Chitterlings or “Chitlins” A Soul Food Delicacy

Hear the word chitterlings or “chitlins” as they’re known in the Southern part of the United States and your face automatically grimaces. Just the thought of eating pig intestines, be they boiled or fried, immediately suppresses the appetite.

Yet chitterlings, among other pork outcasts like the head, snout, tails, and trotters was a food staple for Black folk during the U.S. slavery period.

A Soul Food Delicacy

Chitterlings’ legacy is intimately tied to “soul food” cuisine, although Black folks, poor and otherwise, were not the only people savoring pork offal.

It often graced the table of the rich and cultured under the guise of a rare and unmistakable delicacy.

Sweetbreads and tripe come to mind.

According to chitlin aficionados, cooking chitterlings correctly is an art form, although recipes do vary.

Chitlin Strut Festival

Every year in Salley, South Carolina, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, a festival entitled the “Chitlins Strut” is in full swing welcoming some 50,000 attendees to partake in this “tasty” delicacy.

The festival’s broad and extensive state fair menu, beside chitlins cooked every way imaginable also includes

turkey legs, turkey wings, sausage, smoked sausage, chicago style sausage, shrimp, shrimp kabobs, shrimp combo jambalaya, fried fish, fried oysters, crab legs, chicken tenders, chicken boat, jerk chicken, philly cheese steak, oxtail, pork kabobs, pork skins, ribs, curry, steak & cheese subs, gyros and much, much more.