Lecture 2: Brief History of American Food Flashcards
How do we define food?
Any substance that animals eat or drink in order to produce energy, maintain life, and promote growth
-carbs, fats, proteins, essential vitamins and minerals
What is the difference in food acquisition historically vs. today?
- Before: food secured through hunting and gathering and/or agriculture
- Today: most of the food energy consumed by the world is supplied by the food industry (produced, manufactured)
How does food go beyond mere subsistence?
- Defines shared identities and embodies religious and group traditions
- Serves as a class marker
- A powerful element in celebrations and can bring people together
- Evokes memories
Pre-agricultural times
- Caveman cuisine
- Main concern was survival (just getting enough)
- Hunger/gather cultures = dependent on game they could kill and plants they could find
- Nutritional deficiencies –> short life span (30 yrs)
Agricultural times
- 10,000 BC: agriculture developed –> planned sowing and harvesting of plants, domestication of crop plants –> enabled stationary lifestyle
- Neolithic cuisine = fermentation, drying, heating with water, preserving with salt, sugar
Fermentation
- A metabolic process that converts sugar into acids, gases and/or alcohol
- Used to make liquids drinkable and safe
Yeast, bacteria, and fermentation
- Yeast,bacteria, and some molds obtain energy through fermentation
- Yeasts and bacteria produce lactic acid (sour) and creates an environment where bad bacteria can’t grow
- Used to make alcoholic beverages such as wine (fruit) and beer (grain)
In medieval times, how did your social class dictate your diet?
Upper class = high in protein; low in vitamins A, C, D –> scurvy
-wine
-fowl, beef, lamb, pork, fish, milled grains, cheese, butter, cooked fruit, nuts, spices
Peasants = low in calories, but healthy
-breads made from barley and rye (horse breads)
-peas, beans, onions, cabbage, nuts, berries, leeks, parsley, grains
-meat scarce (bacon, salt pork)
-ale (fermented from barley), mead (fermented honey)
Pottages
A thick soup that contained meat, vegetables, and bran that was continuously cooked in large cast iron pots
- common medieval food consumed by both upper and lower class
- usually served on bread
- pot rarely came off hearth to be cleaned
- wooden/bone spoon dipped into cooking pot to eat –> first manners about eating determined who could dip into pot
Early European table
- Table = boards laid across trestles and covered with cloth
- No individual plates used –> food served and shared on large platters and trenchers
- Trenchers = thick, dense edible bread plates (given to poor after meals)
- No forks or spoons –> personal knives and fingers used
Table manners
- Rules of etiquette on how to eat
- Cultural, regional, class differences
Firsts book on table manners
-“On Civility in Children” - Desiderius Erasmus (Dutch)
History of the fork
- Originated in Greece (two tined, used to carve meat)
- Brought to Italy by a Greek princess in 11th century –> adopted widely across Italy in 16th century
- Brought to France in 1533 by Catherine de Medici
- 1088: Thomas Coryate brought the first forks to England after seeing them in Italy during his travels
- Mid 1600s: eating with forks considered fashionable among wealthy British (marker of social status and sophistication)
- France developed forks with 4 curved tines to keep food from falling off
- Spread through Germany, England, America
Chopsticks
Developed 5000 years ago in China
-Hasty eaters broke twigs off trees to retrieve food from large pots that retained heat well
400 BCE: large pop and dwindling resources in China forced people to conserve fuel
-Food chopped into small pieces –> cooked more rapidly and no need for knives
King Louis XIV and utensils
- 1699: ordered that all table knives have rounded edges to make eating less dangerous
- First person in Europe to offer guests a place setting with a fork, knife, and spoon
Describe the Europeans colonization of America in relation to their food consumption and survival.
- Europeans colonized a land that already had native food cultures and traditions
- Clung to their European tastes and food conventions
- Inability to adapt killed many of the early settlers
- For 2 centuries, English food traditions dominated in America
- Late 1700s: American realization that there was a need to adapt in order to survive
- Learned from Native Americans to adapt their diets and eat unfamiliar items (beans, corn, squash, berries, fish, deer, rabbits, turkeys)
Typical colonial meals
- Breakfast = cider or beer with a bowl of porridge
- Dinner = stews, breads, cold meets, roots, pickles, vinegar, salt and cheese
- Supper = dinner leftovers, pottages, gruel
Beverage of choice for colonials in America
Beer
Luxuries for colonials in America
Butter, spices, sugar, sweetmeats, coffee, tea, chocolate
What were the 4 major early American food traditions?
- New England Tradition
- Southern Tradition
- Middle Atlantic Tradition
- Frontier/Backcountry Tradition
New England Tradition
- New England = extensive sea coasts
- Settled by Puritans (stubborn in their ways)
- Diet stressed boiled/baked meats and seafood, boiled veggies, baked breads and pies
- Didn’t cook on Sundays (Sabbath)
Southern Tradition
- Mix of Native American, African, English, French, Spanish, Indian foodways
- Uses basic, inexpensive ingredients and simple, direct seasonings and spices
- Staples = oysters, shrimp, crab, fish, fowl/game, corn, sweet potatoes, beans, peas, pumpkins, okra, rice
- Emphasizes slow cooking, frying, simmering
- Uses lots of spices unlike New England and Middle Atlantic Traditions
- Ex) Cajun food (gumbo, jambalaya)
Middle Atlantic Tradition
- Strongly influenced by the Quakers (simple living)
- Diet reflects traditions of frugality and economy
- Emphasized boiling (boiled puddings, dumplings, porridges)
Frontier/Backcountry Western Tradition
- Earliest concept of fast foods (stressed griddle cakes, quick breads, grits, greens, wild game, fish, and whatever else was available)
- Diet included many ingredients that the English considered animal feed (potatoes, corn, greens)
- Native American and Mexican influence
Nicoles Appert
Invented canning in 1810
Canning and mass production
- Late 1800s: food began to be mass produced, marketed, and standardized
- Factories processed, preserved, canned and packaged a wide variety of foods to make them portable and increase shelf life
Refrigerated transportation
- 1878: Gustav Swift commissioned engineer Andrew Chase to design a refrigerated railroad car
- Wanted to transport meat and fruit
- Meat packing industry born in Chicago
- Allowed fruit to be shipped long distances (most was grown in CA and FL)
Industrialization of Meat Processing
- Gustavus Swift: organized large-scale slaughter and processing of cattle in the Midwest (Chicago) and shipping products to East Coast
- Mechanized the meat packing business
- Ushered in the “era of cheap beef”
- Pioneered the use of animal by products for the manufacture of soap, glue, fertilizer, etc. (didn’t want to waste any part of the animal)
Upton Sinclair
- 1906: “The Jungle” (meat packing industry)
- Led to the passage of the Federal Food and Drugs Act and the creation of the FDA
Automat NY
- 1912
- Cafeteria with prepared foods behind glass windows
- Establishment of the earliest chain of cafeterias and lunch counters
White Castle
- 1921 (relatively soon after “The Jungle”)
- People were unease about the meat packing industry
- “White” supposed to evoke cleanliness and food safety
- First fast food chain
- “Less work for mother”
- Pioneered the use of franchising
Clarence Birdseye
1924: Invented a system of packing fresh food into waxed cardboard boxes and quick-freezing under high pressure
Frozen foods
- Before quick freezing, foods were frozen at a fairly slow rate which causes large ice crystals to form
- Ice crystals rupture the cell membranes of foods and leak out the food’s flavor and texture
Health Food Movement
- Around this time the choice of foods often took on moral overtones
- Vegetarianism, avoidance of spice/condiments, crusaders of temperance
Sylvester Graham
- Presbyterian minister who preached the virtues of a vegetarian lifestyle as a way to salvation (aid in suppressing carnal urges like lust)
- Grahamites = his following
- Developed graham flour and made graham crackers as a way to help people combat lust/desire
James Caleb Jackson
- First person to manufacture and market the first health food in America (Granula)
- Granula = breakfast cereal made by baking Graham flour and water
- Founded Our Home on the Hillside Sanitarium in NY (one of the largest spas in the world)
Sister Ellen White
- Preached against the consumption of meat, alcohol, tobacco, spices
- 1866: opened the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek
John Harvey Kellogg
- Staff physician of Battle Creek Sanitarium (obsessed with the bowels)
- Advocate of vegetarianism and exercise
- Used radiation therapy for cancer patients
- Invented the flaked cereal (corn flakes)
- Developed a biscuit made of oats, wheat, and corn meal that he called Granola –> sued by Caleb Jackson for infringement of his brand name Granula
Élie Metchnicoff
- Claimed Bulgarians were the longest-lived Europeans because they ate a lot of yogurt
- Studied bacteria in yogurt
Temperance Movement and alcohol
- Advocated habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion
- Largely fueled by women who endured the effects of unbridled drinking of many of their men
- 18th amendment banned sale and consumption of alcohol in the U.S., but 21st amendment repealed that later
Carry A. Nation
- Famous for carrying a hatchet and a bible
- Preached against alcohol
Henry Perky
- Advocated whole wheat as a healthy food
- Invented a wheat shredder in Denver, Colorado
- Started National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) and marketed shredded wheat
- First to mass produce and nationally distribute a ready-to-eat cereal
Charles W. Post
- Unsuccessfully treated at The Sans for 9 months –> opened a competing mental health clinic in Battle Creek
- Sold powdered molasses and bran as a coffee substitute called Postum
- Crumbled baked wheat and sold the crumbs as Grape Nuts
