“Poor white and black southerners ate molasses in some form with almost every meal.”

Molasses has been one of the three Ms of the diet of southern common folks, along with meat (salt pork) and meal (corn meal). It has served as a baking ingredient, condiment, and cold remedy, and it was central to special-occasion meals in the South. We can draw on a range of sources, including travelers’ accounts, autobiography, community studies, WPA narratives, and interviews conducted for the Origins of Soul Food Oral History Project to examine its importance and its changing role in southern foodways.