Little Known Facts About American Food

How many Americans know that they owe thanks to Native Americans for one of their favorite food items, the steak? When the kids ask for corn flakes, do their parents realize that they are following a tradition first established by the Pilgrims? Where, exactly, did one of the foods, used to celebrate Kwanza and African heritage, originate? What Native American food did Captain Cook feed his crew that nearly caused a mutiny?

Along the coast of North America, as Colonists established themselves, they began to interact with the native population, and learned new ways for doing old things. Colonial tradition, for example, required meat to be roasted on a spit, or cooked in a pot hung in a fireplace in the kitchen. Native Americans, on the other hand, cooked meat on a horizontal frame, which was placed over an open fire. Colonists soon adopted this style of cooking, using a wooden stool, turned upside down, on which meat was perched above the flame of the fireplace. The advantage to the frame was that smaller pieces of meat could be easily cooked. Spit cooking had been primarily used for whole animals, such as cows or pigs, with smaller pieces of the spit-cooked meat used in pot creations. The horizontal frame and a love of beef, combined with inspiration, soon created the Colonial "stake", a small piece of beef cooked atop the bottom of a stool.

Another Native American tradition involved popcorn, small ears of a particular strain of corn. In order to cook the popcorn, a hollow log with a hole in it was filled with ears of the corn and set on fire. As the heat reached the ears, popcorn erupted from the opening in the log. Native Americans shared this knowledge with a newly-arrived group of hungry strangers, known as the Pilgrims, who saved each batch of popcorn that they produced, rationing it for use as a breakfast staple. The Pilgrims started each day with a bowl of popcorn, onto which milk was poured, a tradition which would pave the way for a later generation's innovation, the corn flake.