Many customs, especially culinary ones, are valued within cultures because food often unites people together. Most people don’t think about the history behind their food, but the History Club at Auburn University, along with the Lee County Historical Society, is working to change that. The organizations are creating a cookbook with southern recipes, with information about their true origins, to bring awareness to the underrepresented groups that formed southern culinary culture.
The History Club’s mission with the cookbook is to create a collection of recipes that capture the spectrum of identities and other cultures that make up food culture in the American South. The History Club is collaborating with the Lee County Historical Society to source recipes and add the dishes’ historical origins to the cookbook.
The main goal of the cookbook is to bring awareness to various underrepresented groups and show how their culture has, over time, become assimilated into southern culture. The cookbook will honor the stories of these groups, such as enslaved people in the American South, through personal narratives in addition to general historical accounts.
Recipes will be sourced from locals, like neighbors and other community members. The organizations will be collecting recipes from the community through Lee County Historical Society’s annual Syrup Sopping Day. The festival celebrates traditional lifestyles of the late 1800s and early 1900s. It will be held at Pioneer Park in Loachapoaka, Alabama, on Oct. 25.
“A lot of these recipes were developed by enslaved labor, by women or by impoverished workers, and so we’re trying to kind of highlight those stories,” said Sofia Foradori, president of the History Club.
The cookbook will source recipes from the community, and the main contributors are people of older generations. Recipes will be sourced from older generations because they are more familiar with the history surrounding the food, and many of them are eager to share their experiences. The cookbook will largely consist of recipes passed down through families and across local areas.
Recipes can be shared verbally or in writing, but many are just integrated into everyday life.
Specific recipes will illustrate the diversity that is an inherent part of southern food and culture. Southern food has many other cultural influences, including different contributions from Western Africa and Europe.
America is often called a melting pot of culture, and Southern food can be viewed in this same way. The History Club is working to push boundaries concerning ideas about Southern culture and honor the specific communities that combined to create an amalgamation of tradition through food.
“There’s a lot of roots from underrepresented communities that may not necessarily be written down, but if you know enough, you can recognize,” said Charlee Bryant, vice president of the History Club at Auburn University.
The History Club plans to implement the collaborative cookbook project into Tiger Dining services. If implemented, then the contributed recipes will be served at The Edge at Central Dining Commons, as well as other campus food providers.
Implementation of recipes will be a major part of the History Club’s mission. Students will have the choice to eat the food prepared from the recipes and also be given an opportunity to learn more about the specific background of the dish.
The History Club at Auburn University hopes that the recipes will bring awareness to Auburn students about the hidden culture that surrounds them in everyday life. Southern culture, especially in food, is something that unites most Auburn students, whether one grew up in the South or was introduced to the region upon arrival in Auburn.
The recipes being available at the dining halls will make the history of the underrepresented groups more accessible to the student body. The Auburn community will have a tangible, enjoyable way to nourish their bodies through food and their minds through conversations surrounding underrepresented groups in Southern culinary culture.
“I think it will show people what their culture has been, through food, and make it bring back memories of parents or grandparents cooking,” said Harrison Powell, freshman in history.
The idea of “southern culture” means something different to everyone, and the History Club’s cookbook highlights the stories of those underrepresented groups whose contributions crafted an entire region’s way of living and eating.
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Lorelei Young, sophomore majoring in English language arts education, is from Columbiana, Alabama. She has been with The Auburn Plainsman since the fall of 2025.
