American Cuisine

This Project is about American Cuisine from the beginning of history and also contains tasty recipes of some of the famous American Dishes that we created in Homeec ! Enjoy.

1. American
Cusine

2. Introduction
•For our Home Economics Project we
decided to research the cuisine of the
United States of America and to cook some
typical dishes from this country.
•We choose this country because we felt
that America is a country that has a poor
reputation for its culture when it comes to
food.
•When people think of America and food,
they instantly they think of McDonalds.
From all the press and prejudice about
America it is not hard to imagine an obese
person sitting down eating a messy hot dog
or a greasy cheeseburger.
•This culture has even travelled over to
Ireland and we now find “American”
microwave dinners in our supermarkets and
“American” diners on our streets.

3. Introduction Continued
•With all these processed meals it is easy to forget about all the homemade meals that
are being cooked across the U.S.A. every day. It is true that we tend to forget that
America is an enormous country and the diversity within it means that Americans do
not eat McDonalds all day, every day.
•Instead America is a country with a variety of ethnic cultures and because of this the
food is varied. The food has a sense of place, a flavour of the people of that area and
that food needs to be recognized. After reading our project we want people to think of
the fajitas from Texas, the Shoofly pie from Pennsylvania, the Pastrami from New
York or even the Clam Chowder from Massachusetts when they think of American
food.
•We want to stress the fact that because America is so diverse and big, it holds an
area of land that holds various cuisines that vary from state to state, and even have
variations within those borders. With this said, no matter whether you try a New York
Style Cheesecake or just some good old Apple Pie you can be assured that the food
is nothing if not tasty.

4. People’s View of American Cuisine

5. What it is really like

6. American Cuisine
•The cuisine of the United States is a style of food preparation derived from the United
States. The cuisine has a history dating back before the colonial period when the
Native Americans had a rich and diverse cooking style for an equally diverse
amount of ingredients.
•With European colonization the style of cookery changed vastly, with numerous
ingredients introduced from Europe, as well as cooking styles and modern
cookbooks. The style of cookery continued to expand into the 19th and 20th
centuries with the influx of immigrants from various nations across the world. This
influx has created a rich diversity and a unique regional character throughout the
country. In addition to cookery, cheese and wine play an important role in the cuisine.

7. The History of American Cuisine
•Before the European colonists came to America
the Native Americans had an established cookery
style that varied greatly from group to group. The
vast variety of ingredients and cookery styles
were never found in the same locality because
any one group had a much more limited diet.
Nutrition was an issue for most hunting and
gathering societies that wandered widely in
search of game and who might encounter serious
shortages in wintertime.

8. Common Ingredients of Native
Cooking
•Plant food such as camas bulb, arrowhead, blue lapine, bitterroot, biscuit root,
breadroot, prairie turnip, sedge tubers, and whitestar potatoes
•Nuts including pecans, hickory nuts, beechnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, chinquapins,
black walnuts, and butternuts.
•Land Animal such as bison, deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, and bear, mountain
lion, along with goat and pronghorn
•Seafood including blue crab cod, lemon sole, flounder, herring, halibut, sturgeon,
smelt

9. Native American Cooking Methods
•Native Americans utilized a number of cooking
methods. Grilling meats was common. Spit
roasting over a pit fire was common as well.
•Vegetables, especially root vegetables were
often cooked directly in the ashes of the fire. As
early Native Americans lacked the proper pottery
that could be used directly over a fire, they
developed a technique which has caused many
anthropologists to call them "Stone Boilers."
The Native Americans would heat rocks directly
in a fire and then add the bricks to a pot filled
with water until it came to a boil so that it would
cook the meat or vegetables in the boiling water.
•Another method was to use an empty bison
stomach filled with desired ingredients and
suspended over a low fire. The fire would have
been insufficient to completely cook the food
contained in the stomach however; as the flesh
would burn so heated rocks would be added to
the food as well. Some Native Americans would
also use the leather of a bison hide in the same
manner.

10. Colonies and Cooking
•In 1775 there were 13 colonies in America. When they first came their initial attempts
at survival included planting crops familiar to them from back home in England.
•In the same way, they farmed animals for clothing and meat in a similar fashion.
Through hardships and eventual establishment of trade with Britain, the West
Indiesand other regions, the colonists were able to establish themselves in the
American colonies with a cuisine similar to their previous British cuisine.
• There were some exceptions to the diet, such as local vegetation and animals, but
the colonists attempted to use these items in the same fashion as they had their
equivalents or ignore them if they could. The manner of cooking for the American
colonists followed along the line of British cookery up until the Revolution. The British
sentiment followed in the cookbooks brought to the New World as well.
•There was a general disdain for French cookery. One of the cookbooks that
proliferated in the colonies was The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy written by
Hannah Glasse, wrote of disdain for the French style of cookery. Reinforcing the anti-
French sentiment was the French and Indian War from 1754-1764. This created a
large anxiety against the French, which influenced the English to either deport many
of the French, or as in the case of the Acadians, they migrated to Louisiana. The
Acadian French did create a large French influence in the diet of those settled in
Louisiana, but had little or no influence outside of Louisiana.

11. Colonies and Cooking
•American colonial diet varied depending on the settled region. Local cuisine patterns
had established by the mid 18th century. The New England colonies were extremely
similar in their dietary habits to those that many of them had brought from England.
•A striking difference for the colonists in New England compared to other regions was
seasonality.
•While in the southern colonies, they could farm almost year round, in the northern
colonies, the growing seasons were very restricted. In addition, colonists’ close
proximity to the ocean gave them a bounty of fresh fish to add to their diet, especially
in the northern colonies.
• Wheat, however, the grain used to bake bread back in England was almost
impossible to grow, and imports of wheat were far from cost productive. Substitutes in
cases such as this included cornmeal.

12. Colonies and Cooking
•As many of the New Englanders were from England, game hunting was often a
pastime from back home that paid off when they immigrated to the New World. Much
of the northern colonists depended upon the ability either of themselves to hunt, or for
others from which they could purchase game. This was the preferred method for
protein consumption.
•The more commonly hunted and eaten game included deer, bear, buffalo and wild
turkey. The larger muscles of the animals were roasted and served with currant
sauce, while the other smaller portions went into soups, stews, sausages, pies and
pasties.
• In addition to game, mutton was a meat that colonists would enjoy from time to time.
The Spanish in Florida originally introduced sheep to the New World, in the north
however, the Dutch and English introduced sheep. The keeping of sheep was a result
of the English non-practice of animal husbandry. The keeping of sheep was of
importance as it not only provided wool, but also after the sheep had reached an age
that it was unmanageable for wool production; it became mutton for the English diet.

13. Colonies and Cooking
•A number of fats and oils made from animals served to cook much of the colonial
foods.
•Many homes had a sack made of deerskin filled with bear oil for cooking, while
solidified bear fat resembled shortening. Rendered pork fat made the most popular
cooking medium, especially from the cooking of bacon.
• Pork fat was used more often in the southern colonies than the northern colonies as
the Spanish introduced pigs earlier to the south. The colonists enjoyed butter in
cooking as well, but it was rare prior to the American Revolution, as cattle were not
yet plentiful.
•Regarding Seafood, the American lobster was a staple of the colonial diet. Those
living near the New England shore often dined on fish, crustaceans, and other
animals that originated in the waters.
•Colonists ate large quantities of turtle, and it was an exportable delicacy for Europe.
Cod, in both fresh and salted form was enjoyed, with the salted variation created for
long storage. Lobsters proliferated in the waters as well, and were extremely common
in the New England diet

14. Colonies and Cooking
•Vegetables were also a common part of the diet including turnips, onions, cabbage,
carrots, and parsnips, along with a number of beans, pulses and legumes. These
vegetables kept well through the colder months in storage. Other vegetables grew
which were salted or pickled for preservation, such as cucumbers.
• Pumpkins and gourds were other vegetables that grew well in the northern colonies;
often used for fodder for animals in addition to human consumption. In addition to the
vegetables, a large number of fruits were grown seasonally. Fruits not eaten in
season often saw their way into preservation methods like jam, wet sweetmeats,
dried or cooked into pies that could freeze during the winter months.
•This diet existed during colonialism but variations were also present and most
noticeably so in the South.

15. Southern Variations
•In comparison to the northern colonies, the southern colonies were quite diverse in
their agricultural diet. Unlike the colonies to the north, the southern colonies did not
have a central region of culture. The uplands and the lowlands made up the two main
parts of the southern colonies.
•The slaves and poor of the south often ate a similar diet, which consisted of many of
the indigenous New World crops. Salted or smoked pork often supplement the
vegetable diet. Rural poor often ate squirrel, possum, rabbit and other woodland
animals. Those on the “rice coast” often ate ample amounts of rice, while the grain for
the rest of the southern poor and slaves was cornmeal used in breads and porridges.
Wheat was not an option for most of those that lived in the southern colonies.
•The diet of the uplands often included cabbage, string beans, white potatoes, while
most avoided sweet potatoes and peanuts. Non-poor whites in the uplands avoided
crops imported from Africa because of the inferred inferiority of crops of the African
slaves. Those who could grow or afford wheat often had biscuits on their table for
breakfast, along with healthy portions of pork. Salted pork was a staple of any meal,
as it used in the preparations of vegetables for flavour, in addition to its direct
consumption as a protein.

16. Southern Variations
•The lowlands, which included much of the Acadian French regions of Louisiana and
the surrounding area, included a varied diet heavily influenced by Africans and
Caribbeans,rather than just the French.
•As such, rice played a large part of the diet as it played a large part of the diets of the
Africans and Caribbean. In addition, unlike the uplands, the lowlands subsistence of
protein came mostly from coastal seafood and game meats.
•Much of the diet involved the use of peppers, as it still does today. Interestingly,
although the English had an inherent disdain for French foodways, as well as many of
the native foodstuff of the colonies, the French had no such disdain for the indigenous
foodstuffs. In fact, they had a vast appreciation for the native ingredients and dishes.

17. American Cuisine in the 21
st

Century
•One characteristic of American cooking is the fusion of multiple ethnic or regional
approaches into completely new cooking styles.
•The cuisine of the South, for example, has been heavily influenced by immigrants
from Africa, France, and Mexico, among others. Asian cooking has played a
particularly large role in American fusion cuisine.
•Similarly, while some dishes considered typically American many have their origins in
other countries, American cooks and chefs have substantially altered them over the
years, to the degree that the dish as now enjoyed the world over are considered to be
American.
• Hot dogs and hamburgers are both based on traditional German dishes, brought
over to America by German immigrants to the United States, but in their modern
popular form they can be reasonably considered American dishes, even "All-
American", along with the Italian influence of pizza.

18. American Food Facts

•A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime.
•Americans eat 20.7 pounds of candy per person annually. The Dutch eat three times
as much.
•Americans spend approximately $25 billion each year on beer.
•Americans spent an estimated $267 billion dining out in 1993.
•California's Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was 11-years-old.
•Cast iron skillets used to be the leading source of iron in the American diet!
•Each American eats an average of 51 pounds of chocolate per year.
•Fortune cookies were invented in 1916 by George Jung, a Los Angeles noodle
maker.
•Fried chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the US. The
next in popularity are: roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham, and fried shrimp.
•In 1995, KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken for every man, woman and child in the US.
•McDonalds and Burger King sugar-coat their fries so they will turn golden-brown.
•Nabisco's "Oreo's" are the world's best-selling brand of cookie at a rate of 6 billion
sold each year. The first Oreo was sold in 1912.

19. Dish 1: Southern Sausage Stew
•1. Put a splash of olive oil in a pan and let it get hot.
•2. Add your sausages and let them cook away so they brown nicely on all sides. Once golden
and crisp, take them out of the pan and put them on a plate to rest.
•3. Depending on your sausages, there may be a lot of fat left behind in the pan. You only want to
keep about 4 tablespoons of it in the pan, so carefully pour any extra away. If you don’t have
enough, just add a splash more olive oil.
•4. Add your onion, peppers and celery to the fat and fry on a medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes,
stirring occasionally, until softened.
•5. Stir in your garlic, chilli, thyme and spices and fry for another minute or two. Stir in your flour
and vinegar, and after a couple of minutes add your browned sausages, chicken stock and tinned
tomatoes, using a wooden spoon to break them up a little. Season with a nice big pinch of salt
and pepper, stir, then bring to the boil and let it tick away for 15 minutes or so until you have a
thick and delicious gravy.
•6. Serve with a hearty spoonful of rice on the side, and sprinkle over some sliced spring onion,
chopped parsley and any reserved celery leaves.

20. Ingredients
•Olive oil
•good-quality sausages (about 2 or 3 per person)
•1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
•1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
•1 green pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
•1 yellow pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
•2 sticks of celery, trimmed and roughly chopped, yellow leaves reserved
•4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
•1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
•10 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
•1 heaped teaspoon paprika
•1 heaped teaspoon cayenne pepper
•2–3 heaped tablespoons plain flour
•1 tablespoon white wine or cider vinegar
•750ml chicken stock, preferably organic
•1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
•sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• cooked long-grain rice, to serve
• 3 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
•a small bunch of fresh curly parsley, roughly chopped

21. Dish 2: Mac & Cheese
Method
1. Get a large pan of salted water on to boil. Melt the butter in a large ovenproof saucepan over
a low heat, then add the flour and turn the heat up to medium, stirring all the time, until you get a
paste – this is your roux. Add all the sliced garlic – don’t worry about the amount, because each
slice will caramelize like toffee in the roux.
2. Keep cooking and stirring until golden and the garlic is nice and sticky. Add the bay leaves and
slowly whisk in the milk a little at a time to ensure you get a nice smooth sauce. Bring the mixture
to the boil, then leave it on a low heat to simmer and tick away, stirring occasionally. Preheat
your oven to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7.
3. Add the pasta to the pan of boiling salted water and cook according to the packet instructions.
Meanwhile, roughly chop the tomatoes on a board and season them well with salt and pepper.
Drain the pasta and add it immediately to the sauce.
4. Give it a good stir and take the pan off the heat. Stir in your grated cheeses, chopped
tomatoes and thyme leaves. A little Worcestershire sauce added now is nice, and so is a little
grating or two of nutmeg. Now work on the flavour – taste it and season it until it’s hitting the right
spot. You want it to be slightly too wet because it will thicken up again in the oven, so add a
splash of water if needed.
5. If you’ve made your sauce in an ovenproof casserole-type pan, leave everything in there; if
not, transfer it to a deep earthenware dish. Bake it for 30 minutes in the oven, until golden,
bubbling, crispy and delicious.
6. While it’s cooking, put your breadcrumbs and thyme into a pan with a few drizzles of olive oil
over a medium heat. Stir and toss the crumbs around until crunchy and golden all over. Remove
from the heat and tip into a nice bowl. Serve your macaroni cheese in the centre of the table, with
your bowl of crispy breadcrumbs for sprinkling over, and a lovely green salad.

22. Mac & Cheese Ingredients
•Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 45g butter
• 3 heaped tablespoons plain flour
• 10 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
•6 fresh bay leaves
•1 litre semi-skimmed milk
•600g dried macaron
• 8 tomatoes
• 150g freshly grated Cheddar cheese
•100g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
•a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
•optional: a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce
•optional: a grating of nutmeg
•3 big handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs
•olive oil

23. Dish 3: Baked Alaska
Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C/400°C/Gas 6. Lightly grease a 20 - 23cm (8”or 9”) sandwich tin.
2. Make sponge base by beating the eggs, sugar and pinch of salt and the 2 egg yolks (left over from
Meringue Topping) until thick and creamy.
3. Fold in the flour using a metal spoon.
4. Transfer to prepared tin and bake for approx. 10 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Cool
on a wire tray.
5. When cold, place sponge on ovenproof dish.
6. Make meringue by beating egg whites and caster sugar together until thick and shiny.
7. Place ice cream on centre of sponge, swirl the meringue topping over the ice cream making sure it
is well sealed.
8. Shake granulated sugar over the meringue and place in a hot oven for 3 minutes or until meringue
is golden brown.
9. Serve immediately with fresh fruit.

24. Ingredients
Sponge Base:
50g/2oz Odlums Self Raising Flour
50g/2oz Shamrock Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
Pinch of Salt
Filling:
1 litre block Ice Cream - Strawberry!
Box of strawberries
Meringue Topping:
2 Egg Whites
75g/3oz Shamrock Caster Sugar
1 teaspoon Granulated Sugar