Food Timeline – Traditional State Foods and Recipes is a fascinating web page on the history and timeline of regional and cultural foods, cookbooks, and recipes within the United States. Understanding a family’s culinary history is not much different from learning about the cusine from foreign countries. It’s time to serve up some historical food as part of your genealogy research!
The article offers some interesting resources such as state-specific cookbooks and official state foods, and includes a list of books to help you understand American cuisine in general.
One of the most fascinating offerings on the web page are the questions that challenge you to learn more about the foods your ancestors ate:
What if your state does not seem to have an *obvious* traditional food/recipe? Excellent…this gives you quite a lot of latitude. All you have to do is make the connection between the food and your state.
- When was it settled?
- By whom?–Moravians in North Carolina, Portuguese in Rhode Island, Italians in Pennsylvania, Germans in Texas, Acadians in Louisiana, Swedish in Wisconsin, Basque sheepherders in Nevada, Welsh copper miners in upper Michigan…
- Major celebrations? St. Louis & Chicago Expositions, New York’s World’s Fairs, Kentucky Derby…
- Local specialties? Cincinnati chili, Buffalo Wings, Philly cheese-steak, Iowa’s loose meat sandwiches, Boston cream pie, Springfield-style cashew chicken, Chicago-style pizza
- Famous food people? George Washington Carver (GA), Clarence Birdseye (NY), Milton Hershey (PA), Henry Perky (CO)
- Significant food landmarks? The Corn Palace (Mitchell, SD), Gouldings Trading Post (Monument Valley, UT), Wall Drug (Wall, SD)
- Famous Restaurants? Diners (RI), Fred Harvey’s (KS), Nathan’s (Brooklyn), Automats (Philadelphia)
- Food innovations? Shredded wheat (CO), powedered gelatin (NY), breakfast cereal (MI), TV dinners (NE)
- Famous food products? Campbell’s soup (NJ), Van Camp’s Pork & Beans (IN), Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (MI), Corsicana fruitcake (TX), Tabasco Sauce (LA), SPAM (MN).
I never thought much about an area being famous for its food in relationship to genealogy, but it makes sense. For instance, if your family lived in an area famous for its corn fields, then what are the odds that they worked in a farming or agricultural occupation? Pretty good. And if they traveled across the state of South Dakota on their way to their next residence, I bet you money they stopped at Wall Drugs along the way.
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