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I'm not from the South in the US, so I've only had "soul food" from a restaurant a coupel of times. I was wondering if anyone is familiar with it and would share their experience as to what soul food constitutes.
There's a small chain of restaurants called Chips where I live that sell what I consider "soul food"* and they sell everything listed above.
Also red beans and rice, fried okra and green beans (YUM), ribs and catfish, sweet potatoes, deep fried turkey gizzards and other meatish oddities. And really excellent coleslaw.
I make a meal of the greens (just perfectly vinegary and hot) and red beans and rice and their fried green beans are wonderful.
*I have quite often bought food from there for an Arkansas transplant and she has proclaimed it very authentic and good. Me, Waffle House eggs, grits and hot sauce is Soul food but I am a Northerner.
PS, boiled peanuts and fried pies are just nasty. I like most Southern food but those, NO. Just no. But perhaps those are Southern but not Soul. I am not sure where one properly draws the line.
Don't be talkin' smack about the boiled peanuts. Them's fightin' words.
Joey has it about right so do a lot of others, but I will add, as I understand it there are a few dishes that are strictly soul and not the same as southern. Another thing, soul food greens are always (if authentic) cooked with animal fat like bacon grease. Like everything else, some dishes have been modernized over the years, but still true soul food remains yummy but not healthy. Give me the yummy any day.
I think there is a lot of overlap between "Traditional Southern Foods" and "Soul Foods." But I also think that there are elements in each that aren't present in the other.
For instance, chitlins. Soul food, not southern food. Crab cakes - southern food, not soul food.
Come to think of it, my experience has been that when it comes to VEGETABLES, soul food and southern food are basically identical when it comes to ingredients and preparation. The main differences are in the meat dishes.
Hahaha nice. I was also hoping for specific examples of dishes. Anyone here in or from the South?
Smothered Pork Chops in a brown gravy & rice
Fried Chicken with milk gravy
Smothered Pepper Steak Gravy & rice
Fried Catfish & Potato Salad
Mustard or Collard Greens with ham hocks
Yams
Green beans cooked with potato and bacon
Black eyed peas & rice
Red beans & rice
Soul Food is basically comfort food, "that satisfies the soul" Two reasons it is so satisfying is that its very filling and is usually eaten as a communal meal with family extended family and friends. This adds to the feel good factor. It's not the healthiest, but recipes can be tweaked to make them more heart healthy.
I hired a girl to help me cook in my Mom/Pop Grocery&Deli once and when we started planing our menu together and actually cooking home cook Southern meals I found out that her Soul Food wasnt that different than how I was taught to cook by my mother in Kentucky.
The unhealthy part of Soul Food is no different.
Alot of deep fried meats with heavy seasonings.Alot of butter and creams.Rich and high in calories and very flavorfull.
We made all of the dishes mentioned above.Soup Beans cooked with butter and Hog Jowels and Salt bacon lots of pepper.Corn Bread with meal and flour melted butter and Butter Milk and a little suger.Unless we were makeing it with added diced onions/peppers.
We used alot of Cajun Seasonings as well.
Dang Im starting to get hungry for some Southern Soul Food!!!
I think "Soul Food", is synonymous with cooked in fat, lots of bacon, cheese, butter. Mississippi is the "Soul Food" capital, it is also the highest rate of obesity in the United States.
Yams, coated with brown sugar, butter, topped with marshmallows.
Green beans, steamed and stir fried in bacon drippings, with bacon and chopped onions and green peppers, sauteed in bacon fat.
Biscuits and cream sausage gravy.
Grits, cooked with butter and cream, cheddar cheese stirred in.
Fried chicken, fried in lard.
Mississippi Mud Cake
Last edited by jasper12; 04-17-2013 at 11:09 AM..
Reason: edit
"Soul Food" is a term coined by black Americans in the mid-20th century. It's basically southern cooking (for the most part) that may, or may not, have an ethnic twist to it.
Someone said that chitterlings were soul food and not southern food. ??? Really? LoL
Where I'm from the only time I hear "soul food" is when people are using it as a marketing term for restaurants.
Soul food and southern cooking are nearly synonymous with one another.
Regardless how people from across the nation view the terms...at home we simply refer to it as "food".
"Soul Food" is a term coined by black Americans in the mid-20th century. It's basically southern cooking (for the most part) that may, or may not, have an ethnic twist to it.
Someone said that chitterlings were soul food and not southern food. ??? Really? LoL
Where I'm from the only time I hear "soul food" is when people are using it as a marketing term for restaurants.
Soul food and southern cooking are nearly synonymous with one another.
Regardless how people from across the nation view the terms...at home we simply refer to it as "food".
What I said is how I see it - of course there's no factual definition that will please everyone when it comes to the definitions of soul food vs southern food.
In MY tradition, the way I grew up in the Deep South, soul food is southern food PLUS chitlins. Not to mention some other rather "exotic" cuts of meat that aren't usually part of most (let's just say it) WHITE SOUTHERNERS' menu.
You won't find many recipes for chitlins in a Southern Living magazine, or on Paula Deen's website. Though you WILL find plenty of ham hocks!
And don't bother telling me that some white southerners eat chitlins or oxtail or ham hocks or pigs' ears - I know they do. I'm talking in generalities.
There are lots of overlaps when it comes to soul food and southern food - and actually I think that soul food is a larger and more diverse group of foods than simply southern food, because it encompasses southern food and MORE.
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Not to mention some other rather "exotic" cuts of meat that aren't usually part of most (let's just say it) WHITE SOUTHERNERS' menu. 
