What Is American Cuisine?. Melting pot - blending of different ethnic groups to form one culture The United States developed as a nation of immigrants.
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American Regional Cuisine
What Is American Cuisine?
History
“Melting pot” - blending of different ethnic groups to form one culture
The United States developed as a nation of immigrants creating a melting pot of ethnic diversity
Between 1820 and 1920 - around 33 million people immigrated to the US
To escape religious or political persecution
In search of economic opportunity
The New Colossus- Emma Lazarus “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free.”
Immigrants came
Immigrants came
To avoid famine and starvation To find a better life for
themselves and their families
Between 1880 and 1924 - two and a half to three million Jewish immigrants came from Eastern and Central EuropeThey shared a religion but not
necessarily their nationality. The Jewish melting pot melded
cooking traditions from many different countries, kosher dietary laws, and influences from their new home.
Immigrants prepared the recipes from their homeland, replacing traditional food items with available ingredients.
People shared recipes with friends and neighbors, adopted all they liked, and added new recipes, ingredients, flavorings, and cooking techniques.
Individuals altered the recipes and the cuisines fused.
They spoke their native language in both homes and businesses.
They had easier access to the food products needed to prepare their native dishes.
Immigrants settled into ethnic neighborhoods
First settled by the Dutch in 1624 and called New Amsterdam
Served as the major embarkation port for European immigrants in the early years
New York City
After 1820s - Jewish immigrants came
1840s - Irish came to escape Potato Famine
Late 1800s to early 1900s - Italians settled on the east side
Asians moved to Chinatown on the east side
Puerto Ricans and Africans settled in Harlem
Immigrants from foreign countries People moved from rural areas in
the Plains and Midwest to trade farming for urban living
Drawn to jobs in factories, stockyards, slaughter houses, steel mills, or refineries
One of the biggest Polish communities in the United States
Chicago
Gold prospectors from the US and around the world
Laborers to work on the railroad Factory workers Workers in agriculture Spanish missionaries
San Francisco
By 1852 - twenty thousand Chinese immigrants lived there
Many Japanese and other Asians came because of nearby fertile fields
Even living outside the city, they came to Chinatown to purchase food and other goods
1853 - native Hawaiians were 97% of the population
1923 - native Hawaiians made up only 16% of the population
Hawaii
Around 1820, Portuguese began arriving on whaling ships. They worked in
Fishing industryAgricultureDairy farmsRanches
To fill the need for cheap labor for the sugar and pineapple plantations, they brought46,000 from China180,000 from Japan66,000 from the PhilippinesMany Portuguese and Puerto Ricans
Originally, many immigrated from Ireland ItalyChina
Today, African Americans are 25% of the population.
Boston
Largest Middle Eastern population in the United States
African Americans make up 81.6% of the population
Detroit
Capital of the Cuban American and Latin American population in the United States
60% of population is Hispanic
Miami
Immigrants came for work in agriculture
Many Mexicans crossed the border and settled in Los Angeles
Sprawling city - Los Angeles covers more than 465 square miles
Los Angeles
Indigenous Cuisines
The pre-contact cooking styles of original inhabitants
Based on indigenous ingredients native to the land (wild or cultivated) and indigenous cooking technology
American examples: wild turkey, corn on the cob, squash, wild rice, cranberries, chilis
Old Word Cuisines
The European cooking styles of America’s earliest settlers while in their former homes
Based on Old World ingredients and cooking technology
English examples: roast beef, apple pie. Over time may lead to Regional Cuisine?
History Creates CuisineIndigenous group: the
descendants of a land’s original inhabitants
First settlers: the earliest non-indigenous people to arrive in a region
Colonists are sponsored by a nation to settle an unclaimed, unsettled land (English coming to America)
Pioneers settle wilderness areas of their own nation (Virginia to N.Y or Pennsylvania)
Second settlers come later: often called immigrants
Hybrid Cuisine
Positive interaction between indigenous groups and first settlers typically leads to a blending of cuisines: the resulting new coking style is called a hybrid cuisine.
Indian Pudding: British Hasty Pudding (wheat)using corn meal (Indian flour) To replace scarce wheat. It was then flavored with molasses or maple syrup for sweet pudding or drippings ofsalted meat for savory.
In time it evolved into a resoundingly sweet dish.
Hybrid Cuisine
Based on indigenous foods and colonial domesticates (Old World foods successfully raised in the new colony)
New England-style cornbread (Old World wheat flour and
American cornmeal) Roast stuffed turkey (Old World wheat bread and American-
origin turkey)
Understanding Regional Cuisines
A regional cuisine is a unified style of cooking common to most of the people living in a culinary region.
Regional Cuisines
~ Defined by 3 criteria:
Geography Homogenous
food culture Defining dishes:
That are unique and noteworthy
A Defining Dish Unmistakably represents a particular culinary region Singular enough to be readily distinguished from the
dishes of all other regions Examples: Chowder, Boston Baked Beans, Collard
Greens Below: Southern Fried Chicken, a Plantation South defining dish
Characteristics of the Land
Land characteristics determine the success of agriculture, the source of most of our food.
SOIL: rich, deep, plentiful, and properly managed soil is conducive to large-scale agriculture
CLIMATE: determines which food plants and animals will grow in a particular area
TOPOGRAPHY: affects climate and the use of farm machinery, and therefore affects agricultural success (grapes)
PROXIMITY to other regions affects the exchange of ingredients and culinary ideas
The Food Culture of the Indigenous People
For most pre-contact Native American cuisines:
Ingredients: Game meats and fish The Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash)
Cooking Methods: fire technology; stone, skin, earthenware
The Food Culture of the First Settlers
The Homeland Cuisine Colonists bring Old World cuisine to the new land Pioneers bring Colonial cuisine to the new land
The Hybrid Cuisine Some first settlers embrace indigenous
ingredients and cooking methods, creating a new and vibrant hybrid cooking style.
Other first settlers reject most indigenous ingredients and create a cooking style based primarily on colonial domesticates (Old World Foods Successfully Raised in the New World= Transplanted Cuisine)
Foods and Cooking Techniques
Brought by Immigrants
Ingredients and cooking methods introduced by immigrants are often more exciting and complex than those of the existing regional cuisine.
The culinary impact of immigrants often changes the destiny of a region’s cuisine.
Economic ViabilityEconomic viability is the point at which a region can
support its own population with the revenues from its goods and services.
The population has moved from subsistence to affluence.
A sizable upper class has disposable income to spend on dining.
Home cooks have leisure time to prepare complex dishes. Chefs are paid high salaries to create culinary masterpieces. Diners are experienced and educated, and can afford expensive
restaurants. Economic viability generates travel and trade,
which enrich the cuisine with new ingredients and ideas.
Foreign Cuisines in America
A foreign cuisine is a national or regional cuisine practiced outside its homeland.
Remains virtually unchanged, because immigrants are able to obtain authentic ingredients. After about 1970, global trading made ingredients available from other world regions.
Examples: Chinatowns in N.Y. and San Francisco, Indian, Thai, Korean.
America’s National Cuisine
A national cuisine is a unified style of cooking common to most of a country’s population.
America’s national cuisine emerged in the late 1800s as a result of improved transportation and the emergence of national media.
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