Nourishing Soul Food

Soul food is basically the cooking style and recipes of the African diaspora. It is the African diet applied to the local food supply, history, and economic situation.

Some of it comes out of slavery and poverty, but a good bit of it comes from what was available, as well of a mixture of culture and cooking styles with Native Americans, Europeans, and Asians.

Different areas have different styles. Generally though, they follow the African tradition of cooking from scratch. There is very little use of processed food, refined sugar, or table salt in true soul food. Back when the style was developing, white flour and sugar, and table salt were the more presigious and therefore more expensive options.

White flour was used specifically for the purpose of making yeast breads rise. Before it was possible for the average family to buy ready yeast, people made it at home by sourdough or other methods of fermentation. Even baking soda is pretty new. Before that, people used ash or clabber (curdled sour milk).

Nowadays, many of the old ways have been lost or forgotten. In some cases the new ways were positive or neutral, but some things like hydrogenated oils and overuse of over-heated extracted vegetable fats were very bad. Africans and those of partly sub Saharan African descent have been hit particularly hard because of deficiencies of D, A, and K vitamins, and their Omega type fatty acids being way off balance.

On this page, aside of sharing some tasty recipes, I hope to share the benefits I've gained in the area of health. You don't need to be Black to get something good from soul food. We're all a bit African on this planet.

One thing I noticed is that African diaspora food isn't too far from a good bit of eastern European food. So if you see something familiar then well, it's probably because no matter where you're from or what you look like, folks is folks.

For more soul food recipes, go to my website at SoulFood.rr.nu.

If you are specifically trying to lose weight, have a look at my site at CookingSlim.org where I detail how I've lost over 60 pounds so far without even trying very hard.

For more information about nourishing food in general, visit the Weston A. Price Foundation website.

Any kind of refined cane sugar used to be considered a luxury item, and still is in some places. If you didn't have a store nearby that sold it, you would only get it when merchants came through, or as part of your allotted goods once or maybe twice a year.

This didn't mean that people did without dessert completely. They just used refined sugars more as food additives than as the main source of sweetness in a recipe. When you might only get 10 lbs. of refined sugar or less in a year, you had to have other ways.

One way people in the south got their sweet on back in the day was by growing their own sugar. There is a species of sugar cane that can be easily grown in most fairly temperate climates. It's called ribbon cane. It was grown for syrup, not for refining or crystalizing. Because it is unrefined sucrose, it can be used in much the same way as regular sugar in a recipe, only you'll need to use less liquid and perhaps a half teaspoon more baking soda, like with honey.

Speaking of which, honey was an often used sweetener. Africans to this day will brave aggressive wild bees and walk in the bush for days to get honey.

Another trick we brought from Africa is to make syrups from dried fruit. We used whatever fruit was available, from dates to raisins and figs, to prunes, and soaked them overnight, boiled, and pureed or strained them. A dried fruit syrup would keep longer than fresh fruit preserves without the addition of extra sugar.

Then of course, there's canning. Canning can make a little sugar go a long way. Just barely enough white sugar was used to keep the fruit preserved, and the jam could be used in recipes. Applesauce can stretch sugar a long way.

Fresh fruit was used as it was available. Peaches, apples, bananas, and other fruits could be used as a combination sweetener and liquid in a recipe. As cooking was done "back in the day", the fresh fruit also aided in the fermentation or souring of the flour in a cake or flat bread.

So next time you're baking, consider using an alternative sugar. Your body will thank you.