BISCUIT PUDDIN’ "

My family’s recipe originally called for whole sweet milk , which to Southerners means just regular whole milk.But,I use evaporated milk because it gives a richer taste…If you can’t have sugar , you can substitute Splenda…

6 cold biscuits , I use good old fashioned homemade Southern biscuits leftover from breakfast
1 cup evaporated milk
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter , melted
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup evaporated milk

Soak crumbled biscuits in hot water for a few minutes; add sugar, butter, nutmeg, raisins, beaten eggs, and milk, mixing after each addition. Pour into 1-quart greased baking dish; bake in preheated 350� oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until browned.

quote:

Originally posted by iqdiva

Thank you Dr.of BBQ…I wish that I could give you a dish of old-timey Southern biscuit puddin’…I made some this afternoon and it’s still warm…

[:p][8D]How ’bout sharin rthe Southern Biscuit Puddin’ Recipe with us!

Thank you Dr.of BBQ…I wish that I could give you a dish of old-timey Southern biscuit puddin’…I made some this afternoon and it’s still warm…

Gee Folks,
Look at the list,  Soul Food was the junk cuts of meat (scraps, bony or heavy in fat) that the white plantation owners would not use, (eat) and were given to the slaves to use as they saw fit.

Iqdiva, was right on target  Southern cuisine is remarkably diverse, according to region and social status…But, as an 11th generation southerner, I say that the two are not the same. Southern country cooking is very much influenced by English and German cuisine…Soul food, in my opinion, descends from slave culture…They are both cuisines that I was brought up on and dearly, dearly love !

Soul Food was different from  Southern cuisine or Country Cooking until recently, (the last 100 years) the two began to be blended because white folks found out how good those scrap cuts of meat (bony cuts), Fat Pork Butts, Chicken Gizzards, Chicken livers, Chitterlings Chicken Fried Steak, Cracklings, Fatback, (Fried Chicken (I would question FC), Fried fish (any of several varieties of fish especially catfish, carp crappie, blue gill, Ham hocks, Hoghead cheese, Hog Jowls, Neckbones, Oxtail Soup, Pigs Feet, and finally Ribs.

All of these cuts are tuff as hell if not cooked properly and were at one time considered junk or scrap cuts, and so they were given to the slaves because the plantation owners were above eating them. It s kind of like bacon, is the sows belly so if your eating meat off of the upper portions of the hog your eating  High on the Hog .

But I have to say I m never going to be PC so Iqdiva, you were not responsible so why would you say  And, I’m sorry to say, they owned slaves . That s crazy don t let anyone ever make you feel bad for something you didn t do. Bottom line is no one is living today that was involved in slave trading or slave ownership. End of story.
Jack