Shelf Life

Diversity In Southern Foodways

“Southern Cuisine” encompasses the terroir, image, and agriculture of multiple southern states; yet it is far more complex. Miss Minerva’s Cook Book written by Emma Speed Sampson published in 1932, illustrates the complexities of southern cuisine, including geographic variations and issues of race.  Having lived in several southern states, Sampson illustrates these, for example, including both “Virginia Style Clam Chowder” and a “Louisiana Style Clam Chowder.” At the same time, while she acknowledges the contributions of African Americans to southern cuisine. She perpetuates negative stereotypes of African Americans through illustrations in the book to promote ideas of authenticity.

Division of White and Black South

The term Soul Food also gets placed under the umbrella of southern cuisine. “Soul food is connected to a time when the American South was plagued by one of the most brutal institutions in history—slavery. But just as many people, at least in the South, are united on taste.” (Penn.) Soul food gets its name from the “soul” in African American culture and cuisine during the rise of the black power movement around the 1960’s. The time and effort put into cooking collard greens, or the consumption of fried chicken and how it was used to feed communities; but to reach as far as feeding parts of the military. Soul Food finding its roots largely in the south leads it to fall under the umbrella of southern cuisine. Although Soul Food is a cuisine in itself, it is tied to slavery. However, with much of what was being accepted as cookbooks during this time; or who had the proper education to write them, was white people. Many white authors writing cookbooks on southern cuisine would include dishes closely attached to soul food, claiming it as southern cuisine. By extension, claiming many of these dishes as white dishes, taking away from heritage and identity attached to soul food

Food Apartheid

Food Apartheid, or more commonly known as a “food desert” is the systemic lack of accessibility to healthy or fresh foods. Or what is generally heavily processed or unhealthy foods forced upon traditionally marginalized or low income areas “Moving towards a ‘food apartheid’ framing, which better reflects the intentionality and racially discriminatory approaches that have led to inequitable access to food seen in the U.S. today. Planning policies and practices such as segregation, displacement, interstate construction, and urban renewal have all created concentrated areas of poverty along racial lines.”(Vinella) Much of what Vinella writes about can be seen very prevalent in the south. Looking through the lens of Miss Minerva’s Cook Book, the author makes statements such as “these recipes er s’posed to be made with cans, thir the only thing ive made em with.” (pg.8) With most recipes in the cookbook using almost selectively canned and preserved goods, at times even mentioning that she doesn’t even know what the dish would taste like with fresh goods due to not being able to get her hands on them. The recipes of this cookbook are likely written through the depression, during extreme drought and famine. The Miss Minerva Cook Book was written in 1931 in, as she describes, “slave language.” also implying similar living conditions and access to food for impoverished Southern African Americans.

African American Imagery Used For Authenticity

Miss Minerva’s Cook Book is written by a white woman as an extension of a mammy book series, targeting an African American audience. The mammy image is a plump female black caretaker. The mammy figure is also depicted taking care of white families. Within the book, as early as the introductory page the cookbook includes stereotypical depictions of Blacks. These images appear frequently throughout the book. “Though the transition marked a notable difference in the ‘product’, the images used continued to reflect horrific treatment and negative portrayals of Blacks, often unrelated to the products sold.”(Smith) This is also applicable to the book, with the images depicted not relating at all to the recipes or to the subsequent section. But why would they be included? “The mammy stereotype was often used to sell household products to White customers, such as Aunt Jemima as the face and name of pancake syrup and mix.”(Smith) Miss Minerva, in her book series, is a mammy to many white children. The usage of black imagery in this book written by a white woman is used in order to make the recipes seem more “authentic” to the white audience which is the target for the books. Depicting black children enjoying food, or a black mammy cooking before a new section of recipes, similarly to Aunt Jemima was used to sell the book further.

For Further Research:

Sampson, Emma Speed. Miss Minerva’s Cook Book. Reilly & Lee Co., 1931.

Ferris, Marcie Cohen. The Edible South: The Power of Food and the Making of an American Region. University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Penn, Sarah Bracy. Soul Food: An Interpretation of the History, Significance, and Southern Roots of the American Cuisine. University of Mississippi, 2015.

Smith, Elyssa Quinn. Black Ads Matter: An Analysis of Black Representation in Advertising. University of Louisville, 2022.

Vinella-Brusher, Emma. Reckoning with Food Apartheid. University of North Carolina, 2023.