African influences on American cooking, both in obvious “Soul food” and largely unacknowledged “subtle Soul.” Early West African food traditions are surveyed, along with how they were adapted to conditions in North America. Originally published as a Compact Edition in 1993. This Bookshelf Edition (standard paperback with index) first published January 2018. 52 recipes, 118 research notes, 119 pages including index.A concise and comprehensive overview of African-American food history, Soul on Rice contains quotations from primary sources, descriptions of foods utilized in Africa, accounts of slave life and diet, and recipes illustrative of food eaten by early Black Americans and their descendants.An invaluable tool for culinary historians and heritage researchers, Soul on Rice includes such well-loved traditional dishes as “Collard Greens with Ham Hocks,” “Poke Salad,” “Hopping John,” and “Short'nin' Bread.”“Soul on Rice,” created as a resource for museums, was chosen as a theme for the 1996 Cultural Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia, and interpreted in an extensive exhibition and commemorative edition of the book by the Tubman African-American Museum in Macon, Georgia.This and other books by Patricia B. Mitchell were first written in a compact format for museums and their patrons, and are now available as Kindle editions and standard paperbacks. Each of her books summarizes a food history topic, using quotations and anecdotes from early sources to both entertain and inform. She carefully lists her references to make it easy for others to launch their own research. Since the 1980s Patricia Mitchell's work is a proven staple of American museum culture. Her readers love to share her ever-present sense of discovery. Her sales are approaching a million copies, and she is widely known by her web identity FoodHistory.com.