FOOD FACTS: What Makes A Food “American?”
Thanks to our friends at FoodTimeline.org for this interesting take on what makes a food “American.” Nearly all of today’s popular American foods—apple pie, chocolate, cole slaw, hamburgers, hot dogs, jelly beans, ice cream, pizza, potato salad, steak, tacos, and watermelon—originated in other countries. (Check the origins on FoodTimeline.org.) Their ingredients and recipes were introduced to our shores by immigrants. While settlers to America found a variety of New World-origin foods—blueberries, chestnuts, corn, cranberries, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, pumpkin, sweet and white potatoes, turkey, wild rice, and winter squash, for example—many “New World” foods arrived in the U.S. via Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. “American foods” generally fall into six categories: Our word barbecue derives from the Spanish adaptation of barbacoa, from the language of a Caribbean tribe called the Taino. Their barbacoa was a raised wooden grate over a fire of wood or charcoal, where meat was grilled. Spanish explorers observed the technique, and the word first appeared in print in 1526, in an account of the West Indies [source]. As the practice evolved, the wooden racks of the Taino were replaced with pits and smokehouses. What are your thoughts about what makes a food “American?” |
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