Squee
Genre: Cookbook, Nonfiction
I want to sit down with Michael W. Twitty and talk food with him for about a million hours.
Twitty is a food historian who specializes in American antebellum slave cookery – what slaves were cooking and eating during the period of American Slavery from 1619 to 1865. He is especially interested in the evolution of slave cookery to “Southern Cooking” and how the introduction of food and techniques from Africa through the forced migration of slaves shaped that evolution.
The short answer is: profoundly. There is no Southern cooking as we know it without African influences, and there is no Southern cooking that doesn’t echo slavery in its roots. Okra, fried chicken, rice and beans, barbecue: all of these things trace their introduction to the plates of America from the hold of a slave ship.
What Twitty does in this book – and it’s dense, there’s a LOT happening – is discuss the food history while exploring his own genealogy. It’s not a cookbook as much as it is a memoir and examination of personal and community history with a few recipes as well. He traces his personal history with food through his grandparents and parents, following the details of American chattel slavery and how all of that ties together in a big, messy package. He also includes recipes for things like Fried Rabbit and Hoecake, and his Mother’s Apple Crumble.
I didn’t realize that this would be more than just a straight food history. The sections on how Twitty used DNA testing (like 23 and Me or Ancestry DNA) to fill in his ancestry was FASCINATING. There’s been a discussion going on regarding what DNA testing can tell you (please see the August 8th episode of Code Switch on NPR called “Who’s Your Great-Great-Great-Great Granddaddy?” for a few aspects of the question), and for a lot of Black Americans, there’s a significant portion of White ancestry in the background. We know how it got there a vast majority of the time.
He also went through his genealogy as far back as he could, using family stories and confirming them where possible. The challenge of genealogy when it comes to descendants of slaves is difficult because even where there are records, they are emotionally difficult to look at: bills of sale for human beings, bills of lading, treating ancestors like cargo.
One of the things Twitty does is portray a slave cook in various plantations and living history re-enactments, and my god, that has to be a profound experience. One of the other things he talks about is Civil War re-enactment culture, and the difference between “re-enactors” and “interpreters:”
One refers to a profession, the other a hobby. “The hobby” is largely staffed by more conservative types, and predominately white and male; the other is still mostly white, but more female and interested in questions of diversity, social justice, and new narratives about forgotten people of the past.
Twitty often re-enacts as a slave cook, and there are times when Confederate soldier re-enactors will ask for food. In general, he says, the request is polite, and Twitty wonders if they really know that, historically speaking, they wouldn’t be politely asking for a “hot meal from home” but making considerably more hostile demands.
Twitty went back and visited plantations and farms where his ancestors were owned (to find the kitchens of one of them under a pile of rubble and poison ivy, much to his annoyance). Being in a place to actually look that horrible part of his personal history in the face was difficult, and he wrote about all of his complicated feelings.
That’s the thing I liked the best: how Twitty admitted that his feelings were super complicated. These aren’t things that can be distilled down to one simple emotion or reaction. He also has a funny writing style: interspersed with stories of horrific abuses, there are tales of family, his own experiences (like when he tried picking cotton, and made it only a few hours before popping in his iPod).
That sounds really depressing and heavy, and it is, but here’s the thing about history. You can’t change it. You can ignore it, which is something this country has been trying for the past 175 years. That hasn’t been going so well.
Or you can accept it, and learn from it, and recognize how those events all lead to here and now. We wouldn’t have American Southern cooking without the contributions of slaves. That’s just fact. What we do with that knowledge, that’s up to us.
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Thanks!
This book sounds facinating! I love when you all do the occasional non-romance that can’t be passed up. It really expands my reading
I am so thrilled that you’ve reviewed this book! Michael Twitty is not only a great writer of a fascinating topic, he’s also a beautiful human being. My son had the honor of being taught Hebrew school by him (Twitty converted to Judaism many years ago). He didn’t just teach the language, he taught the kids to think open mindedly about all topics. I’m so thrilled that Twitty has become so well-known and respected.
I have seen Twitty interviewed several times. This is a book I definitely want to read.
I’ve been looking forward to this book for awhile. I’m hoping my library hold comes through soon!
I was so excited when I saw he had a cookbook coming out and now I’m even more excited to read it!
Great review, thank you for putting this on my radar!
RHG, thanks for the review! It sent me on a search for his blog and now I’d like to sit down with Michael W. Twitty for some sweet tea and talk. As a girl who grew up in the Midwest and has lived in the South for almost 30 years, I’ve grown to love Southern cooking, including okra in all its tasty uses. I appreciate our cooking’s roots in slave culture and the idea of waste not, want not. The timing of this book couldn’t be better as many Americans struggle to understand the past. I’ll be adding it to my cookbook shelf.
My library hold came thru today! I now have it on my kindle.
I haven’t read any of Twitty’s books but I love his site and reading interviews he’s done. I had just put this book on my goodreads list yesterday–glad to hear it’s worth a read!
This book sounds fascinating, RHG. And what a courageous and thoughtful author. I’m not particularly interested on food/cookery, but I think I’d like to try this.
Thank you so much.
This does indeed sound fascinating. Thanks so much for the review, Redheadedgirl.
I saw him cook historical food a couple times, once in a very small group setting, early in his career, and it was amazeballs. He’s just as nice and funny and genuine in person, and his knowledge is insane. One of the highlights of my (short) career at a historic site.
This sounds so very interesting! Plus, now I’m craving some good, hot cornbread with butter to spread on it!! Yum!!
I love Chef Twitty. He’s so cool. You can see him do several dishes on the YT channel Townsends. Here’s an example featuring Okra soup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VgTtzukqPM&t=38s