Entry · catalog no. 7029
put your foot in it
/ /pʊt jɔːr fʊt ɪn ɪt/ /PUUT-yor-FUUT-in-it
phr. · Black American South · 1900s
✓ Verified
1.
To cook something exceptionally well; to prepare food with so much care and skill that it tastes like love went into it.
“These greens? She put her foot in it.”
Origin & Attribution
A Black American expression of the kitchen, meaning a dish was cooked so well the cook all but left part of herself in it. Its exact roots are oral and untraceable — even soul-food historian Adrian Miller, who has chased the phrase, calls the origin a mystery, offering theories from spiritual practice to plain hard work. What is certain is the meaning: this is as good as cooking gets.
20th c.
Long current in Black Southern kitchens (oral tradition)
2013
Discussed by soul-food historian Adrian Miller in Soul Food
present
Everyday praise for a cook who did it right
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Black American South · 1900s
Spoken by
Black American cooks and families
$PUTYOUThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady26 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
55/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Adrian Miller, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time
2013
■
+ Cite a sourcePost and Courier, 'Putting a finger on derivation of put a foot in it'
2016
See also