America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking - Hardcover

Stavely, Keith; Fitzgerald, Kathleen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807828947 ISBN 13: 9780807828946

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004

Synopsis

From baked beans to apple cider, from clam chowder to pumpkin pie, Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald's culinary history reveals the complex and colorful origins of New England foods and cookery. Featuring hosts of stories and recipes derived from generations of New Englanders of diverse backgrounds, America's Founding Food chronicles the region's cuisine, from the English settlers' first encounter with Indian corn in the early seventeenth century to the nostalgic marketing of New England dishes in the first half of the twentieth century.

Focusing on the traditional foods of the region--including beans, pumpkins, seafood, meats, baked goods, and beverages such as cider and rum--the authors show how New Englanders procured, preserved, and prepared their sustaining dishes. Placing the New England culinary experience in the broader context of British and American history and culture, Stavely and Fitzgerald demonstrate the importance of New England's foods to the formation of American identity, while dispelling some of the myths arising from patriotic sentiment.

At once a sharp assessment and a savory recollection, America's Founding Food sets out the rich story of the American dinner table and provides a new way to appreciate American history.

About this title

Book Description:

"Helps us read between the lines of cookbooks as consumer guides. . . . Makes a convincing argument that a very self-conscious New England, proud of its contributions to the establishment of democracy in America, set in the 1800s a foodways pattern much copied across the country. We will become the wiser as we observe how that pattern was overturned in more recent times."-- Gastronomica

From the Inside Flap:

In this unique culinary history, husband and wife team, Keith and Kathleen Stavely, tell how foodstuffs and foodways helped define a new nation. Lobsters, cod, beans, corn, pumpkins, apples, pork, turkey, cider and coffee are just some of the foods the Stavelys highlight in their lively story of New England cookery. From the landing at Pymouth Rock to the 1950s, New England's bounty came to represent American food.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0807828947
• ISBN 13: 9780807828946
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408