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Cuisine of the United States

 
Cuisine of the United States

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Cuisine of the United States



 
 
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
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 had a rich and diverse cooking style for an equally diverse amount of ingredients. With European colonization
European colonization of the Americas

The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort....
, the style of cookery changed vastly, with numerous ingredients introduced from Europe, as well as cooking styles and modern cookbook
Cookbook

A cookbook is a book that contains information on cooking, and/or a list of recipes. It may also contain information on ingredient origin, freshness, selection and quality, e.g., the Slow Food movement's ark of taste criteria....
s. The style of cookery continued to expand into the 19th and 20th centuries with the influx of immigrants from various nations across the world.






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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
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 had a rich and diverse cooking style for an equally diverse amount of ingredients. With European colonization
European colonization of the Americas

The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort....
, the style of cookery changed vastly, with numerous ingredients introduced from Europe, as well as cooking styles and modern cookbook
Cookbook

A cookbook is a book that contains information on cooking, and/or a list of recipes. It may also contain information on ingredient origin, freshness, selection and quality, e.g., the Slow Food movement's ark of taste criteria....
s. 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
Cheese

Cheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cattle, Water Buffalo, goats, or sheep's milk. It is produced by Coagulation of the milk protein casein....
 and wine play an important role in the cuisine. The wine industry is regulated by American Viticultural Area
American Viticultural Area

An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geography features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau , United States Department of the Treasury....
s (AVA) (regulated appellation), entirely unlike laws found in countries such as France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 and Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
.

History


Pre-1492

Main Article Native American cuisine
Native American cuisine

Native American cuisine includes all food practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Information about Native American cuisine comes from a great variety of sources....
Before the European colonists came to America
Americas

The Americas are the region of the Western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions....
, 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; 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.

Common ingredients

Plant foods
5aday Sweet Potato
Corncobs
The Native Americans had at least 2,000 separate plant foods which contributed to their cooking. Indigenous root vegetables that were part of the diet included camas
Camassia

Camassia is a genus of six species native to western North America, from southern British Columbia to northern California, and east to Utah, Wyoming and Montana....
 bulb, arrowhead
Sagittaria

Sagittaria or "arrowhead" is a genus of about 20 species of aquatic plants whose members go by a variety of common names, including arrowhead, duck potato, iz-ze-kn, katniss, kuwai , swan potato, tule potato, and wapato ....
, blue lapine, bitterroot
Bitterroot

The bitterroot is a small, low, pink flower with yellow center. It is the state flower of Montana in the United States.The plant is a low-growing perennial plant with a fleshy taproot and a simple or branched base....
, biscuit root, breadroot, prairie turnip, sedge
Cyperaceae

The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocotyledon flowering plants that superficially resemble Poaceae or Juncaceae. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera....
 tubers, and whitestar
WhiteStar

The WhiteStar Board System is an arcade system board used for several pinball games designed by Sega Pinball and their successor, Stern , between 1995 and 2004....
 potatoes (Ipomoea lacunosa) along with the sweet potato
Sweet potato

The 'sweet potato' is a dicotyledonous plant which belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Amongst the approximately 50 genera and more than 1000 species of this family, only I....
 and white potato
Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
. Greens included salmonberry
Salmonberry

Rubus spectabilis is a species of Rubus native to the west coast of North America from southern Alaska to California.It is a shrub growing to 1?4 m tall, with perennial plant, not biennial plant woody stems ....
 shoots and stalks, coltsfoot
Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot is a plant in the family Asteraceae.It has been used medicinally as a cough suppressant. The name "tussilago" itself means "cough suppressant." The plant has been used since at least historical times to treat lung ailments such as asthma as well as various coughs by way of smoking....
, fiddlehead fern, milkweed, wild celery
Wild celery

Wild celery is a plant in the family Hydrocharitaceae . Contrary to the implications of its name, wild celery bears little to no resemblance to the Celery one may buy at the market....
, wood sorrel, purslane
Purslane

Purslane may refer to:* Portulaca, a genus of succulent flowering plants, and especially:** Portulaca oleracea, a species of Portulaca eaten as a vegetable and considered a weed, known as summer purslane...
, and wild nasturtium
Nasturtium

Nasturtium , as a common name, refers to a genus of roughly 80 species of Annual plant and perennial plant herbaceous plant flowering plants in the genus Tropaeolum , one of three genera in the family Tropaeolaceae....
. Other vegetables included century plant
Century plant

The Century Plant or Maguey is an agave originally from Mexico but cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant. It has since naturalised in many regions and grows wild in Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand....
 crowns and flower shoots, yucca
Yucca

The yuccas comprise the genus Yucca of 40-50 species of perennial plants, shrubs, and trees in the agave family Agavaceae, notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped Leaf and large terminal clusters of white or whitish flowers....
 blossoms, tule
Tule

The Tule , also known as the common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of Cyperaceae in the plant family Cyperaceae, native to fresh water marshes all over North America....
 rootstock
Rootstock

A rootstock is a plant, and sometimes just the stump, which already has an established, healthy root, used for grafting a cutting or budding from another plant....
s, amole stalks, bear grass stalks, cattail rootstocks, narrowleaf yucca stalks, and sotol
Dasylirion wheeleri

Dasylirion wheeleri is a flowering plant native to arid environments of Northern Mexico Mexico, in Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern United States, in Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas]....
 crowns. Fruits included strawberries
Strawberry

Fragaria is the name of a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits....
 which Europeans named the Virginia strawberry due to being larger than the European dwarf mountain strawberry, as well as huckleberries
Huckleberry

Huckleberry may refer to:*Huckleberry plants from the family Ericaceae*Red Huckleberry *Garden huckleberry ...
, blueberries
Blueberry

Blueberries are flowering plants in the genus Vaccinium, sect. Cyanococcus. The species are native only to North America. They are shrubs varying in size from 10 cm tall to 4 m tall; the smaller species are known as "lowbush blueberries" , and the larger species as "highbush blueberries"....
, cherries
Cherry

The word cherry refers to a fleshy fruit that contains a single stony seed. The cherry belongs to the family Rosaceae, genus Prunus, along with almonds, peaches, plums, apricots and bird cherry ....
, currant
Currant

Currant may refer to:*The redcurrant or the blackcurrant, berries of the genus Ribes*The Zante currant, a small variety of seedless grape, in its fresh or dried form...
s, gooseberries
Gooseberry

The gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa is a species of Ribes, native to Europe, northwestern Africa and southwestern Asia. It is one of several similar species in the subgenus Grossularia; for the other related species , see the genus page Ribes....
, plum
Plum

A plum or gage is a drupe tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. The subgenus is distinguished from other subgenera in the shoots having a terminal bud and the side buds solitary , the flowers being grouped 1-5 together on short stems, and the fruit having a groove running down one side, and a smooth stone....
s, crab apples, raspberries
Raspberry

The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the subgenus Rubus#Scientific classification of the genus Rubus; the name also applies to these plants themselves....
, sumac
Sumac

Sumac is any one of approximately 250 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. The dried berries of some species are ground to produce a tangy purple spice....
 berries, juniper berries, hackberries, elderberries, hawthorne
Crataegus

Hawthorn is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia and North America....
 fruit, pitaya
Pitaya

A pitaya or pitahaya is the fruit of several cactus species, most importantly of the genus Hylocereus . These fruit are commonly known as dragon fruit – cf....
, white evening primrose
Evening Primrose

Evening Primrose is a musical theatre with a book by James Goldman and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim.Based on a John Collier short story published in the 1951 collection Fancies and Goodnights, it focuses on a poet who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing....
 fruit, and yucca
Yucca

The yuccas comprise the genus Yucca of 40-50 species of perennial plants, shrubs, and trees in the agave family Agavaceae, notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped Leaf and large terminal clusters of white or whitish flowers....
 fruit (of various species, such as Spanish bayonet
Spanish bayonet

Spanish bayonet may refer to various plants within the genus Yucca or Hesperoyucca, including:*Hesperoyucca whipplei*Yucca aloifolia...
, banana yucca
Banana yucca

The Datil yucca, Banana yucca is a common type of yucca native to the Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, from southeastern California north to Utah, east to western Texas and south to Sonora and Chihuahua ....
). Some fruits were unique to North America at the time, including the fruit of various species of cactus (e.g., cholla
Cylindropuntia

Cylindropuntia is a genus of cacti , containing the chollas. They are also treated as a subgenus of Opuntia but are actually well distinct....
, saguaro
Saguaro

The Saguaro, pronounced "sah-wah-roh", is a large, tree-sized cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexico political divisions of Mexico of Sonora and Baja California, and an extremely small area of California....
, nipple cactus, prickly pear, etc.), agarita berries, chokecherries, American persimmons, and the wild beach plum.

Nuts proliferated in the diet as well, including pecan
Pecan

The Pecan is a species of hickory, native to south-central North America, in the United States from southern Iowa, Illinois and Indiana east to western Kentucky, North Carolina and western Tennessee, south through Georgia , Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas ; and in Mexico from Coahuila south to Jalisco and Veracr...
s, hickory nuts, beechnut
Beechnut

Beechnut can refer to:*A Beech tree*Beech-Nut baby foodSee also*The Beach Nut...
s, hazelnuts, chestnut
Chestnut

Chestnut , is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the Beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate climate regions of the Northern Hemisphere....
s, chinquapin
Chinquapin

Chinquapin or chinkapin can refer to:...
s, black walnut
Black Walnut

Black walnut or American walnut is a species of Flowering plant tree in the hickory family, Juglandaceae, that is native to eastern North America....
s, and butternut
Butternut

Butternut has multiple meanings:*Butternut squash, an edible winter squash.*Juglans cinerea, a type of walnut tree native to North America.*Caryocar nuciferum, known as "butternut", a type of nut tree native to South America...
s. Acorn
Acorn

The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oak tree . It is a nut , containing a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule....
s were also popularly used to produce oil for seasoning, and pounded into a flour to mix with cornmeal to thicken soups and fried into cakes and breads. Legumes included peanut
Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual plant herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm tall....
s, screwbeans, honey locust
Honey locust

The Honey locust is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America. It is mostly found in the moist soil of river valleys ranging from southeastern South Dakota to New Orleans and central Texas, and as far east as central Pennsylvania....
 beans, and mesquite
Mesquite

Mesquite is a legume plant of the Prosopis genus found in Northern Mexico and the United States from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas up to southwestern Kansas and from southeastern California and southwestern Utah to the southern limits of the Sonoran desert....
 beans. The grain used in most of Native American cooking was maize
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
, while wild rice
Wild rice

Wild rice is any of the four species of plants that make up the genus Zizania , a group of Poaceae that grow in shallow water in small lakes and slow-flowing streams; often, only the flowering head of wild rice rises above the water....
 (not a true grain) was found in certain southern regions. The seeds from various plants were also commonly utilized: pine nut
Pine nut

Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines . About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of value as a human food....
s (western white pine
Western White Pine

Western White Pine is a species of pine that occurs in the mountains of the western United States and Canada, specifically the Sierra Nevada , the Cascade Range, the Coast Range, and the northern Rocky Mountains....
, western yellow pine, pinyon pine
Pinyon pine

The pinyon pine group grows in the southwestern United States and in Mexico. The trees yield edible pine nut, which were a staple of the Indigenous people of the Americas, and are still widely eaten....
), anglepod, dropseed, pigweed
Pigweed

Pigweed can mean any of a number of weedy plants which may be used as pig fodder:* Amaranthus species* Chenopodium album * Portulaca species...
, spurge
Spurge

Euphorbia is a genus of plants belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae. Consisting of about 2160 species, Euphorbia is one of the most diverse genera in the plant kingdom....
, sunflower seed
Sunflower seed

File:Sunflower seeds 2009.jpg Botanically speaking, a sunflower seed is more properly referred to as an achene. When dehulled, the edible remainder is called the sunflower kernel....
s, tumbleweed
Tumbleweed

File:Tumbleweed 038 .jpgA tumbleweed is the above-ground part of a plant that, once mature and dry, separates from the root and rotation in living systems away in the wind....
, unicorn plant.

Land animal foods
The largest amount of animal protein came from game
Game (food)

Game is any animal hunting for food or not normally Domestication . Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world....
 meats. Large game included bison
American Bison

The American Bison is a bovinae mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Wild Asian Water Buffalo and the African buffalo....
, deer
Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
, elk
Elk

Elk may refer to:* Various species of deer:** European Elk , also known as Moose** North American Elk , also known as Wapiti** Indian Elk , also known as sambar ...
, moose
Moose

File:Alces alces NA.svgThe moose or elk , , is the largest Extant taxon species in the deer family . Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a "twig-like" configuration....
, bighorn sheep
Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America and Siberia with large horns which can weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae....
, and bear
Bear

Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives....
, mountain lion, along with goat
Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
 and pronghorn
Pronghorn

The pronghorn , also pronghorn antelope or prong buck, is a species of ungulate mammal native to interior western and central North America....
 being found in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
. The small game cooked included rabbit
Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genus in the family taxonomy as rabbits, including the European rabbit , Cottontail rabbit , and the Amami rabbit ....
, raccoon
Raccoon

Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most widespread species, the Raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are considerably lesser-known....
, opossum, squirrel
Squirrel

File:Eichh?rnchen D?sseldorf Hofgarten edit.jpgA squirrel is one of many small or medium-sized rodents in the family Sciuridae. In the English language-speaking world, squirrel commonly refers to members of this family's genus Sciurus and Tamiasciurus, which are tree squirrels with large bushy tails, indigenous to Asia, the America...
, wood rat, chipmunk
Chipmunk

Chipmunk is the common name for any small squirrel-like rodent species of the genus Tamias. There are approximately 25 species in this genus....
, ground hog, peccary
Peccary

Peccaries are medium-sized mammals of the family Tayassuidae. Peccaries are members of the artiodactyl suborder Suina, as are swine and possibly Hippopotamidae....
, prairie dog
Prairie dog

Prairie dogs are small, burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. There are five different species of prairie dogs: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs....
, skunk
Skunk

Skunks are mammals best known for their ability to excrete a strong, foul-smelling #Anal scent glands. General appearance ranges from species to species from black and white to brown or cream colored....
, badger
Badger

Badger is the common name for a specific group of carnivora mammals, which belong to the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, ferrets, wolverines, and relatives....
, beaver
Beaver

Beavers are two primarily nocturnal, semi-aquatic species of rodent, one native to North America and one to Eurasia. They are known for building dams, canals, and lodges ....
, and porcupine
Porcupine

Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp Spine , or quills, that defend them from predators. They are endemic in both the Old World and the New World....
. Game birds included turkey
Turkey (bird)

A turkey is either of two Extant taxon of large birds in the genus Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey, is native to the forests of North America....
, partridge
Partridge

Partridges are birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are a bird migration Old World group.These are medium-sized birds, intermediate between the larger pheasants and the smaller quails....
, quail
Quail

Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds in the pheasant family Phasianidae. New World quails and buttonquails and are not closely related but named for their similar appearance and behaviour....
, pigeon, plover
Plover

Plovers are a widely distributed group of wader birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. They are known to dive in lakes looking for fish....
, lark
Lark

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. All species occur in the Old World, including northern and eastern Australia; only one, the Shore Lark, has spread to North America, where it is called the Horned Lark....
 and osprey
Osprey

The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk, is a Diurnality, fish bird of prey. It is a large Bird of prey, reaching 60 centimeters in length with a 1.8 metre wingspan....
. Water fowl was quite abundant and varied, particularly on the coasts such as duck
Duck

Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not represent a clade but a form taxon, being the Anatidae not considered swans and goose....
s, geese, swan
Swan

Swans are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes goose and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini....
, crane
Crane (bird)

Cranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds of the order Gruiformes, and family Gruidae. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back....
 and sea crane. Other amphibious proteins included alligators and frogs, which the legs were enjoyed from, especially bullfrogs. Snail meat was also enjoyed, along with various turtles such as the painted turtle
Painted Turtle

The Painted Turtle is a reptile that is common in southern Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico and is related to other water turtles such as Trachemys and Pseudemys....
, wood turtle
Wood Turtle

The Wood Turtle is one of two species in the genus Glyptemys, both of which are limited to North America. Until 2002, the wood turtle was placed in the genus Clemmys but genetic analyses revealed that the wood turtle and bog turtle formed a distinct group ....
, and snapping turtle
Chelydridae

There are two extant species of the Family Chelydridae: Chelydra serpentina, the Common Snapping Turtle, and its larger relative Macrochelys temminckii, the Alligator Snapping Turtle ....
 along with their eggs. In addition the sea turtle
Sea turtle

Sea turtles are turtles found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean. There are seven living species of sea turtles: Flatback Sea Turtle, Green Sea Turtle, Hawksbill turtle, Kemp's Ridley, leatherback sea turtle, Loggerhead Sea Turtle and Olive Ridley Sea Turtle....
 and green turtle, endangered today were considered an important spiritual protein by the Native Americans.

Seafood
Blue Crab On Market in Piraeus   Callinectes Sapidus Rathbun 20020819 317
Saltwater fish eaten by the Native Americans were cod
Cod

Cod is the common name for the genus of fish Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name of a variety of other fishes....
, lemon sole
Lemon sole

The lemon sole, Microstomus kitt, is a flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. It is native to shallow seas around Northern Europe, where it lives on stony bottoms down to about 200 m....
, flounder
Flounder

Flounder are flatfish that live in ocean waters ie., Northern Atlantic and waters along the east coast of the United States and Canada, and the Pacific Ocean, as well....
, herring
Herring

Herring are small, oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea....
, halibut
Halibut

A halibut is a type of flatfish from the family of the right-eye flounders . This name is derived from haly and butt , alleged to be called so from being commonly eaten on holy-days....
, sturgeon
Sturgeon

Sturgeon is the common name used for some 26 species of fish in the family Acipenseridae, including the genus Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus....
, smelt, drum on the East Coast, and olachen on the West Coast. Whale was hunted by Native Americans off the Northwest coast, especially by the Makah
Makah

The Makah are a Native Americans in the United States people from the northwestern corner of the Continental United States in Washington. The Makah tribe lives in and around the town of Neah Bay, Washington, a small fishing village along the Strait of Juan de Fuca where it meets the Pacific Ocean....
, and used for their meat and oil. Seal and walrus were also utilized. Eel from New York's Finger Lakes
Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes are a chain of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York that are a popular tourist destination. There are actually eleven lakes in the region, but only seven of the largest are commonly identified as the Finger Lakes....
 region were eaten. Catfish
Catfish

Catfish are a very diverse group of Actinopterygii fish. Named for their prominent barbel s, which resemble a cat's whiskers , catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest, the Pangasius gigas from Southeast Asia and the longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores , and even to a tiny parasite species commonly called the ca...
 seemed to be favored by tribes, including the Modoc
Modoc

The Modoc tribe is a group of Native Americans in the United States people who originally lived in the area which is now northeastern California and central Southern Oregon....
s. Crustacean included shrimp
Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, Decapoda crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh water and seawater. Adult shrimp are Filter feeder benthic animals living close to the bottom....
, lobster
Lobster

Clawed lobsters compose a family of large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are economically important as seafood, forming the basis of a global industry that nets United States dollar1.8 billion in trade annually....
, crayfish
Crayfish

Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads are fresh water crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related. They breathe through feather-like gills and are found in bodies of water that do not freeze to the bottom; they are also mostly found in brooks and streams where there is fresh water running, and which have shelter ag...
, and giant crab
Crab

Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
s in the Northwest and blue crab
Blue crab

The blue crab is a crustacean found in the waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, which is the Maryland State Crustacean and the subject of an extensive fishery....
s in the East. Other shellfish include abalone
Abalone

Abalone are medium-sized to very large edible sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis....
 and geoduck
Geoduck

The geoduck , Panopea abrupta, is a species of very large edible Seawater clam, a Marine bivalve mollusk in the family Hiatellidae....
 on the California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 coast, while on the East Coast the surf clam
Surf clam

The surf clam, Spisula solida, is a medium sized marine clam or bivalve mollusc. Up to 5 centimetre long, like many clams it is a sediment burrowing filter feeder....
, quahog, and the soft-shell clam
Soft-shell clam

Soft-shell clams, scientific name Mya arenaria, popularly called "steamers", "softshells", "longnecks", "piss clams" or "Ipswich clams", are a species of edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Myidae....
. Oyster
Oyster

The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water....
s were eaten on both shores, as were mussel
Mussel

The common name mussel is used for members of several different families of clams or bivalve molluscs, from both saltwater and freshwater habitats....
s and periwinkle
Common Periwinkle

The common periwinkle, or the winkle, Littorina littorea, is a small edible species of gilled sea snail with an Operculum , a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Littorinidae, the winkles....
s.

Cooking methods
Native Americans utilized a number of cooking methods. Grilling
Grilling

Grilling or broiling is a form of cooking that involves direct heat. Devices that grill are called grill . The definition varies widely by region and culture....
 meats was common. Spit roasting over a pit fire was common as well. Vegetables, especially root vegetable
Root vegetable

Root vegetables are plant roots used as vegetables. Other underground plants are often, erroneously, called root vegetables. Root vegetables include both true roots such as tuberous roots and taproots, but exclude non-roots such as tubers, rhizomes, corms, and bulbs....
s 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
Bison

Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Only two of these species still exist: the American bison and the European bison, or wisent , each with two subspecies....
 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.

The Native Americans are credited as the first in America to create fire-proof pottery to place in direct flame. In what is now the Southwestern United States, Native Americans also created ovens made of adobe
Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun....
 called horno
Horno

Horno is a mud adobe built outdoor oven used by North American Indians and early settlers of North America. It was used to cook corn and bread....
s in which to bake items such as breads made from cornmeal
Cornmeal

Cornmeal is flour ground from dried maize, and is a common staple food. In the United States it is also called cornflour. ...
. Native Americans in other parts of America made ovens out of dug pits. These pits were also used to steam foods by adding heated rocks or embers and then seaweed or corn husks (or other coverings) placed on top to steam fish and shellfish as well as vegetables; potatoes would be added while still in-skin and corn while in-husk, this would later be referred to as a clambake
New England clam bake

The New England Clam Bake is a traditional method of cooking foods, especially seafood such as lobster, mussels, crabs, clams, and quahogs. The seafood is often supplemented by sausages, potatoes, onions, carrots, corn on the cob, etc....
 by the colonists. The hole was also a location for producing what has become Boston baked beans
Baked beans

Baked beans is a dish consisting of beans, baking in a sauce. Most commercial canned baked beans are made from Common bean#White beanss, also known as Navy Beans - a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris - and sold in a sauce....
 made from beans, maple sugar
Maple sugar

Maple sugar is what remains after the Sap of the sugar maple is boiled for longer than is needed to create maple syrup or maple taffy. Once almost all the water has been boiled off, all that is left is a solid sugar....
 and a piece of bear fat.

Colonial period


When the colonists came to America, their initial attempts at survival included planting crop
Crop

Crop may refer to:* Crop, a plant grown and harvested for agricultural use* Crop , a plant cultivated and harvested on an annual basis considered as personal property as opposed to real property....
s 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 Indies and other regions, the colonists were able to establish themselves in the American colonies with a cuisine similar to their previous British cuisine
British cuisine

English cuisine is shaped by the country's temperate climate, its island geography, and its history. The latter includes interactions with other European countries, and the importing of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of World War II Immigration t...
. 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
French cuisine

French cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of France. It evolved from centuries of social and political change. The Middle Ages brought lavish banquets to the upper class with ornate, heavily seasoned food prepared by chefs such as Guillaume Tirel....
 cookery, even with the French Huguenot
Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestantism Reformed Church of France of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries....
s in South Carolina
South Carolina

South Carolina is a U.S. state in the Southern United States of the United States. It borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north....
 and French-Canadians. One of the cookbooks that proliferated in the colonies was The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy written by Hannah Glasse
Hannah Glasse

Hannah Glasse was a cookery writer of the eighteenth century. She is best known for her cookbook, The Art of Cookery, first published in 1747....
, wrote of disdain for the French style of cookery, stating “the blind folly of this age that would rather be imposed on by a French booby, than give encouragement to a good English cook!” Of the French recipes, she does add to the text she speaks out flagrantly against the dishes as she “… think it an odd jumble of trash.” Reinforcing the anti-French sentiment was the French and Indian War
French and Indian War

The French and Indian War was the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War, known in Canada as the War of the Conquest. The name refers to the two main enemies of the British: the royal French forces and the various Indigenous peoples of the Americas forces allied with them....
 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 Acadian
Acadian

The Acadians are the descendants of the seventeenth-century France French colonial empires who settled in Acadia . Although today most of the Acadians and Qu?b?cois are francophone Canadians, Acadia was founded in a geographically separate region from Quebec leading to their two distinct cultures....
s, they migrated to Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
. 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.

Common ingredients
The American colonial diet varied depending on where the settled region. Local cuisine patterns had established by the mid 18th century. The New England
New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
 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
Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
, 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. The Johnnycake was a poor substitute to some for wheaten bread, but acceptance by both the northern and southern colonies seems evident.

As many of the New Englanders were originally from England, game hunting was often a pastime from back home that paid off when they immigrated to the New World
New World

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
. 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 over animal husbandry, as it required much less work to defend the kept animals against Native Americans or the French.

Livestock and game
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 soup
Soup

Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in Stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth....
s, stew
Stew

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy.Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables , meat, poultry, sausages and seafood....
s, sausage
Sausage

A sausage is a prepared food, usually made from ground meat, animal fat, salt, and spices , typically packed in a casing . Sausage making is a traditional food preservation technique....
s, pie
Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness or savoury ingredients....
s and pasties. In addition to game, mutton was a meat that colonists would enjoy from time to time. The Spanish
Spanish people

Spanish people or Spaniards are a nation or ethnic group native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. They are often considered an amalgam of different ethnic groups, rather than an ethnic group by itself....
 in Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
 originally introduced sheep
Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
 to the New World, in the north however, the Dutch
Dutch people

The Dutch are the people native to the Netherlands, a country in north-western Europe.Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities world wide,See the Dutch #Dutch diaspora. and form a mentionable part of the population of Canada,Australia, South Africa and the United States....
 and English introduced sheep. The keeping of sheep was a result of the English non-practice of animal husbandry
Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry, also called animal science, stockbreeding or simple husbandry, is the agriculture practice of animal breeding and raising livestock....
. 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. The forage–based diet for sheep that prevailed in the Colonies produce a characteristically strong, gamy flavor and a tougher consistency, which required aging and slow cooking to tenderize.

Fats and oils
A number of fat
Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water. Chemistry, fats are generally ester of glycerol and fatty acids....
s and oil
Oil

An oil is a chemical substance that is in a viscosity liquid state at room temperature or slightly warmer, and is both hydrophobic and lipophilic ....
s 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
Shortening

Shortening is a semisolid fat used in food preparation, especially baked goods, and is so called because it promotes a "short" or crumbly texture ....
. Rendered pork
Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig . The word, pork, is often meant to denote specifically the fresh meat of the pig, but it can be used as an all-inclusive term, to include cured, smoked, or processed meats It is one of the most-commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry dating back...
 fat made the most popular cooking medium, especially from the cooking of bacon
Bacon

Bacon is a cut of meat taken from the sides, belly, or back of a pig, then Curing , Smoking , or both. Meat from other animals, such as beef, Lamb and mutton, chicken, goat, or turkey , may also be cut, cured, or otherwise prepared to resemble 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
Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermentation cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications such as baking, sauce making, and frying....
 in cooking as well, but it was rare prior to the American Revolution
American Revolution

The American Revolution refers to the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and then rejected the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America....
, as cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
 were not yet plentiful.

Seafood
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. The highest quality cod was usually dried, however, and exported to the Mediterranean in exchange for fruits not available in the American colonies. Lobsters proliferated in the waters as well, and were extremely common in the New England diet.

Vegetables
A number of vegetables grew in the northern colonies, which included turnip
Turnip

The turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender, varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as fodder for livestock....
s, onion
Onion

Onion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium. They are known by the common name "onion" but, used without qualifiers, it usually refers to Allium cepa....
s, cabbage
Cabbage

The cabbage is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae , used as a Leaf vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial plant, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster ....
, carrot
Carrot

The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange or white, or red-white blend in colour, with a crisp texture when fresh. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot....
s, and parsnip
Parsnip

The parsnip is a root vegetable related to the carrot. Parsnips resemble carrots, but are paler than most of them and have a stronger flavor. Like carrots, parsnips are native to Eurasia and have been eaten there since ancient times....
s, along with a number of bean
Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genus of the Family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed.The whole young pods of bean plants, if picked before the pods ripen and dry, can be tender enough to eat whole, whether cooked or raw....
s, pulses and legume
Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
s. These vegetables kept well through the colder months in storage. Other vegetables grew which were salted or pickled for preservation, such as cucumbers. As control over the northern colonies’ farming practices came from the seasons, fresh greens consumption occurred only during the summer months. Pumpkin
Pumpkin

Pumpkin is a gourd-like Squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae . It is a common name of or can refer to cultivars of any one of the following species: Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata....
s and gourd
Gourd

A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, or a name given to the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants of the genus Lagenaria....
s 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 pie
Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness or savoury ingredients....
s that could freeze during the winter months.

Alcoholic drinks
Prior to the revolution New Englanders consumed large quantities of rum
Rûm

R?m, also Roum or Rhum , is a very indefinite term used at different times in the Muslim world to refer to the Balkans and Anatolia generally, and for the Byzantine Empire in particular, for the Seljuk Sultanate of R?m in Asia Minor, and for Greeks inhabiting Ottoman Empire or modern Turkey territory as well as for Greek Cypriots....
 and beer
Beer

Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and Fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal?the most common of which is malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely used....
 as they had relatively easy access of the goods needed to produce these items from maritime imports. Rum was the distilled spirit of choice as the main ingredient, molasses
Molasses

Molasses is a thick by-product from the processing of the sugar beet or sugar cane into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese language word mela?o, which comes from "meli", the Greek word for "honey"....
, was readily available from trade with the West Indies. Further into the interior, one would often find colonists consuming whiskey, as they did not have similar access to the sugar cane. They did have ready access to corn and rye, which they used to produce their whiskey. However, up until the Revolution many considered whiskey to be a coarse alcohol unfit for human consumption, as many believed that it caused the poor to become raucous and unkempt drunkards. One item that was important to the production of beer that did not grow well in the colonies however was hops
Hops

Hops are the female flower cones, also known as strobiles, of the hop . They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and Herbalism....
. Hops only grew wild in the New World, and as such, importation from England and elsewhere became essential to beer production. In addition to these alcohol-based products produced in America, imports were seen on merchant shelves, including wine
Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage often made of fermentation grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients....
 and brandy
Brandy

Brandy is a distilled_beverage produced by Distillation wine, the wine having first been produced by Fermentation grapes. Brandy contains 36%?60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink....
.

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
Squirrel

File:Eichh?rnchen D?sseldorf Hofgarten edit.jpgA squirrel is one of many small or medium-sized rodents in the family Sciuridae. In the English language-speaking world, squirrel commonly refers to members of this family's genus Sciurus and Tamiasciurus, which are tree squirrels with large bushy tails, indigenous to Asia, the America...
, possum
Possum

A possum is any of about 64 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi . The name derives from their resemblance to the opossums of the Americas....
, rabbit
Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genus in the family taxonomy as rabbits, including the European rabbit , Cottontail rabbit , and the Amami rabbit ....
 and other woodland animals. Those on the “rice coast” often ate ample amounts of rice
Rice

Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
, while the grain for the rest of the southern poor and slaves was cornmeal
Cornmeal

Cornmeal is flour ground from dried maize, and is a common staple food. In the United States it is also called cornflour. ...
 used in bread
Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by baking a dough of flour and water. It may be leavened or unleavened. Edible salt, fat and a leavening agent such as yeast are common ingredients, though bread may contain a range of other ingredients: milk, Egg , sugar, spice, fruit , vegetables , Nut or seeds ....
s and porridge
Porridge

Porridge, or porage, is a simple dish made by boiling oats or another cereal in water, milk, or both. It is eaten in a flat bowl or a dish....
s. Wheat was not an option for most of those that lived in the southern colonies.

The diet of the uplands often included cabbage
Cabbage

The cabbage is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae , used as a Leaf vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial plant, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster ....
, string beans, white potato
Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
es, while most avoided sweet potatoes
Sweet potato

The 'sweet potato' is a dicotyledonous plant which belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Amongst the approximately 50 genera and more than 1000 species of this family, only I....
 and peanut
Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual plant herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm tall....
s. 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
Breakfast

Breakfast is a meal eaten after a long period of sleep, most often eaten in the morning. The word came about because it means breaking the fast after one has not eaten since the night before....
, along with healthy portions of pork. Salted pork was a staple of any meal, as it used in the preparations of vegetables for flavor, in addition to its direct consumption as a protein.

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.

20th century–21st century
One characteristic of American cooking is the fusion
Fusion cuisine

Fusion cuisine combines elements of various cuisine while not fitting specifically into any. The term generally refers to the innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s....
 of multiple ethnic or regional approaches into completely new cooking styles. The cuisine of the South
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
, 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
German cuisine

German cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of Germany. It has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region....
 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
Pizza

Pizza is a world-popular dish of Italy origin, made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is often covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and mozzarella cheese....
.

Many companies in the American food industry
Food industry

The food industry is the complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population....
 develop new products requiring minimal preparation, such as frozen entrees. Some corporate kitchens (e.g. General Mills
General Mills

General Mills is a Fortune 500 corporation, mainly concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota....
, Campbell's, Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods, Inc. is the second-largest food and beverage company headquartered in the United States and the third largest in the world .The Philip Morris Company , acquired Kraft for $12.9 billion in 1988, eventually merging it with another food subsidiary, General Foods, which it had acquired in 1985....
) develop consumer recipes featuring their company's products. Many of these recipes have become very popular. For example, the General Mills Betty Crocker's Cookbook, first published in 1950 and currently in its 10th edition, is commonly found in American homes.

Common national dishes found on a national level

  • Common dishes found on a national level
    List of United States dishes

    American foodsBelow is a non-exhaustive list of dishes which are part of the Cuisine of the United States.*American Parfait*Amish Friendship Bread...


Regional cuisine

Given the United States' large size it has numerous regional variations. The United States' regional cuisine is characterized by its extreme diversity and style with each region having its own distinctive cuisine.

New England

Main article Cuisine of New England
Cuisine of New England

New England cuisine is a type of American cuisine found in New England, in the Northeastern United States. New England cooking is characterized by extensive use of seafood and dairy products, which results from its historical reliance on its seaports and fishing industry, as well as extensive dairy farming in inland regions....
Quail 07 Bg 041506
New England is the most northeastern region of the United States, including the six states of Connecticut
Connecticut

Connecticut is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The state borders New York to the west and south , Massachusetts to the north, and Rhode Island to the east....
, Maine
Maine

The State of Maine is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States of America. The state was named after the southern English Counties of England of Hampshire....
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a U.S. state in the New England region of the United States....
, and Vermont
Vermont

Vermont is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area....
. The region consists of a heritage linking it to Britain
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. The Native American
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 cuisine became part of the cookery style that the early colonists brought with them. The style of New England cookery originated from its colonial roots, that is to say practical, frugal and willing to eat anything other than what they were used to from their British roots. Much of the cuisine started with one-pot cookery, which resulted in such dishes as succotash
Succotash

Succotash is a food dish consisting primarily of maize and lima beans or other shell beans. Other ingredients may be added, including tomatoes, green and sweet red peppers, and possibly including pieces of cured meat or fish....
, chowder
Chowder

Chowder is any of a variety of soups, enriched with salt pork fatback and thickened with flour, or more traditionally with crushed hardtack or saltine crackers, and milk....
, baked beans
Baked beans

Baked beans is a dish consisting of beans, baking in a sauce. Most commercial canned baked beans are made from Common bean#White beanss, also known as Navy Beans - a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris - and sold in a sauce....
, and others.

Lobster is an integral ingredient to the cuisine, indigenous to the shores of the region. Other shellfish
Shellfish

Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton bearing aquatic invertebrate used as food, including various species of Molluscas, crustaceans, and echinoderms....
 of the coastal regions include little neck clams, sea scallop
Scallop

A scallop is a Marine bivalve mollusk of the Family Pectinidae. Scallops are a wiktionary:cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans....
s, blue mussel
Blue mussel

The blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae....
s, oyster
Oyster

The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water....
s, soft shell clam
Soft-shell clam

Soft-shell clams, scientific name Mya arenaria, popularly called "steamers", "softshells", "longnecks", "piss clams" or "Ipswich clams", are a species of edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Myidae....
s and razor shell clam
Atlantic jackknife clam

The Atlantic jackknife , Ensis directus, also known as the American jackknife clam or razor clam , is a large species of edible Marine bivalve mollusc, found on the North American Atlantic Ocean coast, from Canada to South Carolina as well as in Europe....
s. Much of this shellfish contributes to New England tradition, the clambake
New England clam bake

The New England Clam Bake is a traditional method of cooking foods, especially seafood such as lobster, mussels, crabs, clams, and quahogs. The seafood is often supplemented by sausages, potatoes, onions, carrots, corn on the cob, etc....
. The clambake as known today is a colonial interpretation of a Native American tradition.

The fruits of the region include the Vitis labrusca
Vitis labrusca

Vitis labrusca is a species of grape native to the eastern United States. It is the source of many grape cultivars, including Concord grapes....
 grapes used in grape juice
Grape juice

Grape juice is a juice obtained from crushing grapes. The juice is often fermentation and made into wine, brandy, or vinegar. In the wine industry grape juice which contains 7-23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds, is often referred to as "must"....
 made by companies such as Welch's
Welch's

Welch Foods Inc. is an United States company, headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. It is owned by the National Grape Cooperative Association, a Agricultural cooperative of grape growers....
, along with jelly, Kosher wine
Kosher wine

Kosher wine is wine produced according to Judaism's Halakha, specifically, the Kashrut regarding wine. However, some non-Orthodox Judaism branches of Judaism are more "lenient" with these laws, ....
 by companies like Mogen David and Manischewitz
Manischewitz

Manischewitz is a leading brand of kosher products based in the United States, best-known for their matza and kosher wine. Founded in 1888 and under family control until 1990, it is the world's top matza manufacturer and one of America's top kosher brands....
 along with other wineries that make higher quality wines. Apple
APPLE

This article is about the satellite APPLE. For the fruit apple, see Apple. For other uses see Apple .The Ariane Passenger PayLoad Experiment , was an experimental communication satellite with a C-Band transponder launched by Indian Space Research Organisation satellite on June 19, 1981 by Ariane 1, a launch vehicle of the European Spac...
s from New England include the original varieties, Baldwin, Lady, Mother, Pomme Grise, Porter, Roxbury Russet, Wright, Sops of Wine, Peck's Pleasant, Titus Pippin, Westfield-Seek-No-Further, and Duchess of Oldenburg. Cranberries
Cranberry

Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the genus Vaccinium subgenus Oxycoccos, or in some treatments, in the distinct genus Oxycoccos....
 are another fruit indigenous to the region.

Common dishes found on a regional level


Ethnic and immigrant influence


Contemporary trends and the reclaiming of roots

The demand for ethnic foods in the United States reflects the nation's changing diversity as well as its development over time. According to the National Restaurant Association
National Restaurant Association

The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States with 60,000 member companies, representing a total of more than 300,000 restaurants....
,
Restaurant industry sales are expected to reach a record high of $476 billion in 2005, an increase of 4.9 percent over 2004... Driven by consumer demand, the ethnic food market reached record sales in 2002, and has emerged as the fastest growing category in the food and beverage product sector, according to USBX Advisory Services. Minorities in the U.S. spend a combined $142 billion on food and by 2010, America's ethnic population is expected to grow by 40 percent.


A movement began during the 1980s among popular leading chefs to reclaim America's ethnic foods within its regional traditions, where these trends originated. One of the earliest was Paul Prudhomme
Paul Prudhomme

Paul Prudhomme is an United States celebrity chef famous for his Cajun cuisine. He is also the owner of one of the top restaurants in New Orleans, K-Pauls Louisiana Kitchen....
, who in 1984 began the introduction of his influential cookbook, Paul Prodhomme's Louisiana Kitchen, by describing the over 200 year history of Creole
Louisiana Creole cuisine

Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana which is a melting pot cuisine that blends French cuisine, Spanish cuisine, Caribbean, Mediterranean, United States, and African, influences....
 and Cajun cooking; he aims to "preserve and expand the Louisiana tradition." Prodhomme's success quickly inspired other chefs. Norman Van Aken embraced a Floridean type cuisine fused with many ethnic and globalized elements in his Feast of Sunlight cookbook in 1988. The movement finally gained fame around the world when California became swept up in the movement, then seemingly started to lead the trend itself, in, for example, the popular restaurant Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse

Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California, California restaurant known as the birthplace of California cuisine, a style credited to its co-founder, Alice Waters....
 in Berkeley. Examples of the Chez Panisse phenomenon, chefs who embraced a new globalized cuisine, were celebrity chefs like Jeremiah Tower and Wolfgang Puck, both former colleagues at the restaurant. Puck went on to describe his belief in contemporary, new style American cuisine in the introduction to The Wolfgang Puck Cookbook:
Another major breakthrough, whose originators were once thought to be crazy, is the mixing of ethnic cuisines. It is not at all uncommon to find raw fish listed next to tortillas on the same menu. Ethnic crossovers also occur when distinct elements meet in a single recipe. This country is, after all, a huge melting pot. Why should its cooking not illustrate the American transformation of diversity into unity?


Puck's former colleague, Jeremiah Tower became synonymous with California Cuisine
California Cuisine

California Cuisine is a style of cuisine marked by an interest in "Fusion cuisine"— integrating disparate cooking styles and ingredients— and in freshly prepared using local ingredients....
 and the overall American culinary revolution
Culinary revolution

The Culinary Revolution was a movement during the late 1960s and 1970s, growing out of the Free Speech Movement, when sociopolitical issues began to profoundly affect the way Americans eat....
. Meanwhile, the restaurant that inspired both Puck and Tower became a distinguished establishment, popularizing its so called "mantra" in its book by Paul Bertolli
Paul Bertolli

Paul Bertolli is a chef, writer, and artisan food producer in the San Francisco Bay area of California. Until mid-2005, he was the executive chef of the Oliveto restaurant in Oakland, California....
 and owner Alice Waters
Alice Waters

Alice Louise Waters , one of the best-known and most influential American chefs since the 1970s, is credited with single-handedly creating a culinary revolution in the United States....
, Chez Panisse Cooking, in 1988. Published well after the restaurants' founding in 1971, this new cookbook from the restaurant seemed to perfect the idea and philosophy that had developed over the years. The book embraced America's natural bounty, specifically that of California, while containing recipes that reflected Bertoli and Waters' appreciation of both northern Italian and French style foods.

Early ethnic influences

While the earliest cuisine of the United States was primarily influenced by indigenous
Indigenous

Indigenous may refer to:*Indigenous peoples, population groups with ancestral connections to place prior to formally recorded history**Indigenous intellectual property, a legal term identifying the right to claim knowledge within their culture...
 Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
, the cuisine of the thirteen colonies
Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies

The cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies was derived from familiar traditions from the colonist's home countries, mainly England. Many Agriculture items came to the New World through trade with England and the West Indies....
 or the culture of the antebellum
Antebellum

"Antebellum" is an expression derived from Latin that means "before war" .In United States history and historiography, "antebellum" is commonly used, in lieu of "pre-Civil War," in reference to the period of increasing sectionalism that led up to the American Civil War....
 American South; the overall culture of the nation, its gastronomy
Gastronomy

Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between culture and food. It is often thought erroneously that the term gastronomy refers exclusively to the art of cooking , but this is only a small part of this discipline; it cannot always be said that a cook is also a gourmet....
 and the growing culinary arts became ever more influenced by its changing ethnic mix and immigrant patterns over the 20th century unto the present. Some of the ethnic groups that continued to influence the cuisine were here in prior years; while others arrived more numerously during “The Great Transatlantic Migration (of 1870–1914) or other mass migrations
Mass migrations

Mass migration refers to the human migration of a large group of people from one geographical area to another. Mass migration is distinguished from individual or small scale migration; it is also different from Seasonal human migration, which occurs on a regular basis....
.

Some of the ethnic influences could be found in the nation from after the Civil War
Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
 and into the History of United States continental expansion during most of the 19th century. Ethnic influences already in the nation at that time would include the following groups and their respective cuisines:
  • Indigenous
    Indigenous

    Indigenous may refer to:*Indigenous peoples, population groups with ancestral connections to place prior to formally recorded history**Indigenous intellectual property, a legal term identifying the right to claim knowledge within their culture...
     Native Americans in the United States
    Native Americans in the United States

    Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
     (Indians) and Native American cuisine
    Native American cuisine

    Native American cuisine includes all food practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Information about Native American cuisine comes from a great variety of sources....
  • Select nationalities of Europe and the respective developments from early modern European cuisine
    Early modern European cuisine

    The cuisine of early modern Europe was a mix of dishes inherited from medieval cuisine combined with innovations that would persist in the modern era....
     of the colonial age:
    • British-Americans and on-going developments in New England cuisine, the national traditions founded in cuisine of the thirteen colonies and some aspects of other regional cuisine.
    • Spanish Americans (Hispano Americano) and early modern Spanish cuisine
      Spanish cuisine

      Spanish cuisine consists of a variety of dishes which stem from differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by seafood available from the waters that surround the country, and reflects the country's deep maritime roots....
      , as well as Basque-Americans and Basque cuisine
      Basque cuisine

      Basque cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients of the cuisine of the Basque people. These include meats and fish grilled over hot coals, marmitako and lamb stews, cod, Tolosa, Spain bean dishes, paprikas from Lekeitio, pintxos , Idiaz?bal cheese, txakoli sparkling wine, and Sagardotegi....
      .
    • Early German-American or Pennsylvania Dutch
      Pennsylvania Dutch

      The Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of German people immigrants who came to Pennsylvania prior to 1800. According to Don Yoder, a Pennsylvania German expert and retired University of Pennsylvania professor, the word "Dutch" in this case owes its origin to an archaic meaning where it designated groups that are today considered Ger...
       and Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine
    • French Americans and their "New World
      New World

      The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
      " regional identities such as:
      • Acadian
        Acadian

        The Acadians are the descendants of the seventeenth-century France French colonial empires who settled in Acadia . Although today most of the Acadians and Qu?b?cois are francophone Canadians, Acadia was founded in a geographically separate region from Quebec leading to their two distinct cultures....
      • Cajun
        Cajun

        Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles and peoples of other ethnicities with whom the Acadians eventually intermarried on the semitropical frontier....
         and Cajun cuisine
        Cajun cuisine

        Cajun cuisine originates from the French-speaking Acadian or "Cajun" immigrants deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, United States....
  • The various ethnicities originating from early social factors of Race in the United States
    Race in the United States

    The United States is a Race Multiculturalism country. There is an extensive history of race-based slavery, the abolishment of it, and its economic impact....
     and the gastronomy
    Gastronomy

    Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between culture and food. It is often thought erroneously that the term gastronomy refers exclusively to the art of cooking , but this is only a small part of this discipline; it cannot always be said that a cook is also a gourmet....
     and cuisine
    Cuisine

    Cuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade....
    s of the “New World
    New World

    The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
    ,” Latin American cuisine
    Latin American cuisine

    Latin American Cuisine is a phrase that refers to typical foods, beverages, and cooking styles common to many of the countries and cultures in Latin America....
     and North American cuisine:
    • African-Americans and “Soul Food
      Soul food

      Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, and is the traditional cuisine of African-Americans of the Southern United States and of black communities beyond....
      .”
    • Louisiana Creole
      Louisiana Creole

      Louisiana Creole can refer to:* Louisiana Creole people* Louisiana Creole French language* Louisiana Creole cuisine...
       and Louisiana Creole cuisine
      Louisiana Creole cuisine

      Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana which is a melting pot cuisine that blends French cuisine, Spanish cuisine, Caribbean, Mediterranean, United States, and African, influences....
      . Louisiana Creole
      Louisiana Creole

      Louisiana Creole can refer to:* Louisiana Creole people* Louisiana Creole French language* Louisiana Creole cuisine...
       (also called French Créole) refers to native born people of various racial descent who are descended from the Colonial French and/or Spanish settlers of Colonial French Louisiana, before it became part of the United States in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase
      Louisiana Purchase

      The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of the French territory Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million French franc plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs , a total cost of $15,000,000 for the Louisiana territory....
      .
    • Cuisine of Puerto Rico
      Cuisine of Puerto Rico

      The cuisine of Puerto Rico has its roots in the cooking traditions and practices of Europe , Africa and the Amerindian Ta?nos. In the latter part of the 19th century the cuisine of Puerto Rico was greatly influenced by the United States in the ingredients used in its preparation....
    • Mexican-Americans and Mexican-American cuisine; as well as related regional cuisines:
      • Tex-Mex
        Tex-Mex

        Tex Mex may refer to:*Tex-Mex cuisine*Tejano music *Texas Mexican Railway, often referred to as the "Tex-Mex Railway"*Spanglish, a language formed by interaction of Spanish language and English language that is called "Tex-Mex" by some Texans...
         (regional Texas and Mexican fusion)
      • Cal-Mex (regional California and Mexican fusion)
      • Some aspects of “Southwestern cuisine.”


Later ethnic and immigrant influence

Other ethnic groups may have arrived in the United States prior to 20th Century, but they were either not part of the main colonial settlers, indigenous Native Americans, Latin American experience, African-American slave class or Creole people; as likewise, their population numbers were probably not as numerous as the other existing ethnic groups or the subsequent populations of their own respective ethnicities forthcoming during the years unto “The Great Transatlantic Migration” and other mass migrations of the 19th Century. This would also include what is current day United States of America, as every year the population
Population

File:Population density.pngIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings....
 census
Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population....
 and U.S. immigration populations change, thus changing the cultural influences of the nation. . The later arrival of many immigrants into the United States seemingly does not discount their profound impact on the national or regional cuisine. Many other ethnic groups have additionally contributed to Cuisine of the United States, some with greater impact and productive success than others; as indeed, some of these more prominent groups include the following (listed alphabetically):

  • Polynesian-Americans, and Polynesian cuisine, Hawaiian cuisine, Cuisine of Philippines
  • Caribbean-Americans and Caribbean cuisine
    Caribbean cuisine

    Caribbean cuisine is a fusion of African cuisine, Amerindian cuisine, British cuisine, Spanish cuisine, French cuisine, Dutch cuisine, Indian cuisine, Chinese cuisine and America....
    , Cuban Cuisine
    Cuban Cuisine

    Cuban cuisine is a fusion of Spanish cuisine, African cuisine and Caribbean cuisines. Cuban recipes share spices and techniques with Spanish and African cooking, with some Caribbean influence in spice and flavor....
    , Cuisine of Jamaica
  • Chinese-Americans and American Chinese cuisine
    American Chinese cuisine

    American Chinese cuisine refers to the style of food served by certain Chinese culture restaurants in the United States. This type of cooking typically caters to Western World tastes, and differs significantly from the Chinese cuisine....
  • Irish-Americans and Irish cuisine
    Irish cuisine

    Irish cuisine can be divided into two main categories – traditional, mainly simple dishes, and more modern dishes, as served in restaurants and hotels....
     and Irish pub traditions in America
  • Italian-Americans and Italian-American cuisine
    Italian-American cuisine

    Italian-American cuisine is the cuisine of Italian-American immigrants and their descendents, who have modified Italian cuisine under the influence of American culture and immigration patterns of Italians to the United States....
  • German-Americans and German Texans (namely, post-civil war), exemplified in German cuisine
    German cuisine

    German cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of Germany. It has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region....
     other than Pennsylvania Dutch.
  • Greek-Americans and Greek cuisine or Cuisine of the Mediterranean
    Cuisine of the Mediterranean

    Mediterranean cuisine is the food of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea.Whether this is a useful category is disputed:Mediterranean cuisine is the food of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea....
  • Japanese-Americans and Japanese cuisine
    Japanese cuisine

    Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of Shogun rule....
    , Asian cuisine
    Asian cuisine

    Asian cuisine styles can be broken down into several regional styles that have roots in the peoples and cultures of those regions. The major types can be roughly defined as East Asian with its origins in Imperial era of Chinese history and now encompassing modern Japan and the Korean peninsula; Southeast Asian which encompasses th...
    , Fusion cuisine
    Fusion cuisine

    Fusion cuisine combines elements of various cuisine while not fitting specifically into any. The term generally refers to the innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s....
    , and related influences on the Cuisine of Hawaii
    Cuisine of Hawaii

    Modern cuisine of Hawaii is a fusion of many cuisines brought by multi-ethnic immigrants to the Hawaii, particularly of mainland Cuisine of the United States, Cuisine of Australia, Chinese cuisine, Philippine cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Korean cuisine, Indian cuisine, Polynesian, and Caribbean cuisine origins, and including food sources from...
  • Jewish-Americans and Jewish Cuisine
    Jewish cuisine

    Jewish cuisine is a collection of international cookery traditions linked by Jewish dietary laws and Jewish holiday traditions. Certain foods, notably pork and shellfish, are forbidden; meat and dairy may not be combined, and meat must be Ritual slaughter and salted to remove all traces of blood....
     and Cuisine of the Mediterranean
    Cuisine of the Mediterranean

    Mediterranean cuisine is the food of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea.Whether this is a useful category is disputed:Mediterranean cuisine is the food of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea....
  • Portuguese-Americans, also known as Luso American
    Luso American

    Luso-Americans, or Lusitanic Americans are people living in the United States whose cultural background derives in part from countries with Portuguese speaking roots or traditions....
     and Portuguese cuisine
    Portuguese cuisine

    Portuguese cuisine is characterised by rich, filling and full-flavored dishes and is an example of a Mediterranean cuisine. Mutual influence between Portuguese and Spanish cuisine is common....
  • Polish-Americans and Polish cuisine
    Polish cuisine

    Polish cuisine is a mixture of Slavs and Germanic culinary traditions. It is rich in meat, especially chicken and pork, and winter vegetables , and spices, as well as different kinds of noodles the most notable of which are the pierogi....
     and Cuisine of the Midwestern United States
    Cuisine of the Midwestern United States

    Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the United States Midwest . It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central Europe, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe....
  • Russian-Americans and Russian cuisine
    Russian cuisine

    Russian cuisine derives its rich and varied character from the vast and multicultural expanse of Russia. Its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of plentiful fish, poultry, game , mushrooms, Berry, and honey....
     and Cuisine of the Midwestern United States
    Cuisine of the Midwestern United States

    Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the United States Midwest . It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central Europe, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe....
  • Lithuanian-Americans and Lithuanian cuisine
    Lithuanian cuisine

    Lithuanian cuisine features the products suited to its cool and moist northern climate: barley, potatoes, rye, beets, Leaf vegetable, berries, and mushrooms are locally grown, and dairy products are one of its specialities....
     and Cuisine of the Midwestern United States
    Cuisine of the Midwestern United States

    Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the United States Midwest . It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central Europe, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe....


"Italian, Mexican and Chinese (Cantonese) cuisines have indeed joined the mainstream. These three cuisines have become so ingrained in the American culture that they are no longer foreign to the American palate. According to the study, more than nine out of 10 consumers are familiar with and have tried these foods, and about half report eating them frequently. The research also indicates that Italian, Mexican and Chinese (Cantonese) have become so adapted to such an extent that "authenticity" is no longer a concern to customers."


Contributions from these ethnic foods have become just as common as traditional “American’ fares like hotdogs, hamburgers, beef steaks, cherry pie, Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonation soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines worldwide . It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke or as Cola or Pop....
, milkshakes, fried chicken and so on. Nowadays, Americans also have a ubiquitous consumption of foods like pizza
Pizza

Pizza is a world-popular dish of Italy origin, made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is often covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and mozzarella cheese....
 and pasta
Pasta

Pasta is a generic term for Italian cuisine variants of noodles, food made from a dough of flour, water and/or Egg , that is Boiling. The word can also denote dishes in which pasta products are the primary ingredient, served with sauce or seasonings....
, tacos and burritos to “General Tso's Chicken
General Tso's chicken

General Tso's chicken is a sugar and pungency deep-fried chicken dish that is popularly served in American Chinese cuisine and Canadian Chinese cuisine where it is considered Hunan cuisine....
” and Fortune Cookies
Fortune Cookies

Fortune Cookies is the second album by Alana Davis, released in 2001....
. Fascination with these and other ethnic foods may also vary with region.

Notable American chefs

American chef
Chef

A chef is a person who cooking professionally. In a professional kitchen setting, the term is used only for the one person in charge of everyone else in the kitchen, the executive chef....
s have been influential both in the food industry and in popular culture. An important 19th Century American chef was Charles Ranhofer
Charles Ranhofer

Charles Ranhofer was the chef at the famous Delmonico's Restaurant in New York from 1862 to 1876 and 1879 to 1896. Ranhofer was the author of The Epicurean, , an encyclopedic cookbook of over 1,000 pages, similar in scope to Auguste Escoffier Le Guide Culinaire....
 of Delmonico's Restaurant
Delmonico's Restaurant

Delmonico?s Restaurant was one of the first continuously run restaurants in the United States and is considered to be one of the first American fine dining establishments....
 in New York City. American cooking has been exported around the world, both through the global expansion of restaurant chains such as T.G.I. Friday's
T.G.I. Friday's

T.G.I. Friday's is an United States List of restaurant chains focusing on casual dining, with over 800 restaurants in over 50 countries. The company is a unit of the Carlson Companies....
 and McDonald's
McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving nearly 58 million customers daily. McDonald's primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts....
 and the efforts of individual restaurateurs such as Bob Payton, credited with bringing American-style pizza to the UK.

The first generation of television chefs such as Robert Carrier
Robert Carrier (chef)

Robert Carrier OBE was an United States chef, restaurant and cookery writer....
 and Julia Child
Julia Child

Julia Child was an American chef, author and television personality, who introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream, through her many cookbooks and television programs....
 tended to concentrate on cooking based primarily on European, especially French and Italian, cuisines. Only during the 1970s and 80s did television chefs such as James Beard
James Beard

James Andrew Beard was an United States chef and food writer. James Beard is recognized by many as the father of American gastronomy. Throughout his life, he pursued and advocated the highest standards, and served as a mentorship to emerging talents in the field of the culinary arts....
 and Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith (TV personality)

Jeff Smith was the author of a dozen best-selling cookbooks and the host of , a popular American cooking show which began in Tacoma, Washington and aired on PBS from 1988 to 1997, and consisted of 261 episodes....
 shift the focus towards home-grown cooking styles, particularly those of the different ethnic groups within the nation. Notable American restaurant chefs include Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller

Thomas Keller is an United States chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. He and his landmark restaurant, French Laundry in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996 and the Best Chef in America in 1997, and the restaurant is a perennial wi...
, Charlie Trotter
Charlie Trotter

Charlie Trotter is a Chicago chef and restaurant....
, Grant Achatz
Grant Achatz

Grant Achatz is an American chef and restaurateur who is considered to be on the cutting edge of the movement of menu item construction often referred to as molecular gastronomy or progressive cuisine....
, Alfred Portale
Alfred Portale

Alfred Portale is the chef and owner of Gotham Bar and Grill in Manhattan.Gotham Bar and Grill opened in 1984, Portale became Chef in 1985 taking the restaurant to new heights with his beautiful plating and his insistence on high quality ingredients....
, Paul Prudhomme
Paul Prudhomme

Paul Prudhomme is an United States celebrity chef famous for his Cajun cuisine. He is also the owner of one of the top restaurants in New Orleans, K-Pauls Louisiana Kitchen....
, Paul Bertolli
Paul Bertolli

Paul Bertolli is a chef, writer, and artisan food producer in the San Francisco Bay area of California. Until mid-2005, he was the executive chef of the Oliveto restaurant in Oakland, California....
, Mario Batali
Mario Batali

Mario Batali is an United Statesn chef, writer, Restaurant and media personality....
, Alice Waters
Alice Waters

Alice Louise Waters , one of the best-known and most influential American chefs since the 1970s, is credited with single-handedly creating a culinary revolution in the United States....
, Emeril Lagasse
Emeril Lagasse

'Emeril John Lagasse' is an United States celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. A regional James Beard Foundation Award winner, he is perhaps most notable for his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril as well as catchphrases such as ?Kick it up a notch!? and ?BAM!? He is a 197...
, Cat Cora
Cat Cora

Catherine 'Cat' Cora is an American professional chef best known for her featured role as an "Iron Chef" on the Food Network television show Iron Chef America....
, and celebrity chef
Celebrity chef

In the 1990s or possibly earlier, the term celebrity chef was coined and applied to a class of chefs who became well known for presenting cookery advice and/or demonstrations via mass media, especially television....
s like Bobby Flay
Bobby Flay

Robert William Flay is an United States celebrity chef, restaurateur, Iron Chef, and television presenter. He is the owner and executive chef of six restaurants: Mesa Grill and Bar Americain in New York City; Mesa Grill in Las Vegas, Nevada; Mesa Grill in The Bahamas ; Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Bobby's Burger Palace...
, Ina Garten
Ina Garten

Ina Rosenberg Garten is an United States author and host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa. Known for creating fine cuisine foods with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and timesaving tips, she has been championed by Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and Patricia Wells as an authority on cooking and home entertaining....
, and Todd English
Todd English

William Todd English is a celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, and television star based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States....
.

See also

  • Cuisine of the Southern United States
    Cuisine of the Southern United States

    The cuisine of the Southern United States is defined as the regional culinary form of states generally south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and extending west to Texas....
  • Cuisine of the Southwestern United States
    Cuisine of the Southwestern United States

    Cuisine of the Southwestern United States is food styled after the rustic cooking of the Southwestern States. It comprises a fusion of recipes for things that might have been eaten by Viceroyalty of New Spain settlers, cowboys, Native Americans in the United States, and Mexicans throughout the post-Columbian era; there is, however, a great d...
  • Christmas food in the United States
  • Cuisine of the Midwestern United States
    Cuisine of the Midwestern United States

    Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the United States Midwest . It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central Europe, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe....
  • Cuisine of the Northeastern United States
    Cuisine of the Northeastern United States

    The cuisine of the Northeastern United States refers to the distinctive styles of food indigenous to the states above the Potomac River. Maryland, Massachusetts, and Maine are centers of seafood cuisine....
  • Americanized cuisine
  • North American cuisine
    North American cuisine

    North American cuisine is a term used for foods native to or popular in countries of North America, as with Canadian cuisine, Cuisine of the United States, and Cuisine of Mexico....
  • Western pattern diet
    Western pattern diet

    The Western pattern diet is a Diet chosen by many people in developed countries, and increasingly in developing countries, characterized by high intakes of red meat, sugary desserts, high fat, and refined grains....
  • Locavores
    Locavores

    The locavore movement is increasingly important in the United States and elsewhere as interest in sustainability and eco-consiousness become more prevalent....
  • Cuisine of California
    Cuisine of California

    See California Cuisine for the style of cuisine identified with some famous Californian chefs.The Cuisine of California is the local cuisine of California....
     and California Cuisine
    California Cuisine

    California Cuisine is a style of cuisine marked by an interest in "Fusion cuisine"— integrating disparate cooking styles and ingredients— and in freshly prepared using local ingredients....
  • Culinary revolution
    Culinary revolution

    The Culinary Revolution was a movement during the late 1960s and 1970s, growing out of the Free Speech Movement, when sociopolitical issues began to profoundly affect the way Americans eat....
  • New American cuisine
    New American cuisine

    For other uses of New American, see New American .New American cuisine a term for upscale, contemporary American cuisine served primarily in restaurants in the United States....


Works cited

  • Basso, Keith H. (1983). "Western Apache." In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 462-488). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.*Crowgey, Henry G. Kentucky Bourbon: The Early Years of Whiskeymaking. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1971.
  • Danforth, Randi., Feierabend, Peter., Chassman, Gary., Culinaria The United States: A Culinary Discovery. New York: Konemann, 1998.
  • Foster, Morris W; & McCollough, Martha. (2001). Plains Apache. In R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, pp. 926-939). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Glasse, Hannah. Art of Cookery Made Easy. London:1750.
  • Hyde, George E., Indians of the High Plains: From the Prehistoric Period to the Coming of Europeans. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. 1959.
  • Oliver, Sandra L. Food in Colonial and Federal America. London: Greenwood Press, 2005.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1936). A summary of Jicarilla Apache culture. American Anthropologist, 38 (2), 202-223.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1941). An Apache life-way: The economic, social, and religious institutions of the Chiricahua Indians. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1983a). Chiricahua Apache. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 401-418). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Opler, Morris E. (1983b). Mescalero Apache. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 419-439). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.*Pillsbury, Richard. No Foreign Food: The American Diet in Time and Place. Westview, 1998.*
  • Root, Waverly and De Rochemont, Richard. Eating in America: a History. New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1981.
  • Smith, Andrew F. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Tiller, Veronica E. (1983). Jicarilla Apache. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 440-461). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.*

External links

  • -Educational companion to Smithsonian Institution's exhibit on American food ways.
  • - A report issued by the James Beard Foundation
    James Beard Foundation

    The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and educational opportunities to cooking hopefuls....
     in July, 2008.