As you all know, I'm sure, there are all kinds of ethnic cooking and
restaurants...  But do you consider 'American' as an ethnic entity?
What got me thinking about this is the April edition of 'Gourmet' magazine
which, this month, features only American cuisine [apparently, for the 
first time ever that the whole issue is devoted to the good ol' USofA.]

So I guess what I'm asking is, is American an ethnic entity in its own
right or more of a grouping of other ethnic areas?  Or with our regional
diversity more accurate [like there's big difference, I've noticed, between
popular foods in southeastern MI vs where I currently reside in NC.]

And, what does 'American Cuisine' mean to you?  If you were to entertain
guests from another country and you wanted them to sample American food,
what would you prepare [or have prepared]??

[I'll start a separate item for American recipes...]

27 responses total.

   I've often wondered this myself.  One item that comes to mind if
that every popular favorite, the hot dog.  True, its just a variation
of a sausage, but thats true of most "American" food, isn't it?
   If you want to be more correct, I suppose that the real American food
would have to be indian (with a little Mexican thrown in in the southwest).
   I wish it were otherwise.

Well, the introduction to the trade paperback edition of James Beard's
_American Cookery_ has this to say:
 
"In the years since this book was first published in 1972, the stature
of American cookery has grown tremendously.  Whereas eight years ago
people sneered at the notion that there was such a thing as an American
cuisine, today more and more people are forced to agree that we have
developed one of the more interesting cuisines of the world.  It
stresses the products of the soil, native traditions, and the gradual
integration of many ethnic forms into what is now American cooking."
 
Later, in the Introduction to the original book, Beard writes:
 
"While I do not overlook the grotesqueries of American cooking, I
believe we have a rich and fascinating food heritage that occasionally
reaches greatness in its own melting pot way.  After all, France created
French cuisine over centuries, and I daresay some of it was purely
experimental cookery.  Italian, Austrian, and Scandinavian cookery, as
well, has had generations of change and tradition.  We are barely
beginning to sift down into a cuisine of our own..."
 
Beard thus recognizes the existence of an American cuisine.  His
definition includes many sources, including native cookery, ethnic
dishes, and adaptations of ethnic dishes to American tastes, and
regional food.  Probably the simplest definition of American cuisine is
"anything cooked in America" as even ethnic dishes tend to take on an
American flavor noticeably different from the same dishes prepared in their
native countries.
 
It's hard to think of too many things more American than apple pie, hot
dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, and Coca-Cola (but that's hardly 
what one thinks of when describing "cuisine" -- and hardly what I'd
consider proper to serve guests).  What about barbequed foods?

   Can you list some of the titles of things he includes?  I'm curious
as to what he considers "American".  But he is right of course, we're
far too young to have developed much in the way of a culinery history.

It's an 800 and some-odd page book that covers a lot of territory...
A lot of the recipes in this book you will no doubt say "well, that's
not American, that's Italian...German...Mexican...etc." and to be sure
Beard includes a number of the "original" recipes for comparison with
their Americanized versions.  So...
    Cole slaw
    Potato salad
    A bazillion seafood and chicken salads
    Soups
    Pan-fried fish; deep-fried fish; sweet and sour carp (!)
    Boiled lobster; Lobster Newburg
    Shrimp Creole
    Hangtown Fry
    Clam Chowder
    Gumbo
    Fried Chicken
    Chicken `a la King
    Pennsylvania Dutch Pot Pie
    Roast Turkey
    Venison (steaks, roast haunch of, pot-roasted, etc.)
    Diag Squirrel Stew :^)
    General Frost's St. Louis Wild Duck
    Loads of steak recipes
    Roast beef hash
    Pot Roast (a number of variations; origins in Europe)
    American Beef (Buffalo)(Horsemeat) Stew
    Creamed Chipped Beef
    Meat Loaf
    Hamburgers (European origin but very much American now)
    Sloppy Joes
    Pork many ways
    Several methods of curing ham are of American origin
    We aren't noted for our sauces
    Toll House cookies
 
Ran out of time...gotta run.

 Doritos, popsicles, ice cream

Pepsi

Now that Roast Diag Squirrel is +tasty+ stuff, kentn, ..........

I would vote for the cassarole as we now know it as a uniquely American
food.  At least, my former mother in law (a Scandinavian who has never
lived in the US) stared with semi-polite horror at tuna noodle cassarole
and macaroni and cheese when she first encountered them.  She said she'd
"eaten in many backward countries, but never in her life seen anyone do
that to food."

I'll admit to feeling that way about lutjefisk, blueberry soup, and oatmeal
for supper.     ;)

Stone Soup is decidedly American - well, no, it's not ...sorry.
  
Cassaroles are great fun! Must be American .......
  
I guess *every* country has varieties of stew ..... but who else has
squirrels?

The World Book we have here says "Squirrels live throughout the world
except in Australia, Madagascar, and sourthern South America...There are
over 300 kinds of squirrels".

Hmmm, that's interesting - are there enough quantities "elsewhere" to
make a stew?  And where else can you get that particular Daig Delicacy?

   The Arboretum?

   Thats an interesting list.  I think I have to take exception to
things like the Penn. dutch pot pie; I'm quite sure I saw that served
in the Netherlands.  In fact, I passed it by just because I'd seen it
a mere 270 miles from home.  But anyway, a lot of these could be the
fuel for food origin wars if we aren't careful. ;-)  It sounds like this
book is worthwhile.  Sometimes I *am* a snob about American foods.

Well, like I think I said, Beard acknowledges that a lot of our cuisine
is imported.  However, the versions served here are enough different from
their native versions to merit being called 'American'.  And that list was
not intended to be a list of bona fide American cuisine, but in response
to your request to list some of the recipe titles in Beard's book.  If
you look hard enough, there's a lot of overlap in cooking all over the
world; I think Beard is just trying to point out that some things really
did originate here, at least in the form that we know them.

Genuflect,genuflect,genuflect.

   Quite true about the mixture.  Does the book include any American
Indian cooking?  That might be the "true" American cuisine!

I'm sure it does, or at least refers to it, but I don't have time to
scan through all umpteen zillion recipes to see.  

I'll agree with kentn that _American Cookery_ is a good cookbook.
Paging through it just now, many, if not most, of the recipes seem to
be twists on old-world recipes.  Beard often gives the history of a
dish and if it's a twist on an old recipe, tells why and how Americans
have adapted it.

Tuna Noodle Casserole???

Ok, so it's named differently from Pasta Alfred With Canned Fish, so
what, it's American ..... <g>.

re #4, looks like Americans were dealing with an excess of meat - all but one
was meat (tollhouse cookies).
re #1 Mexicans, before the Spaniards, did not have cows.  Therefore much of
what is served as Mexican is Spanish-influenced, if it has ground or cubed
beef, or cheese. They also did not have wheat, as in flour tortillas (or
Native American fried bread - most of what I saw in a Native American cookbook
was based on such new ingredients, including refined cane sugar).
Regarding squirrels, the Europeans and Chinese have few because they were
killed off long ago, to make expensive fur capes and/or to eat.  Foreign
students with cameras always go for the squirrels first.  I think miniver,
white fur used by nobles for robes of state (see 17th century French
portraits, too) was made from squirrel belly.  Our Chinese friends were also
astonished to see live mussels on the coast, in China they were eaten long
ago.  (COuld the Chinese be convinced to eat zebra mussels?).

The classic Thanksgiving dinner is the most uniquely American thing that
I can think of.  Turkeys, after all.  (When we served such a dinner to a
Chinese student couple, a few years ago, he preferred not to eat any
sweet potatoes because of unpleasant associations -- a period of time when
his family had *only* sweet potatoes to eat.  His wife assured him that my
recipe was quite different, being at least 50% apple, and she enjoyed her
share)
There's also German chocolate cake.
Some thread of memory suggests a connection between macaroni&cheese & Russia.
?

At a lecture on Arab-Americans in Detroit, we learned that they cook
Thanksgivig dinner with turkey and stuffing, and cranberries, but
nobody eats much of it, they prefer the lamb and rice that also gets
cooked then.  My Jewish-American mother also cooked a turkey then, but other
holidays were more traditionally ethnic.  The word turkey is because the
Europeans were introduced to it from Turkey.  The Russian word is 
indiyka, they thought it was from India.

Re: #21 What's the distinction of German chocolate cake (as opposed to other
chocolate cakes)?

(From dim memory.)  German chocolate cake is a fairly specific recipe
that was invented/discovered/popularized (dunno which) by an American
food company looking to boost demand for the ingredient that it made.
(It was a great success.)

Inside, it's more of a bother to make than most chocolate cakes - you
have to goof around with seperated eggs, use buttermilk, etc.  Outside,
there's a rather distinctive coconut-pecan frosting.

I believe it has mostly to do with the addition of coconut
and milk chocolate (instead of semi-sweet).

The frosting that normally comes with it is rather distinctive - coconut being
what comes to mind.

Of all the type of food ethnically American, i'd say the Corn Dog, 
Philly Cheesesteak and Chicago style deepdish pizza are my favorite.

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