The American melting pot simmers and stews with innumerable local, regional and national dishes. It took millions of cooks – some famous, most anonymous – to create today's American cuisine. These cooks took locally available foods and ingredients and created thousands of dishes highly variable by location and region. Yet with all this variety, peek into the American kitchen and you will probably see some of the 10 foods that form the core of American cuisine: beef, wheat, greens, chicken, beans, potatoes, turkey, corn, apples and pork.

INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY

Change always has characterized America. So it is with food. American cuisine is as diverse as the Native American and emigrant cooks who arrived in North America. They experimented, substituted and modified recipes through the years. Innovation and creativity define American cuisine. Americans developed new dishes with many regional variations. While regional patterns have become blurred in the late 20th century, American cuisine continues to exhibit two specific directions. One direction reflects consistent use of 10 foods through time, the second reveals the adaptive character of American cuisine – ever-changing, ever-evolving, and embracing the influence of new immigrants and new technology.

We invite you to enter, linger and feast.

 

BUTTERBEANS

I'd like to have some butterbeans that grew around a pole,
They will appease my appetite and do wonders for my soul.
I'd like to have some turnip-greens, fresh from the garden patch,
And some homemade skillet-cornbread...please, cook up quite a batch!
I'd like to have some buttermilk that came out of a churn ·
The kind they serve in these cafes sure makes my stomach burn.

Could you slice some red tomatoes that were picked off the vine?
They were called "Big Scarlet Wonders" when I was eight or nine.
Could you fry some tender okra that was rolled in cornmeal?
I don't dare what those doctors say · it helps my ulcers heal.
Could you pick some nice green apples and stew them in a pan?
They'll bring back boyhood memories before I was a man.

Look, we are having fried chicken with gravy on the side;
Therefore, I'll not count calories · I'll say my scales have lied!
Look at those hot, fluffy biscuits and butter from a cow,
And those preserves that Grandma made, fresh from the orchard's bough.
The dessert is cherry cobbler! Please, oh please, don't delay ·
Let's all sit down and offer "Thanks." Quick, have somebody pray.

But those days are gone forever, those days at Grandma's place.
Today, we eat dry cereals flown in from outer space.
TV dinners are quick frozen, washed down with instant tea,
And for supper we eat hot-dogs, which wake us up at three!
We fumble for two aspirins and then we toss and roll
And pray again for butterbeans that grew around a pole.

Charles Hastings Smith, 1980

WELCOME TO AMERICA THE BOUNTIFUL

CLASSIC AMERICAN FOOD FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE SPACE AGE
Opening Remarks and Exhibit Credits

 

 

History of Hidden Valley Ranch

CORN

 

BOUNTIFUL GIFTS
ON THE EVE OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION
Remote Antiquity · 1565

TURKEY

 

BIRTH OF A NATION
COLONIZATION, EXPANSION, AND INDEPENDENCE
1565 · 1776

BEANS

 

WESTWARD HO
FRONTIER LIFE AND EXPLORATION
1776 · 1848

APPLES

 

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME
GOLD RUSH ERA
1848 · 1861

PORK

 

A NATION DIVIDED
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
1861 · 1865

BEEF

 

RECONSTRUCTION AND GROWTH
CENTENNIAL AND INTO THE 20TH CENTURY
1865 · 1910

WHEAT

 

BEST OF TIMES · WORST OF TIMES
FOOT SOLDIERS, FLAPPERS, AND FRUGALITY
1910 · 1941

POTATOES

 

WORLD WAR II
HOME FRONT AND ABROAD
1945 · 1976

CHICKEN

 

COLD WAR AND SOCIAL UPHEAVAL
LIVING WITH THE ATOMIC AGE THROUGH VIETNAM
1945 · 1976

VEGETABLES

 

BICENTENNIAL TO TERCENTENNIAL
AMERICA ENTERS THE NEW MILLENNIUM
1976 · 2076

 

We invite you to enter, linger, and feast...

 

NASA

Americans celebrate with food. Whether New Year's Eve, the 4th of July or Thanksgiving, Americans commemorate holidays with favorite family recipes. History reveals that American food has been bountiful, diversified and sustaining. Some dishes have endured from Colonial times through the Space Age with little change.

FRANK LESLIE'S HISTORICAL REGISTER OF THE UNITED STATES CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION, 1876

SEED CATALOGUE COVER PETER HENDERSON & COMPANY, 1899

Behind each classic American food lies the story of its development and use at specific periods of history. Some stories are humorous, other poignant. All are thought-provoking.

SEED CATALOGUE COVER PETER HENDERSON & COMPANY, 1889

From these 10 enduring foods, cooks in eastern America created Boston brown bread, chicken a la King, Cole slaw and succotash. Among Southern and Mountain State contributions were burgoo, chitterlings, cracklin' bread, fried ham with red-eye gravy, grits, hoppin' john, jambalayas and poke salad. Cooks in the Midwest and Great Lakes region developed brownie cookies, chicken pies with biscuit toppings, macaroni and cheese, and wild rice casseroles. Inventive Western and Southwestern cooks prepared barbecued beef and chili recipes by the thousands, while creative West Coast cooks invented dishes such as chop suey, cioppino, Hangtown fry and a myriad of sourdough bread recipes.

 

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