Hunting was much harder until the Spanish brought horses to the New World in the 16th century. For centuries Indians hunted bison in herds of thousands, caught huge salmon, and killed deer. They never had dairy products until the European settlers brought cattle here. Cooking was instantly easier for Indians when the Europeans gave or traded them kettles and cook pots.
In this book Libby carefully builds “the American plate”, starting with the food Indians ate, then showing how Spanish conquistadores moved vegetables from Asia to Europe and then to the New World, or from South America to North America. Christopher Columbus, she writes, was not only an explorer, but also a smart marketer. He knew Spanish investors, eager for the expensive black dried pepper that he originally set out to find, would be interested in hot peppers from America. He brought the seeds for Capsicum peppers back to Europe. Completely different from piper nigrum from India’s Malagasy coast, but they became popular in the hot, sunny climates of Europe and North Africa.
The Spanish started exporting the foods of America to the rest of the world a century before the Mayflower unloaded her seasick passengers in 1620, O’Connell writes. The Spaniards exported the first maize, turkeys, potatoes, chocolate, various beans, squash and tomatoes. Somehow, Europeans thought that turkeys had come from the East, hence the English name of “turkey” for these birds. The French call them dinde, or “from India”.
Columbus introduced pigs to the New World on his second voyage west, and English settlers brought more of them, and the hogs found paradise here. They happily gorged on wild acorns in 17th century Virginia, and America became “hog heaven”. O’Connell brings pork back over and over in pulled pork, barbecue, all sorts of sausage, bacon, scrapple, chitterlings (chitlins), and even the salt pork in fish chowder. Inexpensive cuts of pork became a favorite food for slaves, and later for freed blacks as well as whites.
Roast beaver tail once was a favorite for hungry trappers, but it’s one of many American favorites which have come and gone. Eels, still popular food in other parts of the world, were British Americans’ gourmet food. What did they use for bait to catch eels? Lobster. Perry, or pear cider, became popular with settlers who had been accustomed to beer back home in Europe. Roast turtles are another once-popular dish.
During the first generations of English colonists in the new world, “sallet”was the name for a vegetable dish, hot or cold. Our word “salad” comes from this, simply meaning “salted”.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the Martha Stewart of the 19th century, published recipes in Godey’s Lady’s Book for roast turkey with stuffing and pumpkin pie as she lobbied to create a new national holiday. After many years, President Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, designated the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.
Doughnuts, created by the Dutch, were popular in 17th century America, but they were round balls of dough, about the size of a large walnut. An American seaman cook is credited with putting a hole in his doughnuts in 1847, so they would cook more evenly.
Columbus also brought sugar cane to the New World. Originating in New Guinea, this became a crop in the West Indies, Brazil and Louisiana that depended upon backbreaking labor to plant, grow, cut and refine into molasses, sugar and rum. This involved shipping millions of African slaves to the New World. From then up until the end of slavery, there developed a trade route triangle that brought fresh slaves west, and took molasses north, where it was refined as sugar or turned into rum, and east with the sugar and rum. Rum and bourbon are New World originals.
O’Connell takes us through American history, with an Election Cake during the time of President Andrew Jackson, and includes a recipe that calls for 30 quarts of flour, 10 pounds of butter, one quart of brandy, three dozen eggs, and more.
Union troops ate far better than Confederates during the Civil War, because most of the food production was located in the North. Southerners had concentrated on building up the cotton and sugar industries, and had not really planned an economy that could operate independent of the north. Union soldiers ate good bread and beef often, even near the front lines, while Johnny Reb had to subsist on cracked corn.
Chinese workers building the great Union Pacific railway introduced Chop Suey and Chow Mein to America. The fact that no restaurant in China served either dish bothered no one, O’Connell writes.
As food distribution got better, America started to see national products, likeBorden’s Canned Condensed Milk, and canned vegetables by Libby, McNeill & Libby, Campbell Soups, Jell-O, Heinz 57. Coca-Cola, and Cracker Jack. There’s a “bite” of a story for each one of these, and many more.
The Gilded Age, the 1890s, brought Delmonico’s in New York, the Palmer House in Chicago, and Antoine’s in New Orleans. This is when Baked Alaska, Oysters Rockefeller, and Beef Tenderloin appeared.
Food in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s White House was notoriously bad, O’Connell writes, but FDR made good Martinis and Old Fashioneds, and Eleanor even cooked up some tasty Scrambled Eggs.
On and on the “bites” come in this book—103 of them, right up to Salsa, Sushi and Chili Con Carn
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