Andrew F. Smith - The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink (Oxford Companions)

The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink

Editorial Board

Gary Allen
Food Writer, Kingston, New York

Warren Belasco
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Joseph M. Carlin
Founder and Owner, Food Heritage Press, Ipswich, Massachusetts

Cara De Silva
Journalist and Independent Scholar, New York City

Meryle Evans
Culinary Historian, New York City

Barbara Haber
Food Historian, Winchester, Massachusetts

Karen Hess
Independent Scholar, New York City

David Karp
Food Writer, Venice, California

Cathy K. Kaufman
Institute of Culinary Education, New York

Bruce Kraig
Roosevelt University, Chicago, Emeritus, and President, Culinary Historians of Chicago

Janice Bluestein Longone
Curator of American Culinary History, Clements Library, University of Michigan

Barry Popik
Independent Scholar, Austin, Texas

Alice Ross
Director, Alice Ross Hearth Studios, Consultant, Author, Teacher, Smithtown, New York

Mark H. Zanger
Independent Scholar, Boston

Edited by Andrew F. Smith

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Copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Oxford companion to American food and drink / Andrew F. Smith, editor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 9780-19-530796-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. FoodEncyclopedias. 2. Cookery, AmericanEncyclopedias.
3. Food habitsUnited StatesEncyclopedias. I. Smith, Andrew F., 1946

TX349.O94 2007
394.120973dc22
2006032303

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

THE OXFORD COMPANION TO AMERICAN FOOD AND DRINK

What is American food? Is it traditional foodstuffs, such as maize, beans, squash, domesticated in the Americas? Is it warmed-over British fare, such as meat, potatoes, puddings, and sandwiches? Or perhaps is it special holiday treatsturkey, cranberries, corn on the cob, candied sweet potatoes, or Christmas cookies? Is it ethnic foods brought by continuous waves of immigrantstacos, pizza, spaghetti, and fortune cookiesand bastardized in America? Is it fast foodhamburgers, french fries, pizza, or hot dogs? Or commercial productsLays potato chips, Hershey bars, Campbells soups, Good Humor ice creams, Betty Crocker cake mixes, Minute Maid frozen orange juice, Swanson TV dinners, or Coca-Cola? Or is it the haute cuisine of Americas best restaurants like Delmonicos and Per Se in Manhattan? Perhaps the new, emerging California cuisine la Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters, Thomas Keller, and Jeremiah Towers is the essence of edible in America? What about those foods discussed in Gourmet, Bon Appetite, or Saveur? Or the cooking programs on PBS or the Food Network? Maybe the foods cited in the more than twenty thousand cookbooks and other food books published annually in the United States are the real thing?

The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink broadly and eclectically defines American food and drink as the foods and beverages consumed in the United States. It is a smorgasbord foodscape filled with creative entrepreneurs, overworked consumers, well-intentioned reformers, and competing culinary elites. It is composed of numerous ingredients, diverse flavors, unique dishes, ever-changing modes of preparation, expanding methods of distribution, and the usual and unusual ways Americans eat. In addition, this Companion examines the underlying processes and broad trends, such as urbanization, industrialization, suburbanization, and globalization, that have determined what Americans eat today.

Food has profoundly affected the American continent, beginning in prehistoric times, when Old World hunters came to the New World seeking big game, to modern times, in which American agriculture helps feed the world. Food has profoundly shaped our society: It has influenced population growth and migrations, dictated economic and political changes, expanded commerce, inspired poems and literature, and precipitated the evolution and invention of certain lifestyles. The desire for food served at particular times and in specific ways has caused the creation of new technologies, from the earliest canning efforts to microwave ovens. Food was at the core of American medicine in the nineteenth century, and dietary concerns remain an important component of medical practice today. Food has also been an important weapon in war. Well-fed armies usually defeat hungry ones, as illustrated by the Civil War; conversely, wars have altered our eating habits by introducing new foods and processes and by creating new uses for old foods. After the Civil War, for instance, peanuts went from a slave food to one of Americas first national snack foods, and canned food went from an expensive luxury to a low-cost everyday product. Chocolate bars became popular due to military procurement policies during World War I. And Coca-Cola marched along with the American military to the farthest reaches of the globe during World War II.

Beyond nutritional value, food has psychological and emotional value. Consuming foods and beverages gratifies pleasure and relieves stress. Depending on the circumstance, with whom one eats and under what conditions could be a family get-together, a romantic encounter, a business matter, a status enhancer, or a religious experience. Finally, food is security and power: Those who have it survive and thrive; those who dont languish and die.

Food is Americas most important business and its largest export. Never before in the history of the world has one group of people had so much influence over the culinary lives of others. American food surpluses have saved millions of lives in other nations, and American farm subsidies and tariffs have caused economic havoc and political upheaval in Africa and Southeast Asia. Other countries are rapidly expanding their exports to the United States, and American food corporations are rapidly expanding abroad. American fast food companies are increasing their operations in other countries while they are contracting their operations in the United States. Some of these corporations are at the forefront of genetic engineering research and applications. As a consequence of this technology, the world may either be on the verge of a great culinary revolution or perhaps a genetic catastrophe.

The idea of an American cuisine is not a new phenomenon. Although the dominant culinary style in the original thirteen colonies was English, Americans adapted to new environmental conditions by creating a cuisine entirely their own. In the four centuries since the English colonies were established in North America, American cookery has been greatly modified by climatic and environmental conditions in the New World, the availability of new ingredients, and numerous adoptions and adaptations from the cookery of immigrants from a multitude of nations, cultures, and religions. American food has never stopped changing, and this constant innovation is perhaps its hallmark. The pace of culinary change in America and the world is accelerating, and it will likely continue to do so in the future.