Plantation Row Slave Cabin Cooking: The Roots of Soul Food

by Patricia B. Mitchell

Former slaves' first-hand accounts, many collected as part of the Federal Writers Project during the late 1930's, provide the foundation for a discussion of foods from slavery days. Published 1998. 23 recipes, 109 research notes, 12,747 words. This eBook file correlates to the twentieth printing, September 2010.In "Plantation Row Slave Cabin Cooking" Patricia B. Mitchell explores the topic of slave food on Southern plantations. She also touches on the overall lifestyle of slaves, briefly discussing housing, amusements, religion, and clothing.The superior talent of black cooks is lauded. Whether making humble dishes in the slave cabin, or elegant fare for the mansion table, dark-skinned cooks welded the “kitchen scepter” with skill and creativity. Recipes for such fare as “Hog Maw Salad,” “Limping Susan,” “Plantation Shortcake,” and “Molasses Taffy” pepper the book. — “De eats wuz good…” as Aron Carter remembered. Such “eats” are “The Roots of Soul Food.”109 endnotes will assist those who wish to learn more about the subject, and the first-person accounts in the text will be remembered and even read out loud to others. Created as a resource for museums, "Plantation Row Slave Cabin Cooking" is a follow-up to the author's earlier popular book "Soul on African Influences on American Cooking."This and other books by Patricia B. Mitchell were first written for museums and their patrons, and are now available as Kindle editions. Each of her books summarizes a food history topic, using quotations and anecdotes from early sources to both entertain and inform. She carefully lists her references to make it easy for others to launch their own research. Since the 1980's Patricia Mitchell's work is a proven staple of American museum culture. Her readers love to share her ever-present sense of discovery. Her sales are approaching a million copies, and she is widely known by her web identity FoodHistory.com.

Genres: History

37 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Patricia Mitchell began foodwriting as a contributor to The Community Standard magazine in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the early 1970's. After she and her husband Henry returned to their hometown of Chatham, Virginia, in 1975, Patricia put her writing on the “back burner” while restoring an old home (the Sims-Mitchell House, which the Mitchells operated as a bed and breakfast for over twenty years) and starting a family (now her collaborators Sarah, David, and Jonathan). In 1986, requests from B&B guests helped motivate Patricia to compile some of her recipes into book form. In a providential turn of events, a visiting museum director asked to purchase some of the little books for resale in his museum's shop. Soon a re-order came, with suggestions for an even greater emphasis on food history.

Through the years, the resulting Inkling Series has included over a hundred titles, selling over three-quarters of a million copies at museums, historic sites, bookstores, and shops in 49 states and internationally.

Poring through diaries, letters, microfilmed records, and mountains of old books, Patricia spends endless enjoyable hours in her search for clues to Americans' eating habits and cooking techniques of years gone by.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Update Pic of slave cabin to be restored by Fred Miller, who, unwittingly bought this beautiful 1860 house and discovered his ancestors had been slaves in it. It was originally CBS news, but this article has a pic of the slave cabin.
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"When the railroad industry needed chefs of their dining cars, they looked to the black race because of their reputation as sterling cooks. Out of sixty-three railroads surved in 1921, fifty-one had African-American cooks. Dining car menus listing peanut soup, beef stew, pinapple fritters, biscuits, scalloped oysters, and baked sweet potatoes reflected the decided influence of Southern plantation cooking."

This has blown me away. It is a very short book not on the evils of slavery, nor on how slaves were generally treated on plantations, but on how slaves lived outside working hours, how they made their own enjoyments, grew some of their own supplies and raised livestock and in cooking them, formed the roots of American soul food.

Proper review to come.

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short book that mainly concentrates on the daily life of enslaved people who lived on large plantations. Much of the quotes, stories, and recipes come directly from slave narratives gathered by the WPA in the 30s and 40s. The first half of the book explains the diet and cabin life on the plantation while the second half offers recipes with explanations of the dishes' origins.

[F Rahlo Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

I think I have read everyone of these books at least twice, I would purchase one at sutleries, at every reenactment I went to over the years. Delighted to now find them on Kindle. I found some I missed. Love the research and the little stories with the recipes. Thank you!

[Sadie Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good recipes to try

Interesting and informative. If you are look for old recipes this book is for you. Most look to be a bit fattening, which is understandable.

[mary browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

So informative.

I so enjoyed this book. It opened to the many of the ways of how my childhood family cooking evolved.

[Roxy Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

memory

This is more of a book of slave history than a cook book but the recipe that are written I would try

[Kim Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Book

Book is written more as a story than and cook book eye opening as to what the slave contributed to the cuisine of American culture.

[Deneen]

Very educational. Reminds me of my Grandmother's cooking style.