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 Rice: 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.
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 Rice: 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.
