All these dishes may add up to a heart attack waiting to happen, but sometimes you’ve just got to have some soul food.
Soul food has been closely associated with the African American community since the 1960s, but who doesn’t love some cornbread and collard greens every once in a while. The origin of these foods, however, is far from glamorous.
As slaves, African Americans learned to let nothing go to waste. Vegetables like turnips, beets and dandelions that were of little interest to white plantation owners became staples for slave families. They added greens like collards, kale, pokeweed and mustard and created recipes for the meat products discarded from the plantation kitchen. Pig feet, beef tongue and tail, ham hocks and chitterlings (pig intestine) found their way to the table. Most were seasoned with onions, garlic, bay leaves and thyme and cooked in lard. Vegetable side dishes on a soul food menu include black-eyed peas, cabbage, succotash (corn, tomatoes and butter beans), sweet potatoes and fried corn.
These days, diets featuring things like deep fried pork rinds, fish or okra along with Johnny cakes, dumplings and mashed potatoes and gravy can be directly tied to obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes. But they sure do taste good.
Some dishes you might be less inclined to try are batter-fried chicken gizzards and livers, oxtail soup (made from beef tails), hog maws (jowls sliced and cooked with chitterlings) and hoghead cheese (made from pig snouts, lips and ears).
Some you probably can’t get enough of are grits, rice pudding, sweet tea and macaroni and cheese, which never comes from a box. It’s made hot and hearty from scratch with cheddar cheese, milk and flour.
— Karen Beaudoin