A Layering of Hungers: The Heritage of Soul Food

The expression “soul food” is a term grafted from the expression “soul music,” which in the 1960s referenced black artists noted for their soulful blues and rhythmic music. The term “soul” was applied also to artists noted for their culinary skills, particularly to field-hand cooks in antebellum America, who performed culinary miracles with foods then thought to be too common for the master’s table. These included the South’s cheapest staples, such as black-eyed peas, yams or sweet potatoes, collard greens, dandelion greens, turnip greens, chitterlings (the small intestines of hogs), hog maws (the stomach of the hog), ham hocks, trotters (the feet of the hog), hog jowl (the cheek of the hog), cornbread, and so on.