HISTORY
The largest
influx of African-Americans (1910-1930) from Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and the
Carolinas increased the black population 115% in the southwestern PA area. They immigrated because they were recruited by northern industries to break white workers' strikes. They didn't get paid much and were allotted minimal amounts for living.
Even though the Wagner Act in 1935 was passed which gave workers the right to collective
bargaining and blacks were allowed to join
unions, there was still much discrimination and often they were not eligible
for government housing for misplaced families. They lived frugally as they had in the South. More immigration occurred from World War II to 1950.
FOOD HISTORY: From the
south they brought the knowledge of wild greens cooked with ham hocks and other slave dishes. What was
discarded from the main house by their masters was eaten by their slave ancestors. This was
where the term “soul food” originated. Castoffs from the main house included: pigs’ feet, hind-parts, jowls, intestines,
cow brains and tongues and others. The
southern slaves cooked the bitter collard, mustard and turnip greens with pork
leftovers. This “make-do” or “soul food”
which was the mainstay at that time and its transformation now has become part of white and
black households today.
FOODS:
Collard Greens, Shrimp Pilau (bacon, onion, tomato, hot pepper, parsley, rice,
shrimp stock, shrimp), Cornbread,
Cracklin’ Corn Bread (cracklins
are pork rinds), Sweet Potato
Casserole, African Chicken
(chicken breasts, onions, tomatoes, garlic, ketchup, peanut butter, cayenne,
hard boiled eggs), Shrimp Creole (green
pepper, garlic, butter, tomatoes, lemon juice, Tabasco, shrimp, rice), Sweet Potato Pone (sweet potato
bread) and Old Fashioned Hoecake
(corn meal, flour, bacon fat, etc. –
NOTE: This was called Hoecake because out in the fields often they didn’t have cooking
pots so they baked the bread on a hot hoe over a fire!!)
MORE FOODS:
Scalloped Pineapple (sugar, butter, eggs, white bread, milk, crushed
pineapple baked in casserole & topped with whipped cream or as side dish to
meats), Sweet Potato Pie (I
think everyone knows what this is), Southern
Ham & Brown Beans, Fried
Okra, Okra-Corn-Tomatoes,
Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Black-eyed Peas and Gumbo, Sausage Biscuits and Gravy, Grits in various ways, Hoppin’ John (a thick, hearty stew of
black-eyed peas, ham, and rice served on New Year’s Day for good luck), Pinto Beans with pork, Chow-Chow (not really from the
South although they claim it – from the PA Dutch who immigrated to the south), Black eyed-peas, Hush puppies, Corn pone and the list goes on.
NOTE: OXTAIL STEW IS ANOTHER RECIPE TO BE INCLUDED. IT ORIGINALLY CAME FROM JAMAICA.
LINK TO All Recipes - Soul Food
LINK TO MY RECIPES SOUL FOOD
LINK TO 15 SOUL FOOD RECIPES FROM ABOUT.COM
