 Food says so much about where you’ve come from, where you’ve decided to go, and the lessons you’ve learned. It’s geography, politics, tradition, belief and so much more and this week, we invite you to dig in and discover the rich, ever-evolving taste of America in 2011. The week will culminate with a Secret Supper in New York City, and Eatocracy invites you to participate online starting Monday July 11th at 6:30 p.m. E.T. There's nothing quite so American as gathering your friends and family to celebrate Independence Day with a classic cookout. We polled Eatocracy readers a while back, and nearly 38,000 votes later, it seems that the ultimate summer menu would consist of a burger (cooked medium and topped with cheese, lettuce and onions), potato salad, corn on the cob and watermelon, washed down with plenty of ice cold beer. Only in the U.S.A., right? Well, not quite. While those dishes may now be synonymous with American life, liberty and the pursuit of a really great picnic, like most of the citizens themselves, often their origins are elsewhere. While it took some American ingenuity to slap meat on some bread and render it a hand held sandwich, the concept of the patty itself was brought to the United States by German immigrants who had become fans of the Hamburg Steak. This cheap, chopped or roughly ground beef was mixed with fillers like breadcrumbs, suet and onions, bound with eggs and seasoned with nutmeg. The meat, often salted and smoked for preservation, was brought over to the United States by immigrants on the Hamburg America Line and became a popular menu item on New York City restaurants that catered to German sailors and European immigrants, hungry for the flavors of home. That beloved potato salad, too, was the provenance of primarily German immigrants who brought over the endless regional variations that became popular in the U.S. in the latter half of the 19th century. While Spanish explorers introduced spuds to Europe in the 16th century and a few French and British potato salad recipes can be found in the texts of that time (see Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery and Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cookbook), the German versions - characterized by warm dressings featuring a heavy vinegar bite - prevailed. It took good old fashioned American engineering to add mayonnaise to create the creamy, often egg-laden versions seen in delis and gracing picnic tables across this great land today. Corn on the cob - now, that's one for the home team. Sweet corn - the variant of maize or field corn with a particularly high sugar content, which we use for cob consumption - was cultivated by Native Americans in the 1700s and shared with European settlers around the 1770s. It's also extremely popular served as a Mexican street food called "elote." In this preparation, cobs are grilled or roasted and slathered in condiments like lime, mayonnaise, cheese and powdered chiles. Watermelon, ubiquitous at picnics from coast to coast, is believed to have originated in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. The melons were depicted in Egyptian heiroglyphics as far back as 5,000 years ago and were placed in the tombs of pharoahs to nourish them into the afterlife. Merchant ships brought the fruit to China by the 10th century, and that country remains the largest watermelon producer in the world. In his book "Southern food: at home, on the road, in history," food historian John Egerton writes of watermelon's introduction to the United States via African slaves, who also brought along okra, black-eyes peas, collard greens, yams and benne seed - also known as sesame. And finally, to round out the feast: beer. Oh hoppy, malty, happy-making beer. Civilization has been brewing and quaffing permutations of beer since at least 6000 B.C., and studies show that Apache, Pueblo, Navajo and Tarahumara tribes in Northern Mexico and Arizona were no slouches, themselves - brewing a weak, corn-based beer called tiswin at least 1000 years ago. Archaeologists also found evidence of fermented residue associated with beer production in 800 year old pots belonging to Pueblo tribes in what is now New Mexico. This contradicts previous assertions that the area had remained dry until the Spanish arrived in the 16th century with grapes and wine. And as for that apple pie? English, Dutch and Swedish recipes go back centuries, but it's believed that mock apple pie - made without apples - was invented by pioneers traveling out West in the mid-1800s. The ingenious travelers used similar spices to evoke the taste of the bounty they missed from back East. Now that's the flavor of good ol' American ingenuity. Results of the Picnic Poll Favorite Picnic Main Dish: Burgers 43% Beer 51% Favorite Hot Picnic Side Dish Corn on the cob 42.3% Favorite Cold Picnic Side Dish Potato salad 38% Favorite Burger Toppings Cheese 15.8% Favorite Level of Burger Doneness Medium 29.5% Favorite Picnic Dessert All National Cheeseburger Day coverage |
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GET OVER YOURSELVES THIS IS THE LAND OF THE FREE
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL ANYONE WHO DISRESPECTS THIS COUNTRY SHOULD BE IMPRISONED
FWIW, sweet potatoes were in the Americas before Africans brought yams to the New World.
They are botanically distinct species, even though the are identical from a culinary standpoint.
I just read today that Cioppino, an Italian stew with seafood, was invented in San Francisco. Native Italians have never heard of it. It was creative US fishermen that created it. But does this article mention that? Nope.
Seems articles like this are meant to simple undermine American culture, to try to put cracks in its history and try to decline trust in institutions. Thank god for the alternative media, where I don't have to read garbage like this article often.
It's not a picnic food. Why would it be mentioned in this article?
I took the whole thing as a celebration of our varied American culture. Why are you looking for conflict? Knowledge is a good thing.
Most Americans don't have their origins in America (unless you're native American) so it's no surprise that our foods don't either.
You are the most logical person in this group exchange. and you certainly know what you are talking about.
Wait, here in Texas the former head of the Texas Board of Education said that people have only been around for a total of 6,000 years. If they were eating watermelon around 6,000BC (actually it is now called BCE) that would be 8,000 years ago. Now you know why Texas is near the bottom of the education scale and Gov Perry cut $4 billion from the education budget to make sure we remain there or drop to last and he wants to be President??????????????????
LMAO! Great... Americans are going to put another Republican Texas Governor in the White House??
Americans are a mish-mash of all other cultures... yet some of us think we spontaneously came to be and are 'pure' Americans. Everything in America has its roots elsewhere! That's what make America awesome! We are ALL people!
Being that this food article pertains to the US, I propose that America's favorite food is anything with a FAT content greater than 50%.
Sorry, but your obese country urgently needs a diet plan and a geography lesson to educate 'youall' that you are not the sole country in this world.
Enjoy your BIG Macs ... the arteries of the rest of us thank you. I believe it's called natural selection.
Being 6'1", 165lbs., and from Texas no less, I'd like to thank you for pointing out that we are not part of your arrogance, ignorance, incompetence, and stereotyping. It is natural selection that removes those of us that cannot survive not only in the environment around us, but also with those around us.
You apparently do not want to survive with anyone that disagrees with or disproves you, but are happy to rattle off stereotypes and ill-conceived perceptions without experiencing the reality of it all. It happened hundreds of years ago when we gave native Americans smallpox and they gave us tobacco. If you'd like to continue down that path, be my guest.
God must really like dumb folks because he sure made a lot of them. That would be you.
Dumb and arrogant...
Burgers and a few beers. Not crap beer (no Bud, Coors, or Miller Lite). Just good burgers (cook bacon on the second rack of the barbeque and let them drip on the burgers) with common toppings (lettuce, onions, pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc.), and a few decent beers (mostly foreign, but not all: Heineken, Blue Moon, Corona, Stella Artois, etc.).
They have to be light (lager) style beers in the south, but porter/stouts/bocks work in the north to the same effect. Just, for the love of god, not the p1ss-water beers. A flavorful beer makes a big difference. Quality, not quantity.
Corona is crap, imo.. Unless you can find Corona Familiar. Try modelo or pacifico for lighter beer or Victoria for something a bit darker (if it can be found... They dont sell it here in TN)
Ugh - had pimento cheese sandwiches in Missouri recently and vomit would have been preferable. Many wonderful foods in the south, but I don't understand that one at all.
Missouri is not a Southern state that is why you didn't like the pimento cheese because they probably didn't make it right. Try it again when you are actually in the South before you makes such statements against such a glorious thing like pimento cheese.
People been eating something similar to corn cob all over Asia for centuries.
It is delicious and there is nothing like apple pie and ice cream.
Visit http://www.waycoolcafe.com for mouthwatering desserts like no other. The owner attended college in PA. to study the chemistry of ice cream production.
Hope he was able to determine the rodent hair count and fat content in that slop. Check the ingredients – why WOULD you eat something like that\? Death wish?
bbq chicken, ribs, flavourful hotdogs, potato salad,deviled eggs, corn on the cob,grilled peppers, and blackberry cobbler with french vanilla ice cream..oh yes, a tall glass of sweet tea..and to the moderator this 235th..you're nuts..
bbq chicken, ribs, flavourful hotdogs, potato salad,deviled eggs, corn on the cob,grilled peppers, and blackberry cobbler with french vanilla ice cream..oh yes, a tall glass of sweet tea..
And Joe: what do you weigh in at?
...dumbazz...
Most of what people call yams are the native sweet potato, not African yams, although the peanut should be added to foods brought by African slaves. Pineapple upside down cake and guacamole need to be added to the list of all American foods for Independence Day.
Maybe it's midwest only but apples, peaches, pears and blackberry cobbler for the homemade ice cream.
Hmm... methinks that the beer industry must have loaded the balloting for the beverages, because I can't imagine how that ended up as #1 for a picnic. #2 maybe, but considering that most picnics nowadays either involve public parks where such consumption is not permitted and/or the person most likely to consume beer is also the driver (and hence – hopefully – isn't drinking), I sense an artificially skewed result. Iced tea or lemonade would logically be in the number one spot. Now if you're talking a neighborhood cookout, that's a different story.
And while my personal favorites only made it to the top in the side dish categories, I certainly can see why the other categories stack up like they did.
It's a poll of "favorites", and not necessarily what is actually most consumed.
You don't understand why beer is overwhelmingly #1, and think it's a conspiracy?? You are way WAY too far out of touch with reality.
Many people still drink beer in the public parks. They just hide it in other containers.
As American as obesity and diabetes.
Correct on both counts – natural selection at work
And I must agree with senorblanco–I'm from Texas/Louisiana and pimento cheese sandwiches are clutch!
Fun article. Just wanted to point out that "elote" simply means corn. The Mexican street food prepared with chile piquin, lime juice, mayonnaise, and cheese is called "esquites."
Yeah but many mexican street vendors still call it 'elote' regardless. Everyonr i know calls it 'elote' as well..
It's kinda like how both lemons -and- limes are called 'limones'.
Bananas and peanutbutter sandwich... Fried chicken goes anywhere...
I can't believe fried chicken wasn't even mentioned!
I amend, cold fried chicken.
Happy 4th all!
A friend of mine down here (GA) stated a picnic wasn't a picnic without pineapple sandwiches. I think he's right...
My favorite appetizer/ snack: Medium size russet baking potato, scrubbed and sliced lengthwise, seasoned with salt and pepper and baked on the top rack of the B-B-Q grille. Start these first, before preparing the main entree, and they will be ready to serve with the start of the main meal–or they can be sampled as snacks prior to the meal.
Yum that sound good. I will have to try it instead of the typical baked potato.
Coat the potato skin in olive oil, then sprinkle the salt and pepper. You potato skin will turn out crispy!
Wow. What about sandwiches for a main dish? If you've lived in the south you have to take either pimento cheese sandwiches or banana sandwiches to a picnic...
The south of what country? Cuz I've never heard of that, although banana sandwiches sound delicious.
I live in the south & sandwiches are a staple for picnics. Many places you cant have a fire, so you've gotta settle for something out of an ice chest. Sandwiches, chips, cold raw veggies, beer & soft drinks reign. 4th of July in Texas, I'd think brisket on the pit rules. But they got the beer & tater salad right . Regional differences aside, it's the family & friends get together that counts. Whatever your choice of eats.
You must not have visited the American South, since pimento cheese sandwiches are as much as staple as sweet tea is!
I can't stand pimento cheese or sweet tea.
disgusting...
Or cold fried chicken