Blog

GLOSSARY OF FOOD FROM AMERICA

Note: The following is only a partial listing of food terms.

Abelskivers: rich puffy Scandinavian pancakes baked in a pan with deep round wells.

Baked Beans: small white beans, slow-baked (often overnight), seasoned with salt pork, molasses, and mustard. (New England)

Boston Brown Bread: a steamed bread made of whole wheat flour, sour milk, and molasses. A favorite accompaniment to Baked Beans and both are traditionally served on Saturday night. (New England)

Cafe au Lait: in New Orleans that special taste and aroma comes from roasted chicory root.

Chili Con Carne: as the Spanish translated – “chili with meat” – suggests, this Southwestern favorite is made with chili seasonings and cubed beef thickened with Masa Harina (corn flour). Beans are served with it.

Clam Chowder: a creamy soup made with potatoes and fresh clams.

Coleslaw: a cabbage salad, finely shredded and dressed with vinegar. (Dutch origin)

Corn Oysters: a southern side dish of fritters made from corn dumpling batter blended with bits of bacon. Served with pot roast or chicken dishes.

Cornpone: a corn bread browned and cooked in a skillet.

Crullers: served with a drift of confectioners’ sugar, these Scandinavian yeast twists are fried crisp.

Custard Corncake: a bland, baked custard of eggs, milk, and cornmeal.

File: the dried leaves of the sassafras plant, introduced by the Choctaw Indians to Creole cookery. It is used for flavor (something like thyme in taste), and to thicken foods just before serving.

Grits: Also called hominy grits, kernels of corn boiled in lye solution, hulled, washed and dried. The resulting hominy is then coarsely ground to form grits. Grits may be cooked like a porridge and served at any meal as a side dish, with everything from eggs to meat or fish. Slices of cold grits may be fried. Grits are the favorite Southern cereal food.

Gumbo: there are many varieties of gumbo – thick stews combining meats and seafoods or shellfish, almost always containing okra and served with rice. Okra, called Gumbo by the Choctaw Indians, helps to thicken the juices. (New Orleans)

Hash Browns: cubed potatoes and onions usually fried in patties to a crusty brown, most often served at breakfast with eggs. A favorite food at almost any meal, now almost across the United States.

Hoecake: crispy-browned pancakes made of white cornmeal, salt, and water, and cooked in bacon fat or butter.

Hooch: the Tilnglet people of Hooch-in-noo, Alaska are said to have originated a potent brew by adding molasses to ferment in the sourdough pot. It became known as “hooch”.

Hoppin’ John: traditional New Year’s Day dish eaten in southern United States for good luck. Cowpeas or black-eyed peas are cooked and tossed with cooked rice. Usually served with ham hocks and collards, based on the cookery of the early West African slaves.

Jambalaya: a hearty Creole stew of fish, seafood, or chicken (many versions), thickened with File and served with rice.

Lagniappe: a menu conundrum for tourists until they discover it is an unexpected appetizer from the chef to you. (New Orleans)

Mile High Pie: New Orleans’s dessert pie with a cookie crust layered with several flavors of ice cream crowned with meringue.

Pepper Pot: satisfying New England soup of vegetables, potatoes, and tripe, thickened with cream and flour.

Persimmon Pudding: a steamed pudding made with persimmon pulp and walnuts. Served With a custard sauce. (New England)

Poi: a syrupy mixture made from taro root. Poi is eaten with the fingers, dipping into it as “one-finger poi,” “two-finger poi,” etc. Efforts are being made to reintroduce it as an inexpensive, traditional and authentic Hawaiian staple food.

Pompion: early New England word for pumpkin.

Ponhaus: Pennsylvania Dutch dish of cubed pork feet, meat scraps, cornmeal, and oats all molded in aspic and sliced cold.

Pork Cake: New England spicy molasses cake made with minced fruit and finely diced salt pork.

Pot-likker: southern treat of melted salt pork, poured over breads or cooked greens.

Red (kidney) Beans and Rice: the ubiquitous classic of Louisiana, accompanying most meals and sometimes even breakfast. Can be a meal in itself. Usually served spicy-hot.

Red Fish Hash: an economical Pennsylvania Dutch dinner of leftover codfish molded into patties, fried, and served topped with poached egg.

Sally Lunn: a very light corn bread baked as a dropped batter on a baking sheet, then served hot and well buttered.

Shaker Salt Cod Dinner: Pennsylvania Dutch favorite of poached cod served with mashed potatoes and sliced cooked beets, a white cream sauce poured over all.

Tabasco: just the most famed of the many devilishly hot-pepper sauces in Louisiana.

Tipsy Pie: actually a bourbon-drenched pudding of cake slices, fruits, and custard decorated with whipped cream. Also called trifle.

Washington “Pie” or Cake: a light sponge cake filled with a soft creamy custard and glazed with melted chocolate. Also called Boston Cream Pie.

Wild Cranberry Ketchup: Alaska’s specialty, said to put tomato ketchup in second place.

AMERICAN CUSTOMS, MEAL AND LOCAL DOMESTIC LIFE

Some of the earliest cooking by European immigrants used brick ovens and iron pots suspended over open hearths. Ironware, hearth-cooking, and brick ovens have not entirely disappeared from the American scene, but Treen (the variety of wooden cooking and eating ware) and many pewter pieces are now collector’s items. Probably the most modern kitchens in the world, containing the most in cookery gadgets and small specialty appliances, are to be found in even average-income American homes today. Only imagination and the family budget limit the scope and variety of electrical appliances, plastic ware, cookware, dishes and serving utensils available, imported and domestically made.

Average American homes boast stoves and refrigerators, ample storage cupboards, cellars and home freezers (or rented freezer lockers), and a host of small appliances from juicers and food processors to bread machines and yogurt makers. Supermarkets and specialty food stores supply local specialties and fresh produce as well as an incredible array of imported delicacies.
Meals and Customs in America

In early times, daily physical exertion was the rule, and the hearty meals provided warmth and energy. But as technology made life easier, and as the workday became shorter, heavy meals were not only no longer necessary, they were impractical and expensive.

Today’s trend is breakfast-on-the-run, which usually means simply orange juice and coffee. Typical lunches include sandwich, milk or coffee, and fruit or ice cream. Dinner in the evening is usually the only meal when most families are together, and the traditional soup or appetizer, meat or fish plus vegetables and tea, coffee, or milk to complete the meal.

Americans like most of the western world, love to snack Coffee breaks and coffee parties, the easy access of the corner variety store for candy, soft drinks, and chewing gum, or the fast-food outlet with ethnic specialties such as tacos or pizza as well as hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, and french fries, all seem necessary to keep the American fueled. More and more the pattern of three meals a day is blurring into a day-long fest of nibbling or “grazing” from breakfast to the late-evening show on television.

Foods Commonly Used in America

With rapid transportation within the country and superior storage both in homes and in industry, Americans in almost any region can enjoy not only local seasonal foods and produce but an endless array of imported, frozen, dried, and canned foods available year-round. Almost every small town in the United States has its supermarkets, specialty bake shops, and quick-serve fast-food outlets. All types of foods are readily available, so that what is chosen for the day’s foods will reflect personal preference, ethnic background, local custom, and state of health (special diet), rather than any market or seasonal limitation.

While Americans may conform to the traditional three-meals-a day regimen, the prevalence of coffee breaks and snack foods make it seem closer to one continual daily meal.

AMERICAN FOODS OF SOUTHERN AND SOUTHWESTERN REGION

American Southern Regions Foods

“Take two and butter ’em while they’re hot!” refers to the southern predilection for a variety of delicious home-baked hot breads and beaten biscuits, which are eaten at almost every meal. As famed as southern hospitality are Virginia ham, southern fried chicken, hog’n hominy (pork and pork products served with corn grits), cornbread, hoecake and compone and a delectable array of desserts like tifle, Sally Lunn, Tipsy Pie, pecan pie and George Washington cake.

Many specialty dishes of African-Americans, enjoyed as “soul food” originated from the humble foods served with imagination by the early West African slaves. Well-cooked greens of all types, wild and cultivated, such as kale, collard and mustard greens, and chicory are enhanced with bits of salt pork, bacon fat or pig’s innards, hocks or ears. Other dishes include those made with pork and chicken. Melons are the favored fruits, eaten sweet, juicy and fresh.

Specialties in the southern states include Hush Puppies, cornbread batter fried to golden crunchy perfection and Southern Spoon Bread prepared with white cornmeal and separated eggs baked high and fluffy, not unlike a souffle. In fact, it is so delicate, it requires a spoon to eat.

Beaten Biscuits with their silken texture are a Southern specialty properly served cold, split and filled like sandwiches. The ingredients are simple, just flour, lard, milk and salt. The trick is in the lengthy kneading or beating with a wooden rolling pin till the dough blisters. Then it is rolled out, cut in rounds and pricked with a fork before baking.

Southern Fried Chicken is famous across the United States but likely no two recipes are identical, and even the exact technique is dependent on location and tradition. Seasoned and floured chicken pieces may be browned in a skillet or deep fried.

Texas Barbecue Lima Beans are often served with barbecues. Cooked lima beans are layered in a casserole with a thick spicy tomato sauce laced with grated cheese. More cheese tops the casserole before it is baked till bubbly.

Candied Sweet Potatoes: In the South, ‘potato’ means yams, white ones are called Irish potatoes. Cooked potatoes are tossed in a skillet of bubbling butter and brown sugar. When glazed and heated, they are served, usually with ham. The same meal might feature Vegetable Scrapple, finely chopped cooked vegetables are stirred into cooked white cornmeal, then smoothed into a loaf pan, chilled, sliced thickly and browned in butter.

On a lighter note there is Shortn’n Bread, rich tender cookies made with flour, butter and light brown sugar. The traditional Christmas dessert Ambrosia is prepared with oranges, bananas or pineapple sprinkled with sugar and freshly grated coconut (if available) then chilled.

In the hot southern climate cool drinks are always welcome. Raspberry Shrub, a classic Southern summertime drink, is prepared from homemade raspberry syrup sharpened with cider vinegar. The syrup may be diluted before serving over crushed ice. An Orange Julep features orange juice, lime juice and sugar, carbonated water and ice, garnished with fresh mint and usually served with bourbon.

American Southwestern Region

Strongly influenced by traditional Mexican and Spanish cookery, tamales, tacos, enchiladas, frijoles all vie with local tropical and semi-tropical fruits and vegetables to create an usual and distinctive cuisine.

The influence of the Hopi, Pueblo and Papago Indians have also helped to make beans, squash, chili peppers, and corn staples of the southwestern diet. The famed Texas chili contains no beans but is a slow-simmered stew of diced beef flavored with a mix of seasoning now known simply as “chili powder” (actually a combination of oregano, hot and sweet peppers, cumin, sugar and paprika) thickened traditionally with the same corn flour (masa harina) used to make tortillas. Chili is popularly served with a side dish of Texas beans, a hearty casserole of kidney,or pinto beans simmered in water with onions and garlic.

Blessed with a mild climate and fertile soil and encouraged by efficient irrigation systems, California enjoys a diverse cuisine and is usually in the forefront of food trends. An emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables and simplicity in food preparation have always marked California cooking. Yet there is also a flare for the setting, for the presentation and for the combination of ingredients that somehow distinguishes California food traditions.

Barbecues are the specialty of southern Californians. Grilled meats, fish and seafood are often accompanied with a choice of several salads as well as tacos, enchiladas, caramel flan and other Mexican and Spanish specialties.

Sourdough breads, avocados and artichokes and the plentiful varieties of fish and seafood make eating a delight.

HAWAIIAN AND ALASKAN FOOD

The two youngest states of the United States bring an offering of contrasts to the huge American table of foods. Hawaii offers touches from the South Pacific and Southeast-Asian cuisine like the sharp salty fish sauces, exotic spices, an array of tropical fruits such as taro, coconut, passion fruit, guava, tangy-sour tamarind, as well as noodles, rice, pork, seafood and raw fish.

Hawaiian specialties include Pupus, fried or grilled snack foods or appetizers, which includes Crab Rangoon (hot spicy crab meat sealed in crispy fried won ton wrappers) and Rumaki which features grilled skewered chicken livers and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon. Bagoong, a salty fish sauce, is often used as a condiment and seasoning.

Perhaps the most famous festive occasion is the Luau during which a whole pig is cooked in a pit (Imu) heated with white-hot rocks. Lomi Lomi Salmon, tender and juicy salt fish prepared with a mixture of tomatoes and onions, often served with Poi. A meal might end with Haupia, a sweet pudding made from coconut milk or feature Mai Tai, a heady Hawaiian drink prepared with rum, orange-flavored liqueur and lime juice.

Together with the bounty of nature – cloudberries, rose hips, blueberries, cranberries, salmonberries, huckleberries, rhubarb, fish and wild game (beaver, bear, venison, caribou, duck and ptarmigan) the early Alaskan pioneers brought two staples that still satisfy hearty appetites in the North. These are pork and beans and the famed sourdough from which breads, rolls, pancakes and biscuits are made. The sourdough starter – a ferment of flour, yeast, and water – when once begun, lives in a crock in the kitchen, continually added to and a constant source of new doughs with a tantalizing aroma and taste. Sourdough Cakes are made by adding a little baking soda to a sourdough sweetened with sugar and baked on a griddle.

The native peoples taught the early trappers and miners how to prepare rolled sheets of dried berries. They also patiently shared their skills for salting, drying and smoking fish to last over the winter, and even how to keep sun-dried berries in airtight containers. The toasted seaweed that they crumbled over fish soap added a salty taste and valuable nutrients.

Alaskan specialties include Matsuki, only one of countless varieties of edible wild mushrooms, Watapoo, a mealy red tuber with a taste similar to chestnuts and Camas, a starchy bulb-shaped considered a staple wilderness food.

FOOD AND CULTURE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

When it comes to the American food and culture, it is for good reason that Israel Zangwill’s term “Melting Pot” for the name of a play in 1908 still serves as an apt description of the United States today. The United States is a nation of immigrants, each ethnic group retaining customs, festivals and food traditions with great pride and yet with a stamp that is unmistakably American.

Huge areas of fertile land, abundant natural resources, and some of the world’s most advanced technology, marketing and transportation systems combine to give the United States one of the highest living standards in the world. Immigrants to America were dazzled by the space, opportunities, freedoms and diversity of things around them. Their glowing letters sent home spoke more of “you can get anything here!” than of the hard struggle to get ahead in a new land and often with a new language.

Though a visitor to the U.S. may conclude that the country’s staple foods are hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries, washed down with soft drinks and topped off with ice cream, a more careful examination reveals regional as well as ethnic specialties.

The first generation of European immigrants had little time for Old World traditions. Making a living, creating a home and raising a family were the realities of everyday life. Food was whatever was available and affordable to fill an empty stomach. But as they became established, the newcomers found solace in grouping together in neighborhoods where the familiar languages, customs, and compatriots gave them strength for whatever the future might hold. It was good to share a glass of homemade wine, a pint of beer, or a schnapps. It was comforting to smell the familiar scents of cooking and baking and, even better, to drown a day’s hard work in a homey soup or familiar stew. Adapting available foods to familiar recipes helped a little to make them feel at home.

But long before all the others, Aboriginal peoples, whose ancestors had probably crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years before the European had even heard of America, made their way southward in the great continent, founding villages and developing languages and social systems and adapting to the land in unique and often ingenious ways.

It was from the Indians that the earliest pioneers learned how to prepare such staples as corn, tomatoes, squash, peanuts, pumpkin, tobacco, turkeys, wild rice, pumpkins and squash, and even to tap wild maple trees for sweet maple syrup. In order to avoid cooking on the sabbath, the Puritans adopted the Indian clambake technique and used it to make slow-simmered beans cooked in the Indian way (today called New England baked beans) using a sealed bean pot buried overnight in a pit of embers. In its modified version – slow-baked overnight in the oven – it is enjoyed to this day.

As the pioneers settled into the land, they adapted the ethnic foods they brought with them to the new and different produce that was so plentiful. Ethnic foods melded into regional specialties, and although few writers dare to define the exact borders of these regions, distinctive ways of preparing, cooking, combining, seasoning, and even serving foods do exist.

Still another powerful influence came to America through the Atlantic slave trade from West African countries to the New World. The West African slaves adapted many New World foods to their own basic methods of frying, stewing, and preparing sauces for enhancing simple food. They introduced many flavorful, healthy varieties of greens to the European diet. They added grilled meats, wrapped foods in cabbage leaves (instead of banana leaves) for roasting in fires, and turned many of their own classic dishes like rice and black-eyed peas into Southern traditions like Hoppin’ John. The use of a baffling array of peppers, spices, roots, tubers, and greens, and the skillful metamorphosis of every part of the pig or chicken into delectable morsels of food are all now imbedded not only in America’s cuisine, but also in the cuisines of many Caribbean countries and Brazil.