Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time2014 James Beard Foundation Book Award, Reference and Scholarship Honor Book for Nonfiction, Black Caucus of the American Library Association In this insightful and eclectic history, Adrian Miller delves into the influences, ingredients, and innovations that make up the soul food tradition. Focusing each chapter on the culinary and social history of one dish — such as fried chicken, chitlins, yams, greens, and “red drinks” — Miller uncovers how it got on the soul food plate and what it means for African American culture and identity. Miller argues that the story is more complex and surprising than commonly thought. Four centuries in the making, and fusing European, Native American, and West African cuisines, soul food — in all its fried, pork-infused, and sugary glory — is but one aspect of African American culinary heritage. Miller discusses how soul food has become incorporated into American culture and explores its connections to identity politics, bad health raps, and healthier alternatives. This refreshing look at one of America’s most celebrated, mythologized, and maligned cuisines is enriched by spirited sidebars, photographs, and twenty-two recipes. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 11 | |
3 From Southern to Soul | 29 |
4 Fried Chicken and the Integration of Church and Plate | 49 |
5 Catfish and Other Double Swimmers | 70 |
A Love Story | 91 |
Whats Luck Got To Do With It? | 111 |
8 How Did Macaroni and Cheese Get So Black? | 129 |
Drop It Like Its Hot Bread | 186 |
The Best Medicine Ever? | 208 |
Liquid Soul | 222 |
The Glory of Soul Food Desserts | 240 |
15 Whither Soul Food? | 255 |
NOTES | 267 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 285 |
| 311 | |
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Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time Adrian Miller No preview available - 2013 |
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time Adrian Miller No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
Afri African American cooks antebellum Atlantic slave trade baking banana beans Big House black cooks black-eyed peas boiled bread butter called catfish century Chef Chicago chitlins chitterlings church cities collards color cookbook Cookery corn cornbread cornmeal crops cuisine culinary culture dessert diet dinner dish early eaten eggs Emancipation European eyed peas fish fry flavor flour foodways fried chicken gardening Georgia greens Harlem hog killing Home Cooking hot sauce Housewife Ibid ingredients Italian Joffe Juneteenth kitchen kola nuts Kool-Aid macaroni and cheese meal meat Mississippi Narratives Negro North peach cobbler pepper plant plantation planters popular pork pound cake prepared pudding racial Rawick recipe red drinks red lemonade rice rural South salt season served slave food slavery soul food soul food restaurant South Carolina Southern Cooking sugar sweet potatoes Tabasco tablespoon taste teaspoon tradition true yams urban vegetables Virginia waffles West African cooks York