American Cuisine: Every Region Has a Story

The American Table
America may be referred to as the Melting Pot for the purpose of demographics, but our nation has never really homogenized our cuisine. When you travel the highways and backroads, you will discover a vast diversity of foods — many endemic to particular regions and styles of cooking.

Cheryl and Bill Jamison, authors of the recently released The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking & Entertaining: Spirited Recipes and Expert Tips for Barbecuing, Charcoal & Gas Grilling, Rotisserie Roasting, Smoking, Deep-Frying, and Making Merry (HarperCollins) love discussing food. Taking a break after a recent book tour with Central Market in Texas, the couple talked about what they fondly refer to as American Home Cooking. (The couple also penned American Home Cooking: Over 300 Spirited Recipes Celebrating Our Rich Tradition of Home Cooking.)

“Some dishes cross boundaries, such as Mac & Cheese,” Bill Jamison began, “but most dishes that characterize American cuisine are of a regional origin, and in some cases, are not even known beyond that region. Shrimp and grits originated in the Carolinas but they are breaking out of that region recently, and red flannel hash is really not known beyond New England.”

Cheryl Jamison added, “If you look at New Mexico Enchiladas, they are flat and stacked up like tortillas rather than rolled up. And they are served with a red or green chile sauce that is very particular to the region.”

The United States is a land of delicious foods from coast to coast and neighborhood to neighborhood. The two concepts essential to understanding U.S. food are regionalism and diversity, with the accent on the latter. America is a nation of newcomers and its food directly reflects its origins.

American cuisine began with the civilizations who inhabited the continent long before Europeans even set foot on American soil. Native Americans \ taught the settlers to plant the holy trinity of Native American cuisine — corn, beans and squash. Today, these core ingredients retain their importance across the country in such dishes as grits, cornbread and hoppin’ john in the South, the tortillas and pinto beans of the Southwest, baked beans and succotash in the Northeast and the ubiquitous pumpkin pie synonymous nationwide with Thanksgiving.

Regional cuisines emerged as settlers modified their culinary traditions to incorporate available local foods. The simple, sturdy foods of the Northeast reflect their British origins. But meats and vegetables imported from the homeland merged with local ingredients, such as turkey, maple syrup, lobster, clams, cranberries and always corn, to provide delicious specialties like Indian pudding, Boston brown bread, clam chowder and Maine boiled lobster.

Southern settlers, who were also of mainly English stock, confronted a kinder climate and benefited from the assistance of African-American hands in the kitchen. The average farmer’s wife could hardly spare the time needed for the multiple dishes that made up a plantation meal. To this day, no Southern dinner is complete without numerous side dishes, including breads, biscuits, salads and condiments — all preferably homemade.

“American food is comprised of the traditions that have developed in different areas,” Bill Jamison said. “Traditions are largely based on the foods that thrive in that region — whether it’s along the coast where seafood is dominant or in the heartland where the soil is rich and everything grows. It is the ingredients of the region that determined the traditions. For example, in the East the colonists brought in hogs that thrived in the woodlands, but they wouldn’t travel west because they can’t eat grass. That explains the Texas barbecue traditions of beef brisket or chicken fried steak versus the Carolina pulled pork sandwich.”

Tools of the Trade
Whenever the Jamisons are preparing for a retail cooking demonstration, they peruse the store’s inventory to choose the right tools for the impending task. They might enlist the help of a molcajete when making an authentic salsa or search out an Aebleskive pan.

“Demonstrations promoting a particular style of cooking provide a great opportunity for retailers to stock merchandise that people learn they have to buy whether it’s ingredients or specialized equipment,” Cheryl Jamison said. “For example, the little Aebleskive pans associated with the upper Midwest . . . once you taste those puffy pancakes, everyone wants a pan. Whenever we do demos at retail stores, we always start out looking around for items on the shelves that we can discuss in relation to the food we’re going to be talking about.”

Katharine Kagel, chef/owner of Cafe Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, N.M., has been a force in Southwestern cuisine for almost 30 years. She knows the cuisine and the tools necessary to create it begin with the best ingredients.

“Here in the New Mexico part of the Southwest, we use chiles, both green (usually fresh) and red (the mature green) always dried. At Cafe Pasqual’s, we use a variety of red dried chiles — ancho, chipotle, d’arbol, gujillo, pasilla negro and Thai,” Kagel said. “For green chile, we use Anaheim (fresh) and dry our own to sell in cellophane packages with our recipe for green chile sauce on the label. We have a red chile kit as well for our enchilada sauce that comes with three red chile types — chile d’arbol, gujillo, mulato and ancho — and again, our recipe for the sauce on the label. We also keep on hand chile powder and chile pequin (chile flakes) and use them all the time.” Just a few ideas for retailers interested in Southwestern promotions.

Southwestern cuisine may well qualify as the oldest U.S. regional style. Prior to 1845 when the Spanish began to relinquish control, the entire area was part of Mexico. Not surprisingly, its contemporary cuisine bears a strong family resemblance to Mexican food. It still draws heavily on native foodstuffs, in particular corn, beans and chilies. The word “chili” is Aztec in origin as are “guacamole” and “tomato.” This is a cuisine with serious roots.

Corn tortillas remain the essential Southwestern breadstuff. Stewed or refried pinto beans are a key source of protein. Tamales are a festive food on both sides of the border and salsas made of tomatoes, tomatillos and chilies liven up all manner of dishes.

Since regional cuisine can be taught in both specialty food and kitchenware arenas, the possibilities are endless for cross-promotions — and even cross-store promotions. If you focus on the kitchenware side of the business, consider partnering with a local specialty food store or restaurant for classes and promotions; ditto for specialty food stores that don’t stock specialty kitchenware items.

Kagel points out that other items that a retailer would need on hand are pumpkin seeds (white, unsalted), as well as the hulled green ones for toasting that are used as a coating or a topping, as well as for sauce making. She also suggests dried posole, which is hominy for making stew and soups, as well as pinon nuts (pine nuts) and masa harina for making corn tortillas and as a soup thickener.

“A plethera of beans is a must for Southwestern cooking. We use dried pinto beans, black beans and sometimes exotic beans such as Anasazi beans,” Kagel continued. “Mexican oregano and cinnamon are also important as they are more subtle than their European counterparts. A good quality canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce is also essential for flavoring. Also Mexican chocolate is used for hot chocolate and mole sauce.”

As for utensils, Kagel is sure to stock her kitchen with a handheld citrus squeezer, and of course, a mortar and pestle for blending ingredients.
Standing up to the personalities of the Southwest and Louisiana can be a tall order and foods of other regions sometimes seem a bit ho-hum by comparison, but the continued imprint of immigration engenders delicious eating nationwide.

For example, Germans moving into the Midwest helped make Milwaukee the nation’s beer capital and their insatiable love of sausages left a permanent culinary mark on the nation’s tastes. After all, what’s a ball game without a hot dog?

In the Jamisons’ latest cookbook, they delve even further beyond the familiar Southwestern or Southern fare. Ever hear of a Door County fish boil?

You just might find your customers clamoring for one after reading about the traditional Wisconsin feast. A Door County fish boil features Lake Michigan whitefish freshly caught by local fishermen that are cooked outside over an open fire, just as they were 100 years ago by the Scandinavian settlers of the peninsula. The fish is cut in chunks and cooked in boiling water with small red potatoes. Salt is the only spice used. Fish oils rise to the surface of the boiling cauldron, and when the fish is perfectly done, the Master Boiler tosses a small amount of kerosene on the flames under the pot. The great burst of flames causes the boilover in which the fish oils spill over the pot’s side and leave the fish perfectly cooked, steaming hot and ready to serve.

“This tradition became popular in that part of Wisconsin from the fishermen in the Great Lakes. When you look at regional traditions, seafood has stayed within the region of origin,” Bill Jamison said. “Blue crab is still associated with Baltimore, while fish fries really speak to the American South.”

Other more moveable feasts have traveled further. Deep-fried turkey came out of Southeast Texas and Western Louisiana and now has achieved its own cult status.

“It was a Cajun thing,” Bill Jamison said. “We learned about it years ago when we were researching our Texas home-cooking book. We learned then that while they were waiting for the long-cured, smoked meats to get done, they would fry up turkeys. That’s where it started.”

All of these simple traditions can spawn both kitchenware and specialty food sales in your stores. Wooden planks for Pacific Northwest plank salmon recipes, cast iron skillets for great fried chicken, large pots (or double boilers) for a great New England clam bake (Or a Door County fish boil) . . . and all the accoutrements that go with each.

Regional Promotions
As previously illustrated, you can promote American cooking in as many ways as there are traditions across the country. Begin by featuring regional food products from your own neck of the woods and branch out to create culinary tours for customers without ever leaving home. You can design cooking classes around ingredients or regional styles. Promotions and displays can be created from down-home recipes that range from plank salmon to deep-fried chicken to clam bakes.

Bobby Flay, Paula Deen and Emeril have shone the spotlight on one of American’s most popular foods — barbecue. American food is inconceivable without barbecue in its many variations — throw in some fritters and a mess of greens and you have a celebration of Southern cooking, but any conversation about Southern cooking without pointing to the pig would be an unforgiveable mistake. Southerners continue to cook and wholeheartedly consume a great deal of pork. Virginia hams are universally recognized to be the country’s finest. Bacon and salt pork serve as desired flavoring agents with greens and beans.

“If you are talking about Southern food, the first thing you have to include is pork. Bacon country ham, Smithfield ham . . . they are Southern icons in the culinary world. Just like spoonbread, grits and mac and cheese, country ham is coming back into vogue,” said Wm. W. Pete Booker, III, general manager of The Smithfield Specialty Foods Group. “What is the culinary art of Southern cuisine? It is how to use products that have been around for 400 years in the South and add them into today’s sophisticated palette. That’s why Paula Deen is such as strong presence today. Today what Southern cuisine brings back to the American culinary scene is that sense of home, that warm and fuzzy feeling inside. It’s not Atkins or South Beach but when you eat it, you get that smile inside and out.”

“Historically, the South is the Civil War — Virginia. Richmond was the capitol of The Confederacy, but when you look at true Southern cuisine, you don’t really get into it until you get past D.C. and its suburbs,” explained Booker. “When you can find yourself a country ham biscuit, you know you’ve crossed the line.”

Booker explained that the food industry has made it easier for people across the country to experience Southern hospitality by taking the products we know and love but don’t have time to prepare, and using them in smaller amounts to obtain the same effect.

“It used to be that a good country ham had to be soaked for two days and cooked for another three,” he explained. “Today, they have done the work for us with smaller, easy-to-use portions. Now, there are high-quality mixes and things that you can use in smaller batches to create the same Southern meal that would serve a huge family. When I was a child growing up in a Southern home, we used to have spoonbread in a cassarole dish that could serve 10 people. Now, you can get a packaged product and make whatever amount you need. It also gives foodies the chance to custom make their own items by adding different ingredients.”

While Booker is partial to his Virginia roots, he’s quick to point out that the South has much to offer outside of pork. Peanuts (also Virginian), peaches from Georgia, Florida’s seafood and citrus and the Cajun and Creole cooking found along the Gulf Coast. All of it is inspiration for classes, conversations and demonstrations.

California, packed to the gills with immigrants and the produce basket to the nation, has given rise to its own cuisine. But just what is California cuisine? California cuisine is the innovative combining of unusual local ingredients with the culinary traditions brought by the state’s Mexican and Asian émigrés in dishes unlike anywhere else in the country. Side by side with artichokes, fava beans and haricots, California’s fields burst with bok choy, Chinese broccoli, lemon grass, Thai basil and Vietnamese mint. Summer brings heirloom tomatoes and tomatillos, avocados and Asian pears, and infinite varieties of peppers. All of which gives rise to fusion cuisine, the newest and sometimes strangest phenomenon on the U.S. table.

Some of the finest fusion can be found in Seattle, where the accent is on mingling Asian flavors with classical European cooking styles, and in South Florida, where flavors from the Caribbean, South America and Cajun country intermingle in the so-called New World Cuisine.

Ann Gentry, founder/owner of the Los Angeles-based restaurant Real Food Daily, said that retailers should keep an open mind when coordinating products for regional American cuisine, particularly when considering her home base.

“In terms of food products, they should stock more organic ingredients (not just produce but already-processed foods, such as the Asian-inspired products — mirin, brown rice vinegar, umeboshi products, arrowroot, kudzu, flaxseeds, non-aluminum baking powder, sea vegetables, Earth Balance, Veganise and my list could go on,” she explained. “These products are not weird. In my opinion, they elevate vegetarian/vegan cooking into a true cuisine. Maybe the regular grocery stores won’t carry them, but natural foods stores, specialty food stores and culinary stores such as Sur la Table are crazy not to.”

In her new cookbook, The Real Food Daily Cookbook (Ten Speed Press), Gentry talks about how to feed yourself and what products to stock in your kitchen.

“I think it is very important for people to get their kitchen together on whatever their budget is and have the right foods stocked in their pantry so that they can find the joy in cooking,” she said.

Her fusion-inspired kitchen would contain: Japanese vegetable knives, mandolines and V-slicers; flame tamers; and skimmers.

Building a cooking class around any of these products or others can help educate your customers about regional foods. Take for example the smoker — you can demonstrate various smokers using recipes from across the country whether it’s smoked fishes from the Southeast, beef from any part west of the Mississippi or pork from East Coast regions. You can also demonstrate the versatility of barbecue with regional classes on sauces.

“A Carolina Pork sandwich is very different from one you might get in Kansas City,” Cheryl Jamison said, “and it all has to do with the sauce. The Carolina version of barbecue uses a stiff dose of vinegar in its sauce, which places locals strongly at odds with Texas and Kansas City folks, who prefer a much sweeter sauce.”

She continued, “You could also take an approach with a style of food. With barbecue for example, you can talk within that class about regional barbecues — beef tri-tip steak in California, briskets in Texas and pulled pork shoulder from North Carolina. Or you could take hamburgers and do regional associations with toppings — jalapeño and pepper jack cheese, beautiful brick cheese from the Midwest with beer-braised onions. It’s just a fun way to play around with the subject.”

Just as with any other culinary journey, you have to make the American experience interesting for your customers.

Bill Jamison summed it up when he said, “One of the things that’s fun about American cooking is that we’ve not tried to make it into a cuisine. When I think of cuisine, we’re talking about French or Italian refined versions. We’re talking mostly about chef food and restaurant food. The best of American cooking is home based and it still is.”