American Cuisine

Cuisine of the United States The cuisine of the United States refers to food preparation originating from the United States of America. European colonization of the Americas yielded the introduction of a number of ingredients and cooking styles to the latter. 

History Pre-Colonial Period Seafood Seafood in the United States originated with the Native Americans, who often ate cod, lemon sole, flounder, herring ,halibut, sturgeon, smelt, drum on the East Coast, and olachen and salmon on the West Coast.  Makah – is the Native Americans off the Northwest coast and who hunted the whale, and used for their meat and oil. Cooking methods Early Native Americans utilized a number of cooking methods in early American Cuisine that have been blended with early European cooking methods to form the basis of American Cuisine. Stone Boilers - is used directly over the fire, developed by the anthropologist.

Kitchen Utensils Stone Boilers Is used directly over the fire, developed by the anthropologist. Adobe ovens Was created by Southwestern United States called Hornos to bake items such as cornmeal breads, and in other parts of America, made ovens of dug pits. 

Colonial period When the colonists came to Virginia, Massachusetts ,or any of the other English colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America, their initial attempts at survival included planting crops familiar to them from back home in England. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy   One of the cookbooks that proliferated in the colonies, written by Hannah Glasse .  

Common ingredients The American colonial diet varied depending on the settled region in which someone lived. Local cuisine patterns had established by the mid-18th century.  Livestock and game Commonly hunted game included deer, bear, buffalo and wild turkey. The larger muscles of the animals were roasted and served with currant sauce, while the other smaller portions went into soups, stews, sausages, pies, and pasties.

Common ingredients Fats and Oil A number of fats and oils made from animals served to cook much of the colonial foods. Alcoholic drinks Prior to the Revolution, New Englanders consumed large quantities of rum and beer, as maritime trade provided them relatively easy access to the goods needed to produce these items.

Post-colonial cuisine During the 18th and 19th centuries, Americans developed many new foods.  Modern cuisine During the Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) food production and presentation became more industrialized.

Regional cuisines New England Given the United States' large size, numerous regions each have their own distinctive cuisines, all quite diverse. New England New England is a Northeastern region of the United States, including the six states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Regional cuisines Pacific and Hawaiian cuisine Hawaiian regional cuisine covers everything from wok-charred ahi tuna, opakapaka (snapper) with passion fruit, to Hawaiian island-raised lamb, beef and aquaculture products such as Molokai shrimp.  Midwest Midwestern cuisine covers everything from barbecue to the Chicago-style hot dog.

Regional cuisines The American South The cuisine of the American South has been influenced by the many diverse inhabitants of the region, including Americans of European descent,  Cuisine in the West Cooking in the American West gets its influence from Native American and Mexican cultures, and other European settlers into the part of the country. 

Ethnic and immigrant influence The demand for ethnic foods in the United States reflects the nation's changing diversity as well as its development over time. National Restaurant Association, Early ethnic influences While the earliest cuisine of the United States was influenced by indigenous Native Americans, the cuisine of the thirteen colonies or the culture of the antebellum American South; the overall culture of the nation, its gastronomy and the growing culinary arts became ever more influenced by its changing ethnic mix and immigrant patterns from the 18th and 19th centuries unto the present.

Ethnic and immigrant influence Later ethnic and immigrant influence Mass migrations of immigrants to the United States came in several waves. Historians identify several waves of migration to the United States: one from 1815–1860, in which some five million English, Irish, Germanic, Scandinavian, and others from northwestern Europe came to the United States;

Notable American chefs American chefs have been influential both in the food industry and in popular culture. An important 19th Century American chef was Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City.  The first generation of television chefs such as Robert Carrier and Julia Child tended to concentrate on cooking based primarily on European, especially French and Italian, cuisines.