The Origin Story of Some of Our Soul Food Favorites

Sure, Thanksgiving is about being with loved ones and taking time to be grateful for all of our blessings. But let’s keep it real, we’re mostly looking forward to consuming our entire daily calorie count in one delicious dinner that took some blessed soul nearly all day to make.

For Black Americans, soul food isn’t just about the taste, it’s about the culture and a connection to traditions started by our ancestors generations ago. Before we dig in to the goodness that is piled way too high on our plates, we’re looking at the history behind some of Black folks’ favorite soul food dishes.

Dressing

This probably doesn’t need to be said here, but dressing and stuffing are not the same thing. As food historian Michael W. Twitty explains, the soul food staple we know as cornbread stuffing is inspired by a West African dish called kush – a hash made from day-old cornbread seasoned with onions, herbs and spices. Over time, Black chefs have created their own variations of the dish, adding tsausage, oysters, shrimp and more to their stuffing. But one thing’s for certain, it has no place inside your turkey or hen. Stuffing gets its own place on the plate.

Macaroni and Cheese

You can’t have a good soul food dinner where the macaroni and cheese isn’t the star of the show. Although many Black cooks will debate you up and down on topics like roux or no roux or if Velveeta is an acceptable cheese, one thing we can all agree on, there’s almost no such thing as too much butter or too much cheese.

Black American chef James Hemings (Sally Hemings’ brother) is credited with bringing the recipe for macaroni and cheese to the United States from France. He adapted his delicious “macaroni pie” from a recipe he learned during his culinary training in Paris.

Greens

When it comes to vegetables, greens are among the most popular soul food sides. African slaves perfected the art of slow-simmering the leafy veggies, seasoning them with ham hocks, pig feet, or any other leftover meat they had access to.

“The soul-food greens are cabbage, collards, mustard, turnip, and kale. For all you people who’ve discovered kale in the last five to 10 years, welcome to the party. We’ve been eating it for about 300,” Adrian E. Miller, author of the book “Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time,” told Epicurious.

Sweet Potato Pie

If you’re having a holiday dinner with African Americans, you can almost guarantee that the meal will end with a slice (or more) of sweet potato pie. If you haven’t had the pleasure of getting down on this delicious dessert, please don’t ever confuse it with pumpkin pie.

The simple recipe, which usually includes roasted potatoes, eggs and milk, with cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg added for flavor, has been passed down for generations in many Black families, with roots that go back to the Transatlantic slave trade.

According to Adrian Miller, Black people, who were used to eating root vegetables like yams and cassava, found sweet potatoes the closest substitute they could find in the United States.

Abby Fisher, a former slave who became a well-known chef published the first known sweet potato pie recipe in her 1881 book What Mrs Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking.