American cuisine

Native American origins: American cuisine before 1600 planting the "Three Sister" crops; squash, maize and climbing beans Native Americans used many cooking methods in early American cuisine that were blended with those of early Europeans, forming the basis of what is now American cuisine. Nearly all regions and subregions of the present-day cuisine have roots in the foodways of Native Americans, who lived in tribes numbering in the thousands. Before 1600, native peoples lived off the land across very diverse bioregions and had done so for thousands of years, often leading a nomadic life in which their diet changed with the seasons. Many practiced a form of agriculture revolving around the Three Sisters, the rotation of beans, maize, and squash as staples of their diet. In the East, this was documented as early as the 1620s in Of Plimoth Plantation, evidenced by the pages William Bradford wrote regarding Squanto, who showed them the traditional regional method of burying a fish or eel in a mound with seeds for maize to improve the soil; this itself is also part of the widely practiced phenomenon of companion planting. Wild game was equally a staple of nearly every tribe: generally, deer, elk, and bison were staples, as were rabbits and hares. The Cherokee of the Southern Appalachians used blowguns made of an indigenous type of bamboo to hunt squirrels. Northern tribes like the Ojibwe of what is now the state of Michigan and the peoples of the Wabanaki of what is now the state of Maine would stalk and hunt moose, whereas their Southern counterparts, like the Choctaw or Catawba, hunted snapping turtles and other testudines, possums, and young alligators in the subtropical swamps of Louisiana and South Carolina. Many tribes would preserve their meat as pemmican, which was needed on long journeys or to survive harsh winters. Fish and crustaceans was used on the eastern and southern coast of what is now the U.S. mainland. As with the hunted game, the biome in which one lived often dictated what was available to catch. For example, the Apache and Navajo peoples of the Southwest, whose territories each would have included swathes of New Mexico and Arizona, generally do not eat fish because in both cultures it is taboo, as well as often inconvenient. The Navajo believe that fish have a part in the story of creation, the Apache were in general afraid of water since they associated it with thunder, and the arid desert climate made fish a rarity. However, in the culture of the Lenape, the tribe that originally lived in New Jersey, on the Delaware River, and the area that now comprises New York City, fish and shellfish were a staple in their diet; it was such a revered part of the culture that there is a documented and still-practiced harvest dance called the Fish Dance. Originally it would have been done to celebrate bringing in fish from places like the Delaware or Raritan River or the estuary around Manhattan Island and the completion of smoking them as a source of food for the winter ahead. Eastern tribes would have eaten cod, particularly groups that spoke the Algonquian languages of New England as far south as present day Connecticut, winter flounder and other flatfish, species of herring like the alewife, shad, Atlantic herring, and Atlantic menhaden, They also would have consumed the Atlantic sturgeon and drum. In the West, Pacific several species of sturgeon, like the white sturgeon and green sturgeon, eulachon and several autochthonal fish of the Oncorhynchus family including the rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, coho salmon, kokanee salmon, and chinook salmon. The last makes an appearance in the accounts of Lewis and Clark as being fished for in the Columbia River Basin, and this species is named for a family of tribes of the Pacific Northwest, indicating its important role in that food culture. Pacific gray whales and humpbacks were hunted by American Indians off the Northwest coast, especially by the Makah, and used for their meat and oil. Catfish was also popular among native people throughout the land, over many types of terrain. Crustaceans included shrimp, lobster, crayfish, and dungeness crabs in the Northwest and shrimp, lobster and blue crabs in the East. Other shellfish include abalone and geoduck on the West Coast, while on the East Coast, the surf clam, quahog, and the soft-shell clam. Oysters were eaten on both shores, as were mussels and periwinkles. Cooking methods Early American natives used many cooking methods that were blended with early European methods to form the basis of American cuisine. Grilling meat was common. Spit roasting over a pit fire was common as well. Vegetables, especially root vegetables, were often cooked directly in the ashes of the fire. As early Native Americans lacked pottery that could be used directly over a fire, they developed a technique many anthropologists call "stone boiling". They heated rocks in a fire, then added them to a pot of water until it came to a boil to cook the meat or vegetables. In what is now the Southwestern United States, they also created adobe ovens, dubbed hornos by the Spanish, to bake products such as cornmeal bread. Other parts of America dug pit ovens, which were also used to steam foods by adding heated rocks or embers. One technique performed extensively by New England tribes was adding seaweed or corn husks on top of the layers of stones to steam fish and shellfish as well as vegetables. A later addition was potatoes, a garden plant that came to New England by the 18th century, added while still in skin with corn in husk, later to be referred to as a clambake by colonists. Colonial period , cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet and sour cod, steamed rice, achara (pickled green papaya relish), leche flan, pig in a blanket and apple crisp in 1775 The European settlement of the Americas introduced several ingredients, spices, herbs, and cooking styles to the continent. When European colonists came to Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and any of the other English colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America, their initial attempts at survival included planting crops familiar to them from back home in England. In the same way, they farmed animals for clothing and meat. Through hardships and the eventual establishment of trade with England, the West Indies and other regions, the colonists were able to derive a cuisine similar to what they had previously consumed in Britain and Ireland, while also introducing local animals and plants to their diet. In 1796, the first American cookbook was published; others followed. There was a general disdain for French cuisine/French cookery, even with French Huguenot settlers in South Carolina and French-Canadian emigrants in America. One of the cookbooks that proliferated in the colonies was the English cookbook The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) by Hannah Glasse, who referred to "the blind folly of this age that would rather be imposed on by a French booby, than give encouragement to a good English cook!" Of the French recipes given in the text, she speaks out flagrantly against the dishes as she "... think[s] it an odd jumble of trash." With the introduction of slavery, Africans were brought into the colonies. With them, came foods and ingredients such as bananas, peanuts, sweet potato, yams, and coffee, and cooking styles reminiscent of West African cuisines are still found in many dishes, especially in Southern cuisine. The expulsion of the Acadians from Acadia led many of them to Louisiana, where they left a French influence on the diet of those settled in Louisiana, and among the Acadian Francophones who settled eastern Maine and parts of what is now northern Vermont at the same time they colonized New Brunswick. Some of the Jews who fled from the Inquisition with other Sephardic Jews in the 15th century had previously settled in Recife, Brazil and the West Indies, where their cuisine was influenced by new local ingredients like molasses, rum, sugar, vanilla, chocolate, peppers, corn, tomatoes, kidney beans, string beans and turkey. In 1654, 23 Sephardic Jews arrived in New Amsterdam, bringing this cuisine to the early colonial United States. This branch of Sephardic cuisine heavily influenced early American Jewish cuisine. Many of the recipes were tied to the observance of traditional holidays and remained true to their origins. These included dishes such as stew and fish fried in olive oil, beef and bean stews, almond puddings, and egg custards. The first kosher cookbook in America was the Jewish Cookery Book by Esther Levy, published in 1871 in Philadelphia, and it includes many traditional recipes. Common ingredients consists of various steamed shellfish. The American colonial diet varied depending on the settled region in which someone lived. Local cuisine patterns had been established by the mid-18th century. The New England colonies were extremely similar in their dietary habits to those that many of them had brought from England. As many of the New Englanders were originally from England, game hunting was useful when they immigrated to the New World. Many of the northern colonists depended on their ability to hunt or on others from whom they could purchase game. Hunting was the preferred method of protein acquisition, as opposed to animal husbandry, which required much more work to defend the kept animals against raids. A striking difference for the colonists in New England compared to other regions was seasonality. While in the southern colonies, they could farm almost year-round, in the northern colonies, the growing seasons were very restricted. In addition, northern colonists' proximity to the ocean gave them a bounty of fresh fish to add to their diet. Wheat, the grain used to bake bread back in England, was almost impossible to grow; imports of wheat were far from cost productive. Substitutes in cases such as this included cornmeal. The Johnnycake was a poor substitute for some for wheaten bread, but acceptance by both the northern and southern colonies seems evident. Livestock and game Commonly hunted game included deer, bear, buffalo, and wild turkey. The larger muscles of the animals were roasted and served with currant sauce, while the other smaller portions went into soups, stews, sausages, pies, and pastries. In addition to the game, colonists' protein intake was supplemented by mutton. The Spanish in Florida originally introduced sheep to the New World, but this development never quite reached the North, where they were introduced by the Dutch and the English. The keeping of sheep was a result of the English non-practice of animal husbandry. The animals provided wool when young and mutton upon maturity after wool production was no longer desirable. The forage-based diet for sheep that prevailed in the Colonies produced a characteristically strong, gamy flavor and a tougher consistency, which required aging and slow cooking to tenderize. Fats and oils , a traditional dish of the Delaware River Valley region made of pork and cornmeal, still eaten today Fats and oils from animals were used to cook many colonial foods. Many homes had a deerskin sack filled with bear oil for cooking, while solidified bear fat resembled shortening. Rendered pork fat made the most popular cooking medium, especially from the cooking of bacon. Pork fat was used more often in the southern colonies than in the northern colonies, as the Spanish introduced pigs earlier to the South. The colonists enjoyed butter in cooking as well, but it was rare before the American Revolution, as cattle were not yet plentiful. Alcoholic drinks Before the Revolution, New Englanders consumed large quantities of rum and beer, as maritime trade provided them with relatively easy access to the goods needed to produce them. Rum was the distilled spirit of choice, as the main ingredient, molasses, was readily available from trade with the West Indies. Further into the interior, however, one would often find colonists consuming whiskey, as they did not have similar access to sugar cane. They did have ready access to corn and rye, which they used to produce their whiskey. Until the Revolution, many considered whiskey a coarse alcohol unfit for human consumption, as many believed it made the poor raucous, unkempt drunkards. In addition to these alcohol-based products produced in America, imports were seen on merchant shelves, including wine and brandy. Southern variations Compared with the northern colonies, the southern colonies had a more diverse agricultural diet. The uplands of Piedmont and the coastal lowlands made up the two main parts of the southern colonies. The diet of the uplands often included wild game, cabbage, string beans, corn, squashes and white potatoes. People had biscuits as part of their breakfast, along with healthy portions of pork. The lowlands of Louisiana included a varied diet heavily influenced by the French, Spanish, Acadians, Germans, Native Americans, Africans, and Caribbeans. Rice played a large part in the diet in Louisiana. In addition, unlike the uplands, the lowlands' protein intake came mostly from coastal seafood. Much of the diet involved the use of peppers, as it still does to this day. Post-colonial cuisine was created when the Navajo tribe living in Arizona made the 300-mile journey known as the "Long Walk" to New Mexico. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Americans developed many new foods. Some, such as Rocky Mountain oysters, stayed regional; some spread throughout the nation but with little international appeal, such as peanut butter (a core ingredient of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich); and some spread throughout the world, such as popcorn, cola, cornbread, quickbread muffins such as the poppyseed muffin, and brownies. 19th-century American farmhouse During the 1800s, American farms were mostly self-sufficient, but certain staples like salt, coffee, sugar, and baking soda would be purchased at the town general store. If the family did not grow wheat, then flour would also be purchased. Another luxury was canned salmon, which was sometimes eaten for Sunday dinner. Items purchased at the general store would be paid for with eggs, butter, or some other food from the farm. Women were responsible for much of the processing of food, like straining fresh milk, churning butter, making molasses from sorghum, grinding corn into cornmeal, or cleaning whole chickens. Fresh-picked apples were pressed into cider, which could be fermented to make apple cider vinegar. Fruits and vegetables were preserved by various means like canning, drying or pickling. One contemporary writer from Michigan described October as cider season, when apple butter would be made. Her writings mention johnnycakes, and, as winter fare, buckwheat cakes. Typical farmhouse fare included fried chicken, simmered green beans, boiled corn, chicken and dumplings, fried ham, boiled beans and beets, stewed tomatoes, potatoes, and coleslaw made of shredded cabbage. Pon haus, similar to the scrapple of the Pennsylvania Dutch, was a typical breakfast dish among the Germans who had settled Indiana in the 19th century. Pork scraps and corn meal were cooked into a thick porridge and molded in loaf pans. Once solidified, the mixture would be cut and fried. During the fall months, pork might be replaced with fried apples or potatoes. It was served with buttered biscuits, jam, jelly, milk gravy, or sorghum syrup. Fruit butter might be made from apples, plums, or peaches to accompany the meal. During World War I, the Progressives' moral advice about food conservation was emphasized in large-scale state and federal programs designed to educate housewives. Large-scale foreign aid during and after the war brought American standards to Europe. From 1912 to the end of the 1930s, researchers discovered and popularized the role of various vitamins and minerals in human health. Starting with iodized salt in 1924, commercially distributed food began to be fortified with vitamins and minerals. In 1932, milk began to be fortified with viosterol, a purified vitamin D2 product. Synthetic thiamin (vitamin B1) first became available after 1936, and bakers began voluntarily enriching bread with high-vitamin yeast or synthetic vitamins in the late 1930s. The cookware of the period was made of cast iron and was thoroughly seasoned with pork fat. Fried salt pork with gravy was an indulgent, fat-laden dish often served with boiled potatoes. In the Appalachian region, a dish called "killed lettuce" was made with pokeweed, dandelion, and assorted wild greens that were drizzled with hot bacon grease until wilted or "killed". Milk became a staple food item and an increasingly important ingredient in American cuisine. Examples include the root beer float and the milkshake. Pork was a staple of the rural diet through the Southern and Midwestern United States. Lard was used for baking, frying, and even as a seasoning. , sprinkles, and a maraschino cherry Major railroads featured upscale cuisine in their dining cars. Restaurant chains emerged with standardized decor and menus, including the Fred Harvey restaurants along the route of the Santa Fe Railroad in the Southwest. World War II and later The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences established the first set of "Recommended Dietary Allowances" in 1941. In 1943, the US War Food Administration issued the War Food Order No. 1, which made enriched bread the law of the land. In 1945, George Stigler published an article on "The cost of subsistence", which described the so-called Stigler diet, his solution to the problem of providing a diet that met the RDA at a minimum cost. The logistical requirements of the US military during WW2 and the Korean War spurred the development and growth of the processed foods industry in the US. These wars encouraged the production of shelf-stable ingredients processed on a vast industrial scale. Examples include powdered milk, powdered eggs, potato flakes, and frozen concentrated orange juice. After the war, low-cost, highly processed foods became a foundational element of an era of mass prosperity. Many companies in the American food industry developed new products requiring minimal preparation, such as frozen entrees. One such example is the TV dinner in which a multi-course meal was assembled in aluminum packaging in a food factory and flash frozen, then reheated at home in a thermal oven to be served while watching TV. Convenience foods of the era were designed to simplify home preparation. One example is macaroni and cheese, made with a powdered artificial cheese product reconstituted at home with fresh milk. Newspapers and magazines ran recipe columns, aided by research from the corporate kitchens of major food manufacturers such as General Mills, Campbell's, and Kraft Foods. For example, General Mills ''Betty Crocker's Cookbook'', first published in 1950, was a popular book in American homes. Highly processed foods of the mid-20th century included novelty elements like multi-colored Jell-O using various chemical food colorings, prepared breakfast cereals marketed to children with large amounts of sugar and artificial colors (e.g. Froot Loops). Fruit-flavored punches made with artificial fruit flavorings (e.g. Tang, Hi-C). Mid-20th-century foods also added novelty packaging elements like spray cheese in an aerosol can, pimento-stuffed olives, and drink pouches. The development of the microwave oven resulted in the creation of industrial food products and packaging intended to take advantage of the opportunities and overcome the unique challenges of that technology. Microwave popcorn is an example of such a product. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the US commercial food system has become increasingly dependent on subsidized corn (maize) production to provide feed for livestock and ingredients for human foods such as high-fructose corn syrup. It is estimated that the typical American gets 70 percent of their carbon intake from corn sources. The last half of the 20th century saw the development of controversial technological innovations intended to lower the cost of or increase the safety of commercial food, including food irradiation, genetically modified organisms, livestock treated with antibiotics/hormones, and concentrated animal feeding operations. Activists have raised concerns about the wholesomeness, safety, or humaneness of these innovations and recommend alternatives such as organic produce, veganism/vegetarianism, and locavore diets. Fast-food restaurants with standardized products and franchised service models began to appear and spread as the highway system developed. White Castle (1916) was one of the first examples. Franchising was introduced in 1921 by A&W Root Beer. The McDonald brothers created their "Speedee Service System" in 1948. Other examples include Burger King, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza, Subway, Arby's, KFC, Popeyes and Taco Bell. Ethnic influences served with fries and coleslaw One signature characteristic of American cooking is the fusion of multiple ethnic or regional approaches into completely new cooking styles. For example, spaghetti is Italian, while hot dogs are German; a popular meal, especially among young children, is spaghetti with slices of hot dogs. Since the 1960s, Asian cooking has played a particularly large role in American fusion cuisine. , an American breakfast dish made with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce, served in this variation with smoked salmon Some dishes that are typically considered American have their origins in other countries. American cooks and chefs have substantially altered these dishes over the years, to the point that the dishes now enjoyed around the world are considered American. Hot dogs and hamburgers are both based on traditional German dishes, but in their modern popular form they can be reasonably considered American dishes. Pizza is based on the traditional Italian dish, brought to the United States by Italian immigrants, but varies widely in style depending on the region of development since its arrival. For example, Chicago-style pizza features a thicker, taller crust, whereas a "New York Slice" is known for its much thinner crust, which can be folded. These different types of pizza can be advertised throughout the country and are generally recognizable and well-known, with some restaurants going so far as to import New York tap water from a thousand or more miles away to recreate the signature style in other regions. Some dishes that Americans think of as "foreign" or associated with a particular immigrant group were, in fact, invented in America and customized to American tastes. For example, General Tso's chicken was invented by Chinese or Taiwanese chefs working in New York in the early 1970s. The dish is unknown in China, except for a distant resemblance to a much spicier dish from Hong Kong said to have influenced the American version. The fortune cookie was likewise invented in California in the early 1900s and is known in Asia only as an American-style food. es, and grilled vegetables prepared with modern fusion ingredients A wave of celebrity chefs began with Julia Child and Graham Kerr in the 1970s, with many more following after the rise of cable channels like Food Network. Probably the best-known television chef was Child, who taught French cuisine in her weekly show, The French Chef. New American During the 1980s, upscale restaurants introduced a mixing of cuisines that contain Americanized styles of cooking with foreign elements commonly referred to as New American cuisine, a type of fusion cuisine combining flavors from the melting pot of traditional American cooking techniques with those from other cultures, sometimes adding molecular gastronomy components. 21st century By the beginning of the 21st century, regional variations in meat consumption began to decline as overall meat consumption increased. Vegan and vegetarian meals have increased in popularity, with more restaurants catering to vegans and vegetarians. ==Regional cuisines==