Any soul food fans on trapperman? I have never eaten soul food. Just curious what your favorite dishes are? Also recommendations on soul food restaurants in Virginia and points north. I rarely travel south of Virginia. I know roast possum is a soul food dish. Thank you for your time.

Sorry, I would not know soul food if it jumped out in front of me.

Y'all never ate greens? Soul food is good eating, it just uses a lot of the lesser cuts of meat.

Years ago worked with a colored lady. She would bring in southern dishes a lot to pot lucks. I showed interest in some of the dishes and she invited me to one of her family meals. The meal was fried catfish, collared greens, black eyed peas and corn bread. Also served was baked mac and cheese with something in it. I skipped the mac but the rest of the meal was great! Have had collared greens many times but these were spicy and had some bite to them. Greens can be my favorite or least favorite soul food pending how it was prepared. Would also get her coon meats during the trapping season. Claimed at Thanksgiving she would cook a turkey and a coon for family get togethers.

Thank you for the explanations, I eat out very rarely. Hopefully can find something other than fast food.

love it


ribs , chicken , grits , collards , chitlins, cobbler , fried fish , bannana pudding , corn bread , beans , black eyed peas

Ox tails, turkey necks, and chicken feet.

Hominy grits with butter x2

I will eat that until I start to sweat. Love it !

I used to eat way past comfortable

definitely into sweat washing it down with quarts of SwEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEt tea

had to give that up along with the high carb stuff which is most of it

still like some ribs with Alabama white sauce , fried chicken , catfish with spicy corn meal dredge , some black eye peas

and a bite of corn bread here and there

but it is all way to easy to over do it on .

Here's a basic recipe, feel free to improvise. The beauty of simple country cooking is use whatever little you have add some love and family to it.

Collard greens

One mess greens (mess = amount needed to feed what's coming to supper)
About a pound give or take of good smoked meat or hambone (I like smoked pork neckbones)
A quart or so of good stock or broth (I use chicken stock homemade better)

Optional a pod or two or three of hot pepper, garlic cloves, chopped onion, a dash or two of vinegar (my heat comes from pepper sauce offered at the table as a condiment sauce is nothing but hot vinegar poured over hot peppers in a jar, pickled peppers if you will)

Wash greens, stack leaves to a workable pile, roll like a cigar for easy handling. Cut crossways into about 3/4 inch strips. Do not strip out the stems you want the stems as that is where the collard stores its sugar. Just discard any that have grown fibrous.
Meanwhile heat a big pot. Collards are bulky raw and cook down quite a bit. Get a good sear on your smoked meat to release its flavors. Then pour in enough stock or vinegar to scrape up all the burnt bits, fond to a cajun. Pour your stock in and bring it to a boil to start the meat to cooking and loosening from the bone. Now start packing in the greens a handful at a time packing down to help it start cooking down. Return to a boil then down to a low boil and let cook for a hour before tasting. Stir occasionally. It's done when the greens reach you desired tenderness, 1-3 hours. I like mine firmer so about an hour and a half for me.

The same basic recipe will work for mustard, turnip, kale as well or a mix. Heck, I've done chinese cabbage that way. Though most often I use just water with turnips or mustard. Granny would dice and add the turnip roots as well.

Yup on the cornmeal for fish. None of that batter or flour only stuff. You do need a touch of flour as cornmeal itself is prone to not covering well.

Season as you like but the basic is salt, pepper and a touch of cayenne. I've been known to toss in some garlic or onion powder and dill or lemon pepper goes great with fish.

Soak it in buttermilk overnight if it's muddy tasting. Takes the mud right out.

whole milk heck even 2% will also take the fishy/muddy out

the fishy smell/taste in fish is oxidized enzyme the proteins in the milk bind with the enzyme and carry it away

soaking in milk for just a half hour then a cold water rinse will freshen up a lot of fish

be it a warm weather caught fish or a fish that sat in the fridge for a few days or a cat caught early in the night that dies on the stringer and is stiff and white by morning when your filleting

a quick search for the how it works
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos/6456-fix-for-fishy-seafood
"The casein in milk binds to the TMA, and when drained away, it takes the culprit that causes fishy odor with it. The result is seafood that's sweet smelling and clean-flavored."

Grits

Start with a good quality brand of grits. If it has instant on the package throw them out they ain't grits.

Two types of grits quick grits and hominy. Quick is ground corn and hominy is ground dried hominy and is softer.

Start with about a four to one ratio water to grits and about half a tablespoon of salt per cup of grits. Bring the salted water to a full boil, I usually toss in a good sized chunk of butter as well, then stir in the grits. Stir being the operative word, just dumping them in is how you get lumps. Serving lumpy grits is how you get asked to bring ice and cups for the next potluck. Return to a boil then down to a simmer.
Meanwhile fix the rest of your meal checking on the grits from time to time adding a touch of water as needed when it thickens up. Don't worry about the clock or what's written on the package, grits can go all day like this long as you keep an eye on it and add water as need. The idea is you don't want to serve hard grits.

Serve with salt and pepper available plus butter, lots of butter.

Some folks like cheese grits, I don't, so you can stir in some grated cheese near the end. Shrimp grits adds some well seasoned pan seared shrimp and often includes smoked sausage as well.

Red eye gravy over grits is to die for.

Redeye gravy

Fry up fatty pieces of country ham, you can use city ham but it won't be as good. Fatty because you want the pan drippings. To the hot pan drippings I add a mix of equal parts STRONG black coffee and brown sugar (cane syrup works as well). Bring to boil and reduce by a quarter to half to intensify flavor.

Serve over grits or biscuits. The proper ham biscuit has each half dipped in the gravy before assembling.

… warrior try mixing in some corn flour or masa with the cornmeal instead of regular all purpose flour and let me know what you think

Dang already ate but thinking I could eat again now!

Best catfish I ever had was in Grenada, Mississippi. I had it corn flour dipped and also blackened. It was awesome!

I actually have Masa on hand . Thank you for the ideas, everyone!

Soul food right here