Las habilidades de simulación y de lectura de la mente

Ingredients and Common Foods

British and Irish. Many American dishes have

their origins in Great Britain. The Puritans, adapting Native American fare, made a pudding with cornmeal, milk, molasses, and spices. Today this is called “Indian pudding.” Pumpkin pie is just a custard pie to which the Native American squash, pumpkin, is added. Apple pie has been so well accepted we say, “American as apple pie,” despite its English heritage. Syllabub, a milk and wine punch drunk in the American South at Christmastime, is also an English recipe.

French. French cooking has had less influence

on everyday American cooking (except for french fries), but there are probably few cities that don’t have a French restaurant (which may or may not be owned by a French immigrant).

French Americans adapted their cuisine to the available ingredients and other ethnic cooking styles. The best example of this is found in Louisiana, where Creole and Cajun cooking devel- oped. Creole cooking is to Cajun cooking what French grande cuisine is to provincial cooking. Some dishes may sound typically French, such as the fish stew bouillabaisse, but it is made with fish from the Gulf of Mexico, not from the Mediterranean. Even the coffee is slightly differ- ent, flavored with the bitter chicory root.

Ingredients for Cajun cooking reflect the envi- ronment of Louisiana: Bayou Cajun foods are from lake and swamp areas, while prairie Cajun dishes are found in inland areas. Fish and shellfish abound, notably crawfish, crabs, oysters, pom- pano, redfish, and shrimp, to name just a few. Shellfish is commonly eaten raw on the half shell (oysters) or boiled in a spicy mixture. Gumbo and jambalaya are often made with seafood. Gumbo is a thick, spicy soup made with a variety of seafood, meat, and vegetables. It is thickened with either okra or filé powder and then ladled over rice. Jambalaya, also a highly seasoned stew made with a combination of seafood, meats, and vegetables, was brought to New Orleans by the Spanish. 152 NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPEANS

St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah. © Robert Brenner/PhotoEdit, Inc.

Gumbo is the African Bantu word for okra.

The name for the popular Cajun music style, zydeco, is derived from the French term for green bean, haricot (pronounced “ar-ee-ko”) because it is snappy, like a bean.

The members of the French Foreign Legion are nicknamed “boudin,” because the red blanket roll they wear across their chests resembles a black pudding.

Crawfish are also known as crayfish (especially in New Orleans), crawdads, crawdaddy crab (in the Great Lakes area), clawfish, and mudbugs, among others. They are small crustaceans that look like miniature lobsters, found in the fresh waters of Louisiana, Lake Michigan, California, and the Pacific Northwest.

Cornish pasties are still popular in parts of the country where immigrants from Cornwall came to work in the mines, such as the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, where May 24 was declared Pasty Day in 1968.

Originally made only with ham (jambon), it was later modified. The base for these stews and gravies is roux; however, the Cajun roux is unique in that the flour and fat (usually vegetable oil) are cooked very slowly until the mixture turns brown and has a nutlike aroma and taste.

Other key ingredients in Cajun cooking are rice (which has been grown in Louisiana since the early 1700s), red beans, tomatoes, chayote squash, eggplant, spicy hot sauce, and a variety of pork products. One of the better known hot sauces, Tabasco, is produced in the bayous of southern Louisiana from fermented chile pep- pers, vinegar, and spices. A deep-fried rice fritter, calas, is the Louisiana version of a doughnut. Other rice dishes are red beans and rice and dirty rice. Dirty rice derives its name from the fact that its ingredients, bits of chicken gizzards and liver, give the rice a brown appearance. Cajun boudin sausages are a specialty. Boudin blanc is made with pork and rice; boudin rouge has pork blood added to it. Cochon de lait, a suckling pig roasted over a wood fire, is prepared at Cajun festivals in central Louisiana. Fricot is a popular soup made with potatoes and sausage or shredded meat. Cracklings, known as gratons, are fried, bite-size bits of pork skin (often with meat attached) pop- ular in some regions.

Pecan pralines are a famous New Orleans candy. Pecans are native to Louisiana; pralines are large, flat patties made from brown sugar, water or cream, and butter. Another confection eaten often with coffee is beignets, round or square puffed French doughnuts dusted with powdered sugar. French toast, or pain perdu, is another French spe- cialty that was transported to New Orleans and is now familiar to most Americans.

The cuisine of French Americans in New England tends to be traditionally French, but it is influenced by common New England foods and food habits. Franco-Americans use more herbs and spices than other New Englanders and take time to prepare the best-tasting food. Traditional French dishes are pork pâté, called creton by the Franco-Americans, and the traditional Yule log cake (bûche de Noël) served at Christmas. Franco- American cuisine offers numerous soups and stews. One of the most elaborate of the stews, which is also called a pie, is cipate, known as cipaille, si-pallie, six-pates, and “sea pie” in some areas. A typical recipe calls for chicken, pork, veal, and beef, plus four or five kinds of vegetables layered in a heavy

kettle, covered with pie crust. It is slowly cooked after chicken stock has been added through vents in the crust.

Maple syrup is commonly used. One unique breakfast dish is eggs poached in the syrup. Maple syrup is also served over bread dumplings or just plain bread. Franco-Americans appreciate wine and distilled spirits. One unusual combina- tion of both is caribou, a mixture of white whiskey (a distilled, colorless liquor) and red wine, which is drunk on festive occasions. (See also Chapter 15.)

Meal Composition and Cycle

British and Irish. American food habits have

been greatly influenced by British and Irish immi- grants. Meal patterns and composition are very similar to those in Great Britain. The typical meal of a meat, poultry, or fish main dish served with vegetable and starch side dishes, and often bread, continues to this day. Though English Americans also consumed a hearty breakfast that often included ham or bacon and eggs, in more recent years, time constraints and health concerns have changed this pattern on weekdays; weekend breakfast sometimes reverts to the more British- style meal.

Festive meals also reflect the British and Irish influence. A traditional Christmas dinner includes roast turkey or ham, stuffing, and mashed veg- etables. For dessert a pie is customary, often mincemeat. Two holidays Americans think of as being typically American, Thanksgiving and Halloween, are actually of British and Irish origin. Thanksgiving combined the tradition of

Chapter 6: Northern and Southern Europeans 153

La boucherie: French-speaking Cajuns in Louisiana maintain the hog-butchering traditions of their past. Before the days of refrigeration, everyone in the community helped prepare the meat and lard. Participants went home with fresh pork cuts and spicy sausages called boudin. La boucherie continues today at many Cajun festivals.

Courtesy of the Louisiana Office of Tourism

A study in France found that consumption of mineral water provided up to 25 percent of total daily intake of calcium and 6 to 7 percent of magnesium in participants.19

Vitamin D status in Irish women was found to be suboptimal, especially in winter months, in a 2006 study.27

an old British harvest festival with the Pilgrims’ celebration of surviving in their new environ- ment. In Great Britain and Ireland, Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, is believed to have originated in ancient times. Ghosts and witches were thought likely to wander abroad on Halloween night.

French. Americans of French descent have

adopted the American meal cycle with the main meal in the evening. In Louisiana the best-known celebration is Mardi Gras, culminating on Shrove Tuesday, just before the beginning of Lent. In New Orleans there are parades, masquerading, and general revelry; the festival reaches its climax at a grand ball before midnight. After this day and night of rich eating and grand merriment, the forty days of fasting and penitence of Lent begin. In the Cajun countryside, Mardi Gras is celebrated with “run”: Men on horseback ride from farmhouse to farmhouse collecting chick- ens and sausages to add to a community gumbo. Participants enjoy beer, boudin, and faire le maque (“make like a monkey,” or clowning around) at each stop. During the rest of the year,

Cajuns sponsor many local festivals, such as the crawfish, rice, and yam festivals.

Franco-Americans, like their French ances- tors, serve meat pies on religious holidays. The special pie for Easter has sliced hard-boiled eggs laid down on the bottom crust and then a layer of cooked meat topped with well-seasoned pork and beef meatballs. For Christmas, tourtière, a pie made with simmered seasoned pork, is eaten cold after midnight Mass.