30 Forgotten Soul Food Dishes Black Grandmothers Made When Money Was Tight

My grandmother raised seven children on almost nothing. No waste. No throwing anything away. And those children ate every night — and they ate well. These are 30 dishes from that kitchen. Pinto bean soup. Neck bones and rice. Pot likker and cornbread. Chicken feet stock. Hominy and salt pork. Dishes that cost almost nothing and taste like someone put real thought behind every single one of them. Because they did. This is not poor people's food. This is ingenious food. And it is disappearing from kitchens right now because people think cheap means less than. It does not. It never did. Every one of these dishes costs less than a drive-through window. Every one of them tastes better than anything that comes in a bag. My name is Thelma. I have been cooking for this family for fifty years. Stay with me through all thirty — because the last few are the ones nobody talks about anymore, and those are the ones I want you to know.