Food: A Cultural Culinary History

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sugar because it was made by slaves, and they tended to avoid
spices because they felt it adulterated foods and was an unnecessary
ornament. They also wear plain black clothes and broad-brimmed
hats. They have very simple tastes.

 The German settlers, on the other hand, introduced things like
sauerkraut, dill pickles, and German sausages. They also introduced
pretzels, which are very different from English baked goods
because they’re boiled fi rst and then baked. They also introduced
cast-iron stoves, which Ben Franklin adapted and improved, and
cast-iron pots with lids, which are called Dutch ovens.

 Pennsylvania also became cosmopolitan because they were one of
the few colonies to allow religious freedom, so Jews, free Africans,
and Swedes settled there. By the 18th century, it was also the
second largest English-speaking city in the world, so it wasn’t a
coincidence that it was chosen as the fi rst capital.

Carney, Black Rice.


Eden, Early American Table.


Haber, Hardtack to Homefries.


Levenstein, Revolution at Table.


Oliver, Food in Colonial and Federal America.


Randolf, Virginia Housewife.


Simmons, American Cookery.


Although English cookbooks had been printed in the colonies in the 18th
century, the fi rst truly American cookbook, using native ingredients, was
Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796. She
offers three different versions of the following recipe, which by this time


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