FoodTimeline library
What is the "state food" of Nevada? That's a difficult question to answer. Why? Because cuisine is not easily defined by political boundaries. It is a complicated mix of history, cultural/ethnic influence, and local commodities. Some states and cities are commonly associated with recipes (Maryland crab cakes, Boston baked beans, Philly cheese steak, New York style pizza) others are moore challenging to connect with a particular dish. If your teacher asks you to research/bring in a food that represents a particular state, you have several options:
ABOUT THIS SITE: The food notes provided for each state are meant as starting points for your research. They are not comprehensive; nor are they presented in a standardized format containing exactly the same information for each state, as you would find in an encyclopedia. Our notes, like state foods, are a reflection of the people who land on our site. Most of our state food questions are generated by elementary/secondary students working on state reports. Many of you have to prepare a food representative of your state. That's what this page is all about. If you need more information (looking for state foods connected with a particular period/people? writing a book and need authentic fare? working on a 4H/scout project?) please let us know! We also welcome your suggestions.
"The first Europeans to visit Alabama were Spanish seamen in 1505...They reported that the Indians feasted on wild turkey, game, fish, melons,
and squash. Around 1700, two French brothers...established an all-male settlement...at Mobile, Alabama...soon after arriving...the young women staged a petticoat
rebellion against the crude food of the settlement, which mainly consisted of game, fish, wild plants, and berries...In 1719 slaves came to the Mobile
Bay settlement and added African cooking techniques, seasonings, and sauces to their owners' recipes. By the middle of the 1700s, Mobile had become
well-established, and exotic foods and drinks were gracing the dinner tables. Pale wine made from native grapes and oranges; peaches baked in
sugar-crust tarts; baked, stuffed Gulf snapper; and and endless variety of aromatic soups and sauces were being served. Native squash was baked and
candied, and Gulf shrimp were used in bisques and jambalayas...The culinary influence of the early French settlers was more prevalent along the
Gulf Coast, where the fish and seafood dishes continue to have a strong French accent...Away from the coast, southern cooking with fried chicken,
green beans, yellow squash, okra, and biscuits became the staple food. There were many types of biscuits...Fried pies are said to have originated in
Alabama. To make a fried pie, a small amoung of filling was heapted on a round piece of rolled-out pie dough. Then the pastry was closed in the
shape of a half moon, sealed at the edges, and fried in deep fat. The pies were dusted with powdered sugar and eaten hot. Fillings for these delicate
half-moon pastries were usually fruit...peaches or peach butter."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlotteseville VA] 1992 (p. 103-4)
"Official" state foods are enacted by the legislature. Alabama's edible symbols are: large mouth bass, pecans, wild turkeys, fighting tarpon (saltwater fish), and blackberries. The state also has an "official" barbeque championship. Details here.
Top crops: Alabama Agricultural Statistics
Recipes
The National Cookbook/Sheila Hibben lists these recipes for Alabama:
Aunt Sue's snowballs, Baked oyster omelet, Beaten biscuits, Brains with brown butter, Brown
chicken stew, Chicken turnovers, Christening cake, Corn pone, Crab cocktail, Curds and cream,
Dewberry roll, Fish pudding, Fresh fig ice cream, Ginger loaf, Green corn cakes, Hot Scotch,
Methodist biscuit, Potato soup, Rich Amella, Roast partridge, St. Charles Indian bread and
Stuffed Squash.
If you need to make something (easy, inexpensive) for class? We suggest:
"St. Charles Indian Bread (Mobile Alabama)
2 eggs
1 pt. Buttermilk
1 pt. White corn meal
1 tablespoon butter
1 scant teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
Beat the eggs very light, and mix alternately with them the buttermilk and the corn meal; add salt and the butter, which has been melted, and beat well. Dissolve the soda in 1 tablespoon of the buttermilk, and add it to the other ingredients. Pour into a well-greased pan and bake in a quick oven."
---The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Shelia Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 14)
[NOTE: Quick oven usually means 475 (very hot). No specified time makes this recipe hard for us modern folk. Our advice? Set your oven timer for 15 minutes. Check for "doneness" with a toothpick or barbeque pick. If the pick comes out "clean" (no dough attached) the bread is done. If not, let it continue to cook for another 3 minutes. Recheck until pick comes out clean.]"Cheese Straws
2 cups grated cheese
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
make into stiff dough with ice-cold sweet mik and water mixed. Roll thin, cut into narrow strips and bake quickly."
---New York World's Fair Cook Book: The American Kitchen, Crosby Gaige [Doubleday, Doran:nw York] 1939 (p. 174)"Greenville Spice Cake
1 cup butter
3 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup raisins
1 cup pecans
1 tablespoon each: ground cloves, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon
Cream sugar with butter; add well-beaten yolks, Add alternately the flour with which spices have been sifted and milk; add soda dissolved in one tablespoon warm water, raisins and nuts well floured and whites of eggs. Bake in a moderate oven fifty minutes. Ice with mocha icing."
---ibid (p. 175)
Native cuisine
"Traditionally, Inuit dietary staples were seal, whale, caribou, walrus, polar bear, arctic hare, fish, birds,
and berries. Seals were hunted all year round, and the Inuit found a use for almost every part of the
animal. With the exception of the bitter gall bladder, all the meat was eaten, usually boiled or raw. Raw
blubber was often enjoyed mixed in with meat or berries, while blood soup and dried intestines were
favored as snacks. Because they ate raw food, and every part of the animal, the Inuit did not lack
vitamins, even though they had almost no vegetables to eat. With the introduction of modern Western-type food, including convenience foods, over the past two or three decades, the Inuit diet has changed,
and not for the better. The consumption of foods rich in sugar and carbohydrates has resulted in tooth decay
and other diet-related problems."
---Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, Volume 1: Americas, Timothy L. Gall editor
[Gale:Detroit] 1997 (p. 246)
"The greatest challenge to Eskimo survival was not the cold, but the difficulty of obtaining food, since the
only food resources their country provides in any quantity are mammals and fish...Eskimos proved beyond
any doubt that humans can be sustained by meat and fish alone. To do it, they had to consume not only
the meat of each type of animal and fish they killed, but also the blubber or fat, the eyes, the nutritious
organ meats (especially the liver and kidneys) of the smaller dead mammals, fish livers, and the brain,
tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, stomach contents, intestines and bone marrow of the caribou. They
somehow managed to recover even the blood of most seals and caribou, consuming it either directly, as a
beverage, or as an additive to soup. Finally, they drank copious amounts of water, a physiological
necessity for people on such an extreme high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet...Eskimos did not dissapate
the nutritional potential of their food by overcooking it. Great quantities of meat and fish were eaten raw,
usually
in either dried or frozen form. When they did cook food they normally boiled it, usually lightly, and drank
the broth...Vegetable products entered the economy in various ways. Berries, leaves, roots, seaweed and
greens were valuable additions to the diet in many areas, especially in Southwest Alaska. In the Western
Arctic generally, certain types of root, leaves and bark were used for medicinal purposes and as colouring
agents..."
---The Eskimos, Ernest S. Burch, Jr. [Macdonald & Co:Great Britain] 1988 (p. 51, 68,70)
"Cuisine. Subsistence food for the Inuit of Alaska included whale meat, caribou, moose, walrus, seal, fish,
fowl, mountain sheep, bear, hares, squirrels, and foxes. Plant food included wild herbs and roots, as well
as berries. Meat is dried or kept frozen in ice cellars dug into the tundra."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, Robert Von Dassanowsky [Gale:Detroit] 2000 (p.
910)
"Inuit cookery (Inuit being more of less equivalent to the old name Eskimo, and applying to peoples in the
northernmost inhabited parts of the eart, e.g. Greenland) is, in its traditional form, subject ot the limitations
imposed by a very cold climate and sparse range of fauna and flora. In this respect it is not unlike
Antarctic cookery. However, there is a big difference; the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic regions (e.g.
in the southern parts of Greenland, Labrador, Alaska, the Northwest Territories of Canada)...The Inuit diet
has attracted much attention because of its high proportion of meat and fat, as well as fish. The Inuit have
subsisted mainly on:
*game animals, notably caribou, moose, polar bear;
*sea mammals, especially whale and seals;
*fish such as live in the Arctic Sea;
*berries of the far north;
*Pemmican, incorporating meat and berries."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 401-2)
"Fifteen to forty thousand years ago, Asian people walked across a land bridge to the place later called
"Alaska." Their long migration was a natural extension of their following herds of grazing mammals, which
they ate. Those who made Alaska their permanent home gradually evolved into separate cultures...Until
Russian and European explorers made contact in the 1700s, Alaskan native ate what was at hand.
Eskimos chowed down on bowhead whale, walrus, and seal, along with seabird eggs. Aleuts searched
tide pools for shellfish, octopus, and seaweed; they speared seals from kayaks and downed birds with
arrows. Athabascans dined on moose, caribou, bear, beaver, muskrat, geese, ducks, and fish. Tlingit,
Haida, and Tsimshian consumed steelhead, salmon, herring, halibut, and venison. Menus were seasonal,
depending on the migration of caribou, the nesting of birds, and the spawning of fish. Greens and edible
roots supplemented meals. Depending upon the habitat, natives enjoyed greens like rosewort, beach
asparagus, goosetongue...pink plume...and king's crown..The brewed hot drinks from evergreen shrubs,
such as Labrador tea...Food was eaten raw, frozen, fermented, smoked, dried, or boiled. Hundreds of
variations are made possible by combining methods...Clay cooking pots were known to only a few Eskimo
groups; most Alakskans roasted their food on spits or boiled it in baskets. Cooking baskets were woven of
split spruce roots; those roots swell when wet, making the baskets watertight; Rocks heated in the fire
were added and the contents stirred until the food was done...Preservation of food for the lean months of
winter was paramount. Food was dried or smoked; if that was impossible, blubber or whale roasts were
frozen in "ice cellars," holes dug in the permafrost...Celebrations meant Eskimo ice cream of aguduk. The
Eskimo cook whips seal oil until it is creamy and then folds in freshly fallen snow and tundra roots. The
Athabascan version is whipped caribou-leg marrow, cooked meat flakes, and berries. Aduduk was served
on festive occaisions, such as a young man's first successful polar bear hunt or wedding...Russian fur
hunters and settlers introduced new foods--barley, rice, buckwheat, Chiense tea, and flour--as well as a
new kitchen tool, the oven. The Aleuts quickly mastered piecrust and began making pirog, a "fist pie" of
salmon, hard-boiled eggs, rice, and onion, enclosed in pastry. The Russian also introduced rudimentary
agriculture, with crops like cabbage, radishes, turnips, and potatoes. Walrus stew slowly changed from a
simple pot of meat and borth to something complicated, with potatoes and macaroni."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University
Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 29-30)
"Native Alaskans...did not farm since seafood, as well as berries and roots, was plentiful. Like their Pacific
Northwest Indian neighbors, they depended on salmon as the mainstay of their diet. They also made long
journeys out to sea in oversized canoes. In the deep waters the Indians hunted seals, sea otters,
porpoises, and whales. Fish was preserved for year-round eating by drying it and making a form of
jerky...Inland Indians...relied on caribou as their main source of food. The caribou provided not only food
by also clothing, fuel, and oil for lamps...In years past most Eskimos ate their food raw since there was
little fuel available for cooking. They ate Muktuk, whale skin with a thick coating of blubber, raw. It was a
nourishing food, and as recent studies have shown raw meat and fish best meet the body's demands for
fat in a cold climate. The Eskimos did some cooking over a fire of precious seal oil, which also provided
light and warmth. Wild game such as mountain goats, polar bears, caribou, and Dall sheep...were also
part of the Eskimo diet. Today, the Eskimo diet is a mixture of old and new foods. Eskimo children enjoy
chewing on raw walrus kidney just as much as a chocolate candy bar...A modern Eskimo meal might
consist of dried or smoked fish, reindeer stew, and a dessert of fresh or preserved Arctic berries with
sugar and canned milk. If the dessert is served in the traditional manner, the berries are topped with seal
oil."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 276)
Recommended reading:
"After the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, paddle wheelers began regular journeys up great
inland rivers with supplied like dried beans, sugar, oranges, apples, and canned milk. Gold rush
prospectors survived mosly on beans and biscuits...Holidays were celebrated with feasts of roast
ptarmigan, sourdough bread, canned pineapple, plum duff, and spaghetti concocted of moose rump roast,
goose grease, and dried soup vegetables. Prospectors who lingered to become settlers learned to adapt
local ingredients to recipes of the lower forty-eight states. They made ketchup with currants or cranberries,
piecrust with black-bear lard, butter with caribou marrow, and mincemeat with moose."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Volume 1 (p. 30)
Smoked salmon
Pickled herring
Halibut pie
Crab casserole
Venison parmesean
Deer sausage
Moose stroganoff
Baked wild duck
Wild cucumber
Goosetongue (sea plaintain)
Lima bean bake
Fiddlehead ferns
Blueberry cobbler
Red huckleberry pudding
Nagoonberry chiffon pie
Lowbush cranberries chutney
Rhubarb crisp
Finnish Sweet bread
Today's Alaskan menus and dining options are not unlike those found in the "Lower 48." There are local truck stop cafes, great burger/salad places, Mexican restaurants, standard cafeteria fare, and four star dining rooms connected with resort hotels catering to the cruise ship crowd.
Recommended reading:
Need to make something for class?
Alaska is a great state to get for a food project. You have so many choices! All you need to do is place the
recipe within historic context. Assuming you're not in the mood for moose, consider:
Inuit--pemmican & fish
Gold rush--sourdough & beans
Russian settlement/Sitka--pierogi & pea soup
Victorian era--Blueberry cobbler & rhubarb crisp (recipes below)
We visited Alaska recently and the two most outstanding foods were salmon, halibut and berries (esp. blueberries/huckleberries). The fish were served a variety of ways including baked, broiled, pie, croquettes, and smoked. Berries were featured in mufins, crisps, pancakes and quick breads. Also on the menus (maybe not the best choices for a school party) were cariboo, venison, and moose. They are pretty tasty.
"Blueberry cobbler
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon melted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup boiling water
Mix flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt. Stir in milk, vanilla, butter. Spread batter in buttered 8 X 8 pan. Scatter blueberries over batter. Sprinkle sugar over berries. Pour boiling water over all. Bake at 375 degree oven for 45 min. or unitl brown and done in center. Berries sink to bottom and form juice. Serve hot with light cream; or cold, topped with ice cream."
---Juneau Centennial Cookbook, Jane Stewart, Phyllice F. Bradner, Betty Harris (p. 43)
About Alaska's blueberries: I & II."Rhubarb Crisp
Mix and place in greased baking pan: 3 C diced rhubarb, 1/4 C sugar
Blend until crumbly and spread on top: 2/3 C butter, 2/3 C brown sugar, 2/3 C white sugar, 1 C flour, dash of salt.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream."
---ibid (p. 49)"Governor George Parks' Sourdough
Cook 3 large potatoes and mash well. To mashed potatoes, add 1 pint of potato water. When lukewarm, add 1/2 cake yeast and 2 C flour. Cover and put in warm place 48 hours.
To use: take out 2 C and add 1/2 tsp soda, pinch salt, 2 T sugar and enough flour to make a hot cake batter. Add a little oil.
To start add 2 C flour and 2 C water. Cook on griddle."
---ibid (p. 54)
About Arizona's culinary heritage
"Although Texas has annexed the credit for the particular type of cooking found along the
Mexican frontier, Arizona may get closer to the Mexican formula than Texas. The cooking of
Arizona, indeed, is so closely linked to that of Mexico that its Tex-Mex food not only leans
heavily on the Mex component in general, but even on a specific type of Mexican regional
cooking--that of the state of Sonora, which is just across the border. Sonora is wheat-growing
country, so Arizona tends to make tortillas de harina, wheat tortillas, instead of using Indian
corn, more common in the rest of Mexico. Sonoran food is less violently spiced than that of most
of the other Mexican states; Arizona goes in for comparatively mild chilies, which it grows itself
along the border. One dish that Arizona borrowed from Sonora deserves special mention, a soup
containing tripe, green chilies, onions, and mint called munodo...If Tex-Mex food is more
specialized in Arizona, it is more widespread in New Mexico, largely because Arizona today has
few descendants of the old families of the Mexican era, but New Mexico has many of
them."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William
Morrow and Company:New York] 1976 (p. 278)
"Because of its arid climate, Arizona has always suffered from a water shortage. There was little
commercial agriculture in the state before irrigation canals were built at the beginning of this
century. Many of these canals parallel those built by the ancient Hohokam Indian culture almost
2,000 years ago...The early pioneers built new canals along the route of these ancient canals.
Modern Indian tribes did not undertake extensive farming. The Apache and Yum Indians in the
southern part of what is now Arizona subsisted on the plants of the Sonoran Desert. The Mojave
and Hopi Indians in the north hunted game, and gathered wild berries and roots in the
mountainous areas. Arizona's grapefruit and other crops grow in man-made oases that were
developed by Spanish missionaries. Later, the Mormons increased the productivity of these
oases...Due to its remoteness, Arizona was not settled until the 1850s, when copper, silver, and
gold were discovered...The copper and silver mines in Arizona brought Slav and Cornish
immigrants to work in the mines. Although these early settlers could not get many of the
necessary ingredients to cook their favorite native foods, most managed to prepare some of their
native dishes at holiday time. A roasted suckling pig with a necklace of berries frequently graced
the Slavic Christmas table. Prairie chicken (grouse) with spiced gravy, baked noodles, plump
dumplings, and an assortment of poppy-seed tarts, sweet rolls, and cookies were often served in
Slavic homes. Cornish cookes kept busy baking crisp pasties, a turnover made with a pie dough
and filled with meat and vegetables...Beans, a staple food of the Indians, also became an
everyday dish for settlers. They were served along with meat, baked potatoes, homemade rolls or
sourdough biscuits with syrup, and coffee with goat's milk...In the late 1600s Father Kino
brought cattle to Pimeria Alta (southern Arizona). The Spanish missionaires also brought horses
and sheep...Cacti are an intergral part of Arizona's cuisine. The prickly-pear cactus thrives in
Arizona. The bumpy prickly pear, a favorite food of the Indians, was called a fig by some...The
magnificent giant saguaro cactus, which abounds only in the Sonoran Desert, has long supplied a
sweet red fruit that the Pima and Papagos Indians harvested in the summer. About the size of a
hen's egg, the fruit was made into jam or syrup by the Indians. Today the fruit is eaten raw with
ice cream and continues to be used for jams and syrups...Two other special foods of Arizona are
jicama and tomatillos. Jicama, a tuberous vegetable brought from Mexico and now grown in
Arizona, is crisp like an apple and has a slightly sweeter taste. It is primarily used in salads and
can be shredded as a topping for chili. Tomatillos were used by the Aztec Indians and were
transplanted to the Southwest."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of Arizona, Hilda Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 199-201)
[NOTE: This book offers two recipes: Jicama Salad and Sweet Potato Soup]
"Most of Arizona remained unsettled until after 1860. Spanish missionaries in the seventeenth
century attempted to convert the Hopis of northeastern Arizona, but they resisted the mission
program and had little contact with Spanish settlers in New Mexico. Southern Arizona was the
northern region of Sonora known as Pimeria Alta, where Jesuit missionaries established missions
among the O'dham (Pima) between 1687 and 1711. Settlement of the area proceeded very
slowly, and Tucson, founded in 1776, remained the northern most point of Spanish or Mexican
settlement. In northern Sonora cattle raising was the most important industry, and beef played a
starring role in the diet. Settlers also raised sheep and chickens but few pigs. They grew corn,
beans, lentils, garbanzos, pumpkins, and chilies, and they commonly ate posole, atole, and
tortillas, as well as stews enlivened by chilies. However, Apache raids into the region after 1821
drove most settlers farther south. Fewer than three hundred people remained in Tucson when the
United States acquired the area in 1848, but some Anglos married Hispanas, who continued to
prepare tortillas, frijoles, and other dishes. Arizona grew slowly, primarily with immigration
from the United States, until 1910, when the Mexican Revolution sent thousands of people into
southern Arizona. They brought the food traditions of Sonora with them, including large, very
think wheat tortillas, tamalkes made of green corn rather than the corn flour made from nixtamal,
and carne seca. Beef strips, sometimes unseasoned, other times rubbed with lime juice, salt, and
other seasonings, were air dried in the hot sun and dry air of the region. Later the carne seca was
pounded or shredded and stewed to make machaca."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith edtior [Oxford
University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 484)
"Arizona cuisine, like that of other Southwestern states, was strongly influenced by the native
Indians, Spanish conquistadors and padres, as well as Mexican settlers. Indian and Spanish
dishes are still prevalent in Arizona's cusine...The dishes of southern Arizona have been strongly
influenced by Sonora, the Mexican state directly south of Arizona. In Sonora more wheat than
corn is grown. Consequently, Arizona tortillas are more often made of wheat flour. Another
Sonoran influence is that dishes are less spicy than in other Mexican and Southwestern
cookery...Until the middle of this century, Mexican and Indian dishes were predominant. With
the influx of retired people from all over the country, however, the food of Arizona has become
more all-American, with many Midwestern dishes prevailing."
---Taste of the States (p. 201)
"Mexican Corn
3 cups raw tender corn (cut off the ear)
2 cups tomato puree
1 onion (minced fine)
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoon Chili powder
1 tablespoon lard
1 tablespoon finely chopped celery
1/4 cup grated cheese
salt and pepper
Fry the minced onion in the lard, then add puree, celery, Chili pwoder, melted butter, salt and pepper and corn. Mix well and pour in baking-dish. Cook 1 hour in moderate oven."
---The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Sheila Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 189) [NOTE: Lard is hog fat. You can substitute margarine or Crisco.]"Corn Tortillas
[Twelve Tortillas]
2 cups blue cornmeal
1 1/4 cups water
1. Mix cornmeal and water until dough is pliable and moist (but not sticky or wet).
2. Shape dough into twelve balls.
3. Flatten balls by patting out with hands or folling between to sheets of greased wax paper.
4 Cook on lightly greased griddle over medium heat about four minutes on each side, or until brown."
---Hopi Cookery, Juanita Tiger Kavena [University of Arizona Press:Tuscon] 1980 (p. 20)
The Fifty States Cookbook/Sheila Hibben contains the following recipes for Arizona: Pozole (pork and hominy soup), Country-flavored chicken halves, Tamale Perfection, Burritos, Enchiladas con Chile Verde, Ground beef filling, Sweet potatoes with orange, Colifolor Acapulco, Date milk shake, Southwestern salad bowl and Almendraro (a layered gelatin dessert).
Arizona cook books
Native Americans foodways
Archaeologists can tell us much about what the Pueblo tribes ate in ancient times. The ancestors of the
Pueblos were the Anasazi. Who are the Pueblos?
"Pueblo Peoples Traditionally, the Pueblo people were labeled by the Spanish as pueblo (stone masonry town dwellers) in contrast to rancheria (brush/mud camp dwellers). As a cultural group they have survived with clearly unbroken continuity into the present from at least as long ago as two millenia. The Pueblo People are culturally diverse, but they all farm corn, beans, and squash. The modern Western Pueblos -- Hopi, Zuni, Acoma and Laguna -- live on high mesa tops in Arizona and New Mexico and practice dry farming (dependent on rain). The Pecos Classification divides all Pueblo peoples into five periods." Source: http://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/Introduction/glossary.htm#Pueblo%20Peoples
Prehistoric
Farmers [Anasazi Peoples], Northern Arizona University
Spread of Maize to
the Colorado Plateau, Northern Arizona University
State symbols
Arkansas, like most states, does not have an 'official' state food. It does, however, offer several edible
symbols include milk & pink tomato. The state cooking vessel is the
Dutch Oven.
Historic Arkansas foodways:
"Most of the early pioneers who moved west bypassed what is now Arkansas and its
Ozark Mountains because of the rocky landscape and poor soil. In the late 1700s and
early 1800s, however, hard-working farmers from Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee,
who were used to farming under difficult conditions, settled in Arkansas. They brought
their recipes for curing hams, roasting pork ribs over open fires, and baking soda biscuits
and molasses cakes...Since Arkansas borders the South, the Southwest, and the Midwest,
it has a mixture of cuisines. Plantation cookery of the Mississippi Valley, the hill cooking
of the Ozarks, and the Mexican influcences of Texas and Oklahoma all combine to make
a unique style of food...There is a great emphasis of real "down-home" flavors. Fried pork
chops with a light-brown cream gravy to which bits of sausage have been added have
remained a favorite dish. Sausage is also used in poultry stuffings, along with cooked
rice. Arkansas-style chicken is prepared by first simmering the chicken pieces in a skillet
and then baking them in the oven with a Creole sauce. Each region of Arkansas has its
own unique food. In the southern bayou country, roast duck, candied yams, fried chicken,
fluffy biscuits and peach cobblers are often served. Around Texarkana, pinto beans and
barbecued beef of the Southwest are typical fare. Along the Mississippi River, catfish are
popular in stews and fried...In the hill coutnry of the Ozarks, dishes such as bacon with
cracklin's corn bread, baked beans, wilted lettuce with bacon and vinegar, bread and apple
jelly, and ginger bread for dessert are traditional everyday fare...Roasted raccoon, roasted
beaver-tail, and baked opossum are Arkansas soul food...Arkansans prefer hot bread with
their meals...They like steaming-hot corn breads, hot biscuits, or fresh-out-of-the-oven
rolls. Strawberry shortcake is a favorite dessert of Arkansans...The Arkansas version of
the shortcake usese a crisp, buttery biscuit, which is split in half, soaked in strawberry
juice, and then topped with a mound of whipped cream and fresh strawberries...Over the
past 50 years, Arkansas has become an important poulty-producing state, as well as a
major producer of fruits, vegetables, rice, and soybeans. In the 1840s Arkansas farmers
began experimenting with orchards. Their apples soon won first prizes...Peaches also
became an important Arkansas fruit crop."
---Tastes of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 106-9)
"The folks in Arkansas have so many good things to eat, and such different foods at different seasons of the year and in different sections of the state, that I am sending you several different menus; a game dinner to be served to hunters, a plantation dinner, an early summer dinner and a duck dinner. You can take your choice or use all of them. Arkansas has fine fruits; strawberries, youngberries, Boysenberries, raspberries, grapes, peaches, figs and watermelons. The most common meats are poultry, kid, lamb, mutton and fresh pork. There is also an abundance of game and fish. The favorite breads are biscuit and variations of corn bread, from pan bread to corn dodgers. The Mexican influence has extended this far east and north. One finds tomatoes, onions, garlic and pepper, and hotter foods than further north. Also the Mexican chopped hot vegetable and all forms of field peas, such as Crowder peas, lady peas, Black-eyed peas, etc. There are many wild greens and fruits which are much used and relished by the people: Muscadine grapes, possum persimmon, wild plum, watercress, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and chinquapins. The wild fruits are eaten fresh and also made into many delicious products for the winter..."
Plantation Dinner
Vegetable soup
Backbones
Lady Peas, Browned Potatoes, Collard greens
Slaw
Corn dodger
Fried peach pie
Coffee
June Dinner
Jellied tomato bouillon
Wafers, Celery, Olives
Broiled chicken
New Potatoes, New peas
Stuffed tomato salad
Boysenberries
Angel-food cake, Coffee...
Mary Rowden's Dinner
Stewed chicken
Fried ham, Creamed eggs
Green beans, Mashed potatoes
Candied sweets, Slaw
Watermelon pickle, Cucumber pickle
Raspberry jelly
Pie, Cake, Coffee."
Did you know there is a large Greek Community in Arkansas? Greek Festival recipes here.
Historic recipes
[1906]
Rogers Cookbook (a church cookbook)
Need to make something for class?
The recipes below are offered in our books as examples of traditional Arkansas fare. If you have access to a Dutch Oven, you can
use that as your historic foodways example. Soups, stews, biscuits and cobbler/pot pies are easily rendered in this pot.
"Old-Fashioned Corn Bread
Over the years corn bread has had many variations. Butts of bacon, or crackling, corn kernels, chili peppers, cheese, or onions have all been added to corn bread batter at one time or another. This corn bread can be baked either in an iron skillet, similar to the Dutch ovens the early settlers used, or in a n 8-inch square baking pan. The sugar used in this recipe is traditional in southern corn bread.
Serves 6 to 8
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons melted butter, margarine or bacon drippings
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in the buttermilk, eggs, and 3 tablespoons of the melted butter. Mix well. Brush a 10-inch iron skillet with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake in a preheated 425 degree F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm."
---Taste of the States,(p. 107)"Little Fellows
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup lemon juice
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
30 unbaked tart shells (about 2 3/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches deep)
Cream the butter and sugar just enough to blend well--mixture chould not be fluffy or filling may bubble up and boil over in the oven. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in flour. Add the lemon juice and rind (the mixture will seem to curdle but don't be alarmed; it will smooth out in the baking). Spoon mixture into tart shells, filling each no more than 2/3 full. (Should you have any leftover filling, spoon into a custard cups, again filling no more thatn 2/3 fill, set in a small baking pan, and pour water into pan to a depth of 1 inch. These may be baked in the oven alongside the tarts and will be done in about the same amount of time.) Bake tarts in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) 30 to 35 minutes until filling is puffy and golden and pastry lightly browned. Remove from oven, cool tarts in their pans to room temperature, then remove from pans and serve."
---"Arkansas Territorial Restoration [Little Rock Arkansas]," Recipes from America's Restored Villages, Jean Anderson [Doubleday:Garden City NY] 1975 (p. 234-5)
[NOTE: ""Little Fellows" are nothing more than small lemon "chess" tarts--vey lemony, very buttery, very seweet. Lemon "chess" resembles the English lemon "cheese," and some food believe that "chess" is a corruption of "cheese."..."Little Fellows" are often no bigger than a thimble, but a more practical size is the small individual tart. You can buy prepared tart shells, ready to fill and bake, in many supermarkets." (p. 234)]"Pecan Pies
The recipe used for pecan pies in the [University of Arkansas] Campus Cafeteria...is as follows:
1/2 cup sugar
3 whole eggs
1/2 cup crushed pecans
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter
Pinch of salt
Bake in a raw flaky paste shell in a moderate oven for ten minutes at 400 degrees F., then reduce heat to 350 degrees F. and continue baking until firm."
---New York World's Fair Cookbook (p. 183)"Jelly Pie (Arkansas)
4 eggs
1/2 cup currant jelly
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Cream the butter and add the sugar and beat well. Add well-beaten yolks and jelly, and fold in the whites of eggs. Add lemon juice and bake without upper crust."
---The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Sheila Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 368)
If you need to identify and/or cook a food representative of California you have dozens of wonderful choices. You can pick something:
1. That grows there (raisins, dates, oranges, grapes)
2. From history (17th century California mission foods, the Gold Rush era)
3. Representing foreign immigrants and settlers (Chinese, Italian, etc.)
4. Trendy (New California cuisine)
5. From a famous restaurant (The Brown Derby, Trader Vics, Chez Panisse)...20th century restaurant menus
6. From a famous food company (Del Monte, Chicken-of-the-Sea, Sees Candies)
You will find an excellent summary of the foods of California in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America/Andrew F. Smith, Volume 1 (p. 165-172). Your librarian can help you find a copy. Helen Brown's West Coast Cook Book (c. 1952) offers a delightful collection of California recipes, many with historic notes. Erica Peter's San Francisco: A Food Biography is well written and sourced (no recipes).
A few menu items to get you started
Old world provisioning
"...September 14, 1786, two ships appeared...of the coast of Monterey...L'Astrolabe and La Bourssole, were French. Although San Diego had been founded...in 1769, and
Monterey a year later, these were the first foreign vessels to visit Spain's California colonies...the ships' library was endowed with a generous selection of reference books.
There were included the published accounts of previous voyages, natural histories, and books on astronomy, chemistry, and meteorology. There were floras, a book on
the theory of winds, another on the theory of tides, and others on zoology, fishing...All in all, over a hundred titles were assembled and listed in the ship's catalog...The
gardener...was expected not only to collect plants, but also to introduce useful plants to others, and to do this happy end was supplied with seeds, roots, and cuttings.
His inventory included six bushels each of apple and pear kernels, plus many bushels more of seeds, stones, or pits of gooseberry, currant, grape, peach, apricot, plum,
cherry, almond, melons of various kinds, artichoke, pepper, celery, chervil, several grains, and still other crops. A root cellar was created in the darkest part of the hold for
the bushels of onion, turnip, carrot, radish, garlic, potato, parsnip, and beet roots. As the day of departure drew closer, longshoremen moved onto the decks of La
Boussole a small forest of some fifty living trees and vines--Montmorency cherry trees, black heart cherry trees, white heart cherry trees, olive trees, quince trees, grape
vines, fig trees, chestnut trees...In addition, the gardener brought with him a huge assortment of trowels, knives, shovels, watering pots, tin boxes, mattocks, saws, and
other pieces of equipment that he would need to tend, water, transplant, and collect more plants. For the crew there was the most modern of foods and bedding, plus a
considerable stock of spruce, malt, and other scurvy preventatives..."
---Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786 The Journals of Jean Francois de la Perouse, Introduction and Commentary by Malcom Margolin [Heyday Books:Berkeley CA] 1989 (p. 3-7)
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Native Chumash foods
"The early Spanish explorers were impressed by the Chumash craftsmanship...The finest objects made by the Chumash were of steatite. Its resistance to heat made it ideal for cooking receptacles. The pre-
Spanish Chumash made no potter and all cooking was done in heavy steatite ollas and on comals (flat cooking stones, like
skillets)...
The most important single food source was the acorn, mainly from the California live oak...It was gathered in the fall and
stored for year-round use. The shelled nuts were ground into meal and cooked as mush or in some form of cake. Pine nuts,
especially of the pinon pine...were a favorite food. Islay, the wild cherry...was bruised in a morter and boiled. The cattail
Typhia gave seeds and flour from the roots for making pinole, a gruel or paste. Berries, mushrooms, and cress were gathered
in season to vary the diet. The Chumash prized the amole, or soap plant...The bulb was roasted and eaten, the green bulb
furnished lather for washing...Berries of the California laurel...were roasted. The chia sage...produced a tiny oily seed
that was made into flour or a very nutritious form of pinole...For hunting, the basic weapon was the bow and arrow...and with it
the Chumash killed animpals such as the California mule deer, coyote, and fox. Smaller animals were usually take with snares and
deadfalls. Flat, curved thowing sticks were used to kill rabbits...All game birds were regulalry harvested, particularly migratory
ducks and geese on the lagoons. From canoes, the hunter pursued large marine mammals--seals, sea otters, and porpoises--and killed
them with harpoons...Mollusks were an important food souce."
---"Chumash," Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 8: California, Rovert F. Heiser editor [Smithsonian Institution:
Washington DC] 1978 (p. 514-517)
The California Mission Studies Association is dedicated to study and preservation of the history of Spanish missions. Information on several Mission web sites confirms foods of these Missions generally consisted of simple local fare, much of it grown on site.
"The neophytes were given morning and evening meals of atole and a mid day
meal of pozole. They were allowed to gather wild foods, as was their custom
before the Spanish came. On Sundays and special feast days everyone received
almost a half peck of wheat...Mission life was routine; order was brought out of a
wilderness. In general, seven hours of the day were allotted to labor, with two
hours of prayer daily and four or five on Sundays and on days of festivals. In the
morning their food consisted of atole or a gruel of barley, wheat, or corn. At noon,
they got pozole, which consisted of the same grains, only boiled. In the evening, it
was the same food as in the morning, but in addition, every few days cattle were
slaughtered to provide beef. "
---San Diego History, Richard Pourade
According to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, the Spanish introduced many foods to California via Mexico. These included: almonds,
apples, apricots, bananas, barley, beans, cherries, chickpeas, chilies, citrons, dates, figs, grapes, lemons, lentils, limes, maize, olives, nectarines, oranges, peaches,
pears, plums, pomegranates, quinces, tomatoes, walnuts, wheat, chickens, cows, donkeys, goats, horses, sheep and domesticated turkey.
"The colonists supplemented their fare with most of the same types of game hunted by the Native Americans. The colonists made corn tortillas, as the wheat
varieties that they brought with them were not easily cultivated in California. When wheat became more abundant, it was used to make tortillas on special
occasions. The Spanish established the first flour mill in 1786. The role of the missions was to Christianize the California Indians. Many Indians did convert to
Christianity and relocated around the Spanish settlements, which resulted in a shift in their diet. They had been accustomed to eating vegetables, fish, and game, but
mission agricultures and husbandry brought them a monotonous diet of atole, a gruel made from ground, leached acorns or other nutlike seeds, and pinole, a flour
made by grinding seeds."
---Oxford Encylopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] Volume 1, 2004 (p. 166)
"Another Spanish holding, California, had no European inhabitants until 1769 when Franciscan priests established their first mission at San Diego. A first concern
of the missionaries was to obtain wine and wheat for holy communion and beeswax for altar candles. The bees they brought from Spain and, with the help of
their Indian converts, they planted vinyards and wheat fields. Citrus fruit trees were also brought from Spain, as were dates and figs. Two other foods that grew
well in these places were brought from Mexico: sweet potatoes and avocados...The Spanish colonists brought with them favorite foods--among them, saffron,
olive oil, and anise and combined these foods with foods of the local Indians and the Mexican Indians to make a New Mexican cuisine that still flourishes today."
---Heritage Cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens [Meredith Corporation:Des Moines IA] 1975 (p. 39)
[NOTE: Recipes included in this book are: Red Chili Sauce, Posole, Chili Meat Sauce, Stacked Enchiladas, Corn Tortillas, Spicy Hot Chocolate,
Chilies Rellenos, Early Spanish Rice, Spanish String Beans, Spanish Vegetables (corn, onion, zucchini, tomatoes). You librarian will be happy to help you obtain
a copy.]
Want to cook some traditional mission dishes?
Both Waters & Tower have authored several books. These provide valuble insight. Identify titles (author search) with the Library of Congress catalog. Your librarian can help you get the books.
Colorao pioneer foods
"Life in the early settlements of Colorado was rather primitive...Customers paid for their purchases in pinches of gold
dust...Potatoes cost $15 a bushel and oysters were $16 a gallon...Some prospectors soon discovered that a good crop of
grain and a few bushels of apples brought in more gold than agonizing hours of panning and digging. By the 1890s
Colorado farms produced more income than the mines. Sugar beets...became a particularly profitable crop. The sugar-beet
industry commenced in Colorado after a French-designed sugar-manufacturing plant, which was brought to America by the
Mormons, failed to work in Utah. The soil and climate of Colorado proved to be good for sugar beets, and the plant was
moved to Colorado..."Ranching began in Western Colorado in the 1870s and boomed in the 1880s...Beef is raised in many areas of the state...Colorado is famous
for its Mountain lamb and it is number one in the nation in lamb production
...In pioneer days "eating out" did not mean going to a restaurant. Rather, it meant that the women
prepared food to be carried outdoors and eaten on a table made from planks laid across two saw-horses..."Eating out"
kept the house cool. When women settlers arrived in Colorado, they could not figure out how to make a good cake. The
high altitude of the mountains prevented cakes from rising properly...high altitude baking was born...Many a Colorado
cowboy had his own special biscuit mix. before stargin out on the range, he would mix together flour, salt, and leavening
in a sack and tie the sack to his saddle. At mealtime he took some of the mixture, added water to achieve the right
consistency, and drop the biscuit dough into a skillet greased with lard or bacon drippings...In the 1890s Russians from the
Volga region came to Colorado to become sugar beet farmers. They brought with them recipes for their favorite foods, such as
sausages encased in rich dough; a sponge cake made with lemon; cucumber salad with sour cream; Piroshki, meat baked in small
turnovers or tarts; and Golbutzi, cabbage leaves stuffed with a mixture of meat, rice, and sour cream...Mexicans came later to
work on the railroads...adding their spicy dishes...Pollo con Mole...Tamale Pie...and Flan. It is said theat the Chinese
cooks working on the transcontinental railraod...invented the Denver sandwich...It was simply Chinese Egg Fu Yung prepared
with green peppers, onions, and usually chopped ham. The cooked omelet was put between two pices of bread and eaten as a
sandwich."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 219-221)
Traditional Colorado foods?
This menu was constructed by Patsy Shole, Assistant Professor of Home Management at Colorado State College, Fort Collins:
A Menu of Typical Colorado Foods
Rocky Ford melon
Puree of mile-high peas
Choice of
Fort Collins roast leg of lamb with mint jelly
Fried mountain turkey with cranberry jelly
Colorado Rocky Mountain rainbow trout wtih hollandaise suce
San Luis Valley Burbank puff potatoes Larimer County buttered peas
Fresh savory mushrooms Heart of Colorado pascal celery
Pikes Peak hot rolls Sweet Colorado State College butter
North Park iceberg lettuce with roquefort cheese dressing
Loveland early Richmond chrry pie
Palisade peach ice cream
Coffee."
---New York World's Fair Cook Book: The American Kitchen, Crosby Gaige [Doubleday, Doran:New York] 1939 (p. 185)
The culinary history of Colorado is an eclectic mix of ethnic and cultural traditions. If you to include information about food in your state report, you can select foods from a variety of cultures/time periods. All you need to do is explain how the food/recipe fits into Colorado history. You can choose from:
Recommended reading: Colroado Industries of the Past/William L. Reich [flour mills, breweries, ice, food canning & sugar beets]
Top crops (make a food with one of these ingredients) According the US Dept. Of Agriculture, Colorado's largest crops (2002) were potatoes, followed by pinto beans and light red kidney beans.
Need to make something for class?
"Trappers Fruit
To make about 5 cups
3 cups (about 12 ounces) coarsley chopped dried apples
1 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup seedless raisins
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 quart water
Combine the [ingredients] and water in a heavy 3 to 4 quart casserole and mix well. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover tightly and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the apples are tender. Check the pan occasionally and, if the fruit seems dry, add more water 1/4 cup at a time. Transfer the fruit to a bowl and cool to room temperature before serving. Trappers' fruit, so called because it was easy for Colorado fur trappers on the mid-19th Century to prepare, is served as an accompaniment to roasted and broiled meats."
---American Cooking: The Great West , Jonathan Norton Leonard [Time-Life Books:New York] 1971 (p. 84)"Muffin Cakes (Colorado)
yolks 8 eggs
2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour (sifted twice)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Beat the yolks until they are thick and lemon colored; add the sugar gradually, beating all the time. Add the butter, creamed until soft and fluffy, then add flour and vanilla, and last of all the baking-powder. Grease muffin-pans and dredge them with flour; then invert the pans and tap the bottoms lightly so that no loose flour remains. Put a very little of the batter in each muffin pan, as it rises considerably. Bake in fairly hot oven until brown. Serve the same day as baked. These cakes will fall a little when taken from the oven, which is as it should be."
---The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Sheila Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 392-3)
[NOTE: Ms. Hibben's book is well regarded by food historians as accurate. She does not, however, provide notes as to how the recipes she selects connect with the designated state. Baking powder was a favorite ingredient in 19th century Western states, when yeast was sometimes hard to come by.]"Ranch-style Pan Bread
Cast-iron frying pans were used on the frontier for making all manner of breads, including this one, a quick, easy baking powder bread with a light, cakey texture
Serves 9
2 cups siftged all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Combine the ingredients in a food processor, being careful not to overmix. The dough will be quite sticky. Bake in a greased 9-inch square iron skillet for 25 to 30 minutes, or until dark golden brown. Trust your eyes to tell you when this bread is done, not the clock. For a crustier bread, bake ranch style, spread thinly in a 9- by 12-inch greased iron skillet and baked until dark golden brown. NOTE: For more authentic, traditional flavor, use lard or bacon fat instead of vegetable shortening. Bake ranch style."
---The Fort Cookbook: New Foods of the Old West from the Famous Denver Restaurant, Samuel P. Arnold [Harper Collins:New York]1997 (p. 21)
[NOTE: This book contains dozens of traditional and locally inspired recipes. The author's notes help you understand the connection to Colorado. Your local public librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy. Selected recipes online.]
Colonial Connecticticut
People living in colonial/early America Connecticut ate foods similar to those throughout New
England. These colonies were greatly influenced by English cooking traditions.
"In the early 1630s both the English of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Dutch of New Amersterdam Colony eyed the wide,
fertile Connecticut Valley as a possibility for settlement, agriculture, and fur trading. In June 1633 the Hollanders built a fort
at what was to become Hartford. In the fall of 1634, JOhn Oldham and ten others left Watertown in the Massachusetts Colony
to establish a permanent settlement at Wethersfield, south of Hartford. Memebers of the John Oldham group became the first
Europeans to plant seeds in the soil of Connecticut. They sowed rye in a fallow Indian field. The next year several more
groups came from Massachusetts and brought cattle and hogs. The harsh winters, however, drove most of these early
settlers back to their Massachusetts homes. By the end of the 1630s, those who remained had created productive farms,
started the mercantile town of New Haven, and established an independent government. The early Dutch settlers in the
Hartford area did likewise. They planted apple orchards, appointed a committee to select superior calves for breeding
stock, and developed a dairy industry. By the 1640s the efforts of both the English and the Dutch settlers had made the
new territory of Connecticut virtually self-sufficient...As the population of Connecticut increased, so did the farming. The
variety of crops expanded to include many vegetables, as well as berries and fruit trees...the farmers..raised radishes,
lettuce, cucumbers, and melons...The early Connecticut farmers also dug underground pits where they stored cabbages,
squash, potatoes, and other root vegetables...Fishing has always been an important part of the Connecticut economy. Shad
fishing along the Connecticut River...has been a tradition since colonial times...When the English first settled in the
Connecticut River Valley, the numerous shad were despised as food. Eating shad meant that a person was almost destitute
or had exhausted his supply of salt pork."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Publications:Charlottesville VA] 1992
(p. 12)
Early Connecticut recipes
Amelia Simmon's
American Cookery (originally published in Hartford, 1796)is generally considered to be the first American
cookbook. Why? Because it contained recipes using "Indian" maize.
About the book & its author. Popular period foods
included pies, cakes, soups (chowder, especially), baked beans, roasted meats, breads, and pork (salt pork, bacon, ham).
Need to make something for class?
"Baked Cranberry Pudding
Mrs. John Merrill of Waterford writes, "This recipe was given to me by the Librarian at Connecticut College, Miss Hazel A. Johnson. I understand it was originally from a cookbook of old recipes prepared by a Congregational parish in Groton many years ago. It is a recipe my family enjoys and certainly has a New Engalnd flavor."
2 cups flour1 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons melted shortening
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups cranberries
Sift dry ingredients into bowl; add shortening, milk and egg. Beat for 2 minutes. Stir in cranberries. Bake in a buttered 9-inch square pan in a 350 degress F. oven for about 40 minutes. Serve with Hot Butter sauce (below. Makes 9 three-inch squares.Hot Butter Sauce
Melt butter or margarine in the top part of a double boiler; add sugar and liquid; mix well. Cook over hot water for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot over pudding."
---Mystic Seaport Cookbook, Lillian Langseth-Christensen [Funk & Wagnall's:New York] 1970 (p. 214)
Official state foods
Nutmeg:
One of Connecticut's nicknames is is called "The Nutmeg State." Nutmegs are
spices which are NOT indigenous to Connecticut. This makes for an interesting report.
What is nutmeg?
Eastern oyster: This official state symbol was selected because many people in the early days (Native Americans and European settlers) ate them regularly.
Did you know???!
Hamburgers (as we know them today): Some food historians claim
these were "invented" in a tiny restaurant called Louis Lunch in New Haven, CT. Notes
here (scroll
down about half way).
"The foods of Delaware are primarily English with some German influences. The Germans who settled Pennsylvania
also settled in the northern part of Delaware and continued to prepare their traditional German dishes, which eventually
intermingled with those of Delaware. After the broiler [chicken] industry started, broiled chicken with sour-milk biscuits
became a favorite. Shrimp steamed over a pan of spiced vinegar and served with tartar sauce was a traditinal seafood
dish. Cooks prepared cauliflower with a custard sauce and creamed-corn pudding as accompaniments to meat dishes.
There was also a fish stew, called Muddle, which included fin and shellfish and was cooked in a Dutch oven. Lemon
butter and lemon jelly were used as sandwich fillings. Steamed crabs were cooked at beach picnics. Ham smoked to a
rich brown, almost the shade of mahogany, and aged at least a year has been a Delaware specialty. Delaware has
also contributed to the cooking and packaging of food. Cellophane was invented by the E.I. Du Pont de Nemours
Company of Wilmington."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p.
40)
Newcastle, DE
The city of New Castle, Delaware was originally settled by the Dutch,
meaning much of its early foodways would have been influenced by the
cuisine of the Netherlands. Later settlers included the Swedish and the
British. About Dutch foodways in America: The Sensible Cook: Dutch
Foodways in the Old and New World, Translated and Edited by Peter G.
Rose. Additional sources of information: New Castle Historical
Society and the Historical
Society of Delaware.
Need to make something for class?
Chicken (blue hen) or crab are the traditional meats of choice. If you prefer
dessert? Something with peaches (the official state fruit) is perfect. "Peaches,
a new fruit for the Swedes and Finns [living in Colonial-era Delaware], were
grown in orchards, along with cherries and wild plums..."---Taste of the States: A
Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 38). Additional
information:
Sweet History: Delaware's Peach Producing Past & Can It! Canning
in Delaware. Recipes here!.
About Florida's culinary heritage
"Spaniards were the first [European] people to discover the riches of Florida. Ponce de Leon,
Hernando de Soto, and Panfilo de Narvaez explored the Florida peninsula during the first half of
the 1500s. They brought seeds for oranges, lemons, and other tropical fruits but were too busy
searching for gold to care for them. Consequently, the trees grew wild...The first large group of
permanent settlers in Florida were not English or American, but Minorcans, Greeks, and Italians.
They were recruited in 1764 by an Englishman to immigrate to Florida to grow indigo...For a while
the colonists grew indigo but turned to fishing when they found that the sea was laden with shrimp
and fish similar to those of their homeland. They also discovered that lemons, eggplant, and
olives--all staples of their native diets--grew well on the land...Although the Spanish first settled
Florida, their culinary influence was minimal. The Spanish conquistadors, however, did bring
some Caribbean fruits and vegetables to Florida. They also introduced black beans. A typical dish
of the Spanish settlers at St. Augustine was Garbanzo Soup, which was prepared with dried chick
peas and other vegetables. The soup also contained chorizo, a Spanish sausage, plus a pinch of
saffron for color and flavor. The first permanent culinary influence in Florida came from the
American settlers who established citrus farms in the late 1760s. They brought with them a fairly
developed Southern cuisine, which was enhanced in Florida by salads and substantial quantities
of citrus...Recently, Spanish food heritage has been reinvigorated in Florida by the influx of Cuban
immigrants."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (P. 110-111)
[NOTE: This book contains much more information than can be paraphrased here. If you need
more details ask your librarian to help you find a copy]
Native American foodways
"The Timucua...The earliest migration of Native Americans into present-day Florida took place over 15,000 years ago. Their diet consisted of wild game and wild plants. Few changes occurred in
their culture until sometime around 5000 BC when they added mollusks and fish, snails and shellfish to their diets. When they cooked their food it was over an open fire pit. In 2000 BC theri
cooking methods expanded with the creation of clay pots and the heating of flat stones for baking. By the time the first Europeans set foot on Florida's soil in the early 1500s AS,
the Timucuan Indians of Northeastern Florida had evolved from nomadic hunters and gatherers to skilled farmers, cultivating maize, squash, pumpkin, and beans...When the
Spanish arrived in Florida, they were greeted warmly by these...Indians. The explorers recorded their observations of the Timucua...[including] their food
preparation. They wrote of how the Indians smoked meat on wooden sticks or roasted game in a little house set on a raised platform above an open fire. The Spanish
described their technique as 'barbacoa' from which we derive the word 'barbecue.' Archaeological excavations and Spanish records indicate that the Timucua also enjoyed
coontie palm, prickly pears, wild onions, persimmons, muscadine grapes, hog and coco plums, honeycombs, and honey. Besides seafood, they also ate venison, rabbit, raccoon,
opossum, beaver, bear, gopher and sea turtles and their eggs, alligator, rattlesnake, and birds. Little is known about the spices they ate. We do know...the Timucua used salt
to preserve fish...Records show that they made extracts from fermented fruits, berries, barks, and roots...Originally, the Indians use sticks and stone blades for cooking
utensils, later advancing to carved wooden spoons and clay potter...Food was protected in woven baskets, clay pots, or wrapped in animal skins. In order to preserve foods
they salted and smoked fish and sun-dried fruits."
---Flavors of St. Augustine: an historic cookbook, Maggi Smith Hall [Tailored Tours Publicaitons:Lake Bueana Vista FL] 1999 (p. 9-10)
[Moderinized recipes offered in this section include: Florida Wild Turkey Stuffed with Sea Grapes and Nuts, Boiled Crevices (crawfish), Tagelus or Coquina
Broth, Charcoal Shrimp and Squash, Honey Tea, Indian Corn Pudding, Baked Squash, Timucuan Bean Balls, Grilled Pumpkin, and Hickory Nut Bread.]
Spanish Florida
"Since food shortages plagued the colonist, bread was used to thicken soups. Meats, when available, included beef, lamb, and especially pork. Spanish colonists hunted wild game and
ate large quanities of fish aouthough they always considered fish a poor man's diet. Garlic and olive oil were basic. Food sources also included cow and goat milk and their
by-products, onions, a variety of beans peas, squash, figs and olives. Originally brought to Spain by the Arabs, citrus, rice, and sugar cane were intorudced to the New World by
the Spanish. In the New World the Spanish discovered potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, avocado. cooca, and corn. Although the tomato may have been eaten in San Agustin during
the First Spanish Period, research has not verified this. Water was not drunk consistently, since the Spanish generally drank wine or ale. Most of the spices they used came from
the Orient: chili powder, pepper, saffron, cinnamon, cumin, mint, cilantro (coriander), and caraway. Other favorite spices were basil, dill, and mustard. The Spanish brought their use
of salt with them The paprika pant was discovered in the New World by the Spanish and dried to produce a pepper called pimenton, an authentic Spanish creation...Most
early cooking incorporated potajes...cooking of a fire with a fireproof pole extended over the flame. Attached to the pole was a pot called an olla which held stews and
soups. Cooking was also done over a charcoal fire using an iron pot atop a three-legged trivet. The Spanish barbecued and roasted meat on spits and also smoked fish
on a wooden grill, as taught by the Timucua. They used heated stones for baking breads and later advanced to building outdoor coquina ovens. The Hispanic's most inventive
method of cooking was the fogon. It originated in the Mediterranean and appeared in San Agustin sometime after the 1700s. A fogon was a coquina, waist high, stove for
indoor use...Copper pots and earthenware accompanied the Spanish to the New World. They also brought iron knives and forks, wooden spoons, wooden stirrers, macaroni
rollers, bone pastry wheels...Oil was used to protect cheeses and sausages and vinegar and wine pickled vegetables and fruits. Sun-drying was also used for preserving
fruits."
---Flavors of St. Augustine (p. 21-23)
[Modernized recipes in this book include: Carne de Res Natosa (Creamed Beef), Sopa de Chili (Chili Soup), Estofado de Puerco (Pork Stew), Albondigas de Puerco (Pork
Meatballs), Sopa de Pollo (Chicken Soup), Estofado de Frijoles (Bean Stew), Frutas de Menendez (Pomegranate fruit salad) and Pan de Claabaza (Squash Bread)]
Additional modernized period recipes courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine (October 2001)
If you need more scholarly details, we recommend: Reconstructing Historic Subsistence With an Example from Sixteenth
Century Spanish Florida/Elizabeth J. Reitz & C. Margaret Scarry.
Florida cookbooks in FoodTimeline library. Happy to scan/share recipes. Let us know what you want!
"Food historians allege that the first pork dinner eaten in America was probably consumed in 1540 in what is now Georgia. That year de Soto herded pigs
from the Everglades to the Ozarks on his exploration of the southern interior. The pigs provided food for the half-starved, foot-sore conquistadors
when they could no longer get food from the Indians. The de Soto expedition left behind the nucleus of herds of hogs and cattle when it returned to
Spain...In the years between the first settlement of Georgia and the American Revolution, various ethnic settlers contributed their native cuisine
to the colony. Many French Hugenots arrived directly from France or via South Carolina and found the city of Savannah to their liking. To this day
foods served in Savannah have a distinctly French style. German immigrants settled further up the Savannah River. The cookery of this region
included sauerkraut, Pepper Pot Soup, and other German dishes...Southern cuisine, which had beeen developing for almost a hundred years when Georgia
was settled, dominated Georgia cooking during the early years of settlement. Georgia squirrel Stew...is closely related to Brunswick Stew popular in other
parts of the South..."Plain but plentiful" food typified the cuisine of the early Georgian homes...Some of the staple foods of Georgia included rice
grown in the coastal marshes and hot breads or biscuits spread thick with homemade preserves. Chicken and ham were the main meat dishes...Georgia
housewives prided themselves on their light-textured pound cakes, which used a pound each of butter, sugar, and eggs...
W.E. Woodward, a historian of the early 1800s, described a dinner in Augusta. The meal consisted of "turtle soup followed by
brook trout fried in butter, then baked sweet potatoes and roast ham, wild turkey stuffed with walnuts and cornmeal,
accompanied by dishes of rice, asparagus, and green beans, with a cooling orange sherbet to give the guests a breather before
they tackled the cold venison, stewed corn and cheese, and the dessert of corn fritters with syrup and sweet potato pie. Madeira
wine, beer, and milk were the beverages. Oyster suppers, popular at the plantations around Savannah, were often held outdoors
by the light of the moon...Hoppin' John (black-eyed peas with rice) and green salad completed the informal feast. Other
Savannah dishes included crab souffles seasoned with nutmeg and sherry, chicken pies with hard cooked eggs and tiny
mushrooms, cream corn puddings, and fried Georgia peach pies...The food served on the small family farms of the Piedmont area
differed from that of the coastal lowlands. Corn bread was served at almost every meal, while rice was seldom seen. Dairy
products from the family cow--butter, cheese, milk, and cream--were prevalent in the cooking. Just as in the lowlands, ham and
chicken were the main meats, but venison and small game were also common, especially in the local version of Brunswick Stew...
"
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Books:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 115)
About Georgia peaches
Peaches were introduced to the New World by the Spanish when they established a settlement at St. Augustine, Florida, in
1565. Eventually peach orchards spread northward to Georgia, where the warm climate was favorable for peach cultivation. The peach
industry began to flourish in Georgia in the mid-1800s and was further expanded with the advent of refrigerated railroad cars...
The Elberta peach...was developed in Georgia...The story of the famous Elberta peach began at the Rumph plantation near
Marshallsville, Georgia in 1857. A gentleman living in Delaware sent an assortment of peach-tree puddings to his friend
Samuel Rumph. The trees flourished and in a few years produced fruit...An accidental cross-pollination fostered by wind and bees
took place. When the first trees bore fruit in 1870, they produced great golden peaches--a species new to the fruit world.
Samuel named the peach Elberta for his wife. He was one of the first fruit growers to package fruit attractively and to ship it
by sea in refrigerated containers to the Northeast. By 1889 there were 3,000 acres of peach orchards in Georgia. Today, almost every
Georgia cook has his or her own version of peach pie."
---ibid (p. 117-8)
Historic, traditional & popular recipes
we own these books & are happy to send you selected recipes...let us know what type of food you want to make!
"The food of Hawaii is a diverse blend of all the island and mainland cuisines, especially
those of Polynesia, Japan, China, and Korea, wed to Portuguese and American tastes.
Hawaii was settled by Polynesians who themselves derived form the Indomalayan region.
Except for the bat...which was inedible, Hawaii had no indigenous animals, and all
present animals on the islands were at one time or another brought to Hawaii. These
included the dog... which was bred for food, the pig...domesticated fowl...and other
animals. Fish, which is a mainstay of the Hawaiian diet, was plentiful in the island
waters, and every species was eaten, for no poisonous fish existed in the region."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 152)
"Hawaii's food today is a confusing mixture, a palimpsest of the foods of a dozen different ethnic groups. But one can make sense of it by taking note of two salient facts: fist, that before the arrival of the first humas, probably around the 3rd century AD, Hawaii, one of the most isolated sets of islands in the world, contained essentially nothing edible on land. Very few species had managed to cross those staggering distances; those that did had speciated to provide a fine natural laboratory for evolutionary biologists. But apar from a few birds and a few ferns, there was nothing to eat; most important, there were no edible carbohydrates. Second, since the arrival of the first humans, Hawaii has been the terminal point of three diasporas: the great marine diaspora of the Pacific Islanders; the great voyages of discovery of the Europeans and the Americans; and the end of the road for Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and lately, SE Asians. From these diverse influences, a creole food is now being created, known in the islands as Local Food.
"When the Hawaiians arrived in the islands, they brought with them some 27 or so edible plants, as well as pigs, dogs...The most important plants were taro and sweet potato. The terrain and climate in Hawaii proved particularly suitable for growing wetland taro...Also important were breadfruit, various yams, sugar cane, and coconut...The staple of the diet was poi. This was usually made with taro, but sweet potato or other starches were used when necessary...The major protein was fish. Both pigs and dogs were eaten but they were largely reserved for the nobility...For the bulk of the population protein was provided by wild fish and shellfish from the streams, the reef, and the ocean. The fish was eaten both raw...and cooked...
"In 1778, Captain James Cook sighted the Hawaiian Islands. Within a matter of years they had become a part of world trade...From the start, new animals and plants were introduced; cows, horses, and goats, and a bewildering variety of plants...Hawaiian food and haole food (the latter being the food of the white incomers) continued side by side with occasional input from the Chinese who also ended up on the islands...On ceremonial occasions, there would be luaus at which largely Hawaaian foods was served: poi, of course, and dried fish and shrimp, luau pig baked in the imu, seaweed, and taro leaves, and a dessert made of coconut milk thickened with Polynesian arrowroot...
"The food landscape of Hawaii began changing dramatically once the sugar plantations began to flourish following the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in 1876...In order, substantial number of Chinese, Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Portuguese from the Atlantic Islands, and Filipinos arrived in the islands between the 1880s and the 1930s...Each of these groups demanded their own food on the plantations and the plantation stores went quite some way to accomodate them...
"Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, certain forces began to produce a creole food, Local
Food...One was the arrival of home economists at the university...Trained largely at the Columbia
Teachers College in New York, these women recorded the diet of the Japanese, established the
food values of Hawaiian foods and a range of tropical fruits, trained large numbers of home
economics teachers and school cafeteria managers. Surprisingly sympathetic to different ethnic
foods on the islands, they urged brown rice...milk...and ensured that the food in the public school
system was an all-American diet of hamburger, meat loaf, Salisbury steak, and mashed potatoes.
This exposure to American food was reinforced for the many who joined up following the bombing
of Pearl Harbor in the second World War...Now, at least in public, most of the population of
Hawaii eats Local Food much of the time...The centerpiece of Local Food is the Plate Lunch
available from lunch wagons and from numerous small restaurants...It consists of 'two
scoop'...sticky rice...a large portion of meat, usually cooked in Asian style, a portion of macaroni
salad or potato salads, and perhaps a lettuce leaf of dab of kimch'i on the side."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
373-4)
[NOTE: Home Economic specialists published several books to help newly relocated mainland homemakers:
"Food of Hawaii can be separated into two categories; Hawaiian food, the food of the native
islanders, and local food, the eclectic blend of the cuisines of later settlers. Before explorers,
missionaries, and immigrants arrived, Hawaiian food consisted of fresh ingredients that were
prepared raw or cooked simply, using broiling, boiling, and roasting techniques. Protein sources
included poultry, pig, and dog. Fish and other seafood, such as turtles, sea urchins, limpets, and
shellfish, were also consumed but in modest quantities."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University
Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 591)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian
to help you find a copy.]
"Much earlier, the Japanese had had a tremendous effect on the food in the Hawaiian Islands, but
it did not take Hawaii's statehood to make mainland American practitioners of island cookery.
Bananas and pineapples had become important in the kitchens of New England women whose
seafaring men had brought the tropical fruits back from various ports of call...The fiftieth state
acquired a cuisine as international as any of its sisters. Hawaii was characteristically Polynesian
until the nineteenth century, and its diet of fish and fruit remained unmodified until the coming of the
missionaries and clipper ships from New England. Dried meat and salted fish had fed American
sailors, and these foods became a part of Hawaiian tradition--as pipikuala, the jerked beef that is
broiled in tiny pieces and served with a sweet-sour cause, and as lomi lomi, thin fillets of salted
salmon that some New Yorkers have described as better in its indigenous way than lox (smoked
salmon) from their own favorite delicatessens. Mixed with chopped onions and tomatoes, lomi
lomi is habitually served as a salad. Salmon, to the early Hawaiians, was common enough to be
known as "the pig in the sea." Other fish were used after the coming of the missionaries to
produce such things as fish chowder in basic Yankee fashion, and Scots who come to the islands
as technicians and platnation overseers added their native scones and shortbreads to the daily
fare of thousands of Hawaiians who generations before had adopted the Portuguese wheat bread
of the first European immigrants. Cornmeal and red bean soup, also brought by the Portuguese,
have been accepted as Hawaiian by islanders of all ethnic roots, and rather than submitting to a
single style, island cooks have incorporated many European dishes, along with those from
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean sources, developing a culinary tradition that may be among the
most festive if the world. The traditional Hawaiian feast called the luau is the ultimate of
American picnics, cookouts, and barbecues, and it has added much to the variety of
outdoor feasting on the American mainland, especially in California."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage
Books:New York] 1981] (p. 167-8)
"Hawaiian Luau. Symbol of island hospitality is the luau, the celebration feast of the
Polynesians, given in honor of birthdays, weddings, holidays, visiting dignitaries and
Alpha Week. Tradition demanded the star of this feast be the Kalua pig, baked
underground in the imu, along with fish wrapped in ti leaves, yams, breadfruit, banans
and laulaus. In bygone days, the preparation took days and everyone helped. Some dug
the underground oven. Others gathered wood to heat the special stones for the oven. Fish
were caught; shellfish, fruit and flowers were gathered. Ti leaves were cut in abundance
for use in cooking and for the native tablecloth. Woven mats were spread on the ground
and the ti leaves so arranged that guests might sit on the mats on either side. Down the
center of the ti leaves were piled fruits and flowers. Shells and bowls were filled with
such goodies as poi, ohihis, roasted kului nuts and red salt. While the feast was cooked
underground, there was singing, chants and ceremonial hulas, along with a bit of
imbibing. When the pit was dug open, the steaming food was taken from the imu, the
meat was cut up in chunks and rushed, in large wooden bowls, to the waiting guests.
Everyone ate with his fingers from banana leaves and drank from coconut cups.
Originally, the partaking of fermented libations was confined to the priests and chiefs, as
part of their rituals, a custom which appears to have prevailed in all early civilizations. In
later years a fermented sweet potato juice was used during festival times by the common
folk. Apparently there was no particular ceremony connected with its use, but the early
Hawaiians reserved it for special occasions...Today's luau has undergone certain
refinements. The ingredients may be the same but the process has changed a bit. On
Oahu, the island where Honolulu is situated, the underground imu is used mostly by
hotels or restaurants which make a specialty of the old-time presentation for the benefit of
tourists...While ti leaves still serve as the luau table covering, the feast is more apt to be
served on tables than on the ground...Sometimes even knives and forks are provided. At
each place is set a small dish or shell of Hawaiian (red) salt, a small container of red
peppers, green onions and limed fish. No luau is ever complete without Lomi Salmon and
Poi, both served in bowls, and the island dessert, haupia, made from coconuts and
cornstarch. Of later years coconut layer cake has been added to typical luau menus."
---Trader Vic's Pacific Island Cookbook [Doubleday & Company:Garden City
NY] 1968 (p. 20-3)
[NOTE: "Trader Vic" is often credited for popularizing Hawaiian/Polynesian food in the
United States after World War II. Trader Vic's instructions for creating a luau-inspired dinner party
at home, circa 1946.]
Want to re-create a luau at your school? We recommend: Entertaining Hawaiian Style: The How To Book of Hawaiian Luaus, Patricia L. Fry [Island Heritage Publishing:Waipahu], 3rd edition 2003.
Need to make something for class? We recommend:
Recreating an authentic 1940s-1960s Hawaiian-American food event?
Most folks credit Trader Vic for making Hawaiian Luau & dining customs popular on mainland
USA. The truth is? Several completing authors and cookbooks were published in this period. We own the books below. Happy to share/scan
pages upon request.
Idaho potatoes are world famous!
"The first potato grower in Idaho was Henry Harmon Spalding, a Presbyterian
missionary, who planted potatoes in 1836 to teach the Nez Perce Indians how to provide
food for themselves other than by hunting. Homesteaders grew potatoes to sell to the
miners who came throughout the state. The Mormons, however, were the first to grow
potatoes commercially. By the time Idaho was admitted to the Union in 1890, its potatoes
were famous for their superior quality. Luther Burbank...developed the Russet Burbank
potato that is today called the Idaho Potato. In 1872 he perfected a long white potato with
a rough russet skin. Adapted to the Northwest, the Russet Burbank has made Idaho the
leading potato producer in the nation."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 223)
"Several huckleberry species are native to Idaho, all belonging to genus Vaccinium section Myrtillus. The most common and popular is the black or thin-leaved huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum). Plants grow slowly, taking up to 15 years to reach full maturity. Black huckleberries produce single plump, dark purple berries in the axils of leaves on new shoots. They depend on an insulating cover of snow for survival during winter and have not been successfully grown commercially. Black huckleberries grow at elevations between 2,000 and 11,000 feet with many productive colonies between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. Black huckleberries usually grow from 1 to 6 feet tall and produce berries up to 1/2 inch in diameter. Huckleberries are a favorite food of bears."
About Idaho's culinary heritage
"Fur trapping and trading with the Indians provided the first source of wealth in Idaho in
the early part of the 1800s. By the 1840s...settlers began to arrive to farm the land. Gold
was discovered in 1860, and with the opening of the transcontinental railroad, the
population of Idaho increased rapidly as mining became the quickest way to get rich.
Along with the miners came Chinese immigrants, who took up the claims of Caucasian
miners after they had moved on to more productive claims...As mining declined for the
hardworking Chinese, they moved into trades and vegetable farming. Idahoans began to
rely on their local Chinese vegetable farmer to deliver fresh vegetables door-to-door. The
Chinese raised vegetables on terraced mountain terrain, becuase the land was
cheaper...Some of the first European settlers in Idaho were Finns, Welsh, and Basques,
who came to work in the mines and to raise sheep.. The Finns brought with them a love
for Lobinmuhennos, a salmon chowder, and the Welsh brought Bara Brith, a raisin and
currant bread. The Basque preferred lamb stew and split pea soup. Chorizo, a spicy
sausage, attributed by some to Basque origin, is still being produced in Idaho. In the early
days Basque sheepherders made a sourdough bread on which they slashed the sign of a
cross before baking. This act reflected their devout religious feelings. The first piece of
the baked bread was always given to their sheepdog. The primary food of the early
settlers was bread and beans...Most small settlements had a mom-and-pop general store in
which the smell of kerosene and coffee permeated the air...Northern Idaho is mostly dry
farmed, and wheat, dry peas, and lentils are the predominant crops...Barley and hops for
making beer are grown in northern Idaho...Herbs and spices, broccoli, and small amount
of asparagus constitute the remainder of the crops in Idaho...Treasure Valley in Canyon
County is knowns for its mint and spearmint cultivation...in Idaho's Magic Valley more
trout is raised per square mile than anywhere else in the world...Many homegrown apples
are combined with ham in a casserole. The apples are also used to make jelly, which is
mixed with mayonnaise for a salad dressing. Prunes, another home-grown orchard
product, are often used for prune butter, prune-whip pies, and spicy prune
puddings...Huckleberry pie is an Idaho specialty."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 222-5)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for Country Potatoes (p. 224) and Lentils with Red
Pepper Sauce (p. 225).]
Recommended reading: Bacon, Beans and Galantines: Food and Foodways on the Western Mining Frontier/Joseph R. Conlin
Early Illinois food contributions
"The recorded history of Illinois began in 1673, when Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet first explored the region. Although
some of the early Indian tribes inhabiting Illinois were planters, raising corn, pumpkins, and beans, it was the pioneers of
the late 1700s and early 1800s who first began to cultivate food crops. Soybeans, corn, and hogs formed the cornerstones
of Illinois agriculture...In the early 1800s two Illinois men, John Deere and Cyrus McCormick, helped revolutionize the
agriculture of...the nation. John Deere perfected the steel plow, and Cyrus McCormick developed the grain reaper. At the
same time Chicago started evolving as a major agricultural and industrial city. One of the unique herbs raised in Illinois
is horseradish. It is grown in an area known as the "American Bottoms,"...German immigrants who settled in the area
began growing horseradish in the late 1800s and passed their labor-intensive growing methods down through generations...In
the last third of the nineteenth century, Chicago became the meat capital of America. The first great fortune in meat was
made as a result of the Civil War...Although Armour made his money in pork, it was beef that made Chicago the great meat
center of America...Beef fought a running battle with pork for top spot on the dinner menu until well into the twentieth
century...The Chicago stockyards originated before the railroads came to Chicago as a stopping off point for cattle being
driven from Texas and the Midwest to slaughter in the East. Steers, which had eaten only grass on the long drives, were
fattened on grain in pens for several weeks and then sent off again on cattle drives to the East. The first rail shipment
of cattle from the Chicago stockyards to eastern makets occured in 1854. By the time of the Civil War, the majority of
cattle were being slaughtered in Chicago...Following the Civil War the refrigerated rail car was developed. It meant that
cuts of meat could be sent directly from the Chicago slaughterhouses to retail butcher shops in the East...Illinois packers
were leaders in introducing modern technology in meat processing and perservation..."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 142)
Official state foods
These are voted into law by state government. The only edible state symbol is the White
Tailed Deer. Symbols list
here.
A survey of selected Illinois foods
[Prehistory]
Native American foodways: Paleo
Indians, Archaic
period, Woodland Indians &
Mississippian peoples
19th century-early 20th century
[1871] Mrs. Owen's Illinois Cook Book/Mrs. T.J.V. Owen
Feeding Our Families: Memories of Hoosier Homemakers/Eleanor Arnold, editor
[1893] Chicago's World's Fair
Cracker Jack and modern hot dogs
were introduced to the American public. Both were manufactured in Chicago.[NOTE: If you have to
bring a "show and tell" food for your report this is perfect!]
[1906]
Inglenook Coobook, published in Elgin IL (full-text)
[1928]
Horseshoe sandwiches debut in Springfield
[1930s]
The Great Depression. Al Capone sponsored soup kitchens in Chicago:
"Three meals are served each day, including Sundays. Breakfast consists of coffee and a
sweet roll, and dinner and supper of soup, bread and coffee, with a second or third
helping permitted."
---Capone Feeds 3,000 a Day in Soup Kitchen, New York Times, November 15,
1930 (p. 4)
[1930s & 1940s] Viva Italian food!
[1960s] Salad bars
Need Illinois recipes? The Legendary Illinous Cookbook: Historic and Culinary Lore from the Prairie State, John L. Leckel offers comtemporary favorites. The "legends" in this book are not food-related; they offer tidbits of history about selected towns. We also have a copy of the Chicago Daily News Cookbook [1930]. This gem offers suggested daily menus, ten-minute meals, and holiday fare. Perfect for recreating Depression-era middle-class fare. Happy to send selected pages from either book (just let us know which type of food (cake? salad?) or menu (New Year's Dinner? Saturday fall breakfast?) you need. NOTE: As true with most state/city/community cookbooks, the recipes are popular with the local people. They were not necessarily "invented" there.
Indiana does not have any official state foods nor does it have any edible state symbols. Major crops here.
Prehistoric & native American subsistence
"The first major cultural stage that has been roughly dated by archaeologists falls in the period of 8000 to 1000 B.C. Indians of that time were still hunters, fishers,
and gatherers of mussels, berries, roots, and nuts. They used fire and made spears, stone axes, knives, and scrapers, along with bone fishhooks and drills. Probably
they lived in caves temporarily, but they cultivated no gardens, made no pottery, and had no bows and arrows. Through the millennia, they adapted more
efficiently to their environments. Hundred of sites in the late Archaic tradition are found in Indiana, indicating an increased population. Mussel shells left after the
meat was extracted created mounds, sometimes fifteen feet high and covering more than an acre..."
---Indiana: A History, Howard H. Peckham [W.W. Norton:New York] 1978(p. 14-15)
Native Americans
"The last and most complex culture is called Mississippian and is dated A.D. 900 to A.D. 1500. It is marked by intensive cultivation of corn, beans, squash, melons,
and other foods, which in turn required and permitted community settlements...Not until after the middle of the seventeenth century did new Indians enter Indiana.
The Miami drifted down from Wisconsin around the heard of Lake Michigan, and were followed by the Potawatomi. The Kickapoo and Wea came across
northern Illinois and pushed the Miami farther east...In the northern and extreme western parts of the future state, the tribes formed villages, where the women
cultivated gardens...prepared the meals, while the braves hunted, fished...The gradual appearance of the French traders gratified them, because the white
newcomers raised the Indians' standard of living. The Indians could barter furs for metal pots and pans, wool blankets, ruffled cotton shirts, iron tools, steel knives,
and traps, jews' harps, paint, and muskets that made their hunting more effective. They also gained access to French brandy."
---Indiana: A History (p. 17-18)
Shawnee
"Shawnee economy, combining hunting with agriculture and some food gathering, had been strongly oriented toward the fur trade since the early eighteenth
century...The most important game animals were deer buffalo, bears, mountain lions, and turkeys...During the summer women tended crops and gathered wild plant
foods while men fished in the vicinity or set out on deer hunts. After the final maize harvest in August the community...prepared to move to its winter quarters.
Although fields were owned by individual households they were grouped together into a single area...Women seem to have planted collectively..."
---Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant general editor [Smithsonian Institution:Washington DC] 1978, Volume 15: Northeast
(p. 624)
"In the spring and summer the Shawnee women would farm fields adjoining their villages. Corn (maize) was the staple crop. It was eaten as a vegetable or pounded
in a mortar to produce hominy or bread flour...Other tended crops included beans, squash, and pumpkins. Gathered wild edibles included maple syrup,
persimmons, wild grapes, nuts, berries, roots, and honey. Men hunted year-round...for deer, elk, bear, turkeys, pheasants, and smaller fur-bearing animals."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Sharon Malinowski and Anna Sheets editors [Gale:Detroit] 1998, Volume 1: Northeast, Southeast,
Caribbean (p. 91)
Kickapoo
"Traditional Kickapoo subsistence followed the usual pattern of agricultures combined with hunting and food gathering."
---Handbook of North American Indians (p. 658)
"In their aboriginal territory, the Kickapoo relied on farming, hunting, fishing, and collecting wild rice, roots, berries, and nuts to sustain themselves. They raise corn,
beans, and squash and store the surplus in underground pits lined with bark. The men hunted deer, elk, bear, beaver, squirrel, skunk, otter, and lynx with bow and
flint-tipped arrows or with snares and fished with bone hooks or nets, and with snares of woven fibers. Each fall, all able-bodied persons went on a three- to
four-month hunting expedition for buffalo. The meat was smoked and sun-dried...After the European contact, the Kickapoo added watermelon, melon, apples,
and peaches to their diets. They also replaced their stone tools, clay pottery, and hide clothing with French articles."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes (p. 91)
Miami
"The Miami practiced the mixed hunting-farming economy typical of their region...The buffalo, formerly an important game animal, disappeared long before
1800...Wild tubers and roots were extensively used...Extensive maize fields surrounded Miami villages."
---Handbook of North American Indians (p. 682)
"Through cross-breeding, Miami women developed the delectable white or "Silver Queen" maize...The Miami were a more prairie than forest group, and their
principal game was the buffalo; hunts were communal..."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes (p. 132)
Potawatomi
"Potawatomi economic and social life was tied closely to the rhythms of nature...The Potawatomi fished with trap, weir, net, hook, and harpoon. They used long
cylindrical "hoop" nets in combination with dams across streams to trap fish and harpoons with deer horn or stone points for taking fish from lakes or streams.
They also gathered a wide variety of natural foods: maple sugar, choke cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, roots of several kinds, plums, and grapes.
The animals they hunted for food included bear, deer, elk, buffalo, squirrel, muskrat, raccoon, porcupine, wolf (a ceremonial delicacy for certain chiefs), turtles,
ducks, and geese. Dogs were the only domestic animal eaten, and then mainly for ritual purposes. The food collected or grown was prepared and stored against the
winter's need. Many foods were dried and stored in bark containers and pottery jars. Squash was sliced in rings and smoked or sun-dried, then stored. After
parboiling, corn was scraped from the cob, then dried and made into preserves, or when fully ripe dried or parched. Cranberries were strung on strings and
smoked inside the house. Most meat not consumed immediately was sliced, dried, and smoked. Ducks, geese, and turkeys, however, were pickled in brine, then
smoked and stored, while fish were dried and smoked. Maple sugar was used as a condiment more often than salt."
---Handbook of North American Indians (p. 734-5)
"Like so much of their lives, Potawatomi subsistence patterns revolved around the changing seasons. They fished nearby lakes and streams with hooks and lines...
Though their principal crop was corn they also raised peas, beans, pumpkins, squash, and melon...They also gathered berries nuts, roots, maple sugar and wild
rice."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes (p. 260)
European settlers
Conner Prarie
Living History Museum has plenty of information about 19th century foods. Check
"hearthside receipts" for plenty of interesting (modernized) choices. Biscuits are easy!
"The first winter in Indiana was hard for the pioneers who had come from North
Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky around 1800. They were forced to exist on such food as
bear-meat bacon, ash cakes made from acorns, and coffee made from seeds...Abraham
Lincoln's first home in Indiana was a lean-to, which was later converted into a one-room
cabin with a loft. The winter of 1816 was a harsh one, and the Lincolns lived on water
from melted snow, wild game, and some borrowed corn and wheat. This primitive food
was typical among the early settlers of Indiana...The 1850s are considered Indiana's
Golden Age of Agriculture, when the state ranked high in the raising of hogs, corn, sheep,
and wheat...Improved transportation...brought European immigrants to Indiana. Each
nationality brought with them their culinary traditions...The favorite Hoosier delicacy of
onion pie can be traced to the Polish, Lithuanian, and Hungarian immigrants...Wild
American persimmons grew in Indiana and were used in puddings each fall...Fried
biscuits also became an Indiana specialty. They are made with a yeast dough, cut into
rounds, and deep fried. While still hot the biscuits are split, spread with soft butter, and
eaten immediately...Pork cookery is another well-developed culinary art in
Indiana...Indiana has been growing corn for popping since the time of the early settlers,
who learned of it from the Indians."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992
(p. 145-6)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for Persimmon Pudding and Ducking with Wild Rice
Stuffing.]
Recommended reading: Feeding Our Families: First in the series memories of Hoosier homemakers/Eleanor Arnold editor
Traditional recipes
Crosby Gaige's New York World's Fair Cook Book [c. 1939] lists these recipes for Indiana: Hamburger Vegetable Soup,
Indiana Spaghetti (with diced round steak and bacon), Succotash, Red Chocolate Cake and this intriguing little recipe (without
commenting on the name):
Love and Tangle
3 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons milk
flour
Mix the eggs and sugar and add flour to make it thick enough to roll. Roll in thin strips about six inches long and three inches wide, fold double by bringing one end up to the other. Beginning an inch or half inch from the folded end, cut several slits down the open end. Drop in hot fat and fry until light brown. Drain and sprinkle with powdered sugar." (p. 110)
Sheila Hibben's National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana [c. 1932] offers these Indiana recipes: Beefsteak smothered in onions, Crumble tart, Gingerbread, Strawberry shortcake and White Fruit Cake. If you want any of these let us know.
Manufactured foods
What is a Pork Tenderloin Sandwich?
Pork Tenderloin (aka Breaded Pork Tenderloin) is one of Indiana's traditional foods. Presumably descending from German
weiner schnitzel, this item first surfaces in the early 20th century. Local folks credit Nicholas Frienstein, of Huntington, for the creation.
"In the pork-producing states of Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois, the traditional sandwich of choice is known as "the tenderloin" or, in some areas, "the breaded
tenderloin." The sandwich is made from king-size boneless pork tenderloin that has been pounded to about a quarter-inch thick, breaded, and then fried, deep
fried, or sometimes grilled. These...are generally served on toasted hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls, and condiments of choice consist of mustard, pickle, and
onion...According to road-food experts Jane and Michael Stern, Nicholas Freinstein of Huntington, Indiana, created the pork tenderloin sandwich. Freinstein
peddled sandwiches from a basket before building a street cart that included a small grill, enabling him to cook tenderloins and burgers. Eventually, in 1908,
Freinstein openend Nick's Kitchen in downtown Huntington. According to legend, his brother Jake, having suffered severe frostbite and the loss of his fingers, used
his stumps to tenderize the slices of pork loin. Nick's competitors quickly adapted the tendering process by using wooden hammers or mechanical tenderizing
devices, thereafter making it an integral part of the preparation of the tenderloin sandwich."
---American Sandwich: Great Eats From All 50 States, Becky Mercuri [Gibbs Smith:Layton UT] 2004 (p. 43)
[NOTE: This book contains a recipe.]
"What clam chowder is to New England or grits are to the South, the breaded pork tenderloin is to the Hoosier state. It's so indigenous to Indiana, we dispense
with the reference to pork all together, as in "I'll have the breaded tenderloin sandwich." But venture much outside the Midwest, and folks will probably look at you
like lobsters were coming out of your ears if you were to order such a thing. "Indianans are fanatical about them; in many town cafes, they are more popular than
hamburgers," write syndicated food columnists Jane and Michael Stern in this month's issue of Gourmet magazine.
To appreciate this unique Hoosier tradition, it's important to understand the culture that made the tenderloin possible. Steve Jones, a food historian and former
columnist with the Marion Chronicle-Tribune, believes "without a shadow of a doubt" that the tenderloin originated in the days of home butchering. Back then, the
meat would be flattened with the broad side of an ax, rolled in flour and dropped in a kettle of hot grease. According to Jones' research, the first place serving
tenderloins to the public was Nick's Kitchen in downtown Huntington.
Legend has it that Nick Freinstein started selling the breaded pork cutlets out of a pushcart before he opened his restaurant in 1908. His bother, Jake, who had
lost his fingers to frostbite after passing out drunk in the snow, was employed to pound and tenderize the loins. As the years went by, the tenderloin grew in
popularity and is now on the menu at more than half the restaurants in the state. Usually, it's the degree of thickness, or a secret recipe or style of breading that
separates one breaded pork tenderloin sandwich from another. "Everyone who sells them thinks theirs is the best," Jones says. "They are very loyal to the
tenderloin that they prefer." Nick's is now run by Jean Anne Bailey, who took over from her father, who bought the place in 1969."
---"THE DISH: Indiana is one big breaded pork tenderloin state," John Silcox, The Journal Gazette, 1 January 2003 (p. 1D)
Pictures, instructions & memories
State foods
Iowa does not have any edible state symbols or official state recipes. Top crops
are corn, soybeans.
What to make for class?
Official state foods
Kansas has three edible state
symbols: Honeybee (not the bee! the honey is delicious), American Buffalo, and Native
Sunflower (seeds).
Top crops
Kansas
Agricultural Statistics (what are the major crops?). About Kansas wheat. Wheat history notes
here.
Pioneer Kansas foodways
"Early pioneer settlers of the Kansas territory found life and any type of agriculture to be
primative...Cornmeal, the staple of the early settlers' food, was baked into various types
of bread and was the basis of puddings. If the settlers grew some wheat, they also baked
wheat bread. Pork was the popular meat, and in season green vegetables were available
from the garden. Root vegetables were stored in a dugout cellar for winter use. There was
no fruit, since there were no fruit trees. Men struggled to break fields out of the stubborn
prairie sod and to cut any available wood for building and fuel. The women worked
equally hard. They did all the cooking... and preparing of food for winter storage...When
the German Mennonites from Russia arrived in Kansas in the 1870s, they found parched
land. Local farmers who were depending upon spring wheat were almost starving. Being
frugal people, each Mennonite family had brought with them seeds of a special wheat
they had been growing on the steppes of Russia. These new wheat seeds flourished and
made wheat growing in Kansas viable...The early Mennonites shared many of their
recipes with the Kansas settlers, such as Piroshki, a Russian dish which the Germans
grew to like. It is a flaky pastry filled with ground meat and eaten with sour cream.
Buttermilk pie, cinnamon-flavored apple pie, and Bubbat (hot rolls with smoked sausage
fillings) also became part of Kansas cuisine. Another Mennonite dish was a meat roll
filled with onions, bacon, and sweet pickle and then baked with sour cream. It si similar
to the German Roulanden. In the summer cold plum soup with raisins and milk was a
refreshing repast. Many early pioneers, however, did not have the food variety of the
Mennonites. Pancakes were the typical staple of early Kansans. Served with sorghum and
gravy, they were dinner for many of the pioneer who very rarely had meat. When they ate
meat, it was usually dried buffalo. Later, when beef was available, barbecues and chuck-wagon stews became a part of Kansas cuisine, especially in cattle country...Like those in
other Midwestern states, Kansas immigrants retained some of their food traditions--Swedish almond cakes, Bohemian beer and sausages, English pancakes, and Scottish
scones."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992
(p. 179-181)
Kansas dining advice, 1886:
"Table Etiquette. This book being pre-eminently a Kansas production, the publishes may be justified in suggesting that directions
in regard to table etiquette which are suited to the customs and habits of a community of wealth and leisure, are not adapted
to the needs of an eager, busy, working people. While many have brought with them from older homes the knowldege and
appreciation of elaborate tables, they find here neither the time, occasion, nor conveniences for such display. Attempts to ape
the habits if foreighn families, who have numerous trained servants and extensive establishments, are but foolish and
ruinous. It is to these efforts that we owe the almost total loss of social life, and the ruined health of American
housewifes. When our homes can be opened to the reception of an evening company, and refreshments confined to the passing of a
cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit, we shall then have taken the first step toward a social life without care or worry. Food served
gracefully, and without confusion, renders the plainest meal a season of enjoyment. The manner in which the table is laid, and the
mode in which food is prepared and served, influence not only the eye, but the appetite...The great purpose of rules of etiquette is,
to inculcate good manners, and thus render us mutually agreeable...Chief among the rules for table manners is to eat
slowly, as if it were a pleasure you desired to prolong, rather than a duty to be over with as quickly as possibe. Do not
bring prejudices, dislikes, or annoyances to the table; they would spoil the best dinner. Respect the hour of meals; you have no
right to destroy the comfort of the famly bu your want of punctuality. Find little fault at the time of eating, and praise
wherever you can. Have as much variety in your food as possible, but not many dishes. Always have your table served neatly, and you
will never have cause to be ashamed. Be hosptitable; if it is only a crust and a cup of cold water, and is clean, and good of its
kind, there is no reason to blush for it; and with sincere friends the hearty welcome will make amends for the absence of
rich viands."
---The Kansas Home Cook-Book: consisting of recipes contributed by the Ladies of
Leavenworth and other Cities and Towns/Mrs. C. H. Cushing and Mrs. B. Gray, facsimile 1886 reprint,
[Creative Cookbooks:Monterey, CA] 2001(p. 296)
[NOTE: your local public librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy of this book.]
Need to make something for class? Anything with wheat is perfect.
Whole-Wheat Muffins
2 cups whole wheat
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt (scant)
2 teaspoons cream tartar
1/3 cup molasses
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
Mix the dry ingredients. Add well-beaten egg mixed with the milk, molasses, and melted butter. Bake in greased muffin-pans in hot oven for 20 minutes."
---The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Shelia Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 16)Leavenworth Corn-Bread Sticks
2 cups corn meal
1 teaspoon soda
2 cups thick sour milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 well-beaten eggs
2 tablespoons melted fat
Sift dry ingredients together. Add milk to beaten eggs and melted fat. Combine mixtures. Put batter in oiled pans. Bake in hot oven (400 degrees F.) about twenty-five minutes.
---New York World's Fair Cook Book: The American Kitchen, Crosby Gaige [Doubleday:New York] 1939 (p. 205)
Kentucky's culinary heritage
"The Kentucky region formed the western part of the wilderness granted to Virginia under the
royal charter of 1609. By 1729 hunters began to visit the thick forests of what is now eastern
Kentucky. These early explorers were known as "long hunters," either because they stayed away
months at a time or because of the long rifles they carried...When the Cumberland Gap, a pass
through the Appalachian mountains, was discovered in 1750, it opened the area of Kentucky for
exploration and settlement. Daniel Boone passed through the Gap in 1769 and spent almost two
years exploring Kentucky. He blazed what is now called the Wilderness Road and opened the
Kentucky frontier of settlement...One of the earliest dishes of Kentucky was a hunter's stew. It was
made without a recipe and consisted of whatever choice pieces of meat from freshly killed game
were available. The meat--deer, elk, bear, or wild turkey--was cooked in an open kettle over a fire.
Dried sage and pepper were added to give the stew an English flavor. At the end of a long hunt,
the supply of cornmeal was usually exhausted, and the hunters realised solely on meat for
subsistance. Since the breast of the wild turkey had a bland taste and grainy texture, it became
the hunter's bread. Roasted kidney or stewed bear's liver was served on the "bread" and provided
a contrast of flavors as well as textures.
Colonists from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and eastern Tennessee--mostly of English, Scotch-Irish, or German
extraction--established the first white settlements in
Kentucky in 1774. They brought basic supplies such as cornmeal, salt, smoked ham and bacon,
and hard-to-get wheat flour. As soon as land was cleared, the settlers planted corn, which
provided food for themselves and their livestock. They also used corn to make distilled whiskey...
Early Kentucky Foods. Wheat did not grow well in the Kentucky soil, and corn proved to be a
hardier crop. The little bit of wheat flour the settlers could obtain, at about four times the price of
cornmeal, was saved for special uses, such as biscuits for company, a pie crust, or gingerbread.
Cornmeal was used for most breads and for mush...The settlers planted some of the vegetables
to which they had become accustomed in their previous eastern homes. These included Irish and
sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and okra. Green beans simmered all day with bacon was a
favorite dish. By serving time the beans had almost turned to mush, but the smoky flavor of the
bacon was delicious. Sometimes cut-up Irish potatoes, okra, and chunks of corn were added to
the bean dish, making it a vegetable stew.
Almost as soon as the first green sprouts appeared above the ground in the spring, the women
gathered wild greens while the men plowed the fields for planting. The greens were cooked with
smoked ham hocks, hog jowl, bacon, or "pot likker" (juice that had been saved from greens
previously cooked with cured or smoked meats). "A mess of greens" was a welcome treat after
having only root and dried vegetables over winter...In the hills of Kentucky, bear was the common
game and was treated similar to pork by smoking the bear hams and bear bacon...Burgoo Stew is
probably the most famous Kentucky dish. Its recipe has been handed down through the
generations. No two burgoo stews are alike, however, and no one really know where the name
came from. Some say it is a mispronounciation of barbecue, while other say it is a slurred word for
bird stew. In frontier days it was a hunter's stew made from available meats or game. Most burgoo
recipes combined one kind of fowl with a red meat. They all had a variety of vegetables, with
which the most common were tomatoes, lima beans, corn, onions, and potatoes. The stew was
slowly simmered for many hours and seasoned with peppers, curry powder, file powder, bourbon,
spices, and herbs. The type and amount of seasonings were up to the cook."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Hong
Kong] 1992 (p. 72-3)
Long hunter foodways (think: Daniel Boone)
Much of what the long hunters ate when they were traveling (by necessity) was portable (coffee,
"pocket soup," dried beans, sugar, biscuits), picked (nuts, berries, fruit) and hunted (squirrels,
rabbits, beaver, deer, birds, fish). Cooking was conducted with fires that could be adjusted to boil
coffee, bake bread, and roast meats. When the longhunters were guests in someone's home, meals
were more well rounded and included baked goods (pies, cakes, bread) and farmed produce
(squash, potatoes, apples). Beer, cider, rum and coffee were the beverages of choice.
Journals, diaries and other first-person accounts provide glimpses of camp life and foodways.
Historic recipes
Official state foods
Kentucky's quaffable/edible state
symbols are: milk, blackberries, spotted bass, and gray squirrel.
Popular traditional foods: Kentucky Burgoo, Kentucky Hot Brown (sandwich), Kentucky Fried Chicken & Derby Pie. Duncan Hines, famous for restaurant reviews & box cake mix, lived in Bowling Green.
If you want an easy, modern dessert to make for class? The following recipes are included in the Kentucky Derby Museum Cookbook includes recipes for Apple nut cake, Cadiz fudge cake, French Coconut-Carrot Cake, German Chocolate Cake with Orange Marmelade, Hummingbird cake, Macerated oranges, Pound cake, Mrs. Pollard's Sour Cream Cake, Fresh Blueberry tart, Mildred's Chess Pie, Lemon Chess pie, Ginger snaps, Pecan Poofs, Lemon Crispies, and Praline cookies.
Of these? We recommend the chess pie. This delicious confection is a perennial southern favorite.Kentucky-based recipes here:
"Mildred's Chess Pie (serves 6-8)Planning a Kentucky Derby party?
1 whole egg, room temperature
2 egg yolks, room temperature
1 ts. Vinegar
2 T. Water
2 T. Flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
1 8-inch pie shell, pricked with fork
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place eggs and yolks in a bowl; mix until well blended but not foamy. Mix vinegar and water together and stir into eggs. Mix flour and sugar together. Slowly add liquid mixture; mix well with wooden spoon. Add cooled, melted butter and stir until well mixed. Pour into pie shell and bake for 30 minutes.Variation: Strawberry Chess Pie
1/2 cup currant jelly
1 pt. Fresh strawberries, washed and stemmed.
Bake then cool "Mildred's Chess Pie" for at least 30 minutes. Melt the currant jelly (in a microwave or over a pan of boiling water). Brush the top of the pie with the jelly. Place 1/4 inch thick slices of strawberries on top and brush the strawberries with the currant jelly. Place in a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes. Let cool about 15 minutes before serving. An additional garnish could be mint leaves."Lemon Chess Pie
2 cup flour
4 eggs
1 T. Four
1 T. Cornmeal
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
9-inch pie shell, unbaked. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat sugar and eggs. Add remaining five ingredients and mix well. Pour into 9-inch pie shell. Bake 45 minutes until puffed and set in middle."
---Kentucky Derby Museum Cookbook [Kentucky Derby Museum:Louisville KY] 1986 (p. 215)
[1950]
"When the Kentucky Derby is run at the end of next week, many of the spectators will have been fortified to accept the
disappointments it inevitably brings by having eaten a Derby Day breakfast. A charming Louisville hostess...came in heasterday to
talk about the menu for this party, traditionally held in many households in her city about 10:30 on the morning of that great
racing event. Far from being a matter of coffee, eggs and bacon, it festively starts off with a mint julep or Kentucky toddy and
proceeds to ham, chicken or steaks, salads and elaborate dessert...The menu and recipes...serve as an interesting and practical
introduction to the cookery of the Blue Grass State...For Derby Day breakfasting...Churchill Downs Mint Juleps, Baked ham
(preferably Kentucky country-cured), Beaten biscuits, Batter bread, Grape jelly, Pickles, Loose-leaved lettuce salad,
Transparent pie, Coffee."
---"News of Food: Delicacies of the Old South," Jane Nickerson, New York Times,, April 27, 1950 (p. 36)
[NOTE: this article includes recipes for Mint Julep, Batter Bread and Transparent Pie. The cookbook referenced is
Out of Kentucky Kitchens/Mrs. Morris Flexner.]
[1974]
"One of America's most captivating cities, Louisville, Ky., has long been noted for warm hospitality. Thousands of people from
around the world flock there for the unending round of parties on Derby weekend, the social highlight of the year. The gaiety
of the breakfasts, luncheons, dinners and banquets is an important part of the exciting "run for the roses."...Fried ham
and red-eye gravy is one of the state's great treats. Thick slices of ham are first soaked in milk and then fried in fat, cut
from the edges. The gravy is made simply by adding a small amount of water and black pepper to the drippings. When boiled,
stirred and scraped to the desired consistency, the gravy is poured over the ham or sometimes over grits or beaten biscuits.
Another local specialty is Bibb lettuce, developed and named after a native colonel who grew it in the limestone soil...On the morning
of the race, Derby breakfasts are fashionable. Tables set with elegant appointments offer such traditional fare as Kentucky
ham and bacon, scrambled eggs, spoon bread grits, hot biscuits, Kentucky scramble, fried apples, and fresh whole strawberries or peach
desserts, as well as copious libations. After the race, guests go to buffets or dinners where the fare might be thinly sliced ham and beaten
biscuits, fried chicken, sliced turkey, candied sweet potatoes, Bibb lettuce salad, pickled peaches or watermelon pickle, hickory
nut cake, strawberry shortcake, or bourbon chocolate pie. The Sunday morning breakfast may offer chicken or turkey hash, sausages,
thin batter or pancakes, pickles, and fresh fruit with small cakes or cookies. Featured at the annual gathering of the
Kentucky Colonels during Derby Week is the traditional dish, Burgoo...originally a French stew...
cooking up the famous dish at festive occasions...800 pounds of meat, one dozen squirrels, 24 gallons corn, 240 pounds fat hens
and five bushels of tomatoes--and it usually served hundreds."
---"Racing Horses, Eating Well," Kay Shaw Nelson, Washington Post, May 2, 1974 (p. F1)
Derby Day Breakfasts, Gourmet, May 1974 (p. 16, 54 & 56)
[1978]
"So far as horse racing-fans are concerned, the main event that will take place in Louisville this coming Saturday at 5 p.m. is the
104th running of the Kentucky Derby. But to serious eaters and drinkers, that two-and-a-half-minute event represents merely a
brief interlude in what is really a two-and-a-half-day continuous feast. Derby time...is party time...given over to a series of
buffet cocktail parties and dinners, brunches, lunches and suppers, and lots of nibbling in between. Dining tables of polished
mahogany or Kentucky cherry set with heavily ornate family silver, the finest linens; the thickest frosted silver julep mugs
sporting sprigs of fresh mint, and centerpieces of roses with tulips virtually groan under the weight of the richest, most
elegant specialties this elegant part of the South has to offer...some of the parties are rustic. Burgoo...which is really
a sort of soup-stew with chicken and vegetables, is made outdoor and simmers for hours in big iron cauldrons. People get their
juleps in silver mugs or tin cups and when they finish drinking, the burgoo is ladled into the empty mugs. For breakfasts, they
serve scrambled eggs, grits with melted butter, fried apples, fried tomatoes, country ham made with red eye gravy, beaten biscuits or
spoon bread or crisp corn cakes. For dinners and suppers they do...baked country ham that may be glazed but most traditionally
not, burgoo, a salad of Kentucky limestone lettuce, which Northerners call bibb, biscuits, corn pudding and then all the
desserts--the pecan bourbon cake, the Derbytown pie with its melting chocolate and crunchy nuts, bourbon balls, strawberries,
apricot sherbet and all kinds of other things."
---"Derby Day: A Winner for Food Lovers," Mimi Sheraton, New York Times, May 3, 1978 (p. C1)
[1982]
"Welcome to the Kentucky Derby party. From Florida to Alaska, people will gather this Saturday to drink juleps, eat country ham and
and beaten biscuits, and watch at least two minutes of horse racing."
---"On Derby Day, the Juleps Bloom From Florida to the Philippines," Heywood Klein, Wall Street Journal, April 29, 1982 (p. 31)
Churchill Downs Web site offers a wealth of historical and cultural information regarding the Kentucky Derby--excellent for background. Given the fact that extravagant Derby-Eve parties, elaborate brunches, major festivals and special treats are an integral part of the Derby tradition is seems odd that there are no links to food on this site. Taste of Derby celebrates this event with elite chefs. The Kentucky Derby Museum Cook Book [1986] offers a party checklist & many recipes (but no suggested menus). Happy to send/share pages. Let us know what you want!
Native American foodways
"The Chitimacha hunted deer and small game within the boundaries of their home territory. They also caught a wide variety of sea food with traps, nets, hook, and line.
They gathered wild potatoes, pond-lily seeds, palmetto, grains, and various berries and fruits, and grew corn and sweet potatoes. Duties were rigidly assigned by gender,
with men being responsible for the hunting and most of the fishing, and women assuing responsibility for agriculture and for the gathering of wild food. Food was prepared
in a variety of ways. One ways of perparing corn, the most important food, was to pound it in a mortar, pass it through a sieve, mix it with water, and boil it until it formed
a soft mass. The mass was eaten plain or with syrup. Clams and oysters were placed in a hole in the ground beneath a thin layer of sand and cooked by means of a fire
kindled above. Smoking was used as a means of preserving food for future use."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Volume 1: Northeast, Southeast and Caribbean, Sharon Malinowski & Anna Sheets, editors [Gale:Detroit MI] 1998 (p. 397)
"The Chitimachas cultivated four varieties of maize, beans, and probably squashes and pumpkins. While men cleared the agricultural fields, women planted, weeded,
and harvested the crops. Corn meal was pounded in wooden mortars, mixed with water to ferment, boiled, dried, and then eaten. Corn was also allowed to ripen on the
cob, shelled, parched with hot ashes, and then pounded into meal and eaten mixed with water...Different fields were perhaps owned collectively by villages and by famly
groups. Botanical foods gathered by women included China brier roots...ground nuts or wild potatoes, ..American lotus seeds,...needle palm seeds...the rhyzoma of two
species of arrowhead...cane seeds, strawberries, blackberries, and mulberries. Berris were eaten ripe but not dried for preservation...Varieties of undomesticated pumpkin
and melon were also recalled but the identification of these is obscure. Men hunted bear, deer, and alligator with bow and arrow and spears, and also set deadfall traps for
these and smaller game. At least two varieties of turtle and their eggs were eaten. Waterfowl were a seanally abundant resource and probably used extensively. Blowguns
were used to hunt small game and birds. Fish were taken with hook and line, wooden funnel traps, and round frame traps with vine mesh wich were placed at the mouth of
small watercourses. The meat of mammals, ducks, and fish was smoked and so preserved for scheduled consumption. Alligator eggs were valued by the flesh was eaten
only when other meat was scarce. Oysters and clmas were gathered and cooked in earth ovens...Chitimachas contained to farm and forage, but European American
influence gradually added new cultigens, markets for agricultural and foraged foods, and opportuntiies to engage in different varieties of wage labor...The Chitimachas, like
the Acadians, farmed and foraged for both domestic consumption and for commercial exchanges. Sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and the "pisatache"...were introduced as
cultigens."
---Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant editor [Smithsonian Institution:Washington DC] 2004, Volume 14 (p. 664)
"...in what are now Louisiana and Mississippi, the Natchez Indians based their whole existence on agriculture, and gave to their thirteen months the names of the foods
appropriate to them."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 28)
European contributions
"Of the varied ethnic groups which cooperated in creating Creole cooking, the French, the last to arrive, are generally accorded the major share of the credit, which they
probably deserve...The first contributors to Creole cooking were of course the Indians. The Spanish arrived second, and the Negroes probably third, for slavery had already
become well established before the Adacians, driven out of Canady and Nova Scotia, reached what with their aide was to become Creole territory in the second half of the
eighteenth century. The greater visibility of the Acadians accounts for this remark, in a generally knowledgeable book about Creole cooking: "Among the finest, and
certainly the most famous [of Acadian dishes] is jambalaya," which is rather unkind, for while the Acadians have endowed this territory with any number of dishes for
which they can be given credit, jambalala is almost the only one which can be claimed by the Spaniards. It is easly recognizable by anyone familiar with Spanish cooking
as a form of paella."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 282)
"When the Acadians settled into their new homes in Louisana's Embayment...they found that the Indians of the Choctaw and Chicksaw tribes had much to teach them...
For one thing, the Indians considered the black bear a primary food source...another source of big game in fair supply [was] the wild boar. This was no native of the
Mississippi delta, but a European pig brought to America by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto...Still plentiful throughout Louisiana is the white-tailed deer...
muskrats, squirrels...rabbits, racoon...opossum..."
---ibid (p. 284)
"Various nations have flown their flags over what is now the state of Louisiana. The region was first claimed for Spain by the explorer Hernando de Soto in 1541, when he
crossed the Mississippi River. From then until Louisana became a part of the Unted States...in 1803, it was at various times under the control of France, Spain, Britain,
and the West Florida Repbulic. The Louisiana Delta and what was to become New Orleans were first discovered in 1682 b the French explorer, Sieur Robert Cavelier de
la Salle...The first French settlers began to arrive in 1699. At that time much of Louisana was a decaying, insect-infested swamp, and the food of the settlers consisted
primarily of smoked meat, stewed alligators, and some native root vegetables....In 1762 France ceded her Louisiana terrirotry to Spain...The intermarriage of French and
Spanish settlers produced a people known as Creoles, as well as a distinct type of cooking that has interspersed sophisticated French cuisine with Spanish spicy
seasonings and the lavish use of tomatoes...The grand cuisine of the rich Louisaina planters featured delicate and subtle blends of flavorings in theri entrees, which were
served with separate sauces. To enhance their cuisine they obtained spices, bananas, sweet potatoes, vanilla, and chocolate form the Caribbean Islands and Central
America. The black slaves from Africa brought wtih them seeds for okra...File powder was probalby the most important contribution of the Choctaw Indians to Louisiana
cooking. They made it by drying and pulverizing the leaves of the sassafras trees that grow wild along the Gulf Coast. The Choctaws used file powder for medicinal
purposes, but the Negro and Creole cooks adapted it as a thickener for gumbos...Thus Creole cuisine became a blennd of traditional French cooking with Spanish,
African, and Indian influences."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 120)
"In New Orleans, where that city's best restaurant food is still as French as it ever was, the most authentic Creole cooking is apt to be found in private homes. The cuisine
indigenous to Louisiana took on its own aromas and tastes when the first colonial women, like their English counterparts on the Atalantic Coast, began to adpapt the
ingredients and some of the methods of New World cooking. Lousiana's French colonists became Spanish subjects only forty years after the settlement of New Orleans,
and for another four decades, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Spanish tastes prevailed among the ruling Creoloe cooks...The hurried traveler in Louisiana
is apt to get the impression that all the best food is traditional French in style, but as careful preservation of ancient architcture in the Vieux Carre also makes
clear--Spaniards left several kinds of permanent changes in gastronomy. Like other Europeans, they planted the seeds and encouraged the appetite for beans, especially
the red ones that are often kidney-shaped, or those known in Spanish as frijoles colorado or habichuelas. Red beans combined with rice comprise a basic dish, as typical
of southern Louisina Hoppin' John of the Carolinas, the good-luck dish for New Year's feasts..."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones [Vintage Books:New York] 2nd edition, 1991 (p. 60)
"Although it was traversed by explorers in the sixteenth century, this vast area spanning
the Gulf of Mexico and eventually known as the Louisiana Territories was not
permanently settled by outsiders until 1699, when French colonists first touched its
shores. Since then, peoples from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America have left their
mark on the region's history and culture and inspired not one, but two, original culinary
traditions: the Creole cuisine of New Orleans and the Cajun food of the surrounding
bayous and prairies. Creole and Cajun food, both tracing their roots to France, offer hard
proof of Louisiana's long love affair with eating. They share a committment to practicing
economy in the kitchen, using the freshest products available and making do with what is
on hand. They even share many of the same recipes, including gumbo (a rich seafood
soup) and jambalaya (a hearty rich rice dish), to name just two. Nevertheless, Cajun and
Creole foods extend from different traditions, each possessing its own history and touting
its own creations...The Cajuns. In 1755, the French Acadians, who first settled in Canada
in the seventeenth century, fell victim to the colonial struggle for control of North
America..."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor
[Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 150)
Cajun cuisine
"The first Acadians arrived in Louisiana around 1765...Some scholarship
suggests that about half of Louiana's Acadians can trace their roots to coastal areas of
France, such as Brittany and Normandy. Although some Acadians put down roots in New
Orleans, the majority settled on nearby lands granted to them by the Spanish...Already
accustomed to colonial living, the Acadians adjusted to their new home and set about
making good use of native plants and animals not only for their own food and livelihood
but also for shipment and sale in New Orleans. Along the Mississippi the Acadians
planted diverse crops, including rice, corn, peaches, apples, squash, peppers, beans, and
potatoes. Along the coast they gathered oysters, shrimp, crabs, and fish. In the kitchen
they let virtually nothing go to waste. The term "Cajun," a corruption of "Acadian," came
into use during the nineteenth century...Just as "Cajun" refers to a blended cultural group,
it also designates a cuisine that reflects hundreds of years of adaptation. Although many
of the best-known Cajun dishes are nearly identical to Creole favorites, general
distinctions are often made between seasonings and presentation. Cajun cooking might
use pungent flavorings, such as garlic and cayenne pepper, with more abandon than its
Creole counterpart, but it is not the stereotypical mouth-blistering cuisine that was
popularized in the 1980s. Cajun cuisine is also generally less formal in its presentation
than Creole cooking, relying more on one-pot dishes that can be cooked over long periods
of time and extended easily with the addition of water or stock...The humble crawfish
(known more widely as crayfish) owes its rise to stardom with the Cajuns...While
crawfish find their way into a myriad dishes, they are perhaps most notably identified
with etouffee. Literally meaning "smothered," etoufee in Cajun parlance is a one-pot stew
that spotlights a single main ingredient, such as crawfish or shrimp..."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor
[Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 150-7)
"Cajun cuisine, with its French, Spanish, African, and Indian influences, is distinctive,
but Lousiana authorities and gastronomes have argued for decades about just what is and
is not Cajun cookery. Few would refuse to list the following dishes in the Cajun canon:
jambalaya, etoufee, coush-coush, boudin, andouilles, chaudin, gumbo and all manner of
crab dishes and dishes requiring heavy doses of hot sauce...Louisiana cooking authority
Tom Fitzmorris, in The New Orleans Eat Book (1991), noted, "Unalloyed Cajun
food is almost never found in restaurants, not even in Cajun country. I suspect the reason
for this is that Cajun cooking, for all its glorious flavor, looks ugly (unless, of course, you
grew up with it). Much of it is pot food from very big pots. Getting the polished look
restaurant patrons require screws up the flavor.""
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 52)
[NOTE: This book contains separate historic entries for most of the foods mentioned
above.]
Recommended reading
Primary sources
Histories of selected traditional Louisiana foods
State foods
"Official" state foods are designated by law. Louisiana's edible state symbols are:
"The honeybee is a social, honey-producing bee, recognized as the most economically
valuable of all insects. This reputation commonly rests on its production of honey and
beeswax. The honeybee's greatest usefulness, however, is actually in the pollination of crops,
including fruits, nuts, vegetables, and forage crops, and many uncultivated plants that prevent
erosion by keeping topsoil from being carried into the ocean. The honeybee was made our
official insect in 1977."
"Milk was adopted as the official drink of Louisiana in 1983."
"South Louisiana is the crawfish capital of the world, supporting a multimillion dollar a year industry. The crawfish in appearance greatly resembles the lobster, but is very much smaller. Its color varies with the water in which it lives and its variety. Although it is found in swamps and marshes throughout the state, the best wild populations occur in the overflow basins of the Atchafalaya, Red, and Pearl Rivers. Crawfish farms have also been established where the crustaceans are cultivated for local use and for export to other states. The crawfish was adopted as State Crustacean in 1983."
"The alligator was adopted as Louisiana's state reptile in 1983. It lives in waters and low lands of the state and other locations of the southeast United States. Resembling a lizard in shape, grown males (which are larger than females) reach a length of 11 to 12 feet and weigh 450 to 500 pounds. When grown, its color is dull gray and dark olive. Alligators provide better care for their young than most reptiles do, protecting the young for a year or more. Once common, their numbers were reduced enough to be classified as endangered. Regulated hunting is allowed since the designation was changed to threatened in 1977."
"The official state freshwater fish is the white perch (pomoxis annularis) also known as
sac-au-lait and white crappie. It was adopted in 1993."
Source: Louisiana
State Home Page
Crops & commodities Louisiana top crops & seafood.
Maine's culinary heritage
"European fishermen discovered the fishing grounds off the coast of Maine almost 50 years before permanent settlers arrived in New England. These
fishermen came from France, Spain, Portugal, and later, England...These fishermen stayed only long enough to cure their fish and repair their oft-battered
boats before the long voyage back to Europe...Permanent English settlers began to arrive in Maine in the mid-1620s...By 1630 the settlers had established
their own permanent fishing stations allong the coast of Maine, and til the mid-1700s cod fishing was their principal industry...As the popularity of cod
declined in the mid-1800s, mackerel became more important...Preserving fish by smoking was an Old World method, and herring lent itself particularly
well to the process...The development of the canning industry in 1873 expanded the market for Maine fish...Great schools of solvery sardines...were first
harvested by the American Indians...Lobster was a favorite food of the coastal Indians...Commerical lobster fishing began in the late 1800s...Potatoes
became an important crop in the 1800s, and Maine led the nation in potato production into the 1950s...The young tender unfurled fronds of the
fiddlehead fern are a specialty of Maine. The Indians taught the early settlers how to gather them in the forests and cook them...Their flavor is a
combination of asparagus, broccoli, and artichokes."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992
Diner menus reflect favorite foods of local folks. Moody's Diner has been serving hungry Mainers since 1930. Selected recipes from What's Cooking at Moody's Diner, Nancy Moody Genthner [Dancing Bear Books:West Rockport ME] 1989.
"Apple Crisp
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 lb oleo
14-16 sliced apples
Line a greased 12 X 18 pan with 3/4-inch layer of apples. Combine oatmeal, sugar, flour and cinnamon in a large bowl. Cut in oleo until mixture resembles coarse crumbs and sprinkle over apples. Cook 35-30 minutes at 350 degress. Serve hot, topped with whipped cream."
(p. 12)"Moody's Blueberry Muffins
6 cups flour
4 tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup melted shortening
2 cups milk
2 cups blueberries
Mix together four, baking powder, sugar and salt. Set aside. Beat eggs; add milk and combine with dry ingredients. Add melted shortening and mix well. Dust blueberries with flour and fold into batter. Fill greased muffin tins 3/4-full. Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees."
---(p. 14)"Moody's Blueberry Pie
4 cups fresh blueberries
1 tbsp. flour
1 cup sugar
cinnamon or nutmeg to taste
dash of salt
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. milk
Pour blueberries into unbaked 9-inch pie shells. Mix dry ingredients and pour over berries. Dot with butter. Cover with top crust that has been dusted with flour and brushed with mik. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees."
---(p. 18)"Moody's Walnut Pie
3/4 cup melted oleo
9 eggs
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 heaping tbsp. flour
2 1/2 cups dark corn syrup
1 1 /2 tsp. vanilla
In large bowl, beat together melted oleo, sugar, eggs, flour, salt, vanilla and corn syrup. Beat well and stir in milk. Spread nuts in each uncooked, 9-inch pie shell. Pour batter over nuts. Bake 30-40 minutes at 350 degress. Makes two 9-inch pies."
---(p. 19)
Gifts from the Chesapeake Bay
"Seafood is a prime ingredient in Maryland's cuisine and is also the state's primary food
product. The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, had provided a
livelihood for watermen since colonial days...Harvesting seafood in the Chesapeake Bay
dates to the Indians, who fished with spears or bush weirs and used their surplus catch to
barer with nearby tribes for other necessities. Many of the Indians preserved their catches
for winter by salting or smoking them...Chesapeake Bay oysters have been eaten for
centuries. The first English settlers originally thought them starvation food but soon
learned from the shell piles left by the Indians that oysters were one of their basic
foods...The Patuxent River, which flows southeast through Maryland, has been an
important source of Maryland oysters. Since 1867, when Isaac Solomon opened the first
cannery on the river, dozens of packing houses were established to buy, pack, and ship
Patuxent River oysters...The Chesapeake Bay commercial crabbing industry began in the
mid-nineteenth century with the advent of refrigeration and regular steamboat and rail
transportation. Until then the highly perishable crabs could not survive shipments to
markets outside the local area. Chesapeake Bay blue crabs are highly prized...The blue
refers to the color on the underside of the large claws."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 41-3)
Traditonal recipes
Maryland has three edible state symbols: blue crab, milk and rockfish & a State dessert.
Smith Island Cake was proclaimed (signed into law) the official state dessert of Maryland in 2008.
What is Smith Island Cake? According to the official proclamation:
"Smith Island cake features eight to ten thin layers of cake
separated by rich frosting, and is most commonly served as a yellow cake with
chocolate icing, but also is made in other flavors like coconut, fig, and strawberry;...
Smith Island cake has been served for generations at holidays, special events, and church dinners;"
---SOURCE.
Why did this cake become a state symbol?
"Maryland has an official cat, insect and even an official dinosaur. Now one state delegate wants to add a hallmark 10-layer cake form the
Eastern Shore to the list of state symbols. Del. Page Elmore, E.-Somerset, plans to propose naming the many-layered Smith
Island cake the state's official dessert. To boost the bill, Elmore cooked up a sweet bribe--450 slices of the cake were delivered
Tuesday to state lawmakers and their aides. 'I make a pretty mean sweet potato pie, but oh, this is good,' said Del.
Melony Griffith, D.-Prince Georges, who tucked into a thin slice of the most common flavor of Smith Island cake: yellow cake in 10
centimeter-thick layers with chocolate frosting. Elmore hopes his bill will give a boost to Smith Island, which has only about 250
year-round residents. Islanders historically mae their living pulling crabs and oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, but pollution has hurt the seafood
industry and better jobs on the mainland have sapped Smith Island's working population. 'It's economic development for Smith Isalnd and lower
Eastern Shore bakeries,' Elmore said, wathcing volunteers unload more than a dozen boxes of cake slices. Florida named Key
Lime Pie its official pie in 2006, while Massachusetts picked its official dessert in 1996. Smith Island cakes dome in dozens fo
flavors, including pineapple, banana and coconut. Islanders trace the cake's origin to the British colonists who settled on the island, auing the cake
resembles an English torte. Smith Island cakes were traditionally packed in a waterman's lunch pail when he plied the Chesapeake, but now most are
sold to tourists...about 10 women on the island make a living selling Smith Island cakes. Most of the sell for $20 to $30 , with a towering
16-layer cake goinf for $49.99."
---"Marylanyd's Eastern Shore Touts Its Cake," Associated Press, Daily News-Record [Harrisonbburg VSA],
January 23, 2008 (p. A6)
What is the history?
Thin, rich, multi-layered iced confections generally descend from 19th century Viennese Torten. Think:
Dobos torte & Sacher torte. The closest English multi-layer culinary contribution is
Trifle (cake, cream & fruit).
Smith Island Cake recipe and history notes, courtesy of Smith Island, MD
[NOTE: Why does this recipe call for Condensed Milk? Most likely because the Island was isolated and had a relatively warm climate.
Condensed milk
was introduced in the mid-1850s and was readily embraced by folks who had a hard time keeping dairy products cold.
Florida's famous Key Lime Pie was originally made with condensed milk for this reason.]
Recommended cookbooks
1. The Chesapeake Bay Cookbook/Shields
2. Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland/Steiff
3. Maryland's Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cook Book/Andrews &
Kelly
Primary sources (old cookbooks!)
[1832] Frugal Housewife/Child
[1850] Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book/Beecher
[1884] Boston Cooking School Cook Book/Lincoln
[1896] Boston Cooking School Cook Book/Farmer
Recommended reading (history & recipes)
Foods of our Founding Fathers, Helen Newbury Burke
Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History, from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie, Kathleen Curtin & Sandra L. Oliver
New England Cookbook, Eleanor Early
Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook, Caroline Sloat
America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking, Keith Stavely & Kathleen Fitzgerald
History notes on selected traditional MA foods
Boston baked beans
Boston Baked Beans, as we know it today, descends from ancient pottage featuring
protein-rich, slow-cooked, economical legumes. Recipes were introduced to America by early colonists. The American city most popularly
associated with baked beans is Boston. Food historians connect similar Native American recipes featuring sweeteners (maple
sugar) with the introduction of molasses as a required ingredient. Boston brown bread
is traditionally paired with this dish.
"According to one recent writer, "baked beans and succotash may be the closest to signature dishes for [New England]--one based on
Old World traditions and the other on those of the New World."...As for the Old World origins of baked beans, peas or beans
and bacon have been claimed to be among the oldest of English dishes. Despite the generally low position of beans in English food-status
hierarchies, one version of beans and bacon is said to have been enjoyed by the medieval gentry. The specifically baked
form of bean potage was prevalent among Staffordshire yeomen, who soaked their dried beans overnight, then baked them along with
honey-and-mustard-cured ham and onions or leeks in a narrow-necked earthenware pot especially reserved for the purpose. This
"dark, sweet cassoulet" has been identified as the immediate progenitor of New England baked beans....There is a tradition, that, like
succotash, baked beans was of native origin. "Beans were abundant, and were baked by the Indians in earthen pots just as we bake
them today," wrote Alice Morse Earle in 1898. Three-quarters of a century later, Sally Smith Booth was not the first to include the
use of underground beanholes among the native methods of baking beans: "Indians probably originated this dish, for many tribes
baked bean stews in earthen pots placed into pit and covered with hot ashes." However, as Howard S. Russell has acknowledged, there
is no direct evidence of natives' baking beans, either in earthenware pots or in beanholes in the ground. On the other hand, baked
beans "prepared by the bean-hole method were by far the most important single food" in late-nineteenth-century Maine lumbering
camps. A vogue for outdoor and wilderness experience, including culinary experience, that was supposed to approximate the lifeways
of the North American Indians, had emerged at this time and gave encoruagement to the idea that another form of popular
underground New England cookery, the clambake, had originated with the Indians. Similar notions about the native sources of beanhole
baked beans may also have germinated in this cultural soil, so to speak. Skepticism regarding romaticized conception of native
and settler culinary practices should not, however, lead us to dismiss altogether the possibility of a relationship between the
bean cookery of the two groups...So although the English clearly brought with them a well-established tradition of bean-and-bacon
pottage that, in at least one of its variants, was baked in a beanpot in an oven, it is also possible that the natives they
encountered upon arrival had a similar tradition of preparing legume pottage by baking. Morever, the immigrants did not scruple to integrate
New World beans into the Old World pottage, just as they incorporated New World grain into their their bread."
---America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking, Keith Stavely & Kathleen Fitzgerald [University of North Carolina
Press:Chapel Hill NC] 2004 (p. 51-52)
"Boston baked beans. A dish of navy beans made with molasses and salt pork or bacon. Some argue
that baked beans were introduced to the colonists by the Indians, but novelist Kenneth Roberts, in an
essay on "The Forgotton Marrowbones," printed in Marjorie Mosser's Foods of Old New England
(1957), argues that baked beans had long been a traditional Sabbath dish among North African and
Spanish Jews, who called the dish "skanah."...Nevertheless, the dish clearly became associated with
Boston, whose Puritan settlers baked beans on Saturday, served them that night for dinner, for Sunday
breakfast with codfish cakes and Boston Brown Bread, and again for Sunday lunch, because no other
cooking was allowed during the Sabbath, which extended to Sunday evening. Sometimes the
housewives would hand over their pots of uncooked beans to a community oven, often located within a
tavern, to be baked. Because of the association between Bostonians and beans, the city became to be
called "Bean Town." A recipe for baked beans of this type was printed in Lydia Maria Child's "The
American Frugal Housewife in 1832, though the term "Boston baked beans" dates to the 1850s."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p.
36)
Mrs. Child's recipe, circa 1832.
"Every Saturday since the pilgrims came, true New Englanders have baked beans made with brown bread. In the old days it was thought
sinful to cook on Sunday, and Sunday began at 6 o'clock on Saturday. Before that the house was swept and dusted and preparations
made for a quiet, reverential Sabbath. Sundays are not as reverential now as they used to be, but the Saturday cooking tradition
still persists. Beans are a salvation because the could be prepared on Saturday. On Sunday the family had them with brown bread
for breakfast. After breakfast, the pot was popped back in the oven and the family set out for church. And all the time the beans
were in the oven, the whole house smelled of simmering pork and sweet molasses, which is a lovely odor and guaranteed to whet the
most persnickety appetite. When services were over and the family came home from church, it was mid-afternoon and time for
dinner. Then the pot was taken out again--and everybody had some more beans. We prepare them just as our ancestors did, but now we
begin the ritual on Friday night.
"Boston Baked Beans
1 qt. dried pea beans
1 medium-sized onion, peeled
1/2 lb. salt pork
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup molasses
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard
1. On Friday night put the beans to soak in a kettle full of cold water. In the morning pour the water off, cover with fresh
water and bring slowly to a boil. Simmer until you can blow the skins off. To do this, take a spoonful of beans from the pot.
If you should put your face down into the steam, you might get badly burned.
2. When the skins blow off (it will take an hour or more of simmering), drain the beans and place about one cup in bean pot.
Add onion. Add remaining beans until the pot is almost filled.
3. Score the salt pork to the rind and force down among the beans until it just shows at the top of the pot. Combine remaining
ingredients and mix with beans. Add enough hot water to fill pot. The pork should protrude a little above the water line so that it
can brown nicely.
4. Bake in 300 degree oven for at least 8 hours. The juice should bubble at the top of the pot all day. Add more water if necessary during
baking time.
One of the comforting things about baked beans is that you can leave them in the oven as long as you choose, if you remember
to add water. Open the door and take a peak every hour or two. Do not touch the pot if there is still juice on top, and close the door as
quickly as you can. Serve in a pot, as the Pilgrims did. Fragrant and steaming, brown and mealy--and hot as hot can be. With them
your should have brown bread on Saturday night, with piccalilli on the side. And on Sunday morning, you should have
fish cakes and the beans warmed up with a chunk of salt pork, crusty on top and brown as old mahogany."
---New England Cookbook, Eleanor Early [Random House:New York] 1954 (p. 56-57)
Some notes on Michigan's culinary heritage
"The earliest Europeans in the Michigan area were French explorers, traders, and missionaries in the late 1600s and early 1700s...By 1859...
farm families were firmly established in Michigan's southern counties, where prairie grassland was plentiful for grazing dairy cows. Farmers grew
wheat and produced milk, butter, and cheese. They raised hogs for meat, since cows were too precious to be eaten. Most farmers also had chickens and geese
and they grew their own produce. Many nineteenth-century Michigan farmers hunted wild game, and their wives tended the family vegetable gardens...
Mining developed on the Upper Peninsula around 1850. The mine workers came mainly from Cornwall, Ireland, Canada, Finland, and eastern Europe. The
mining families from Cornwall brought their Cornish pasties with them. This meat-and-vegetable combination encased in a pastry could easily be reheated
in very cold weather on a "Cornish stove"--a shovel held over a candle down the mine. Many of the Cornish pasties gave the miners a complete lunch...In
1847 religious refugees from the Netherlands settled in Michigan in a town they named Holland...Long famous for their smoked and salted fish, roast goose,
and other fowl, the Dutch were delighted with the fish and game birds of their new homeland...The Czechs and Moravians were important elements in
Michigan's pioneer culture in the nineteenth century...Baked goods and pastries such as Vdolky, Kolache, Milosti, Baleshsky, and Strudel were served
for dessert...Battle Creek was settled by the Seventh Day Adventists...In 1867 Dr. Kellogg...introduced the idea of cold cereals for breakfast. In
order to promote better nutrition, Dr. Kellogg invented toasted cornflakes and many other grain and nut products."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 148-151)
Historic Michigan cookbooks, online free & fulltext, courtesy of Michigan State University.
What to make for class? We suggest German, Dutch Heritage, or Cornish culinary heritage. The cities of were settled by these immigrants. Sample Frankenmuth-style Bavarian recipes courtesy of Zendher's. If you prefer something from the colonial era, this book is perfect: History from the Hearth: A Colonial Michilimackinac Cookbook, Sally Eustice. Seventh Day Adventist recipes from Ella Eaton Kellogg's Science in the Kitchen, circa 1892.
1. "Official" state foods
These symbols are enacted by the state legislature. Minnesota has a state muffin
(blueberry). Other
edible state symbols include milk, walleye (fish), wild rice, and morrel mushrooms.
2. Native ingredients
Minnesota is famous for its wild rice
3. Agricultural statistics ( top crops)
4. Manufactured products
Minnesota is the "birthplace" of SPAM (Hormel) and
"> Betty Crocker, Green Giant, Bisquick & Wheaties (General Mills)
5. Historic recipes
Food on the Frontier:Minnesota Cooking from 1850 to 1900 with selected recipes/Marjorie
Kriedberg---your local public librarian will be happy to help you get a copy of this book.
Minnesota's ethnic food heritage
"The people of Minnesota are from a very diverse ethnic heritage--British, Germans, Scandinavians, Finns, Italians, Slavs, and more recently, refugees from
Southeast Asia. The Scots, Welsh, and Canadians were some of the earliest settlers of Minnesota, while the greatest number of British arrived in
1890 to work in the mines on the Vermillon and Mesabi Iron Ranges...The Germans are Minnesota's largest ethnic group, having immigrated to the area
from the 1830s to the present day. Nineteeth-century German immigrants found the land suitable for raising the type of food they enjoyed. Many of the early
German settlers baked rye bread every Saturday...The Scandinavian immigrant--Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Finnish--found Minnesota to be similar
to Scandinavia...Housewives were delighted with the new white flour that yielded cakes and bread much lighter than those of their native land. Meatballs
of beef and pork, American-style bacon, corn, and a strange fruit called watermelon became a part of the immigrants' diet. The Danish immigrants found many of their
traditional cooking ingredients in Minnesota. Their kitchen gardens had large patches of parsley, carrots, peas, and kale...The pioneer Swedes...depended
upon staples for their diet. Homemade soups, potatoes, fish, and various grains were the mainstay of their early cuisine...Minnesota posed a culinary challenge
for most Italians, since much of their native ingredients were not available and could not be grown in the short growing season. The early Italian
immigrants relied heavily on what they called peasant food--polenta, rice dishes such as risotto, and pasta...Southern Slavs, mostly Croatians,
Slovenians, and Serbs, settled in Minnesota between 1900 and 1920...Being accustomed to fresh fruit, they planted apple, cherry, apricot, and olive
trees. Because of the harsh climate, the apricots and olives did not survive. Slavic cooking is primarly based on soups, stews, and other
combination dishes...At the clsoe of the Vietnam War, some of the Hmong people of northern Laos...came to Minnesota...These people brought yeat another
dimension to the varied cuisines of Minnesota."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 157-8)
Recommended reading: The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book, Anne R. Kaplan et al (includes recipes). Want to make something ethnic for class? We suggest Swedish meatballs!
1. Official state foods
These are designated by law. Mississippi's edible state
symbols are milk, largemouth bass, oysters, alligators, and wood duck. Honey (honeybee is state insect) is another option.
2. Major crops: What is most often grown in the state?
Early Mississippi foodways
"The first explorers of what is now northern Mississippi were French fur traders who set up trading posts in Indian villages. They learned to eat the same
food as the Indians, primarly a mush concocted from ground brier root, fish, and wild game. When the first permanent settlement was established...
around 1700, the settlers found they could obtain chickens from the Indians in addition to fish...The French brides who came to Biloxi, like those who
came to New Orleans, soon learned to use native ingredients in their cooking. Redfish, green peppers, and assorted wild herbs became the basis of their
fish stews. From the earliest days, Missisppi cooks usually had available the basic ingredients for a soup or a stew--carrots, celery, onions, okra, and a
sprig or two of parsley. Tomatoes were not included until well after the Revolutionary War...The cuisine of Mississppi varied with aspects of its
history. Although New Orleans remains the bastion of French-cooking influence in America, French influence was also dominant in the cuisine of the
plantation mansions along the Mississippi River. Rich sauces and spectacular desserts abounded on manor-house dinner tables.. Food was presented in great
splendor in ante-bellum Mississippi. The luxurous day began with hot, strong, black coffee...Food for the plantation workers was much simpler. Freshly
caught catfish...often constituted dinner. It was accompanied by turnip greens flavored with salt pork; corn bread; hot, spicy red beans; and rice.
Baked ribs and beans baked with bell peppers accompanied by corn bread was a typical winter meal. Chicken bread was a particular favorite among
plantation workers. It consists of a batter made with flour, cornmeal, shortening, salt, and milk, which was baked in a frying pan after the chicken
had finished frying...For many years the slaves ate corn pone (eggless corn bread which is fried or baked in small batches) and pot liquor, the juice that
remains after vegetables, particularly greens, are cooked."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 128-130)
Need to make something for class?
"Mississippi pralinesNeed current popular recipes? We recommend The Mississippi Cookbook, compiled and edited by the Home Economics Division of the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service.
2 1/2 pounds sugar
12 ounces water
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 heaping tablespoons marshmallow cream
vanilla extract (or maple flavoring)
4 cups pecan pieces
1. Combine sugar, water, and butter. Cook on low heat to 238 F on a candy thermometer. Once it begins to boil, do not stir. Remove from heat.
2. Add marshmallow cream and beat with a mixer until mixture begins to harden around the edges of the pot. Then reheat slowly, adding flavoring and pecans.
3. Pour mixture on wax paper in 2-inch round patties. Yields 4 dozen."
---Smithsonian Folklife Cookbook, Katherine S. Kirlin and Thomas M. Kirlin [Smithsonian Institution Press:Washington] 1992 (p. 168)
Agricultural products top crops!
Native American foods
"Missouri's earliest farmers were the people of the Hopwell culture...The Hopewells grew corn and beans and hunted small
animals...The Mississippi people knew how to farm well and grew large quantities of food. They were also hunters and traders.
Since they lived close to the Missippi River, fishing was an important activity...The Oneonta culture, from which the
Missouri tribe developed, produced excellent hunters of deer, elk, turkey, and bison, or buffalo. Fishing, gardening,
and gathering were essential to the tribe's existence...The woods contained berries, roots, and nuts. Acorns...are plentiful
in Missouri, and Native Americans used them in stews or ground them into meal. They age sunflower seeds, both raw and raosted, and
they learned to make oil from the seeds for cooking and for hair dressing. Cattails were a valuable food source because all parts
of the plant could be eaten...When the weather and the hunting were good, native Americans had plenty of food. But there
were times when food was scarce. To preserve meat for the winter months, Native Americans fried and smoked game over a wooden
frame set over a low fire. They made a food called pemmican, which was dried and pounded meat mixed with animal fat and crushed
berries. The pemmican prevented starvation during a long winter and provided vitamins and protein. It was also taken on long hunting
trips. Another kind of preserved meat was jerky, from the Spanish word charqui. During a hunt, some of the fresh-killed meat was
sliced thin, rubbed with salt, and rolled up in an animal skin to absorb the salt and release its juices. The meat was then dried
in the sun. Jerky was hard, chewy, and long lasting. The jerky found ins tores today originated with Native American hunters. Corn
and beans were also dried for the winter months. Succotash is a stew of corn and beans and sometimes fihs and game. The name succotash
is a variation of an Indian word. The ingredients of this stew varied from region to region, but all contained corn and
beans...Native Americans used Missouri's wild plants and berries not only for food but also for soaps, dyes, and medicines. They used elderberries
for tonics. They mashed the root of the curly dock plant to make a salve for sores and they mashed the leaves, mixed them with salt, and put
this "medicine" on their foreheads to treat headaches...The main crops for the Osage were corn, squash, and beans. Corn was eaten
boiled or roasted on the cob, or dried after cooking for storage. Parched corn, made from roasted mature grains, was like
popcorn that didn't pop. Hominy was made by removing the corn kernal and soaking it in lye made from wood ashes. It was then
boiled or dried. The women preservred squash and pumpkings by cutting the pulp into strips and hanging them on racks to dry...
Meat preparation was women's work. Although men were the hunters, the women cut, dried, and smoked meats."
---Food in Missouri: A Cultural Stew, Madeline Matson [University Of Missouri Press:Columbia MO] 1994 (p. 4-6)
Pioneer Missouri foodways
"Many of the early settlers of Missouri came in covered wagons from Kentucky, Virginia, and other regions of the Upper South...The women used their
Southern recipes to make buttermilk biscuits, fried chicken with cream gravy, cooked greens with bacon, and baked apple dumplings topped with cinnamon,
brown sugar, and thick cream. French traders and eventaully French families from Canada came down the Mississippi into Missouri. They, too, brought
their favorite recipes for thin French crepes and cookies of sweet and bitter almonds called croquignoles. The French women made a special soup of
dried peas, turnips, celery, and onions that was flavored with mint and thyme...German immigrants also settled in Missouri, bringing their food
traditions with them...raw potato pancakes, crispy fried in lard and cheesecakes...abounded in every German community...
Germans also brought the brewing industry to St. Louis. Angel food cake, named for its
fluffy whiteness and delicate texture, is said to have been "invented" in St. Louis...The Germans and Central Europeans brought their sausage-making
ability to the Midwest. One of their sausages, wienerwurst (aka hot dog or frankfurter), became the most American of all."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 182)
[NOTE: About Angel food cake.]
"Misssouri is the largest producer of black walnuts in the world. Nearly 50 percent of the world's black-walnut crop...is harvested during October and November each year. There is also a sizeable crop of pecans and hickory nuts in Missouri. Famous for their rich, tangy flavor...They are popular baking ingredients and have a much stronger flavor than the milder English walnuts...Pecan trees grew wild in Missouri and were a source of food for the Missouri Indians long before the white man came...Honey has been a part of Missouri history. Before Missouri became a state, there was a battle, called the Honey War, to determine the territory's northern boundary. Missouri and Iowa officials disagreed over the boundary for years. In 1839 when a Missouri man cut down three hollow trees containing bee hives in the disputed area, Iowa tolerance reached its limit, and the Honey War began. Missouri won...Missouri...has become famous for a product made from Missouri-grown wheat--Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix. Self-rising pancake flour...was created in St. Joseph, Missouri. It was first packaged in 1889..." ---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 182-183)
19th century Missouri recipes
St. Louis World's Fair [1904]
Gooey Butter Cake
The earliest print references we find for Gooey Butter Cake/Gooey Butter Coffee Cake are from the late 1950s. They were
bakery items, sold in other states to: California, New York & Illinois. This may, or may not, be the same item. Recipes proliferate in
the 1970s.
[1959]Toasted ravioli
Gooey Butter Cake
7-inch Made with Coffee Cake Dough and Deep Layer of Butter, 49 cents."
---dispay ad, Beck's Bakery, The Bakserfiedl Californian [CA], December 2, 1959 (p. 27)
[1974]
"Gooey Butter Cake
Dough
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 stick margarine
Beat by hand and put in greased 9 X 13 pan. Set aside.
Topping
2 eggs
1 oz. cream cheese
1 box sifted powdered sugar
Mix and spread on top of dough, bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Sprinkle top with powdered sugar after coo."
---"Cakes, Bread, Rolls," Mexico Ledger [MO], Februar 23, 1974 (p. 30)[1989]
Gooey Butter Cake
Preparation time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 30 minutes
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
3 tablespoons butter, plus butter for greasing the pan
1 tablespoon dried milk powder
1 large egg
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup bread flour1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
10 ounces plain Danish or yeast-raised coffeecake
Confectioners' sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, shortening, butter, milk powder, egg and salt. (For an authentic egg-yolk color, add a few drops of yellow food coloring.
3. Add the bread and cake flours, vanilla, corn syrup and water, and mix just until incorporated.
4. Cut the Danish or coffeecake to fit a buttered 8-by-8-inch pan, leaving a rim around the edge to contain the gooey butter mixture.Yield: 8 to 10 servings."
---"A Butter Cake That Sticks to the Gums," Ann Barry [St. Louis]. New York Times, April 19, 1989 (p. C4)[1993]
Gooey Butter Cake
1 (18.5 oz.) pkg. cake mix, without pudding
1/2 cut margarine, melted
1 egg
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 lb box powdered sugar, divided
In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, margarine, and egg. Press mixture into a 9X13-inch greased baking dish. In another mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, eggs, and powdered sugar; reserve 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Spread over cake mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 40 minutes. Sprinkle remaining powdered sugar on top. NOTE: Delicious with strawberries! SERVES: 10-12"
---The Bess Collection, Bess Wallace Truman [Independence Junior Service League:Independence MO] 1993 (p. 324)
"Toasted ravioli. A St. Louis, Missouri, specialty of meat-filled pasta dough that is deep-fried golden brown. Italian ravioli are boiled and served with a sauce, but toasted ravioli
was supposedly first made in the 1930s[?] at a St. Louis restaurant named Angelo
Oldani's when a German employee named Fritz accidentally threw freshly made ravioli
into a pan of boiling oil. Owner Oldani tried to salvage them, brushed them with grated
cheese, and served them to his customers, who loved them."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 327)
"Toasted ravioli, a specialty to Saint Louis, Missouri, are beef ravioli that have been deep
fried instead of boiled. They have no precedent in Italy but are the creation of an Italian
American restauranteur and have spread throughout the community."
---The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew J. Smith
editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 107)
"What spicy chicken wings are to Buffalo, toasted ravioli is to St. Louis. While Buffalo wings quickly became a national fad, the St. Louis culinary creation has--so
far--remained a local passion. Visitors tasting toasted ravioli or the first time, though, may help spread the word. The crunchy pasta, dusted with grated Parmesan
cheese and dunked in a marinara-style sauce, makes a delicious hot appetizer. Toasted ravioli is served at many restaurants...Strictly speaking, the ravioli is
deep-fried, not toasted, and like many culinary discoveries, the first batch was the result of an accident. Surprisingly, everyone seeems to credit the same source.
The first toasted ravioli seems to have been made in the 1950s at a restaurant called Angelo Oldani's on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood...Accroding to Louis
Amighetti...it happened this way: 'Angelo was busy and told a new assistant, a German cook, to prepare the ravioli. He had a pan of boiling hot oil on the stove,
and the cook thought it was supposed to be for the ravioli, so he dropped them into the oil.' When Mr. Oldani saw what had happened, he tried to salvage the
ravioli by brushing on some grated cheese. The result was local history."
---"Toasted Ravioli, the Secret of St. Louis," Patricia Brooks, New York Times, February 25, 1987 (p. C8)
[NOTE: This article offers a recipes for Toasted Ravioli.]
"You are known for this invention here in St. Louis," Cordes says. "And toasted ravioli was invented right here in this kitchen." Gitto picks up the story: "In 1947,
Louis Townsend, Angelo Oldani's chef, dropped a cooked ravioli in bread crumbs."
---"SAVORING ST. LOUIS; TV'S FOOD NETWORK EXPLORES THE HILL AND BEYOND FOR A POPULAR SERIES," Gail Pennington,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 16, 2001 (p. 1)
"At night, when his shift was over at Ruggeri's, Mickey Garagiola would sometimes walk to another restaurant on The Hill for a beer, accompanied by other
Ruggeri's waiters. It was at Oldani's (now Mama Campisi's) on a night in the 1930s that Mickey believes he witnessed the birth of toasted ravioli. Through the
years, several St. Louis restaurants have claimed to be the originators, but Mickey sticks with his story. "I'll bet my house on it," he says, firmly. He describes what
took place at Oldani's on that night: "The chef, Fritz, was fixing scallopini with red wine, but most of the wine never went into the scallopini. Fritz was drinking it,
and he got tanked. He was pulling raviolis out of a pot and a few spilled into a deep-fat fryer. Now he's ticked off. In anger, he threw the whole pot of raviolis into
the fryer. "When they popped to the surface toasted, he didn't know what to do with them. He didn't want to throw them away, so he took them upstairs on a plate
to the bar. A few guys who were there drinking liked them so much they asked for another order. The next day the owner heard about what happened and said,
`If they make the customers drink more, let's add them to the menu.' "
---"TOASTED RAVIOLI STARTED HERE," Dave Dorr, St. Louis Dispatch, July 23, 1998, (p. G1)
Recommended reading (history, no recipes): Food in Missouri : a cultural stew/Madeline Matson & Pot Roast, Politics and Ants in the Pantry: Missouri's Cookbook Heritage/Carol Fisher and John Fisher.
Our survey of historic newspapers confirms deep fried pasta dishes first surfacted in the 1930s. Witness:
[1930]
"French Fried Elbow Macaroni.
One-half package Mueller's elbow macaroni.
Fat for frying
Drop macaroni into boiling salted water and cook until almost tender. Drain well.
Fill deep-fat frying pan about 2-3 full of fat. Heat to 390 degrees F.
Drop cooked, drained macaroni into hot fat--about half the amount at one time--and fry to a light brown. Dip out with small strainer or slotted spoon. Drain off fat on brown paper.
Delicious with creamed dishes.
Mrs. Robert Page Burruss, 2804 Fourteenth street northwest."
---"Four Best Macaroni Recipes are Published for Readers," Stephanie Reilly, Washington Post, November 17, 1930 (p. 11)
"The St. Paul sandwich is a curiosity of St. Louis, a city with a penchant for creating odd sandwiches like those made with brains or snoots and ears. While one
might assume the sandwich with the moniker of "St. Paul" would have originated in Minnesota, foo authorities claim that it has nothing whatsoever to do with that
area. Rather, it's a noted specialty of the Chinese restaurants in the St. Louis, Missouri area. The origin of today's St. Paul sandwich may be an enigma, but reports
say that it was a popular offering in St. Louis as far back as the 1960s and perhaps earlier; one source states 1943. Most folks, including St. Louis writer Thomas
Crone, believe that Chinese restauranteurs who wanted to tempt the sandwich-living American palate created it. This theory maintains that the sandwich is based on
egg foo yung, and old Chinese recipe that has become thoroughly Americanized. Others believe that St. Paul was originally another term for the Denver sandwich
and later adapted by Chinese restaurants. Plain old commercial white bread provides the underpinnings for the St. Paul sandwich. Then comes the egg foo yung,
however, the combination is not scrambled but deep fried. The bread is generously slathered with mayonnaise, and the egg foo yung patty is added along with
pickle, tomato, and lettuce. For those who want to take their St. Paul a step beyond the "plain" versions, there are various additions available, like shrimp, beef,
chicken, pork, and ham. A "special" generally calls for three additional ingredients chosen from a list of options. Wrapped in white butcher's paper and encased in a
brown paper bag, the St. Paul is an inexpensive moveable feast in a land of sandwich take-out options. St. Louis has numerous restaurants specializing in the
St. Paul..."
---American Sandwich: Great Eats from All 50 States/Becky Mercuri [Gibbs Smith:Salt Lake City UT] 2004 (p. 72)
[NOTE: Book includes a recipe for this sandwich.]
This restauranteur claims to have served St. Louis sandwiches from 1936 forward:
---"Nichols nears 75th year by leaving well enough alone," Walkup, Carolyn. Nation's Restaurant News, May 8, 1995, (p. 100)
Note the striking similarities between the St. Paul and the Western (aka Denver) sandwich.
What is a typical 20th century Missouri dinner? According to Crosby Gaige's New York World's Fair Cookbook: The American Kitchen (p. 228):
Chilled watermelon balls
or
Fruit cup of mixed Missouri fruits
Springfield fried chicken Missouri stype with cream gravy
Ray County mashed potatoesGreen beans cooked with salt pork
or
Lafayette County corn on the cob
Hot fluffy biscuits from Missouri soft-wheat flour
Mixed vegetable salad (includes tomatoes)
Relsihes of cucumber pickles
Cottage cheese and tart jellySouthwest Missouri strawberry shortcake
or
Stark's delicious apple pie
Coffee
Augusta wines"Roast Ozark turkey should be included; also Old Boone Country ham. Fried chicken in Missouri is prepared by disjointing a 2 1/2 to 3- pound bird. Each piece is coated with flour which has been seasoned with salt and pepper. The pieces are then fried slowly in a small amount of lard (just enough to prevent sticking) for twenty to thirty minutes, until each piece is tender and a golden brown color. During the cooking each piece is turned frequently. The pieces are removed from the heavy frying pan as they become done, and when all are removed a milk gravy is made by using equal measure of flour and fat in which the chicken was fried and one cup of milk for each two tablespoons of flour. The giblets may be cooked and diced and added to the gravy."
Early Montana foods
"Montana had been left to the Indians until gold and copper mining swept the Western frontier and the Rockies...In the
heyday of fur trading, Montana was inhabited by millions of buffalo...Hunters frequently killed buffalo for the fur and
left the meat...Milk cows were grought into Montana in 1833, and by the 1850s missionaries had brought a few beef cattle...
Sheep came into the Montana territory at about the same time as the railroads...In the early 1900s there was a shift in
Montana's agriculture from livestock to wheat farming. Wheat has now become the state's top agricultural crop...The various
ethnic groups who settled in Montana brought their native recipes with them. Many Russians became wheat farmers in Montana.
They retained their traditional foods, such as beet soup and a cheese tart called Vatroushki...For company there was a
pudding of Montana cherries, bread crumbs, and cinnamon or a pie called Smettanick, which had a filling of cherry jam,
almonds, and sour cream...The Croatians and Slavs settled Butte, Great Falls, and Anaconda...In the Scandinavian settlements
of Montana a special porridge with heavy cream was served at Christmas...The Irish celebrated Easter by preparing a dish
called Golden Bread, which consists of thick slices of homemade white bread dipped in egg and fried in butter...The Scots
enjoyed scones...Montana's cuisine is also based on ingredients indegenous to the state. White honey...is spread on
huckleberry bread...In the hunting season many dishes center around elk, moose, and deer."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 226-8)
Lewis & Clark traversed the If you want to make something they would have eaten we recommend these books (all contain historic information and modernized recipes):
"Popcorn balls.If all you need are simple ( & delicious!) Montana recipes here are some good choices: This modernized recipe is based on one found in Louise K. Nickey's Cookery of the Prairie Homesteader.
Sometimes Mamma did not make taffy, but made popcorn balls. By shaking the container of popped corn, the hard or unpopped grains would settle to the bottom. Then she removed the popped corn to a 8 or 10 quart dish pan or mixing bowl. Six quarts of popped corn will make 14 to 15 popcorn balls the size of an orange. Following is a recipe for the popcorn syrup. Stir together 2 cups brown sugar, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil and cook until a hard ball is formed in cold water. Just before it reaches the hard ball stage add 1 tablespoon of butter. Pour over the popcorn and mix well with a big spoon. As soon as you are able to handle the corn without burning your hands, start forming the balls. Press the corn lightly into balls, being careful not to crush the corn. I think we relished these popcorn balls more, because Mamma usually made them on a stormy day, when we couldn't go outdoors."
---Cookery of the Prairie Homesteader, Louise K. Nickey [Touchstone Press:Beaverton OR] 1976 (p. 149)
[NOTE: you can use a modern recipe if you like. Ask yr parents for help...making popcorn balls means hot stuff on the stove.]
"Buttermilk Biscuits (Montana:1909)
2 cups flour plus 1/4 cup to flour board
1/2 cup lard, plus a little to grease baking sheet
1 scant teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk.
Equipment: Pastry blender or large fork... wooden board, rolling pin, biscuit cutter or large clean empty tunafish can with both ends removed, baking sheet.
1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Cut in the lard with a pastry blender or large fork (or your fingers) until the flour mixture is in fine granules.
3. "Sprinkle buttermilk over the mixture." Mix to make a solid, soft dough. "If all the dry ingredients do not work in, gradulaly add a little more buttermilk."
4. Flour the board and rolling pin.
5. Work dough "lightly into a ball with the tips of fingers and roll out to approximately one-inch thick."
6. Lightly grease baking sheet (optional).
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
8. Cut biscuits with cutter or tuna tin, arrange on baking sheet.
9. Bake "15 or 20 minutes or until they are a deep golden brown."
"Serve hot biscuits with butter and/or jelly, honey, or chokecherry syrup." Leftover biscuits were eaten split and filled with butter and sugar, or reheated in a paper sack in a 325-degree oven, or crumbled into hot stewed tomatoes." Serves 4."
---The American History Cookbook, Mark H. Zanger [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2004 (p. 269-70)
Some famous brand-name foods
Early Nebraska foodways
"In 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition inventoried the edible resources of Nebraska. The list included deer, "turkies,"
grouse, elk, geese, ducks, buffalo, catfish, and "other" fish. They also noted an abundance of wild grapes, three kinds
of plums, wild cherries, and gooseberries. Lewis...and Clark observed that the two most popular foods of the nomadic
Indian tribes of Nebraska were jerky (dried beef preserved with salt) and pemmican (finely pounded dried meat mixed
with fat). Like the native Indians, the early traders, trappers, explorers, and missionaries who traversed Nebraska
were able to live off the land. They carried only the basic food items, such as salt pork, sugar, flour, and coffee. Salt
pork, a staple food because it would keep indefinately, was soaked for a few hours to remove some of the excess salt
and then fried. The sugar was usually in laoves or coarsely crushed brown sugar, and the flour was unbleached. Coffee,
which was green, had to be roasted in a skillet over an open fire before it could be ground and brewed...From the time of
the establishment of the first settlements and farms in Nebraska, corn and cornmeal became the major item of the diet...
Even corncobs were used for fuel in cooking and hating...The coming of the railroads to Nebraska in the mid-1860s attracted
homesteaders by the tens of thousands. Most came from agricultural areas of the East, and a large portion emigrated from
Europe, especially German, Bohemia, the British Isles, and Scandinavia...Pioneer life on the plains was hard...Homemakers
brought their recipes and familiar methods of cooking with them, but the new circumstances on the frontier required them to make
many adjustments. Until a settler could plant a garden and acquire livestock, the family had to do without eggs, milk,
butter, or lard. Settlers improvised recipes for pancakes without eggs, biscuits without lard, and used water instead
of milk in baking. Salt-risen bread became popular with housewives who had no yeast. The term "salt-risen" refers to
the practice of keeping a bowl of starter nested overnight in a warm bed of salt, which retained a uniform heat. The
starter contained warm milk or water, four, cornmeal, sugar or molasses."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America,, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 184-5)
Historic foods 19th century homesteaders enjoyed watermelons. About beef curing 1 & 2.
Eventually Nebraska became part of the great American farm belt, supplying urban areas and military personnel with much needed wheat, beef, and other necessary commodities. If you go to this site and search the word food you will find dozens of interesting pieces of information.
More Nebraska foods/recipes can be found in these books:
Native American foodways
Foods of the Desert
Culture--State of Nevada. Lots of interesting information about Native American
cuisine in Nevada, includes a list of indigenious ingredients and simple recipes.
Excellent if you need to explain to your class the history behind the recipe.
Early European Nevada trekkers (1820s-1840s) dined on standard portable provisions (coffee, tea, flour, jerky/pemmican, dried fruits, dried beans/peas, sugar, brandy) supplemented by local items (animals, fruits & vegetables). Exact recipes depended upon traditional preference (French, English, Mexican/Spanish), economics (how much money the group had), and season/weather. According to the writings in many early Nevada explorer's journals, many places in this state were harsh and inhospitable. Many times there was nothing to eat.
Want to explore Nevada's culinary diversity? The Great Nevada Cookbook, compiled by the editors of Nevada Magazine, is and excellent source. This booklet groups representative historic recipes by ethnic/immigrant groups (Native American, Basque, Greek, Mexican), historic period (miners, cowboys) and cooking style (Dutch oven). All recipes are adapted for modern kitchens. Your librarian will be happy to help you find a copy.
Basque cuisine: Culinary heritage
Saloon fare
"Unsurprisingly, archaeolgical excavations at Virginia City saloons turned up a profusion of bottles and bottle fragments...They lead
us into the experience of bieng in a historic saloon by revealing clues about what people drank....Animal bones, condiment
containers, and trace elements of food residue...provide clues to the diverse food and beverage menus of Virginia City's drinking
establishments. Some Virginia City saloons advertised "well kept and assorted lunches," "choice lunches," and "superior hot
lunches." Given the relatively large populations of lonely single men in mining boomtowns, saloonkeepers wisely responded to a
clientele in need of snacks and meals, as well as drinks. Common meals served at ninteteenth-century saloons included cheese,
potatoes, and mutton pie, and drinking houses in "humble neightborhoods" offered hot meals at certain times of the day. While
food remained a novelty and a draw for potential patrons who where looking for a good meal, many saloon proprietors advertised their
establishments's drink menus more frequently than their food offerings...The types of foods served in each saloon provided another level of distinction...lamb, beef and pork were popular meat menu items in
Virginia City drinking houses...with negligible amounts of small mammals such as rabbits, as well as fish and fowl...[and] a few
wild birds...Meat cuts were designated high, medium, and low quality depending on the amount or tenderness of the meat...medium-
quality beef cuts were the most significant meat-based meals associated with the theater saloon...low-quality meals are not necessarily
part of the widespread local memor of Virginia City's boomtown wealth. Rather, local folklore tends to highlight the more
opulent saloon menu items, indicating that people from all walks of life enjoyed champagne and oysters, symbols of the boomtown's
ostentatious wealth, in the community's drinking houses...Specialty businesses were described as "oyster saloon," and it is liekly that the
existence of such places, along with historical reports of miners dining on various delicacies, encouraged folklore centered on the
splendor to be had in the community's saloons...A discussion of cuisine would not be complete without considering types of foods that
did not survive the passage of time, such as cheese, bread, fruits, and vegetables...it is important to be aware that all
drinking houses, if they offered meals, served more than meat-based foods..."
---Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology and History in Virginia City, Kelly J. Dixon [University of Nevada Press:Reno] 2005 (p. 73-95)
Las Vegas-style buffets
Currently? Nevada (at least in Las Vegas) is known for ultimate buffets. A little bit of
everything served with a theme. Who launched modern American "all you can eat"
buffet? Mr. Herb McDonald, Las Vegas NV, 1946.
El Rancho's original menu, circa 1947
"Eilley Orrum's Batter Biscuits
Beat together 2 eggs (in Virginia City, 3 eggs---the altitude, you know), 1/2 cup of milk, 3 tablespoons each of corn meal and flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a tablespoon of butter. Pour into well buttered muffin tins and bake in a 450 degree F. oven. (The old recipe said, "Bake in a quick oven in little tin molds.") These are really corn-meal popovers, as you will see when you take them out of the oven all puffed up with pride." (p. 115)"Nevada Corn Cake
"This recipes is...from Nevada Cook Book of 1887, We have reworded it slightly. "Scald a pint of milk with a tablespoon of butter, pour in a cup of Indian meal [corn meal] and allow to cool. Add a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of salt, and the yolks of 4 eggs, well beaten. Lastly add the whites of the eggs, beaten stiff. Pour in a well-buttered pan and bake 1/2 hour in a hot oven." (p. 119)
[NOTE: "Hot oven" translates today as 425 degrees F.]"Baked Cream Chicken Pioneer
This old recipe was found in the cluttered back room of the Pioneer Drugstore, recently opened to the public. Time was when Virginia City had numerous apothecary emporiums, but today the Pioneer is the only one, built in 1876 and still preserving on its venerable shelves such tings as mortar and pestles, pill-rollers, herb crushers and fragrantly nostalgic patent medicines like lung balm and wizard oil. Charming in its old-fashioned lavishness, this recipe would be just right for a main dish at a buffet, along with, perhaps, sliced Virginia ham and cole slaw. Cheese biscuits, too, please, and for dessert, apples poached in rum-flavored syrup. Boil a hen in just enough water to cover until tender. (Add an herb bouquet to the water.) When cool, remove all the bones and return them to the stock, simmering another 15 minutes. Strain and reserve. Cut the chicken into not-too-small pieces and hard-boil 6 eggs. Also saute a pound of sliced mushroom caps in 3 tablespoons of butter. Butter a baking dish--one that will hold 2 quarts or more--and sprinkle the bottom with buttered crumbs (1 cup crumbs, 1/4 cup butter; save half for topping.) Arrange layer of chicken on the crumbs, on that a layer of sliced eggs, and then a layer of mushrooms. Repeat, then pour over a sauce made by cooking 2 tablespoons of flour with 2 tablespoons of butter, adding a teaspoon of crushed dill seeds, 2 cups of cream, and 2 cups of the chicken stock, which should, by now, be about that amount. Correct seasoning, cook until smooth and thickened, pour over the chicken, and top with the remainder of the crumbs. Brown and reheat in a 350 degree oven before serving. We think this would also be good with pitted ripe olives instead of the mushrooms." (p. 42-43)"Noisettes of Lamb Marye
Another recipe from the family collection of George T. Marye, the well-known Bonanza Day financier. Noisettes are the 'tenerloin steaks' of a lamb. Use loin chops removoing all the fat and skin. Saute them in butter...and serve with Sauce Diable. Chop a large shallot and cook it in 2 tablespoons of butter until it's transparent. Add the juice of a lemon, a teaspoon of prepared mustard, French style, a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of tabasco, and 2 cups of sauce Espagnole or brown gravy. Cook until smooth." (p. 52)
"Gold Hill Rocks
Molly Crocker produced this recipe, one we approve mightily, though we think the name misleading. Butter-rich and spiced with niecety, the are a bonanza of nuts and raisins--the Gold Hill Nuggets. The recipe is a lavish one, producing 13 dozen or more of the cookies. For moderns who view such expenditure with alarm, we suggest making one-quarter of the recipe---a simple problem of division except for the eggs. In this case use 2 eggs but only one tablespoon of water. But here is the recipe as Molly makes it in her charming little house on Greiner's Bend at Gold Hill. Cream 1 pound of butter with 3 cups of dark brown sugar. Add 6 eggs, beat, then mix in 2 pounds of broken walnuts (or pecans), 2 pounds of seeded or seedless raisins, 5 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of soda dissolved in 1/2 cup of warm water. Drop in teaspoonfuls on buttered cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees F. until nicely but lightly browned." (p. 135-6)"Old Comstock Raspberry-Cream Tarts
Marian Gladding...is a member of an old Comstockian family. Her husband, Tex, is Virginia City's postmaster. These delectable tarts have a Scandinavian heritage. Cream 1/2 cup of butter with 3/4 cup of sugar, add an egg and 1/4 teaspoon of almond extrace. Add 2 cups of sifted flour and a little salt. Knead dough well until stiff, then chill for an hour. Roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness on a lighty floured board. Cut in 3 1/2-inch rounds and fit over for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Fill with raspberry cream just before serving. Raspberry Cream. Beat 1 cup of whipping cream until stiff, add 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 pint boxes of raspberries. If desired, 1 cup of raspberry jam may be substituted for the sugar and fruit." (p. 131)If you want a different type of recipe (main dish? veggie?) let us know. We can scan, mail or fax.
Historic cookbooks (we can send recipes):
Early New Hampshire foodways
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 25-7)
The NH Dept. of Agriculture provides this summary of major food crops. Note: apples and milk are referenced here, along with maple syrup.
"Bishop's Bread
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
1 cup blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
powdered sugar
Cream the yolks and sugar together; add vanilla, salt, and then the flour sifted with the baking-powder. Add seeded raisins and nuts, cut in two, and, lastly, fold in the beaten whites. Spread in thin sheet on a buttered tin, and bake 20 minutes in moderate oven. Cut in sqares while still hot, and roll in powdered sugar."
---The National Cookbook, Sheila Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 417)
More historical New Hampshire recipes
Recipes from America's Restored Villages/Jean Anderson. Offers recipes from
Strawbery Banke [Portsmouth NH] p. 48-54 include oyster stew, cod fish hash,
gooseberry fool and blueberry cake.
Colonial NJ fare
"During the Revolutionary War many of the American troops were quartered in New
Jersey
homes. They were welcome guests and were frequently invited to partake of the family's
meals. A
typical meal at the time might have consisted of potato soup made with a generous
amount of
onions, wild turkey with corn-bread stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Depending on the
time of
year, a green or root vegetable accompanied the turkey, and rice pudding topped with
currant
jelly was served for dessert...Apple cider was a common drink in the colonies, and one
of the
earliest types was developed in New Jersey. The apples for the cider came from trees
planted in
the early 1630s. A century later a leading world botanist, Peter Kalm of Sweden,
pronounced
New Jersey cider to be one of the best he had ever tasted...The New Jerseyites were not
content
with simple cider. At the end of the 1600s, William Laird began to distill the cider,
producing
apple brandy, now better known as applejack...In 1780 one of Laird's descendants began
commercial production of apple brandy under the firm name of Laird & Co., in
Scobeyville, New
Jersey."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 48)
"To be Let, by William Kelly, A very valuable Tract, of about 2000 Acres of Land, in the County of Morris, in East New-Jersey, as health a Counry as any in the World, about 15 Miles from Newark...and about 23 Miles from New-York. This Tract is so fine a Body of Land...for Fertility and Richness; about 1500 Acres of which is rich low Ground...The Soil is as fine as any in the World for Grass, and will grow any Kind of Grain...with a fine young Orchard, the largest in the Province, containing about 1400 Trees, of the best grafter Fruit, at 50 Feet Distances, which bore this (for the first) Year, and from which, when it comes to Maturity, there may be from 500 to 1000 Barrels of Cyder made yearly. There is on the Estate fine Black Heart, May Duke, White Heart, Coronation, and Bleeding Heart Cherries; Bergamott, and other Pears; Holland, Green Gage, and Orchea Plumbs; a fine Nursury of several Thousand Apple Trees, some of which are fit to set out. A good Farm House, Kitchen, and a very fine Dairy, and Cyder-House built this Year, a Barn, with nine Barracks for Hay and Corn; a very fine Corn-House, and a large Grannery...a Smoak-House, a large Fowl-House...a large Cow-House...two Green Houses to preserve Cabbage and Roots in the Winter; a Pidgeon-House, well stock'd...there may...be upwards of 150 Tuns of fine English Hay, Clover and Speer Grass, and upwards of 500 Tuns of coarse hay cut...Through the Tract runs a fine Brook, on which stands (within less than half a Mile of the Dwelling-House) a Grist-Mill...and also a River on which the Tract bounds, are plenty of Trout and other Fish: There is also some Deer, Turkeys and plenty of wild Geese, Ducks, Partridges, Quails, &c. on it in the proper Season, and at the Foot of the Garden is a very fine Spring, never dry, and an extreme good Place for a Fish-Pond...This Estate lies in the Heart of a Country, where any Quantity of Cattle may be bought, at all Seasons of the Year, at a very moderate Price...There is on it now, the largest and finest Breed of Cattle in America, imported from Holland."
---Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey, Series 2, Volume VII Newspaper Abstracts [New Jersey Archives:Trenton NJ] (p. 89-90)
Table fare
"Isabella Ashfield's Receipt Book...In the Guide to the [NJ Historical] Society's manuscripts collection compiled by Fred Shelley...in 1957, there is listed a
cookbook. This book is enclosed in parchment covers, and must be one of the earliest of its kid in the country. On the tile page is the inscription 'Isabella Ashfield,
Her Book, April 1st, 172--', and lower down on the page is written 'Elizabeth Ashfield, Her Book, January, 1750-1.' Isabella Morris Ashfield was the eighth
daughter of Lewis Morris and Isabella Graham Morris...In Mrs. Ashfield's book we star off with 'Soupes--crawfish, onion, pease among them. Crawfish soup was
made with a gallon of water a brace of male carps (in those days people had ponds for fresh water fish), lobsters and no less than 200 crawfish! In the porridge
section we note that what then went by the name of porridge was not made of cereals; a cereal porridge was usually called a 'Gruel' or a 'Bouilli'. A receipt for
'Brown Duck Porridge' stars off in no small way by stewing a leg of beef overnight, then adding turnips, then toasted French 'roales', which were toasted in front of
the fire and were often used th thicken sauces along with 'flower' and butter; finally, after almost twenty-four hours of preparing for it, the duck enters the scene and
gets into the pot. What we would call stew today was called by different names, and 'Herrico' is a mutton stew with turnips. There are several 'Ragues,' of hog's
ears for one (this name is spelt in may ways, 'ragoo' being one of the nicest). Here we find 'Frigasea's of Chickens,' rabbits and, of all things, mussels! One is
advised to beat cutlets and Scotch collops--which seem to be thin slices of veal or beef in both cases--with a rolling pin and with the back of the knife to tenderize
them. Beef 'Stakes' got the same treatment, beef being tough in those days, not corn-fed as we know it today. In Mrs. Ashfield's book meats were usually stewed
or broiled on a spit. The only way that they were baked seems to have been in pies, of which there was an infinite variety, of meats, green geese, and all kinds of
fish. Preservation of foods for the winter months was of vital importance. Pickling, drying, salting, and converting to marmalades and jellies were all methods used.
Among the pickles there are radishes, tongue, french beans, artichokes, pigs, eels, and one of particular interest: 'To pickle cucumbers, mango way.' This receipt
shows the influence of the budding British empire, since mangoes were grown in India, where the East India Company had been founded under Queen Elizabeth. In
the cake and sweet section, among the orange and lemon creams and cheesecakes, we find that the puddings predominate as is only right. One receipt in particular
is intriguing, having the odd title of 'To Make Rice Pudding in Gutts'! After the first feeling of recoil one finds that it is only the container (belonging to a bullock) that
is odd; otherwise it is our familiar nice rice pudding made with milk, cream, raisins and nutmeg. There are many homemade fruit wines listed, mead, the syllabubs,
flummeries, sack possets, and other delicious-sounding drinks of the day. The only drinks here with spirits in them are the 'Plague Water' and Aqua Miabilis, and
these were portioned out like medicine, by the spoonful. The ingredients in these medicines were as many as thirty different herbs, spices, and the Gascon wine or
claret from Bordeaux. It looks as if the people of the time put just about everything that they could think of into these cure-alls, on the principle that something might
work. Of course these were the days of herb lore, of which every woman knew the importance."
---"Of Books and Things: From the Library," Elizabeth Lyman Frelinghuysen, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Volume LXXVII, No. 4, October 1959 (p. 279-281)
New Jersey offers three edible state symbols:
"Just like the early American colonists, the honeybee came here from Europe, and was officially adopted as the state insect in 1974....With more than 1,400 miles of streams to swim through, the brook trout became the official state fish in 1992....First cultivated in the Garden State in 1916, the blueberry is a delicious new addition to this list as the official state fruit as of January 12, 2004."
NJ Agriculture
New Jersey top crops
John Taylor's biographers confirm his entry into the retail grocery business as a teenager. When he was 20 [1856], Taylor established a retail grocery store with his name on it. This accounts for the product origination date often cited by the press. Mr. Taylor quickly expanded his retail market into a wholesale concern. Pork products proliferated in the greater Philadelphia region (think scrapple!). While it is quite likely Mr. Taylor sold pork products with his name on them from this date forwards, biographers confirm he did not enter the slaughtering business until the 1870s. The Taylor Provisions Company (manufacturers of Taylor Ham and Pork Roll) was established in 1907. The business flourished, but did not expand beyond the local markets of New Jersey and the Greater Philadelphia area. We find no print evidence supporting modern claims this Taylor's Pork Roll was a family recipe handed down from Colonial times.
Records of the US Patent & Trademark Office confirm Taylor brand pork products were introduced to the American public in 1856:
"Word Mark TAYLOR Goods and Services IC 029. US 046. G & S: PORK PRODUCTS-NAMELY, PORK SAUSAGE. FIRST USE: 18560000. FIRST
USE IN COMMERCE: 18560000 Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM Serial Number 71561536
Filing Date July 15, 1948 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Registration Number 0533600 Registration Date November 21, 1950
Owner (REGISTRANT) TAYLOR PROVISIONS COMPANY, THE CORPORATION NEW JERSEY 63 PERRINE AVENUE TRENTON NEW
JERSEY 08650 Attorney of Record JOHN J. KANE Prior Registrations 0061356;0073183;0113172 Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register
PRINCIPAL-2(F) Affidavit Text SECTION 8(10-YR) 20001229. Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20001229 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE"
Taylor Pork Roll was introduced to the American public October 10, 1906:
"Word Mark JOHN TAYLOR'S PORK ROLL SUGAR CURED THE TAYLOR PROVISION CO. TRENTON N.J. BROIL OR FRY QUICK OVER A
HOT FIRE JUST BEFORE SERVING FINEST SELECTED LEAN PORK DELICATELY CURED & SMOKED "NO SALTY TASTE" Goods and
Services IC 029. US 046. G & S: PORK ROLL. FIRST USE: 19061016. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19061016...Serial Number 71022841 Filing
Date October 22, 1906 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Change In Registration CHANGE IN REGISTRATION HAS OCCURRED
Registration Number 0061356 Registration Date March 19, 1907 Owner (REGISTRANT) TAYLOR PROVISIONS COMPANY, THE
CORPORATION NEW JERSEY 63 PERRINE AVENUE TRENTON NEW JERSEY 08638 Attorney of Record FREDERICK A. ZODA Description of
Mark THE WREATH BEING GOLD AND THE BACKGROUND RED. Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT
12C. SECT 15. SECTION 8(10-YR) 20060913. Renewal 5TH RENEWAL 20060913 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE"
The oldest print reference we find for this item dates to 1908:
"LOOK OUT For Imitators SEE SEE That You Get the Genuine TAYLOR Pork Roll ABSOLUTELY Clean Government Inspected NAME ON EVERY
BAG."
---display ad (no reference to price or manufacturer), Trenton Evening Times, January 25, 1908 (p. 2) [NOTE: this ad no doubt caught attention; it ran down the
entire middle column of the page.]
How much did it cost?
"Taylor Pork Roll, 10 1/2 c[ents] lb. By the bag."
---Trenton Evening Times, April 2, 1908 (p. 6)
Taylor pork roll legend & lore
"It's as Jersey as sitting on the stoop or grabbing a late bite at the diner. It s meat that goes with eggs, but it isn't ham or bacon or even sausage. In fact, if you ask
anyone outside of the state what it is, they ve probably never heard of it. But call it by name around these parts, and you almost can smell it sizzling. Pork roll.
Uncover the canvas wrapping, slice it thin, make three small cuts at the edges so it doesn't curl up and grill away. Mmm mm. Nothing tastes or smells quite like it,
even though many of us may not exactly know what the heck it really is. Pork roll commonly is known as Taylor ham whether Taylor Provisions in Trenton makes it
or not it's just one of those Jersey things. In fact, it's so Jersey, you can't buy it anyplace else in the country or in the world, except in the tri-state area."
---"Pork Roll: A Jersey Kind of Thing," Brooke Tarabour, Star Ledger [Newark NJ], May 2, 2001 (p. 67)
"Taylor Pork Roll, which originated in Trenton, was invented by John Taylor in 1856. A sign describes pork roll as 'select, strictly fresh pork tenderly cured without
the aid of brine or pickle, delicately aged and slowly smoked with hickory.' Taylor Pork roll stands used to be plentiful on the Jersey Shore, in the first half of the
century, they existed in Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Cape May, Ocean City and Wildwood..."
---"Jersey Shore Beach Food: Just a Summer Love?" New York Times, August 11, 1993 (p. C3)
"Wow! Did we ever found out about pork roll sandwiches in New Jersey...Good news for desperate Jerseyites...The proper name is Taylor's Pork Roll..The
sandwiches can be constructed with toasted hamburger buns. The meat is sliced thin--better three thin than one fat--and broiled, fried, or --best--grilled over
charcoal. There was an early-pre-Revolution John Taylor, who may or may not have made the first ham--it was originally Taylor's Ham--but it was first 'ground
and bagged' for the market by a John Taylor in 1856. It was, I am told, the only thing for Sunday breakfast along with two poached eggs for 'anyone who
amounted to anything' in Trenton."
---"All's Fare," Lois Dwan, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1981 (p. I9)
"The pork roll dates back to Colonial days, the recipe handed down within the Taylor family. It is fresh pork, chopped then sugar cured and not available in
Arizona..."
---"Pork Roll Dates Back to Colonial Times," Arizona Republic, May 28, 1969 (p. 64)
Welch's grape juice
"Welch's Grape Juice (Cumberland County [NJ]). 'In 1869 Dr. Thomas B. Welch, a dentist and manufacturer of dental filling,' lived at the
southeast corner of Fourth and Plum Streets, Vineland. It was his idea, being a Methodist of strong persuasion, that to
serve fermented wine at communion table was not only inconsistent but wrong, and he proceeded to experiment with the idea of
preserving the unfermented juice of the hrape so that it instead could be used for that purpose. Doctor Welch succeeded in his
experiment, manufacturing his first grape juice in a wash boiler, likely in the cellar of his home, and bottled a small
quantity which he offered for use in the Protestant churches. 'At first he gave it away but as the idea took hold and the
demand increased he bottled more and more juice each year until it grew into a real business.' Doctor Welch, his son, Charles
E. Welch, and Mr. P. W. Peck made up the firm in the early days and their first grape juice factory, a brick building with a
cellar, was erected at the back of Mr. Peck's residence on West Landis Avenue, just west of the present High School. This
building still stands. Doubtless Mr. Peck and Charles Welch managed much of the factory work, for Doctor Welch continued his dental
practice for some time. After a few years Mr. Peck withdrew his interest in the business, and the Welch Grape Juice Company, with Charles
E. Welch as the managing director, erected a three-story building with a very deep cellar at the rear of Charles E. Welch's
residence on Sixth Street...In 1893 Joseph H. Dowler was employed by the company as their first salesperson, and he
canvassed the entire section east of the Rocky Mountains and eastern Canada. 'At that time nobody knew what grape juice was and it all had
to be explained to people. Gradually grape juice came into very general uses in the churches, at the soda fountains and in
restaurants. Doctors began recommending its use and grocers and druggists stocked and sold it.' Phineal Welch Peck, of Landis
Avenue, grandson of Thoman Welch, became associated with the firm in 1893. The 'Vineland Evening Journal. In its issue of
October 10, 1895, reported, 'The Welch Grape Juice Company finished work for the season having used 216 tons of Vineland grapes and 39 tons
from New York State in manufacturing 40,000 gallons of grape juice.' A great many grapes were grown in those days, in and near Vineland,
but 'as the business grew many carloads were shipped in from Keuka Lake district of New York and Dr. Welch decided it would be
advisable to move to where larger quantities of grapes were available. 'In 1897 they moved to Watkins, N.Y., where they remained
only one year during the time they purchased ground and erected a factory at Westfield, N.Y., which today is their
headquarters although they have acquired several other factories in different states. They took the lead from the first and
held it. Welch's Grape Juice is today easily the leading brand and has a world wide sale.' Mr. Joseph H. Dowler, Welch's first
salesman, compiled these interesting historical notes from Miss Elena J. Darling, secretary of the Vineland Historical and
Antiquarian Society, who shared them with us."
---Commerical Canning in New Jersey: History and Early Development, Mary B. Sim [New Jersey Agricultural Society:
Trenton NJ] 1951 (p. 168-172)
Historic NJ recipes
The Morris County Cooks: Eleven Delicious Decades offers menus, recipes and food notes compiled from these sources and
the Daily Record newspaper. Thank you! Morris County Library!!!
NJ cookbooks
Rutgers University Library's Sinclair Jerseyana Cookbooks offers the most comprehensive collection of
primary texts in the nation. Concentration is on 19th and 20th century cook books.
Official state foods
New Mexico has several edible state symbols including chili and frijoles (beans),
cutthroat trout, yucca and bizcochitos (cookies). Some
Traditional recipes
Viva New Mexico
(end of page has bizcochitos recipe...heading "cookies")
Recommended reading
Official state foods
New York State has several "official" state
foods. These are voted on/approved by the state's lawmakers in Albany.
State fruit: apple
State beverage: milk
State muffin: apple muffin (no recipe included in the law)
---No "official" recipe in state law books; this one provided by
the New York Apple Association
State fish: speckled trout
State shell: bay scallops
State tree: sugar maple
New York also has several popular foods associated with the state. Some of the most famous national favorites and regional treasures are:
NYC's signature dishes
Restaurants & dining
Recommended reading:
What foods were grown in New Netherlands kitchen gardens?, notes from A Description of the New Netherlands, Adriaen Van Der Donck, 1655. [NOTE: This source offers detailed descriptions of wild plants, indigenous game/fish, foods introduced from Holland and soil/weather.]
Native American influence
The Dutch learned how to cook some Indian dishes and fit them into their daily fare. For lovers of
porridge it was not hard to get used to sappaen, a cornmeal mush; and the pumpkin easily fitted into a common Dutch meal as pumpkin
pancakes..."
---Sensible Cook (p. 27)
18th century meals & mealtimes
"In 1749, eighty-five years after the English took over the Dutch colony, [Peter Kalm] describes the descendants of the Dutch
settlers in Albany as follows: 'Their food and its preparation is very different from that of the English. Their breakfast is tea,
commonly without milk. About thirty or forty years ago, tea was unknown to them, and they breakfasted either upon bread and butter,
or bread an milk. They never put sugar into the cup, but take a bit of it into their mouths while they drink. Along with the tea they
eat bread and butter, with slices of dried beef. The host himself generally says grace out loud. Coffee is not usual there. They
breakfast generally around seven. Their dinner is buttermilk and bread, to which they add sugar on special occasions, when it is a
delicious dish for them, or fresh milk and bread, with boiled or roasted meat. They sometimes make use of buttermilk instead of fresh
milk, in which to boil a thin kind of porridge that tastes very sour but not disagreeable in hot weather. With each dinner they have
a large salad, prepared with an abundance of vinegar, and very little or no oil...Their supper consists generally of bread and butter, and milk with small
pieces of bread in it. The butter is very salt. Sometimes too they have chocolate. They occasionally eat cheese at breakfast and at
dinner; it is not in slices, but scraped or rasped, so as to resemble coarse flour, which they pretend [claim] adds to the good
taste of the cheese. They commonly drink very weak beer, or pure water."---ibid (p. 27-28)
"In contrast to the frugal daily fare were veritable feasts for the holidays, special occasions, or guests:...'Tea here was a perfect regale; accompanied by various sorts of cakes...cold pastry, and great quantities of sweetmeats and preserved fruits of various kinds, and plates of hickory and other nuts ready cracked. In all manner of confectionery and pastry these people excelled; and having fruit in great abundance, which costs them nothing, and getting sugar home at an easy rate...the quantity of these articles used in families, otherwise plain and frugal, was astonishing.'"---ibid (p. 28)
"In their new colony, the settlers continued to prepare familiar foods...As diaries and inventories note, the settlers themselves brought the implements used for cooking these familiar foods, duplicating life in the Netherlands as best as they could. Cookbooks of their descendants show that they continued their own foodways but also incorporated native foods into their daily diet, albeit in ways that were familiar to them. For instance, they made pumpkin cornmeal pancakes, pumpkin sweetmeat, or added cranberries instead of the usual raisins and apples to their favorite olie-coecken. Lovers of porridge found it easy to get used to sapaen (Indian cornmeal mush), but they added milk to it...Cookies, pancakes, waffles, wafers, oli-koecken, pretzels, and coleslaw are some of the dishes that were brought to America by the Dutch colonists."---Matters (p. 23-24)
Colonial era foods & Civil War fare (overviews).
History-wise, NC is probably most well known for its Moravian food heritage. The Moravians, a pious Germanic people, founded the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina in 1766. Known for their Lovefeasts and sweets, these traditions thrive today. Original/historic recipes are published in Preserving the Past: Salem Moravians' Receipts and Rituals [Carolina Avenue Press].
Sweet Moravian traditions
"Nazareth's Whitefield House will see its 265th Christmas this year. While the once
home and school for Moravian settlers is now a museum telling the region's history; it's
not hard to imagine the gracious stone building once filled with the celebration and
sweet smells of traditional Moravian holiday recipes. As Susan Dreydoppel shares the
history of some of the uniquely famous baked goods still enjoyed by Moravians and
non-Moravians alike, she gently places samples of the treats on an appropriately
holiday-themed plate and the irresistible fragrance of cinnamon and ginger again fills
the 1740s Whitefield House. Dreydoppel, a Moravian minister and an area bakery share
the reasons Moravian baking traditions have become such a cherished part of the
holidays in our area.
"Our traditions stem from German baking traditions we brought here with us," explains
the Rev. Christine Johnson, co-pastor at East Hills Moravian Church in Bethlehem.
Dreydoppel, executive director of the Moravian Historical Society, and a Moravian,
continues to make the recipes passed down to her by her Bethlehem grandmother.
Dreydoppel prefers to bake traditional cookie recipes: scotch cakes (a rich, buttery
shortbread with icing), chocolate drops and spice cookies. She says her research into
ethnic Christmas customs found that in some cultures -- including the Swedish, German
and Pennsylvania Dutch-- cookies are an important part of the holidays.
"In the German culture they used to do cookies and place them on the Christmas tree.
The dark dough, spice dough, was for animal shapes; the white dough, for geometric
shapes," she says. One way baking is tied to Moravian religious traditions is the
lovefeast, Johnson says. Most area churches, including East Hills Moravian, celebrate a
lovefeast on Christmas Eve. "Lovefeast is a very simple meal shared during a worship
service and helps us remember we are family," the pastor says. The lovefeast is based in
early Christianity when the faithful didn't have churches and met in homes. "What do
you do in your home? Share food together," she says. Later in history the lovefeast
premise became part of German tradition, too. "People were wanting to linger after
worship services where they were connected to God. They'd call out for leftovers and
Germans had a lot of sugary cake and sweet buns in their homes," Johnson says.
The well-known Moravian sugar cake is a simple cake topped with butter, brown sugar
and cinnamon. "Sugar cake is something people assume has been this Moravian
delicacy for centuries. However, there is no hard-and-fast history for sugar cake and
other classic Moravian recipes," Dreydoppel says. The first written recipe for the cake
can be traced back to the Moravian Magazine published in Bethlehem, in 1863. "My
guess is if they were publishing something in this magazine, it wasn't popular before
that," she says. Talk of sugar cake in her family goes back to a story she heard her
grandfather tell of his mother sending butter and brown sugar to Bethlehem's Central
Moravian Church to make the cakes. "It's a yeast dough. People don't take time to make
things with yeast (anymore)," Dreydoppel says. But there have been recipes adapted to
make the cake with quick yeast and breadmakers. "Purists would say that's a travesty,"
she adds lightheartedly. Plus, "There is no small recipe for sugar cake. You're going to
get a lot -- enough to feed a family or congregation." "I've made sugar cake. It's hard,"
Johnson says with a laugh. Her congregation also includes many young professionals
and busy families who also don't have time to bake the traditional items. So, who makes
the sugar cake for East Hills holiday lovefeast?
Schubert's Bakery in Nazareth.
The bakery, in its 35th year on North Broad Street, serves up the sweet tradition for
many local churches, Moravian and non-Moravian. Before then, the business, owned by
Ernie Schubert, was on South Main Street in Phillipsburg. Store manager Barbara
Willett of Easton says the dough for the store's famed sugar cake is made and patted by
hand. Schubert's offers sugar cake year-round and, at the holidays, also makes the
traditional Moravian lovefeast bun a large bun topped with butter and sugar, she says.
Whether store-bought or homemade, Moravian treats just seem to make the holidays a
little sweeter.
Want to get baking?
Bear with this non-traditional recipe style, which appeared in The Moravian magazine
more than a century ago:
1863 Moravian Sugar Cake
To gratify one of our lady subscribers, and in compliance with other repeated
solicitations, we furnish herewith a recipe for making the genuine home-made sugar
cake which we have taken down from the lips of several experienced housekeepers.
Recipe -- of well-risen wheaten bread dough, take about two pounds. Work into it a
teacup full of brown sugar, quarter pound of butter and a beaten egg. Knead well and
put into a square pan dredged with flour. Cover it and set it near the fire for half an hour
to rise. When risen, wash with melted butter; make holes in the dough to half its depth,
two inches apart, fill them with brown sugar and a little butter. Then spread ground
cinnamon and a thick layer of brown sugar over the whole surface. Sprinkle with a little
essence of lemon. Put into the oven and bake it fifteen minutes.
Susan Dreydoppel offers this recipe which translates more easily to modern
cooking methods:
Moravian Sugar Cake
2 pints potato water or milk
1 or 2 packages dry yeast, dissolved in 1/2 cup very warm water
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
4 teaspoons salt
1 cup shortening
8 to 10 cups flour (more if needed)
Topping:
Melted butter
Brown sugar
Cinnamon (the more the better)
Heat potato water or milk to lukewarm, or scald and then cool milk. In large
mixing bowl, combine liquid, yeast (use 2 packages if you want faster rising, 1 for
slower), sugar, salt, eggs, some flour, shortening, rest of flour.
Work with hand until dough blisters (dough will be very soft and sticky, so leave it in
the bowl and just squeeze for about 10 minutes). Let rise about one hour in a warm
place. Punch down. May be put in pans now, or let rise a second time (about 45 minutes
to an hour).
Spread in well-greased pans, spreading as thin as possible (it won't go smoothly to
edges, but after it's risen a bit, it will spread out a little more). Let rise 30 to 45 minutes.
Punch holes with finger. Spoon melted butter over. Cover with soft brown sugar,
sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until top is golden
brown.
Note: The full recipe will make a lot of sugar cake, probably two cookie sheets full plus
a 9- by-13 inch pan. I usually only make half the recipe, using 1 full package yeast. This
makes 1 cookie sheet plus two, small, 8- by-8 inch pans.
If you really want to keep it simple, and have a bread machine, try this version
courtesy Ann Weisel, Moravian Historical Society administrative assistant...
Chocolate Drops
1 pound powdered sugar
1/2 pound lard (can substitute 1 cup plus a little more shortening)
1 1/2 pounds flour (6 cups)
3 teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs (reserve whites for frosting)
1/2 pound baking chocolate (unsweetened)
1 cup milk
5 ounces chopped almonds or pecans
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
Melt chocolate (can be done in microwave). Cream sugar, salt, lard, egg yolks. Stir
in chocolate. Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with milk. Stir in nuts and
vanilla. Roll in small balls (about 1 inch in diameter) and bake at 375 to 400
degrees on greased cookie sheet.
When cool, frost with:
1 pound powdered sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat egg whites, add sugar and vanilla. Add a little hot water if icing gets too thick.
Source: Susan Dreydoppel
Scotch Cakes
1 pound flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound butter
1/2 pound granulated sugar
1 teaspoon caraway seed
Mix all together day before baking. Chill in refrigerator. Roll not too thin and cut
into squares with pastry cutter. Bake at 375 degrees until golden. Ice with same
frosting as used for chocolate drops. Sprinkle each cookie with red sugar.
Source: Susan Dreydoppel
Brown Moravian Christmas Cakes (cookies)
1 cup molasses
1 cup corn syrup
1/4 pound margarine
1/4 pound shortening (1/2 cup)
1/2 pound dark brown sugar (1 cups)
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 pounds unsifted flour (8 cups)
Heat liquid, shortening and sugar, then add 6 cups flour mixed with spices. Knead
into loaves until quite stiff, mold to fit plates and put aside in cool place for 3 or 4
days before using.
Use 2 cups of flour for rolling out cookies. Tip: Roll out thin and cut only around edges
of dough, then roll center again before cutting it. Bake at 360 degrees on greased cookie
sheets for no more than 15 minutes.
Source: Recipe from the late Martha Luckenbach of Bethlehem, provided by
Susan Dreydoppel. "
---"Sugar cake and spice cookies made the season special:
Even non-Moravians enjoy these holiday creations," Marica White, The Express-Times December 18, 2005
The foodways specialists at Old Salem add these notes, citing earlier print evidence of
local Sugar Cakes:
"In the morning as we came from bed, we found our lb. of cakes laying on the
table with a slate pencil from Sr. Langgaar by each, and some apples.. After
being washed & combed we went to breakfast where we found sugar cake &
coffee. The first meeting was German preaching afterwards English in both of
which was beautiful music. At 10 o'clock, in the afternoon we had our
meeting, which was kneeling, kept by Mr. Huebner. In the evening, we spoke
our dialogue for our beloved Mr. Frues. After meeting we had the pleasure to
go & see the Illuminate of the brethren's house, which was delightful." -
Friday, Dec. 25, 1789; A JOURNAL kept at BETHLEHEM BOARDING SCHOOL begun in
December, 1789 by MARIA ROSINA UNGER; This transcription is from the
holdings of the Bethlehem Area Public Library. The original can be found in
the collection of the Moravian Museum of the Historic Bethlehem Partnership.
"The choir of the unmarried Brothers also joined in the same celebration. For Breakfast there was sugar cake." - May 4 1815, Peter Wolle Diaries,On File in Old Salem Library, Winston-Salem, NC
"At daybreak some shots were fired. For breakfast I had ordered sugar cake." - July 4, 1815, Peter Wolle Diaries,On File in Old Salem Library, Winston-Salem, NC
"Sugar cake from Vierlings for breakfast." - April 14, 1816, Peter Wolle Diaries, On File in Old Salem Library, Winston-Salem, NC
In Eliza Leslie's cookbook, Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches
by Miss Leslie, the 1837, 1840 and 1847 edition there is the following
recipe:
Moravian Sugar Cake
Cut a quarter of a pound of butter into a pint of rich milk, and warm it till the butter becomes soft; then stir it about in the milk so as to mix them well. Sift three quarters of a pound of flour (or a pint and a half) into a deep pan, and making a ole in the middle of it, stir in a large table-spoonful of the best brewer's yeast in which a salt-spoonful of salt has been dissolved; and then thin it with the milk and butter. Cover it, and set it near the fire to rise. If the yeast is sufficiently strong, it will most probably be in two hours. When it is quite light, mix with the dough a well-beaten egg and three quarters of a pound more of sifted flour; adding a tea-spoonful of oil of cinnamon, and stirring it very hard. Butter a deep square baking pan, and put the mixture into it. Set it to rise again, as before. Mix together five ounces or a large coffee-cup of fine brown sugar; two ounces of butter; and two table-spoonfuls of powdered cinnamon. When the dough is thoroughly light, make deep incisions all over it, at equal distances, and fill them with the mixture of butter, sugar and cinnamon; pressing it hard down into the bottom of the holes, and closing the dough a little at the top to prevent the seasoning from running out.. Strew some sugar over the top of the cake; set it immediately into the oven, and bake it from twenty minutes to half an hour, or more, in a brisk oven in proportion to its thickness. When cool, cut it into squares. This is a very good plain cake; but do not attempt it unless you have excellent yeast."
Books combining NC history & modernized recipes
Greek foods made their mark in the Greensboro area during the 20th century. If you want more details regarding specific foreign impact on NC foodways please lets us know.
Did you know NC is the number one sweet potato growing state in our country?
NC blueberries are a very popular commodity today. They were first planted in this state in 1935. 1 & 2.
Many northern Europeans settled in North Dakota. They introduced the dishes of their homelands, which are still enjoyed today. North Dakota/German recipes & cookbooks. The Scandinavians also settled in North Dakota. Every year the Norsk Hostfest is a popular destination for family fun & food.
What did Nebraska pioneers eat?
"The buffalo herds of the plains played a key role in the frontier life and food supply of early North Dakota. Both the Indians and the settlers were
dependent on these animals...The Indians of the northern Great Plains obtained such necessities as food, clothing, shelter, and fuel from the buffalo.
As a food source the buttalo provided fresh meat, tallow, bone marrow, pemmican, and dried or jerked meat. The Indians considered tongues, dried
and smoked as a delicacy...North Dakota has has an agricultural economy since the time the territory became a state. It is probably the most rural state in
the country, with about 90 percent of the land in farms. The cultivation of spring and durum wheat and barley, along with the raising of cattle and hogs
and dairy operations, constitutes the state's agriculture...The pioneers who came to Dakota in wagons brought potatoes, squash, rice, preserves, pickles,
and eggs. The fragile items such as eggs were packed in cornmeal for the rough journey. However, the supply of both eggs and cornmeal was usually
exhausted at journey's end. In 1812 a small group of Scottish Highlanders established a settlement in the Red River Valley and ignored the eating habits
of the area, which were primarily based on the food of the Indians. The Highlanders had brought with them salt pork and beef from England, as well as
oatmeal for porridge, salt fish, and shortbread...The largest group of Icelandic settlements in this country is in North Dakota. Skyr, a version of
yogurt, was made by many of the Icelandic housewives and was served with blueberries...The Norwegians still bake many of their native cookies and
pastries."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 188-191)
Official state foods & popular commodities
The official state beverage of Ohio (adopted by law) is tomato juice. Paragon tomatoes
were "invented" in Reynoldsburg. If you
need more details about tomatoes in Ohio & authentic Ohio tomato recipes? Ask your librarian to help
you find a copy of Livingston and the Tomato, A.W. Livingston (inventor of the Paragon). This
book has recently been reissued by Ohio State University Press with a forward by culinary historian
Andrew F. Smith. The only other edible state symbol is the white tailed deer. Ohio's lush valleys grow several fruits and vegetables.
Looking for historic recipes?
Here is a cookbook
published by the Ladies' Aid Society of the First Presbyterian Church, Marion, Ohio [1894].
Need more historic recipes? We have a copy of The Presbyterian Cook Book, Compiled by the
Ladies of the First Presbyterian Church, Dayton Ohio c. 1911. We can send selected recipes if you wish.
Mark Zanger's The American History Cookbook lists several recipes culled from historic
cookbooks published in Ohio. Among these are: Apple brown betty, Boy's coffee, Coconut
Macaroons, Delightful cakes, Hayes cake, Sheridan cake, Wheat bread with Potato Yeast, and
Kumbish. If you would like to see these recipes, ask your librarian to help you find a copy. Hilde
Gabriel Lee's Taste of the States offers Upside-Down Apple Tart (p. 160) and Chicken &
Chestnuts (p. 162). Mary Anna Du Sablon's Cincinnati Recipe Treasury is perfect for examining ethnic (German, Greek)
culinary contributions. Recipes included.
The tree:History, symbolism & traditions
The candy
"Buckeye. A peanut-buttter-and-chocolate candy made in little balls resembling buckeye nuts.
The term is dated in print by the Dictionary of American Regional English to 1970, which
describes it as "Cheap candy that used to be sold years ago." But according to Marcia Adams
in Heartland (1991), "If Ohio were to declare a state candy, this recipe would be it...Some
cooks like to leave a bit of peanut butter ball exposed when dipping in the chocolate so it
more closely resembles a real buckeye."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 45)
The Buckeye Cookery Book [1877] offers this recipe for Buckeye Candy, which does not include peanut butter. Chocolate was sometimes an ingredient, but not employed as coating.
The Presbyterian Cook Book [Dayton Ohio:1873-1911] does not reference any sort of Buckeye-type candy. This confirms the possibility Buckeye candy might be a more recent creation. Peanut butter, at any rate, was not a popular candy ingredient until the early 20th century. Prior to this it was considered a health food. Not likely to be dipped in chocolate.
An examination of old candy recipes confirms chocolate covered peanut confections (generally combining peanut butter and fondant) were known in the early 20th century. Andrew F. Smith includes this historic recipe in his book Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea (p. 155): "Peanut Bon-Bons. Take one part peanut butter and one part fondant, blend them thoroughly, press out and cut into squares, allow to harden, and then coat with dipping cream. The dipping cream my be colored a little with caramel. Source: Sherwood Snyder, The Art of Candy Making Fully Explained (Dayton, Ohio: Health Publishing Co., 1915), 30." Alice Bradley's Candy Cook Book (c. 1929) offers this: "Chocolate Peanut Butter Creams. 1/2 cup fondant, 3 tablespoons peanut butter, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, Few grains salt, Coating chocolate. Mix fondant, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla with a spatula on marble slab or plate until thoroughly blended. Shape in small balls, and dip in melted coating chocolate." (p. 46. Fondant is basically powdered sugar, corn syrup and water.
More "finger food" suggestions from the Ohio State Library:
"Until late in the ninteenth century, the history of Oklahoma was closely tied to its
Indian population...In the summer, they traversed the prairie, hunting buffalo, and using
every part of the animal for food, clothing, shelter, fuel and tools. In the fall, the prairie
Indians returned to their small villages to harvest their crops...The Plains Indians in the
western part of the Oklahoma Territory were also buffalo hunters, but they did not
maintain permanent villages. By the early 1800s the largest portion of Oklahoma was
occupied by five major Indian tribes--the Creek, Choctaw, Chicksaw, Cherokee, and
Seminole...These five tribes were primarily agricultural, and their principal crop was
corn...A favorite dish of the Cherokee was Tafala, a boiled porridge of cracked
corn...The Indians' diet was supplemented with beans, pumpkins, squash, wild game,
and fish...
Oklahoma was the last of the Great Plains regions to be settled and homesteaded...At
noon on April 22, 1889, Oklahoma was opened for settlement, and the rush for land
began...The majority of the homesteaders were small-scale farmers and
ranchers...Settlers spent the first few years raising subsistence crips and bartering for
necessities. When wheat was raised a few years later, they earned enough money to
build homes...Most of the women who helped settle Oklahoma had brought with them
their silver and good English china, onion sets, and packets of seeds. The carried in their
heads recipes for sugar cakes, gingerbread, Brunswick Stew, and carrot fritters...Pioneer
women of Oklahoma adjusted and made biscuits and corn bread. They invented a stew
of rabbit, turnips, and flour gravy. The combined grains of hard Spanish wheat with beef
and named it Oklahoma Stews. Wild pecans were used in pie fillings, and Pioneer Pecan
Pie became famous all over the states. Pickles and preserves were made from
watermelon rinds. Watermelons originally grew on Indian farms and were later raised
by settlers...
A variety of ethnic groups settled in Oklahoma, including Native Americans, African
Americans, Germans, English, Italians, Spanish, Poles and Czechs. Although each
group brought some of their native dishes with them, they soon melded into the cooking
of Oklahoma with its strong Tex-Mex flavorings."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 206-8)
Oklahoma is the only state in the union to have an "official" state meal: fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbecue pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, strawberries, chicken fried steak, pecan pie, and black-eyed peas. This is based on popular local foods, past and present. Sorry, no "official" recipes.
Need to make something for class?
If you need to prepare something easy for class...fresh strawberries or watermelon (parts of the official state meal) are your easiest options. Cornbread and/or baking soda
biscuits are likewise doable. Pecan Pie is tasty, but very rich and takes time. Maybe not
the best choice for kids. Oklahoma cooks offers ethnic recipes.
Wheat recipes.
Sheila Hibben's National Cookbook (excellent source!) c. 1932 contains two
recipes for Oklahoma. They are:
"Chicken and corn pudding
6 ears green corn
1 broiling chicken
1 onion
1 sprig parsley
1/2 cup melted butter
salt and pepper
3 eggs
Clean, wash, and cut up a young chicken as for frying. Let it simmer until tender with just enough water to cover, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cut the grains from the raw roasting-ears, beginning with a thin outer slice. Add to the corn, the melted butter, well-beaten eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt, and entough of the broth in which the chicken has been cooking to make a batter. Pour into a buttered baking-dish; place the pieces of chicken in the middle, and bake until brown on top and the pudding is firm throughout." ---(p. 167-8)"Pepper butter
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon finely minced green pepper
1 tablespoon finely minced red pepper
1/2 clove garlic (mashed)
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 drops tabasco
Cream the butter until light; add the other ingredients and beat well. Serve with broiled beefsteak." ---(p. 274)
Need something really quick, very, interesting, totally noisy, & way cool??! POPCORN!!!
...here's the connection:
"The Oklahoma house of representatives, which meets at Guthrie, will continue to eat popcorn, this, too, despite the heroic efforts
recently made by Representative T. F. Vandeventer of Bartlesville, former speaker of the Arkansas house and the man who gave
Jeff Davis the closest race he ever had for the Democratic nomination for governor. 'This contiunal eating of popcorn and the
practice of the members in exploding the empty bags during speechmaking detract from the dignity of the house and should be
stopped,' he asserted. Speaker Murray was Vandeventer's principal opponent. 'If that be so,' yelled Harvey Utterback, Republican,
of Kingfisher, 'then the practice of eating it should be discontinued at once!'...Vandeventer demanded a roll call, but
a rising vote was taken instead, and popcorn was kept on the house bill of fare by a vote of 46 to 29. Members of both houses
of the legislature eat popcorn all the time during sessions. Even the press tables are covered with it at times, and all the
legislative clerks eat abundantly of it. It is figured by local popcorn venders that it takes from a half bushel to three pecks of
corn on the ear daily to supply the legislature's demands for the popped product."
---"Popcorn Legislators' Diet," Daily Record, [Morris County, NJ newspaper] August 27,1908 (p. 6)
Edible state symbols (officially enacted by law) are: milk, Chinook salmon, Oregon grapes, pears, chanterelle mushrooms and hazelnuts. top commodities. Popular foods traditionally connected with Oregon include hazelnuts, berries, modern maraschino cherries & Dungeness crab. Oregon also has a thriving wine industry.
A few notes on Oregon's fruit & nut heritage
"Agriculture...Two young Iowans, Henderson Luelling and William Meek, can be
considered the "Johnny Appleseeds" of the Pacific Northwest. Both Meek and Luelling
came to Oregon with nursery stock in soil-filled boxes in their wagons...Transporting
plants was not an easy task, since they had to be watered frequently. The two men
settled In the Willamatte Valley, teaming up to form partnership and start a nursery.
Their trees were forerunners of today's Rogue River pears, Willamette Valley plums
and prunes, Hood River apples, and Dalles cherries. In those early days fruit was so
scarce that settlers came from all over the region to see the first apple trees...The coming
of the railroads made it possible to transport Oregon fruit to eastern markets...Bartlett
pears, which are hardy and keep well, became Oregon's major crop...Ninety-eight
percent fo the hazelnuts used in this country are grown in Oregon. The first hazelnut
trees were planted in 1858 in Schottsburg, Oregon, by David Gernot, a Frenchman."
---"Oregon," Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee
[Howell Press:Charlotte VA] 1992 (p. 242-3)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask
your librarian to help you obtain a copy.]
Historic foodways: Lewis & Clark & Oregon Trail cookery. Historic cookbooks from Portland Oregon: The Portland Woman's Exchange Cook Book (1913) & All Western Conservation Cook Book/Inie Gage Chapel (1917). James Beard as born and raised in Portland.
What to make for class?
We suggest a recipe featuring one or more of Oregon's fine
fruits. Fresh Oregon fruit is healthiest choice. Fruit salad (including maraschino cherries) are delicious.
Maraschino Cherry Cake
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice
1/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 whites of eggs
Cream butter and sugar well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture alternately with the milk and cherry juice. Add vanilla and chopped cherries and mix well. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour into three medium-sized greased layer-cake pans and bake in a 350 degree F. oven for about forty minutes or until center of the cake is springy to the touch."
---"Oregon," New York World's Fair Cook Book: The American Kitchen, Crosby Gaige [Doubleday, Doran & Company:New York] 1939 (p. 247-248)
"Pennsylvania developed many culinary specialties, one of the earliest being peach pies and tarts baked by the first Quaker housewives in Philadelphia.
Apparently the peach trees left by the Spanish in Florida in the 1500s had been carried north by the Indians, as the Quakers found peach trees in
Pennsylvania when they arrived. Soups and stews provided hearty meals for the early colonists. One of the most famous was Philadelphia Snapper Soup,
made from the snapping turtle found in the Delaware River...Philadelphia consideres itself the birthplace of ice cream in the United States...Sticky
buns are another Philadelphia specialty. They were probably descendants of German Schnecken, which are similar to cinnamon rolls. The recipe for
Schnecken ("snails") was brought by the Germans who settled Germantown...in the early 1680s...Scrapple can be traced to German immigrants...
Pennsylvania Dutch cooking was remained almost unaltered for 200 years."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 60-1)
"Official" state foods are introduced by legistators and enacted by law. Pennsylvania's edible state symbols are: milk, brook trout, white tailed deer and ruffled grouse. You'll find pictures and descriptions here. The1876 Centennial Exposition was held in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania famous for many different foods. Although these are not official "state foods," they represent the history and people living in the state. If you need to make a food for your state report all you have to do is select a place and period. Some popular examples here:
Need to create a colonial Philadelphia tavern or coffee house meal?
Our research confirms coffee houses (both European and American) were not particularly known for their food. Like publik houses and taverns, they were considered destination for exchanging ideas, sharing news and conducting business. Coffee houses drew a crowd that considered themselves more intellectually elite than the average tavern goer. The planners of the American Revolution were among these coffee house customers. Because these customers were generally of the wealthier classes, it is reasonable to assume they would have expected the best foods available at that time.
About Colonial American coffee houses &
taverns.
[NOTE: neither of these establishments furnished menus to customers. Food was often served on a sideboard (like buffet) all at once. If your son needs create a
"bill of fare" his best bet is to hand write it on parchment-like paper with a fountain pen. Post on the wall. No prices. Foods came with the drinks.
What to serve? (easy, cheap, appealing to elementary students or middle schoolers)
Meat pies (chicken, pork), stew or soup (vegetable perfectly okay, esp. if some classmates are vegetarian), baked ham, warm potato salad, stews, bread (corn muffins, white/wheat rolls, ), butter, fruit pies, sugar cookies, gingerbread, Sally Lunn (like pound cake), cheese cake, ice cream, cider, cocoa, milk, tea, alcohol-free fruit punch. Coffee?? of course was served but some parents may object because of caffeine. Discuss with the teacher. Very weak coffee with milk & sugar is perfectly period and may interest the students. Popular period commodities you will likely omit (based on price, availability & taste): oysters, terrapin and tripe. Kudos to you if you attempt traditional/popular Philadelphia PepperPot Soup.
Recommended cookbooks with modernized recipes(your local public librarian will help you get these)
Foods from the Founding Fathers/Burke
Philadelphia's City Tavern was a favorite place for eating & drinking. Modernized menus are inspired by colonial era traditions. While this food is more upscale/
gourmet (& expensive) than your project requires, it may be useful for additional ideas & table settings. City Tavern's chef Walter
Staib has published cookbooks. Your local public librarian can help you get them.
Quaker traditions are best captured by Penn Family Recipes: Cooking Recipes of Willian Penn's Wife Gulielma/edited by Evelyn Abraham Benson [George Shumway:York PA] 1966 and Domestic Cookery, Elizabeth Ellicott Lea.
[1832]
Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats, Eliza Leslie
"Tillable land was scarce in Rhode Island, and agricultural products were highly valued...Most early Rhode Island farmers
produced only for their family's needs...One of the oldest farms in America is still owned by the same family...The
Fry Farm, near the town of East Greenwich...is much the same as when it was settled in 1677 by Thomas Fry...Account books
dating form 1719 to 1830 tell about life on the Fry farm. The farm was primarly a dairy farm, although falz and other crops
were also grown...The Frys frequently bartered for items they could not produce. Entries in the books showed that butter,
cheese, wood, and meat were sold to buy tea, coffee, and spices. Potatoes were once grown, and an apple orchard once
produced enough fruit to pay two college tuitions...The first apple orchard was established in Rhode Island by William
Blackstone in 1635...Rhode Islanders faced the same food-preprartion challenges encountered by other New England
colonists. Whtie flour was scarce and expensive, so Rhode Islanders mainly used cornmeal for their breads and cakes. Fried
corn bread, given the name "Jonnycake" (and its spelling) by Rhode Islanders, was first made by Pilgrim women and dates back
to 1621. It was made from a batter composed of cornmeal, hot water, and salt and poured onto a hot stone or iron griddle
for cooking...Having limited amount of land for agriculture, Rhode Islanders turned to the sea for food and trade...Rhode
Island's prime harvests from the sea were quahog and cherrystone clams...In the 1850s Rhode Island began developing
oyster beds in the Narragansett Bay."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of Aemrica, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 28-30)
Official state foods
Edible state symbols: Striped bass, Rhode Island Greening
Apple, and Quahog (type of clam)
Notable Rhode Island food contributions
Need to make something for class?
Scalded-Meal Jonny Cakes (South County)Recommended cook books with historic RI recipes (your librarian can get them for you or we can send one of the recipes listed below).
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon molasses
1 1/2 cups Rhode Island cornmeal
1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
Boiling water
Milk
Butter
Place the first 4 ingredients in a bowl in the order given and pour over these enough boiling water to make a stiff dough. Beat thoroughly and let stand a few minutes while the mixture thickens. Thin down with milk to a consistency that will readily drop off the end of a spoon. Drop on a well-greased hot griddle from a tablesooon. Cook over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, turing once to brown both sides lightly. Split the hot jonny cake in half and place a large piece of butter between the halves. When the butter has melted, serve--and watch the smile of satisfaction go aqround the table. Makes about 1 1/2 dozen small cakes. Note: Some use sugar instead of molasses, whereas others use no sweetening at all. Some thin down the mixture with milk that is scalding hot. An old South County recipe, instead of directing that the mixture be dropped from a spoon says: 'Dip the hands in water and mould each spoonful in balls to be flattened to a half-inch thickness on a hot greased griddle; bake nearly half an hour with occasional turning.'Milk Jonny Cakes (Newport County)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup Rhode Island cornmeal
1 3/4 cups milk (more as needed)
Bacon fat
Put the salt, sugar, and cornmeal in a bowl. Add the milk and mix thoroughly. Bake on a hot griddle greased with bacon fat, as you would bake griddle cakes, Since the meal keeps swelling for some time, add more milk to keep the mixture to the proper thin consistency. Makes 12 to 14 small cakes. Note: Some prefer to omit the sugar."
---Newport Cookbook, Ceil Dyer [Foremost Publishers:Little Compton RI] 1972 (p. 48-49)
[NOTE: This is the BEST source for historic RI food notes & modernized recipes from colonial days to the early 20th century.]Cobblestones (spice cookies) are also easy to make and bring to class:
"Cobblestones
Colonial seaports received plentiful supplies of raisins,which were used in cooking and as treats for the children.
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
Cream together butter and sugar; add beaten egg and vanilla. Sift four, soda, salt together; stir this, bit by bit, into creamed mixture and beat well. Fold in raisins. Form a heaping tablespoon and drop 3 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in preheated oven at 375 degrees F. Makes 3 dozen."
---Foods from the Founding Fathers: Recipes from Five Colonial Seaports, Helen Newbury Burke [Exposition Press:Hicksville NY] 1978 (p. 134)
1. Foods From the Founding Fathers, Helen Newbury Burke
---contains recipes for: Rags and Tatters (cheese biscuits), Pumpkin Soup of Rhode Island (served hot), New England Scallop
Chowder, Steamed Clams, Rhode Island Clam Fritters, Rhode Island Clam Pie, Fried Scallops, Portuguese Style, Scrod Broiled in
Lemon Butter, Kedgeree (breakfast dish of rice, codfish, eggs & heavy cream, served with fried tomatoes), Salt Codfish in Sauce, Lobster
Stew, New England Boiled Dinner, Beefsteak Pie, Jerky (not just a cowboy food!), Roast Goose, Fried Salt Pork with Cream
Gravy, Squash, Corn Fritters, Mashed Turnips, Rhode Island Baked Beans, Salmagundi (chopped salad with meat, like Cobb
Salad), Creamed Oysters, Summer Succotash, Rhode Island Johhnycake, Fried Cornmeal Mush, Rhode island "Spat-Outs" (round
cornmeal cakes, deep fried like doughnuts), Toads & Rye Toads (more doughnuts), Hoecake (white corn meal cooked in open griddle),
Rhode Island Corn Pone, Rhode Isalnd Squantum (brown bread), Pumpkin Bread, Cracklin' Bread (cornmeal with pork drippings),
Tea Rusk, Spider Corncake (spiders were a type of frying pan with a long handle and three legs), Squash Rolls, Rhode
Island sally Lunn, Blueberry Muffins, Apple Pan Dowdy (like cobbler), Berry Grunts (also like cobbler), Rhode Island Apple
Slump (more cobbler), Rhodes Island Cob Pie, Mince meat, Blueberry Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Squash Pie, Trifle or Tipsy Parson
(layered sponge cake, cream and fruit preserves), Indian Pudding ("Indian" meant maize or corn in colonial American
recipes), Indian Apple Pudding, Steamed Spicy Suet Pudding (like plum pudding), Pound cake, Cobblestones (spice cookies), Bean Pot Applesauce,
Apple Chutney, Quince Jelly, Apple Jelly, Blackberry Jam, Spiced Crab Apple, Candied Cranberries (candied means cooked with
sugar), Watermelon Rind Preserves, Rhode Island Tomato Relish, Dilled Green Bean Pickles, Hoarhound Candy (hoarhound is
a type of herb), Molasses Candy, Rum Punch, Brandy Shrub, Artillery Punch (wine, brandy, bourbon, lemons etc.),
"The territory of Carolina...was a land 1663 land grant from King Charles II of Great Britian to eight proprietors. The
English explored the area and found fertile soil and a warm climate. Settlers soon followed who brought seeds and root
cuttings, which they envisioned would become fields of grain, English vegetable gardesn, and orchards. England hoped that the
Carolina colony would supply it with citrus, wines, and other Mediterranean-type produce. Unfortunately, the hope was never
realized...Charles Town was the first significant city in the South and for many years remained the principal seaport and
trading center for the Deep South. Being a seaport, Charles Town enjoyed a variety of exotic food ingredients from its
early days. Sea captains brought spices from the Far East and the Caribbean Islands. Bananas picked only days before in the
Caribbean were commonplace in produce markets. Chocolate from Central America became a favorite dessert ingredient used in
ice creams, pies, souffles, and cakes. Pickles became popular in colonial days when Charles Town sea captains brought back
mango pickles from India and Madagascar...Charles Town quickly developed a French style of cuisine when a shipload of
French Huguenots came in 1680...The brought with the years of experience in producing wine...and
growing olives...Many of these new colonists started rice plantations along the marshy lowlands of the coast...Rice, the staple
crop of the area, was almost always included in the meals...In 1755 Henry Laurens succeeded in growing olives, capers, limes,
ginger, pears, strawberries, and grapes...The plantations had so many peaches that they were often often fed to the hogs.
...South Carolina cuisine was primarly based on that of her English and French settlers. Since many settlers had business
connections with the West Indies, island cuisine also influenced Charleston cooking. Rice and bean dishes...have noticeable
flavors obtained from the cooking of the Caribbean Islands and Africa. Sesame seeds, which originally came from Africa,
are still used in sweets and breads."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 133-6)
Colonial cookery
The two most notable primary sources for this place and time are Harriott Pinckney Horry's Receipt Book [c. 1770] and Sarah Rutledge's Carolina
Housewife [c. 1847]. Both books have been reprinted recently by the University of South Carolina Press. Need to make
something for class?
"From her plantation or in her Charleston home, Harriott would not have lacked for good food and drinks. At Hampton she had gardens, poultry, and livestock
together with game and seafood from nearby fields and rivers. In Charleston there were certainly a kitchen garden, a poultry yard, very likely a cow or two, the
daily market, and a wealth of imported delicacies from the West Indies and Europe...Milk and cheese were generally lacking except to the well-to-do. The pork
and barnyard fowls, fed on corn and rice, were rated good, but the beef, veal and mutton were but 'middling' or inferior because...the cattle and sheep were not
fattened but rather slaughtered direct from the thin pastures. From nearby fields and waters.,...there was a plentiful supply of venison, wild turkeys, geese, ducks,
and other wild fowl. Terrapin were found in all ponds, and at times ships arrived from the West Indies with huge sea turtles. Fish were often scarce and expensive,
but oysters, crabs, and shrimp could be bought cheaply. Vegetables were available and were preserved for winter months. Travelers noticed that the 'long' (sweet)
potatoes were a great favorite and there were also white potatoes, pumpkins, various peas and beans, squashes, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, carrots, and
parsnips among other vegetables. Rice was the colony's great staple and it was served with meats and shellfish and used to make breads, biscuits, flour, puddings,
and cakes...Corn served all classes to make Journey cakes and the great and small hominy. Wheat was grown by some of the Germans in the interior, but better
grades were imported from Pennsylvania and New York. Lowcountry dwellers grew and enjoyed a profusion of fruits: oranges, peaches, citrons, pomegranates,
lemons, pears, apples, figs, melons, nectarines, and apricots, as well as a variety of berries...Wealthy planters and merchants were not limited to locally produced
foods. From northern colonies came apples, white potatoes, and wheat...as well as butter, cheeses, cabbages, onions, and corned beef. The West Indies, the
Spanish and Portuguese islands, and Europe sent cheeses, salad oils, almonds, chocolate, olives, pimentos, raisins, sugar, limes, lemons, currants, spices,
anchovies and salt. Boats arrived in Charles Town frequently from the West Indies with many kinds of tropical fruits.As for beverages, only the slaves, the poorest
whites, and hard-pressed frontiersmen drank water. The average South Carolinian more likely drank a mixture of rum and water, spruce beer, or cider, and in the
frontier areas peach brandy and...whiskey..."
---A Colonial Plantation Cookbook: The Receipt Book of Harriott Pinckney Horry 1770, edited with an Introduction by Richard J. Hooker [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 14-17)
About Rice in Georgetown, SC.
Low Country
South Carolina's low country cuisine is a creole mix of English, French, Caribbean and
West African flavors. The Gullah/Geechee people were of West African descent. There
does not seem to be much information about Geechee foodways on the Internet. But!
According to the Library of Congress (http://catalog.loc.gov) there are two books on the
topic:
1. Bittle en' t'ing' : Gullah cooking with Maum Chrish' / Virginia Mixson Geraty.
2. Gullah cooking : creative recipes from an historic past from the low country of South
Carolina / by Oscar Vick.
Upcountry cuisine
Popular traditional examples are Pine Bark Stew & Carolina Muddle. What are these dishes?
"Pine-bark stew. A fish stew. [1872 Atlantic Mth. 29, 748. In these packages were strips of white
pine bark, which in its dried state gives out the flavor of nutmegs--slightly bitter and fragrant.]
1940. Brown Amer. Cooks 49 SC, From Up Country comes the famous Pine Bark Stew that
has as many variations as has the Brunswick Stew and the Kentucky Burgoo. 1941 Writers'
Program Guide SC 369 neSC, Bream and mollies are made into 'pine bark stew,' and tall tales
recounted around the bonfire. 1951 Brown Southern Cook Book 159, Pine Bark Stew, a fish
stew with a dark brown color and pungent flavor, is a South Carolina Pee Dee River dish...Some
sources state that the stew derives its name from the chocolate-like color similar to pine bark;
others, from the pine park used to kindle the open fire over which the stew is cooked. From The
Pee Dee Pepper Pot, Darlington, South Carolina, is a third explanation, "Since seasonings were
unobtainable during the Revolutionary War Days, the tender small roots of the Pine Tree...were
used for flavoring (the stew). With homemade ketchup as a base, the only other seasoning was
red pepper."
---Dictionary of American Regional English, Joan Houston Hall chief editor, Volume IV P-Sk
[Belknap Press:Cambridge MA] 2002 (p. 160)
"Carolina Muddle
"WHAT? Carolina bouillabaisse. A thick, satisfying fish stew, Carolina muddle can be
found in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, particularly on the Outer Banks. "Muddle
is the traditional feast of the region," Bill Neal wrote in Bill Neal's Southern Cooking.
"The simple vegetables potatoes, onions, tomatoes in perfect proportion with the
freshest fish achieve the satisfaction sought in all good peasant cooking." The soup also
contains bacon, tomatoes, and eggs, which poach on the surface of the simmering
liquid; the name "muddle" refers to the fact that many ingredients are jumbled together.
Cook a muddle in an iron pot over a pine-bark fire and what have you got? Pine bark
stew, of course."
--- Source. [NOTE: page does not connect 11 April 2009]
Colonial-era recipes from South Carolina [modernized for today's kitchens]
"Okra Pilau
The Oxford Dictionary says that a pilau is an Orienta dish of rice with meat and spices. Yet few foods seem to be so home in South Carolina as pilaus. Doubtless the early traders brought the idea of pilaus from India in the days when Charleston was a great seaport, before the Revolutionary War. And southern cooks shifted the emphasis from the secxond to the first syllable, and the ingredient from oil to tomatoes. In Charleston, they pronounce it pelos, and they cook it so that the dish comes out dry and greaseless.
4 slices bacon
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon green pepper, minced
2 sups stewed tomatoes
2 cups okra, sliced thin
Salt and black pepper
2 quarts water
2 cups rice
1 teaspoon salt
Dice the bacon and cook in a deep frying pan until golden brown. Lift out the bacon and fry the onion and green pepper in the bacon fat until brown. Then add the tomatoes and okra and let them cook down, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Season well with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook the rice in the water, to which the salt has been added. After the rice has boiled for 12 minutes, drain, mix with tomato mixture, and turn into the top of a double boiler. Let it steam for 15-20 minutes, at the end of which time the rice should be tender and thorougly flavored with the tomato. Add the bacon just before serving: if it is added too far ahead of time, it will lose its crispness. Makes 6 servings."
---Foods from the Founding Fathers: Recipes from Five Colonial Seaports, Helen Newbury Burke [Exposition Press:New York] 1978 (p. 231-232)
[NOTES: (1) Use regular (not quick or minute) rice; Carolina brand perfect (2)Okra history notes.]Charleston Sweet Potato Pie
Sweet potato pie is to the South what pumpkin pie is to New England...
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
3 eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 large sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
1 cup light cream
1/2 recipe for 9-inch pastry
Line pie pan with pastry; flute edges. Cream butter until soft. Add salt and gradually beat in sugar until mixture is fluffy. Add lemon juice, orange rind, well-beaten egg yolks, nutmeg, and potatoes which have been beaten with cream. Blend well. Fold in egg whites beaten until stiff, but not dry. Pour into pie pan. Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes. Lower heat to moderate (350 degrees F.), and bake for 40-45 minutes longer, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean." Makes 8 servings."
---(p. 240)
[NOTES: (1) It's okay to use pre-made pie shell (2) Sweet potato pie history.]"Plantation Muffins
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold cooked rice
1 cup milk
2 eggs, well-beaten
3 tablespoons melted butter
Mix and sift dry ingredients. Add the rice, stirring well, then combine with the milk and eggs, which have been mixed together. Lastly, stir in the melted butter. Turn into well-greased muffin tins and bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins."
---ibid (p. 237)
[NOTE: Rice played a key role in Colonial-era SC foodways and economy. This versatile grain was employed in many dishes, from savory to sweet. Rice was also ground into flour. About Rice in Georgetown, SC.]
Recommended reading (foodways information & recipes, both historic and modernized)
About South Dakota foodways
"Following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the mid-1870s, prospectors, and merchants swept into the state
with visions of quick wealth...One of the main problems of the gold seekers was food...The basis of much of the food was the hog...Slung in a crate
beneath a covered wagon or waddling, grunting, and rooting behind the slow-moving oxen on the wagon train, the hog became the staple diet of
the prospectors. After slaughtering, the meat was salted down in barrels or smoked. Although food was of vital importance, there was not
a great deal of care in its preparation. Anyone who could soak beans and fry bacon was a cook, until a more profitable means of making money
came along. The food was monotonous. The menus did not vary and consisted of fried bacon and beans, corn bread in various forms, and
sourdough bread...The original cattle brought to South Dakota were rangy longhorns from Texas...In the late 1800s a Scottish accent was all that was needed as
collateral for a mortgage to start a ranch and raise cattle in South Dakota. Along with the Scots came their cattle--Scottish Highlanders, Aberdeen Angus,
and white-faced Herefords. Many returned to Scotland as meat...the miners favorite meat continues to be pork. Pork roast with baked sweet poratoes and a
rhubarb pie...The South Dakota homesteaders at the turn of the cuentury subsisted primarily on potatoes, plus salted pork, and whole wheat bread. If
they had a cow, they also had milk, butter, and cheese to add to this diet. Water was often scarce...Coffee breaks were the norm twice a day for the
Scandinavian families...At mid-monrning and mid-afternoon the women carried steaming coffeepots and baskets of almond cakes, spice cookies, and yeast
crullers out to the men in the fields. The Swedes introduced rutabaga to this country, and in South Dakota it is still cooked with apples and
brown sugar...The most exotic game bird in South Dakota is the Chinese ring-necked pheasant. It was imported from China in the 1890s and became the
state bird of South Dakota...The birds are roasted with salt pork, braised with a tangerine stuffing, or cooked in a casserole with onions and
mushrooms...For centuries the Arikaras Indains cultivated corn, melons, beans, and squash...farming was not extensive in South Dakota until an
agricultural population began settling the Indian lands in the southeast."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 192-5)
Need to bring something class representative of South Dakota?
An ice-cold glass of water will do. Plain and simple. Wall Drug (Wall, SD) established a world-wide reputation
based on that. Water is life. Recommended reading: Historical Cookery of the Black Hills, Kay Riordan
Need to make something for class? The official state dessert is Kuchen, an enriched coffee cake-type item that sounds delicious!
"Kuchen 1 package dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup lukewarm water
2 cups warm milk
2 eggs
½ cup shortening
6-8 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in lukewarm water. Combine milk and eggs, beat well. Add shortening, beat again. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt and add first mixture to it. Mix well. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, sprinkle with a little flour at a time. Put in warm place to rise until double in bulk. Divide dough into 8 equal parts. Roll each piece to fit a pie plate. Let rise 20 minutes. Put fruit on top—can use apples, peaches, raisins or prunes.Filling:
2 cups sweet cream or sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon vanilla
cinnamon
Top the fruit with cream filling. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until brown."
"Western Tennessee along the Mississippi River was first explored by Hernando de
Soto in 1541 and by Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, the French explorers from
Canada, in 1673. Despite the early Spanish and French claims to what is today
Tennessee, the first permanent settlements were made by the English in eastern
Tennessee in 1679. ..The majority of the first white settlers in Tennessee were from
Virginia and the Carolinas and were of English, Scotch-Irish, or French Huguenot
descent...The pioneers grew corn, potatoes, some vegetables, and a little fruit. Most
settlers had at least one apple tree. In the mountains and hollows, deer and wild turkey
were plentiful. Racoon, whose lard was considered choice, abounded. So did bear,
squirrel, and rabbit. A hog or two provided meat for winter, The women learned to make
stews of opossum and squirrel, and stews have remained a part of Tennessee
cooking...The cuisine of Tennessee followed the terrain. In hill country the main dishes
were basically stews and roasted meats. This food had more in common with the
mountain folk of Kentucky and West Virginia than that of the western part of the state.
The food of western Tennessee, with its more luxurious plantation life, had more formal
meals with multiple dishes. Plantation cooking was similar to that of Tidewater Virginia
and the Carolina low country. There was also a French influence, which had come up
the river from New Orleans. Two foods were common to both groups were corn and
ham, especially country cured ham. Each small settlement had its own flavor of country
ham, and travelers claimed they could travel hundreds of miles without tasting the same
ham twice. Corn was not only served as a vegetable but was used in different breads.
Greens, which were frequently cooked with some ham, pork, or "fat back" for flavoring,
were also eaten by both cultures in Tennessee...Ramps, called wild leeks outside of
Tennessee mountain country, still grow abundantly in the mountains of
Tennessee...Home-cured country hams became well-known in Tennessee and often rival
those of Virginia. Tennessee hams are known as "country hams" and are substantially
different from the Smithfield hams of Virginia...Ham and red-eye gravy have become a
traditional Tennessee dish. Red-eye gravy starts with the drippings in a pan, in which
slices of ham were fried. To this is added some water and a little black coffee. The gravy
is then poured over the ham slice and served with grits or biscuits. Both the grits and
biscuits are bland enough to contrast the ham and dry enought to absorb the gravy. Fried
ham slices are also served with creamed potatoes and wilted lettuce."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 82-3)
Official state foods
Tennessee does not have any official (enacted by law) state foods/recipes but it does
have three edible state symbols: Bobwhite quail, largemouth bass and the tomato. Notes
here. The official Tennessee
Web site offers additional history, agricultural/product information and popular
modern recipes.
Shelia Hibben's National Cookbook [1932] contains these recipes for Tennessee: Blackberry jam cake, Cinnamon roses, Confederate pudding, Corn cob soup, Corn meal dodgers for potlicker, Corn meal muffins, Egg flip, Milk sauce, Opossum, Pan broiled spare ribs and Rolled almond wafers. Sample recipes below:
"Blackberry Jam Cake
3 eggs
1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups flour
4 tablespoons sour cream
1 level teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup blackberry jam
1/2 cup strong black coffee
1/2 cup sugar
Cream the butter until light and add it to the sugar; beat well and add jam. Dissolve the spices in coffee and add to butter; then add well-beaten egg yolks, and alternately the flour and sour cream, in which the soda has been dissolved. Finally fold in whites of eggs stiffly beaten, and bake in cake pan from 45 to 55 minutes in moderate oven. Ice with Baker's Icing while still warm."
---National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Shelia Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 389)"Baker's Icing
Add 3 tablespoons of cream and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to a cup of powdered sugar. Beat until well blended, and spread while the cake is still hot. Instead of cream, orange juice may be used."
---ibid (p. 406-7)"Murray County Corn-Meal Dodgers for Pot Licker
1/2 pt. White corn meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
large tablespoon melted lard
cold water
Mix the meal and salt and add melted lard and enough cold water to form with the hand into small cakes about the size of a biscuit. Drop into the boiling pot licker, on the top of the greens, and cook for twenty minutes with cover on the pot. Serve around the greens. In middle Tenneessee these corn dodgers, or dumplings, are called poorsouls."
---ibid (p. 236)
Recommended reading
Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of
Southern Appalachian Cooking/Joseph E. Dabney
...excellent source for regional recipes with historic notes
You can locate state-specific cookbooks with the Library of Congress catalog. Subject search: cookery, tennessee ...your local public librarian can help you obtain these books.
Looking for something unusual? Ramps!
"Ramps: ("Tennessee Truffles")...Ramps reign royally in Cosby, Tennessee, every
April. The Cook County community, nested, in the shadow of the Great Smoky
Mountains, goes wild over the odoriferous mountain leek, stagin a Ramp Festival...But
Cosby isn't alone. Ramps are celebrated across the lofty, fertile, and shady coves in
Southern Appalachia...The Appalachian "ramp country" ranges from West Virginia to
north Georgia. Wild ramps, a member of the lily family, and called "Tennessee
Truffles" by some, flourish in buckeye flats...old-time mountain people love the wild
leek. Take Gary Davis, a retired conservation ranger from Fannin County, Georgia. "If I
don't get some ramps to eat in the spring, I may not make it to the fall. It slicks you off
[as a tonic], makes you feel good and do good all summer..."
---Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of
Southern Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville
TN] 1998 (p. 273-4)
Edible state symbols
Texas rustles up an impressive list of edible state symbols:
Pan de Campo (state bread), chili (state dish), pecans, sopapilla and strudel (state pastries), red grapefruits, japalenos,
prickly pear cactus (nopales), tortilla chips & salsa (state snack) and sweet onions.
Indigenous plants & animals (Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept.)
Texas Plant Information Database
...native plants, searchable by county or region
Texas Habitats
...game, vegetation, history
What did they eat at the Alamo?
What did texan settlers eat in the 1820s to 1900s?
The answer to this question depends upon the ethnic heritage of the settler and how
much money he had. Sending you food notes on selected ethnic groups connected with
Texas:
TexMex
German settlers
Chicken fried steak
Czech settlers & Kolache
French settlers
Much is written about the influence of Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and German
influences on the culture and cuisine of Texas. One has to do more sleuthing to uncover
evidence of French settlement and influence.
Certainly, French immigrants transported their culinary heritage wherever they went. Like all
immigrant cultures, they adapted their recipes (by necessity) to include/accomodate local
ingredients and cooking facilities. They also most likely sampled/ate local fare. In places of large
French settlement (New Orleans, Detroit, Montreal) culinary influence is quite evident and well
documented. In places where small pockets of French settled (Dallas, lower Rio Grande,
headwaters of the Medina & Frio rivers), the culinary influence is less pronounced. Even in
settlements that were completely French (La Reunion 1858) the food was most likely French
with a Texas twist. La Renunion did not flourish. According to a survey of food history books,
neither did French cuisine.
The French restaurants you find in Texas today are are not products of the state's gastronomic
connection to the "mother country." They are, as in most places, products of classically-trained
chefs catering to consumers who are partial to this cuisine.
La Reunion/Dallas 1 & 2. Recommended reading: The French in Texas, Francois Lagarde (ask your librarian to help you find this book).
Barbecue (Texas style featuring beef)
Historic Texas cookbooks (facsimile paperbacks, ask your librarian to help you get copies)
Utah is the "Beehive State." Bees signify unwaivering industry. Honey also happens to be one of the biggest commodities in the state. Edible state symbols feature cherries, spanish onions and sugar beets. Which foods are grown in Utah?
Mormon fare
In 1847 Mormons settled in Utah. Their journey was long and
hard.
Mormon recipes/cooking methods/journals, from the Utah Education Network
Modernized recipes
If you need to make something for class? This book is perfect:
The Essenial Mormon Cookbook: Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret
Combinations, Julie Badger Jensen
...your local public librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy.
"Mormon Scones,"
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), Nancy Hobbs, June 9, 1999, Pg. B1
"Outsiders may scoff, but Utah's deep-fried version is a hit with the folks at home
Regular diners at Johanna's Kitchen in Sandy, or Sill's Cafe in Layton, know what to expect when they
order a scone: a hot, deep-fried disc of bread the size of the plate or bigger, with a huge scoop of honey
butter slowly melting and pooling on top.
Just the way folks like it, says Stan Stevens, general manager at Johanna's, where scones sell by the
"thousands" -- more than 1,500 orders weekly, with two to an order.
But to people outside the Beehive State, these scones are an aberration. In Utah, scones originating in the
British Isles -- those bumpy-looking biscuit-type things sold in European-style bakeries, coffee shops and
upscale mountain resorts -- are the oddity.
Native Utahns are the ones at those spots who say, "You call those scones?"
Letty Flatt, pastry chef at Deer Valley Resort, has been on both sides of the "debate." To her, scones are
the fruit-filled, baked delicacies that people from outside Utah recognize instantly.
When she has made deep-fried bread dough, she called them sopaipillas and served them with a huevos
rancheros breakfast. Even so, Flatt said, she felt herself turning bright red in Phoenix during a recent conference of culinary
professionals from around the world, when Wall Street Journal editor and columnist Raymond Sokolov
targeted the "Utah scone" as something stranger than strange.
"He went off on a good, 3-minute discussion of Utah scones, and how they are deep-fried. ... It almost
seemed like [Sokolov] put it in for a touch of comedy."
Sokolov has a similar take on Utah scones and the Four Corners area as the "fried bread capital of the
world" in his book Fading Feast: A Compendium of Disappearing American Regional Foods. The book,
originally published in 1981, was reprinted by a new publisher last year with the addition of several new
essays, including "Everyman's Muffins." He writes that as he prepared for a trip to Salt Lake City, he was excited to read in another author's book
about Utah's unique scones, since the city "is not a rich area for gastronomic research."
He tried scones at Johanna's Kitchen "in Jordan, Utah" and at one of Vickie and Gerald Warner's 13
statewide Sconecutter shops, where scones are served with everything from honey butter to meat, as
sandwiches. "We've been doing business in Utah -- just Utah -- for 23 years, and our specialty is scones. All kinds of
scones," said Vickie Warner. "I've never really heard of them being anywhere else. We have a lot of
people who say they look forward to coming [to Utah] for our scones."
In trying to research the origins of the Utah scone, Sokolov naturally compares it to Navajo fry bread and
Mexican sopaipillas, suggesting that Utah's early Mormon pioneers liked the fried bread when they tried
it and adapted it to their tastes with a sweeter dough. He points out that recipes for scones from the Lion
House -- "the Mormon world's closest approximation to an official restaurant" -- and in Donna Lou
Morgan's What's Cooking in Utah Kitchens? (published by The Salt Lake Tribune) use eggs, buttermilk
and sugar. Utah's scone makers seem to have come to the same conclusion about the fried bread's origin, as Gerald
Warner from the Sconecutter and Stan Stevens from Johanna's described their products, without any
prompting, as similar to Navajo fry bread. "But we have a special recipe that's been in Johanna's family for eons," and has been used at the restaurant
for all of its 28 years, Stevens added. Deer Valley's Flatt gives a sneak preview of her upcoming cookbook, Chocolate Snowball and Other
Fabulous Pastries from Deer Valley Bakery (to be published in October by Falcon Publishing), with her
recipe for Dried Cherry Scones. She suggests serving them with butter and fruit preserves for breakfast or,
as the British do, for afternoon tea. "This is a very adaptable recipe," she writes. "I often add nuts to the
dough or use another dried fruit, such as apricots."
Utah Scones
1 quart warm buttermilk
2 packages (2 tablespoons) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
10 to 11 cups flour
Heat buttermilk; pour into a large mixing bowl. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add to the buttermilk:
sugar, eggs, oil, salt, baking powder, baking soda, dissolved yeast and 6 cups flour. Beat until smooth.
Add remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Place in a greased bowl; turn. Cover and allow to
rise until doubled in bulk; punch down. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight. Roll out 1/2-inch thick
and cut into squares just before frying in hot, deep vegetable oil.
Serves 15 to 18; recipe can be halved.
Serve with Honey Butter, made by beating 1 cup softened butter with 1 cups honey for 10 minutes, or
until fluffy.
Adapted from Three Decades of Cooking With Donna Lou Morgan
**EXTRA**
Honey Butter
1 cup (sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups honey
Beat together butter and honey for 10 minutes, until fluffly.
From Three Decades of Cooking With Donna Lou Morgan.
Here is the article by Mr. Sokolov from Natural History magazine:
"I would have liked to include a few scone recipes in this chapter, but once you start on scones where do
you stop? Like me, most of you probably grew up thinking of scones as rich muffins. My mother used to bake small
circular ones when I was growing up in Detroit. Later, when I lived in England, I ran into similar buns a
teahouses. That was twenty years ago, and I hadn't given scones a second though until I was recently preparing for a
visit to Salt Lake City and noticed in Michael and Jane Stern's Good Food that scones were a specialty of
the city. This seemed odd, and when I read the Sterns' description of Utah scones, I was sure they were
not the scones I had known elsewhere. Michael Stern was as puzzled as I was. Salt Lake scones were most unsconelike, he told me on the phone
before I left: they were fried, puffy, and sometimes split and used as buns for sloppy Joes.
This was confusing but exciting news. Salt Lake is not a rich area for gastronomic research. The
Mormons, who settled the city and whose culture is surely still the dominant local strain, were (and are) a
religious group drawn from many traditional cultures, not an ethnically coherent population with a settled
food tradition. Mormons are zealous missionaries who proselytize among nearby heathen, notably
American Indians, and all over the world. This international outlook led them to develop their own script
and lingua franca, Deseret. But on the culinary level, they seem to have been content to continue the diet
the first Mormons brought with them in the second half of the nineteenth century. Since the early settlers
departed from the Midwest, it isn't surprising that today's typical Mormon food should closely resemble
midwestern farmhouse food. In Salt Lake, I was able to verify this assumption at the Mormon world's closest approximation to an
official restaurant, a cafeteria called the Pantry, situated in the Lion House, a former home of Mormon
patriarch Brigham Young. The building is not open to the public but serves the Mormon community as a
sort of banquet hall and dining club. No fewer than five wedding parties were celebrating the day I was
taken there. From years of such prominence in Mormon feasting, the Lion House kitchen has taken on a special luster
among the faithful. Reservations for the banquet rooms are said to be made years in advance. It seems
reasonable to say, then, that the kitchen of the Lion House represents Mormon traditional cooking at its
best. And judging by what I ate at the Pantry and by the recipes collected in 1980 for Lion House Recipes,
Mormon cooking is an unreconstructed expression of mainstream middle American food: jello salads,
pies, meat and potatoes. Lion House Recipes does contain some relatively exotic dishes, such as Greek salad and Mexican taco
salad. What it lacks almost completely is purely local food ideas not imported from somewhere else. It
would be unfair, however, to blame the lack of purely Utah recipes only on the Mormons. You will find
almost no bona fide regional recipes in the secular counterpart to Lion House Recipes, a compilation
entitled What's Cooking in Utah Kitchens, edited by Donna Lou Morgan, food editor of the Salt Lake
Tribune. There are, to be sure, original dishes, such as Chicken Porter Rockwell (a chicken pie), and various other
concoctions culled from family recipe files, but the only dish in either of these books that seems to have
developed in Utah and taken root in the regional culture is the anomalous fried bread called scone.
In Utah, by the evidence of both local cookbooks and three local restaurants, the scone starts out as a
yeast-raised, sweet dough that is cut into 2-by-2-inch squares (or other shapes of similar surface area) and
deep-fried. The most popular method of service is with butter and honey. That is how I ate a midmorning
scone at Johanna's Kitchen in a mall at Jordan, Utah. They didn't bother to bring honey at the Pepper Tree
in Salt Lake, but they did advertise a free scone with each breakfast "entree" on the sign out front.
Clearly, the Utah scone is not a vanishing bread. Certainly not at the two-restaurant chain in Salt Lake
City called Sconecutter. At these twenty-four-hour drive-ins, the Utah scone rises to challenge the
doughnut and the hamburger bun as a fast-food commodity. Cooked on the spot from yeast dough, the
scones come out crisp, puffy, and rectangular. The dough inside is airy and pleasantly chewy. But are they
scones in the normal sense? And if not, where do they come from? How did they start?
Traditional English scones are too diverse to classify with much certainty, as Elizabeth David warns us.
But they do generally qualify as muffinish quick breads, and mostly they are baked. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary, scones (derived from the Middle Low German schonbrot, or fine bread) are
baked, cooked on a griddle stone, or even fried (but not deep-fried). Yeast does crop up sometimes, for
example, in Jane Grigson's recipe for Northumbrian wholemeal scones in English Food. But no traditional
British scone I have ever eaten or read about comes close to resembling the Utah scone. So it seems
improbable that early Mormons of British extraction imported the deep-fried scone to their New World
Zion. When I asked her about it, donna Lou Morgan guessed that pioneer Utah cooks, who were inveterate
bread bakers, had taken to frying some of the yeast dough they often had on hand. She remembered her
own mother pinching off pieces of bread dough and frying them, but Morgan's own recipe for scones,
which is very much like the Lion Houses's, is not based on a conventional bread dough. It is richer and
sweeter and has chemical raising agents in it, undoubtedly to boost the puffing of the scone as it fries.
The first time I ate a Utah scone, I was certainly not reminded of bread or of traditional muffin scones. I
thought instantly of two other puffy fried breads popular in the West: Navajo fry bread and New Mexican
sopaipillas (see recipes). The taste of both these regional "breads" is very close to the taste of Utah
scones. Yes, the shapes and textures vary a little. But with the sopaipilla, there is an extra link. Like Utah
scones, sopaipillas are served with honey. Until some researcher makes a lucky strike in a Mormon woman's diary or a pioneer cookbook, we are
never going to know for sure how it is that Navajos, Chicanos, and Mormons ended up eating similar
fried breads. It could all be coincidence, but in the absence of hard facts, it is tempting to construct an
explanatory scenario that will connect all the fried breads so popular in the mountain time zone, from
Bountiful, Utah, to Hatch, New Mexico. Here is one. Let us suppose that both the Navajo fry bread and the sopaipilla predate the Utah scone. They are simpler
and history is on their side Both Navajos and Hispanicized New Mexicans were in their present regions
long before the Mormons. Their fry breads are almost identical, and so it makes sense to look for an
archetypal southwestern fry bread from which both descend. Now since most culinary ideas in the U.S.
Southwest moved there from the south, when Mexico controlled the area, there ought to be a Mexican
ancestor for the sopaipilla and for the Navajo fry bread. In fact, there is one. Diana Kennedy located sopaipillas in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which shares
some of its northern border with New Mexico. Sopaipillas are uncommon there, but they are called
sopaipillas and are similar to those eaten in New Mexico, except that in Chihuahua they aren't made with a
chemical rising agent (or with yeast). This greater simplicity argues in favor of Chihuahua as the
birthplace of American fry bread. Still, it may be that the Chihuahuan sopaipilla is a later simplification of a New Mexican original. But I
doubt that. Common sense tells me that the baking soda now used by Navajos and Chicanos came to them
at a late date from the intruding Anglo world. The primitive fry bread now preserved in Chihuahua was
probably once indigenous to the entire region we are talking about and now survives only in Chihuahua
because of its remoteness from outside influences. Most probably, then, when Mormons first came into
contact with southwestern Indians, they found them eating an unleavened fried bread that puffed up in hot
oil. Inevitably, they tasted it and liked it. Mormon women then tried to duplicate the recipe and added a
whole battery of raising agents they knew about from English baking. They put in buttermilk because its
mild acidity was necessary to activate baking soda and make it give off carbon dioxide. They added eggs
and sugar and ended up with a delicous and original bread, related in kind to the beignet family, but a
thing unto itself. And lacking a name for the thing, they remembered scones, quick sweet breads from
back home that were also cut into individual serving pieces before cooking.
This is only a hypothesis, not a substitute for real evidence. At any rate, the Utah scone flourishes on its
native ground, hard by its Indian cousins. And no matter how Navajo bread, sopaipillas, and Utah scones
actually came about, it is the case that the Four Corners, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and
Colorado meet, is the fried bread capital of the world."
---"Everyman's muffins; Includes recipes," Sokolov, Raymond, Natural History, June, 1985, Vol. 94 ; Pg.
82
---Jell-O: A Biography, Carolyn Wyman [Harcourt:San Diego] 2001 (p. 121-2)
"Utah's Famous Green Jell-O
This salad inspired an Olympic pin
1 cup water
1 (6-oz) package lime Jell-O
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablspoons fresh lime juice (optional)
1 cup crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups whipping cream
Bring water to boil. Put Jell-O and sugar in a medium-sized bowl; add boiling water, stirring until gelatin is dissolved. Add lemon juice, if desired. Stir in crushed pineapple. Refrigerate until syrupy. Whip cream until stiff. Fold into Jell-O mixture. Place in a 9 X 13-inch pan. Refrigerate for serveral hours until firm. Makes 12 servings.
---The Essential Mormon Cookbook, Julie Badger Jensen [Deseret Book:Salt Lake City UT] 2004 (p. 20)
Need to make something for class? (besides green Jell-O, that is?)
"Vermont was settled primarily by the English, Irish, Scots, and French Canadians. Most of these settlers farmed, since there was little other
employment except granite quarrying. Farmers used hand tools to ssed, cultirvaed, and harvest their grain...Farming was not an easy task in the hilly,
rocky soil of Vermont. Meals were served in the field during daylight hours so that the farmers could make use of every minute of available light. The
lunch break at midday was always a welcome repast. It was usually simple fare and often included a drink called switchel--a combination of spring water,
molasses, ginger, and vinegar. A handful of oatmeal thrown on top was thought to prevent heat prostration."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 31)
About maple syrup
Official state symbol,
history & facts and recipes.
About Vermont cheese...Cabot is marketed nationally.
Historic food: Vermont Common Crackers are perfect! So is Ben & Jerry's!
Top crops & official state foods
Current statistics on Virginia's crops.
The commonwealth of Virginia has three edible state
symbols: milk, brook trout &
oysters.
Colonial Virginia Food
Jamestown Settlement
Hariot's Report
Foods of Jamestown
Life at
Jamestown
Colonial Williamsburg
History is Served (modernized recipes)
General
foodways
African-American
foodways
Daily Schedule for a Cook in a
Gentry Household
Feeding the
Eighteenth Century Townfolk
Provisioning
Tidewater Towns
Notes on foodways and
class from Colonial Williamsburg.
George Washington's Mount Vernon
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
19th century Virginia
[1838]The Virginia Housewife/Randolph
[1878]Housekeeping in Old Virginia/Tyree
The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book/Anne Carter Zimmer
Martin family food notes
The following passage describes food typical of a middle class land owning family living in early 19th century Fauquier County, VA.
The words were penned by the Food Timeline editor's great-grandfather, who recorded his family stories from memory. They
are transcribed as originaly set forth. Complete with phonetic spellings and
creative grammar. What better way to taste the past?
"Discovery of gold in 1855 brought a rush of prospectors to what is now the state of
Washington. Close on the heels of the prospectors came settlers, attracted by reports of
lush valleys and free land grants. Most of these pioneers were of English, Dutch,
German, and Scandinavian origin. Although each ethnic group had its own distinct
culinary traditions, they were melded into the cooking of Washington state. Salmon had
been the main sustenance for coastal Indians of the Northwest since prehistoric times.
These Indians lived at the mouth of the Columbia River, and over the years they had
perfected intricate fishing techniques and various rituals honoring the salmon...In 1884
ont of the first canneries in Washington as built on the Columbia River near the Dalles
to take advantage of the fish wheels that had been built there by Indians...During the
peak canning years of the 1880s, canners packed 6.5 million pounds of salmon
annually...In addition to salmon there are more than 30 species of fish harvested off the
coast of Washington, including rockfish, cod, lingcod, sablefish, and smelt. After
salmon and oysters, crabs are the most abundant seafood harvested...At the turn of the
century whole communites of oyster gatherers lived and worked on floating homes in
the tidal inlets of the southern Puget Sound near Olympia. Steamers came periodically
to pick up the oysters in burlap sacks."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 247-8)
"Whatever their heritage, many of the early settlers quickly learned to adapt their recipes
to ingredients available in Washington. The New Englanders who settled near the Puget
Sound...found that chopped clams could be substituted for beef in corned-beef
hash...Clam chowder, a dish familiar to New Englanders, became another mainstay of
many pioneer diets. The pioneer women learned to go out at low tide to gather the large
geoduck clams, which they sliced an fried like chicken. They also learned from the
Indians how to cook salmon and other fish over an open fire. Today, the cuisine of
Washington is not defined by a specific culinary style. Rather it is one that blends fresh
produce, seafood, and locally raised meats into a light style of cooking, simply prepared
and unadorned by heavy sauces."
---ibid (p. 251)
Traditional recipes: Celebrate 100 : the Washington State Centennial cookbook.1st ed. Seattle, Wash. : Romar Books, c1989.
Space Needle recipes [World's Fair, Seattle, 1962]
Contemporary cuisine
Official state foods
Two of Washington's
state symbols (these are enacted by law) are edible:
Steelhead trout and apples.
Washington's popular commodities (with recipes!).
If you need to make something (easy, delicious!) for class? Make it with
Washington apples!
West Virginia's culinary heritage
"Buckwheat, peaches, and apples are the most important agricultural food products of
the state. The Golden Delicious apple, which was developed form a stray seedling by
A.H. Mullins in Clay County, West Virginia, in 1890, is now grown throughout the
country and is known for its mellow flavor and lovely pale-yellow skin...One of the
main meals of the early frontier familis was stewed squirrel cooked with onions, garlic,
thyme and bacon. Bear meat was also prized. Wild greens were the early vegetables of
the settlers until they planted corn, beans, and potatoes. Most pioneer families
maintained a few pigs to supplement their diet of wild game meat."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 96-97)
[NOTE: The West Virginia recipes offered in this book include Sally Lunn, Fluffy
Spoon Bread, and Pumpkin Pie.]
Need to make something for class? How about spoon bread!
Fluffy Spoon Bread
Spoon bread, so named because of its light, fluffy, custard-like texture, is served with a spoon. The addition of cream in this recipe gives the spoon bread a richer consistency. Serves 6 to 81 2/3 cups milk
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup stone-ground white cornmeal
2/3 cup water
3 tablespoons soft butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Dash of salt
4 extra-large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons baking powder
Combine the milk, cream, cornmeal, water, butter, sugar, and salt in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a slow boil over medium-low heat and then simmer for 2 minutes, stirring vigorously. Eemove from heat and turn the mixture into a large bowl. Let it cool slightly. Beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Beat the egg yolks with the baking powder until the yolks are light and lemon-colored. Stir the egg yolks into the cornmeal mixture quickly. Fold in a quarter of the egg whites and then fold in the remaining egg whites. Gently pour the batter into a greased 3-quart souffle dish and bake in a preheated 375 degree F. oven for 35 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The center should still be creamy and soft. Spoon out individual servings at once and top with butter."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 98)
The West Virginia recipes included in Shelia Hibben's National Cookbook [c. 1932] are Pigeons in cornmeal, Spanish cream and Turned out custard. If you need more recipes we recommend Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine, Joseph E. Dabney.
Wisconsin's dairy industry
"In 1844 an almost total crop failure occurred in Switzerland. As a result the Swiss government subsidized emigration of some
of its farmers to Wisconsin...Experienced in livestock breeding, the Swiss settlers began to build theri dairy herds and make cheese
from the milk. By the 1860s cheesemaking had moved from the home to commercial operations. The first Wisconsin cheesemaker was
Chester Hazan, who had come from New York State and opened his establishment in Lagoda in 1864...The cream separator, a Wisconsin
development in the 1870s, took butter making out of the home and into commercial creameries. In 1890 Stephen Mouton Babcock,
a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, developed a standard test for butterfat content in milk...All types of cheese have been
made in Wisconsin over the years, but only one can be called a native Wisconsin variety--Colby. This most, mild yellow cheese was
developed in 1885 by Josephy Steinwand, whose father had opened a cheese factory west of the Clark County town of Colby."
---ibid (p.165)
Wisconsin's edible state symbols are: sugar maple (tree), muskellunge [aka muskie] (fish), white tailed deer (state wildlife animal), dairy cow (state domesticated animal), honeybee (state insect), milk (state beverage)and maize [corn] (state grain).
Milwaukee, Wisconsin's unique ethnic heritage is responsible for creating an interesting blend of local culinary traditions. Who settled here? This list is provided by the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Traditional foods are enjoyed at GermanFest (annual, late July).
The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander, was published in Milwaukee in 1901. It contains many recipes popular with immigrant households. The 1906 Capital City Cook Book /Grace Church Guild [Madison WI] offers additional recipes. We can send you recipes.
Recommended reading (with recipes!)
The Flavor of Wisconsin, Harva Hachten (we have a copy of this book...if
you need a recipe let us know (which historic period, ethnic group & menu course)
Historic Recipes, courtesy of Milwaukee Public Library (newspaper clippings, 1960s-1980s; online, full text & searchable).
Need easy Wisconsin-based recipes your classmates will enjoy?
Flat bread (Norwegian)
1 quart buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
Whole Wheat flour.
Combine buttermilk, sugar, baking soda, and melted butter. Mix well. Add enough wheat flour to make a stiff dough. Roll out on a board dusted with white flour; roll as thinly as possible. Cut into squares and bake on baking sheets at 300 degrees. Watch closely, as it browns quickly."
---The Flavor of Wisconsin, Harva Hachten [State Historical Society of Wisconsin:Madison WI] 1981 (p. 154)Apple Sauce Cake
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup chopped ates
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups apple sauce
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Using a wooden spoon, cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg, dates, raisins, apple sauce, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla and mix well. Mix in flour and baking soda. Batter will be very thick. Bake in large cake pan or in twe or three loaf pans at 325 or 350 until done, about 30 to 60 minutes, depending upon size of pan."
---ibid (p. 281)Kartoffel Torte (German)
1 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup milk
1 cup mashed potatoes
4 ounces bitter chocolate, melted
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks. Add milk, mashed potatoes, choco;ate, flour, and spices. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold in. Bake in an ungreased 9-inch spring-form pan at 350 degrees for 1 hour."
---ibid (p. 282)Chocolate Cookie-Sheet Cake
2 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoons alt
1/2 pound butter
1 cup water
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Sift together flour, sutar, and salt into mixing bowl. In a saucepan, combine butter, water, and cocoa and bring to a boil. Pour over dry ingredients, and mix. Beat together eggs, baking soda, buttermilk, vanilla, and cinnamon, if desired; add to batter and mix well. Bake in a greased 15 1/2-by-10-by-1-inch baking pan at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Make frosting about 5 minutes before cake is done, and frost as soon as it is removed from the oven."
---ibid (p. 286)Quick and Easy Chocolate Frosting
1/4 pound butter
3 tablespoons cocoa
6 tablespoons milk
1 pound confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix butter, cocoa, and milk in a saucepan and heat over low heat, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add sugar, nuts, and vanilla. Mix well."
---ibid (p. 288)
"By 1851 wagon trains carrying prospectors and a few settlers began coming to
Wyoming. The prospectors were heading west in search of gold, and the settlers came to
establish farms...While the settlers were building their homesteads and planting crops,
they subsisted on braised bear meat, venison steak, hominy cooked with dried beef, and
sometimes rice with honey and cinnamon. Pioneer women soon became experts at
improvising, For coffee they roasted anything that would turn brown over a fire. They
used a Dutch oven for everything from boiling water to baking cakes...People came to
Wyoming from all over the world. Before 1900 there were already 47 different
nationalities represented in Rock Springs...There was a French bakery that make fluffy
croissants and rich eclairs. The owner of the Greek candy shop baked almond cakes,
spice bars, and made halvah, a type of pudding. The Chinese restaurant served sweet-and-sour pork and wonton soup. The Germans
made Wiener schnitzel and cheesecake,
and the Norwegians prepared cold fruit soups. Since the late 1800s, when the Chinese
came to work on the railroads, there has been an Oriental influence on Wyoming's
cooking. This influence expanded when the Japanese, who were interned in Wyoming
during World War II, began to farm the land...Farming started in Wyoming in the mid-1850s when a group of Mormons arrived in a
wagon train at Fort Supply in the
southwestern corner of the state. They brought seeds, herds of cattle, flocks of chickens,
and plentiful food supplies."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 235-6)
If you need an "Official state food" you can use the cutthroat trout. If you need to make something for class that your friends will actually eat? You have many historic options...all you have to do is explain how the recipe you select fits into the history of the state:
1. Beans
True, this state is best known for bean production. Beans played an important role in the
diet of Wyoming's Native Americans, early explorers, and settlers. They provided a
staple base of protein, were easy to grow, store and cook. If you want to make
something people will like? How about chilli! If this option appeals, ask your teacher
about how best to serve this. Can you bring it in a crockpot?
2. Jerky
Native Americans, trappers, and early settlers in Wyoming territory ate dried meats
(buffalo, elk, moose, deer, beef). Sometimes it is called pemmican. If you are not
required to cook something, jerky works well. Most grocery stores carry this product
and it requires no special serving gear. Or? You can
make your own.
3. Sheep
The Shoshone who were the first inhabitants of the Yellowstone area were known as
sheep-eaters.
(page through for more information). What about lamb kabobs (small pieces of lamb
served on wooden skewers...grilled outdoors if possible)? Serve hot or cold, make sure
they are properly stored (not left in a locker until the end of the day).
4. Bread
The staple of the U.S. Army and homesteaders. Easy (and inexpensive) to make,
transport to school and serve.
About the bakery in Ft. Laramie.
5. Contemporary fare
Everything from 5 star cuisine to mountain gourmet to 50s chic to family meals to fast food to
home cooked dinners to....
Nice places to eat (yes, we have been there!) Mangy Moose &
Cadillac Grille, both in Jackson Hole.
Looking for doable, tasty recipes?
Cooking in Wyoming /Woman's Suffrage Centennial edition [Prairie
Publishing: Casper, WY] 1965 offers these:
"Wyoming Pudding
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
2 cups grated tart apple
Mix in order given. Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 35 minutes (You may use 2 pie tins or one other pan-- cut in pie shape to serve). May be served warm with ice cream or cool with whipped cream. Don't worry if it falls--it is supposed to!"---(p. 196)
Sheila Hibben's National Cookbook [1932] includes two recipes for Wyoming: Currant Pudding and Potato Molds. We can send these recipes if you like.
Sorry, no Buffalo wings
While Buffalo wings may seem an obvious choice, we're sorry to say these won't work. While
buffalo historically roamed the great Wyoming grassland, Buffalo wing chicken snacks were *invented* at the Anchor Bar
in Buffalo, NY . There is no buffalo meat or Wyoming connection. What does work?
Jerky or venison/elk/buffalo sausage. You can serve these with crackers (plain saltines/soda
crackers), rounds of sourdough, or mini baking soda biscuits. Jerky is easy to buy in most parts
of the United States. You can find packages in supermarkets and convenience stores. This is
your least expensive and easiest option. The sausages may be harder to obtain. Gourmet shops
and mail-order work, if you have time and money. You can serve spicy cheese or cheese sauce,
although these are not a native products of Wyoming.
About culinary research & about copyright
Research conducted by Lynne
Olver, editor The Food
Timeline. About this site.