Editing American cuisine (section)

===Native Americans origins: American cuisine before 1600===
{{see also|Native American cuisine}}
[[File:Growingfieldspanlg (cropped).jpeg|thumb|Diorama of [[Iroquois]] planting the "[[Three Sisters (agriculture)|Three Sister]]" crops; squash, maize and climbing beans]]
Native Americans utilized a number of cooking methods in early American cuisine that have been blended with the methods of early Europeans to form the basis of what is now American cuisine. Nearly all regions and subregions of the present-day cuisine have roots in the foodways of Native Americans, who lived in tribes numbering in the thousands. Prior to 1600, native peoples lived off the land in very diverse bioregions and had done so for thousands of years, often living a nomadic life where their diet changed with the season.

Many practiced a form of agriculture revolving around the [[Three Sisters (agriculture)|Three Sisters]], the rotation of [[bean]]s, [[maize]], and [[Cucurbita|squash]] as staples of their diet. In the East, this was documented as early as the 1620s in ''Of Plimoth Plantation,'' evidenced by the pages [[William Bradford (governor)|William Bradford]] wrote regarding [[Squanto]], who showed them the traditional regional method of burying a fish or eel in a mound with seeds for maize to improve the soil; this itself is also part of the widely practiced phenomenon of [[companion planting]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/three-sisters-corn-beans-squash-zmaz01fmzsel|title=The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash|first=John|last=Vivian|website=Mother Earth News|date=February 2001|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=January 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117095603/https://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/three-sisters-corn-beans-squash-zmaz01fmzsel|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.njagsociety.org/uploads/1/7/0/5/17057112/the_three_sisters_lesson_plan_wbs.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.njagsociety.org/uploads/1/7/0/5/17057112/the_three_sisters_lesson_plan_wbs.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title= The Three Sisters lesson plan |website=njagsociety.org |access-date=January 2, 2021}}</ref>

[[Wild game]] was equally a staple of nearly every tribe: generally, deer, elk, and bison were staples, as were rabbits and hare. The [[Cherokee]] of the Southern Appalachians used blowguns made of an indigenous type of bamboo to hunt squirrels.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://visitcherokeenation.com/blog/cherokee-hunting|title=Cherokee Hunting|website=visitcherokeenation.com|date=January 31, 2024|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=September 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929001346/https://visitcherokeenation.com/blog/cherokee-hunting|url-status=live}}</ref>

Northern tribes like the [[Ojibwe]] of what is now the state of Michigan and the peoples of the [[Wabanaki Confederacy|Wabanaki]] of what is now the state of Maine would stalk and hunt moose, whereas their Southern counterparts, like the [[Choctaw]] or [[Catawba people|Catawba]], hunted [[Common snapping turtle|snapping turtles]] and other testudines,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Duncan|first=Chris|url=https://www.uwsp.edu/forestry/StuJournals/Documents/NA/cduncan.pdf |title=Agriculture, Forest Food and Fiber Use, and Burning Practices of the Choctaw Indians Pre-European Contact – Mid 1700's |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.uwsp.edu/forestry/StuJournals/Documents/NA/cduncan.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |website=uwsp.edu |access-date=May 23, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/5706/570605.html|title=Southeastern Indians, Precontact to the Present: Introductory Essay|website=socialstudies.org|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=May 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210504033826/http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/5706/570605.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Virginia opossum|possums]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lange|first=Andrew|url=https://www.uwsp.edu/forestry/StuJournals/Documents/NA/alange.pdf |title=Mississippi Choctaw: Food and Fiber Pre 1830's |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.uwsp.edu/forestry/StuJournals/Documents/NA/alange.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |website=uwsp.edu |access-date=May 23, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Park |first1=Sunmin |last2=Hongu |first2=Nobuko |last3=Daily |first3=James W. |title=Native American foods: History, culture, and influence on modern diets |journal=Journal of Ethnic Foods |date=September 2016 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=171–177 |doi=10.1016/j.jef.2016.08.001 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and young alligators<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/2140|title=Southeastern Indian Hunting &#124; Native American Netroots|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=November 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231118115025/http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/2140|url-status=live}}</ref> in the subtropical swamps of Louisiana and South Carolina.

Many tribes would preserve their meat in the form of [[pemmican]], needed on long journeys or to survive harsh winters.

====Fish and crustaceans====
[[File:Blue crab on market in Piraeus - Callinectes sapidus Rathbun 20020819-317.jpg|thumb|right|[[Callinectes sapidus|Blue crab]] was used on the eastern and southern coast of what is now the U.S. mainland.]]
As with the [[Game (hunting)|hunted game]], the [[biome]] in which one lived often dictated what was available to catch. For example, the [[Apache]] and [[Navajo]] peoples of the Southwest, whose territories each would have included swathes of [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]], generally do not eat fish because in both cultures it is taboo, as well as often inconvenient.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} The Navajo believe that fish have a part in the story of creation,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://openamlitcwi.pressbooks.com/chapter/navajo-emergence-myth/|title=Navajo Diné Bahaneʼ|first=Joel|last=Gladd|date=September 1, 2019|via=openamlitcwi.pressbooks.com|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=May 11, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511021559/https://openamlitcwi.pressbooks.com/chapter/navajo-emergence-myth/|url-status=dead}}</ref> the Apache were in general afraid of water since they associated it with thunder,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scalar.usc.edu/works/american-indian-film-archive/apache-cooking|title=American Indian Film Gallery: Apache Cooking|website=American Indian Film Gallery: Cultures of Apache tribes and Hopi tribes|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=June 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230618110446/https://scalar.usc.edu/works/american-indian-film-archive/apache-cooking|url-status=live}}</ref> and the arid desert climate made fish a rarity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.navajotimes.com/entertainment/health/1010/100710fish.php|title=Fish taboo may be good for health – Navajo Times|website=navajotimes.com|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=May 11, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511021600/https://www.navajotimes.com/entertainment/health/1010/100710fish.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>

However, in the culture of the [[Lenape]], the tribe that originally lived in [[New Jersey]], on the [[Delaware River]], and the area that now comprises [[New York City]], [[Fish as food|fish]] and [[shellfish]] were a staple in their diet and it was such a revered part of the culture that there is a documented and still-practiced harvest dance called the Fish Dance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://delawaretribe.org/wp-content/uploads/Lenape-Dances.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://delawaretribe.org/wp-content/uploads/Lenape-Dances.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title=LENAPE DANCES |website=delawaretribe.org|access-date=January 2, 2021}}</ref> Originally it would have been done to celebrate bringing in fish from places like the [[Delaware River|Delaware]] or [[Raritan River]] or the estuary around Manhattan Island and the completion of smoking them as a source of food for the winter ahead.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Carney|first=Leo H.|date=November 22, 1981|title=How the Lenapes Celebrated|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/22/nyregion/how-the-lenapes-celebrated.html|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=August 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816012322/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/22/nyregion/how-the-lenapes-celebrated.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Eastern tribes would have eaten [[Cod (food)|cod]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/brief-history-of-cod-fishing-2291538|title=Atlantic Cod's Importance in American History|first1=Resource Administration and Management|last1=M. S.|first2=Natural Resources|last2=B. S.|website=ThoughtCo|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122130322/https://www.thoughtco.com/brief-history-of-cod-fishing-2291538|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1401|title=Aboriginal New England Cuisine With Recipes &#124; Native American Netroots|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=November 16, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231116074314/http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1401|url-status=live}}</ref> particularly groups that spoke the [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] languages of [[New England]] as far south as present day [[Connecticut]], [[winter flounder]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://41nmagazine.org/2020/12/22/in-times-of-hardship-saved-by-the-sea/|title=In Times of Hardship, Saved by the Sea|date=December 22, 2020|website=41ºN Magazine|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=January 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114225636/https://41nmagazine.org/2020/12/22/in-times-of-hardship-saved-by-the-sea/|url-status=live}}</ref> and other [[flatfish]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/narragansett-tribe.htm|title=Narragansett Tribe: Facts, Clothes, Food and History ***|website=warpaths2peacepipes.com|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=April 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420151619/https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/narragansett-tribe.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> species of herring like the [[Alewife (fish)|alewife]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taft |first1=Dave |title=The Stubborn Staying Power of the Alewife Herring (Published 2017) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/nyregion/alewife-herring.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/nyregion/alewife-herring.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |work=The New York Times |date=March 16, 2017 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[American shad|shad]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/american-shad/|title=American Shad – Arca del Gusto|website=Slow Food Foundation|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=August 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813001518/https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/american-shad/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Atlantic herring]], and [[Atlantic menhaden]],<ref>Olsen SL: '''Animals in American Indian Life: An Overview'''. In: ''Stars Above, Earth Below American Indians and Nature.'' edn. Edited by Bol MC. Dublin: Roberts Rinehart Publishers; 1998: 95–118.</ref><ref>Speck FG, Hassrick RB, Carpenter ES: '''Rappahannock Taking Devices: Traps, Hunting and Fishing'''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Anthropological Society; 1946.</ref>   They also would have consumed the [[Atlantic sturgeon]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/powhatan-tribe.htm|title=Powhatan Tribe: Facts, Clothes, Food and History ***|website=warpaths2peacepipes.com|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=April 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420172402/https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/powhatan-tribe.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[drum (fish)|drum]].

In the West, Pacific several species of sturgeon, like the [[white sturgeon]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 1, 2019|title=White Sturgeon|url=https://kaniksulandtrust.org/2019/07/01/white-sturgeon/|access-date=January 2, 2021|website=Kaniksu Land Trust|language=en-US|archive-date=September 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924170308/https://kaniksulandtrust.org/2019/07/01/white-sturgeon/|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[green sturgeon]],<ref>Gobalet, K.W., P.D. Schultz, T.A. Wake, and N. Siefkin. 2004. Archaeological perspectives on Native American fisheries of California, with emphasis on steelhead and salmon. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 133:801–833.</ref> [[Oily fish|olachen]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/northwest-coast/kwakwa-ka-wakw/kwakwa-ka-wakw-collection/fishing-gear/olachen-fishing|title=Olachen Fishing|website=American Museum of Natural History|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=August 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814165246/https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/northwest-coast/kwakwa-ka-wakw/kwakwa-ka-wakw-collection/fishing-gear/olachen-fishing|url-status=live}}</ref> and several autochthonal fish of the [[Oncorhynchus|''Oncorhynchus'' family]] including the [[rainbow trout]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/mercury/docs/tribes_%20fish_use.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/mercury/docs/tribes_%20fish_use.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |title=California Tribes fish use |date=2014 |website=waterboards.ca.gov |access-date=January 2, 2021}}</ref> [[cutthroat trout]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/pages/Help-native-trout-and-win-thousands-of-dollars-in-prizes.aspx|title=Help native trout and win thousands of dollars in prizes|website=bpa.gov|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=August 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813052520/https://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/pages/Help-native-trout-and-win-thousands-of-dollars-in-prizes.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[coho salmon]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/western_oregon_klickitats/#.X-_coy1h17g|title=Western Oregon Klikatats (Klickitats)|website=oregonencyclopedia.org|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=November 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125061445/https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/western_oregon_klickitats/#.X-_coy1h17g|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aliciapatterson.org/stories/homeward-hearts-story-pacific-salmon|title=Homeward Hearts: A Story Of Pacific Salmon &#124; Alicia Patterson Foundation|website=aliciapatterson.org|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=April 8, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408091059/https://aliciapatterson.org/stories/homeward-hearts-story-pacific-salmon|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[[Alfred L. Kroeber|Kroeber, Alfred Louis]] (1925). ''Handbook of the Indians of California''. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.</ref> [[kokanee salmon]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.critfc.org/salmon-culture/tribal-salmon-culture/|title=Salmon Culture &#124; Pacific Northwest tribes, Columbia River salmon|website=CRITFC|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=January 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124060606/https://www.critfc.org/salmon-culture/tribal-salmon-culture/|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[chinook salmon]]. The last makes an appearance in the accounts of [[Lewis and Clark]] as being fished for in the [[Columbia River Basin]], and this species is named for a family of tribes of the Pacific Northwest, indicating its important role in that food culture.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

[[Pacific gray whale]]s and [[Humpback whale|humpbacks]] were hunted by American Indians off the Northwest coast, especially by the [[Makah]], and used for their meat and oil.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y84rc5HGKpEC&q=seafood+native+americans+herring+halibut&pg=PA226|title=Native Americans: Southwest – California – Northwest Coast – Great Basin – Plateau|first=Barry|last=Pritzker|date=August 8, 1998|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780874368369|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Catfish]] was also popular among native people throughout the land, over many types of terrain.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

Crustaceans included [[Shrimp (food)|shrimp]], [[Lobster meat|lobster]], [[Crayfish (food)|crayfish]], and [[dungeness crab]]s in the Northwest and shrimp, lobster and [[Callinectes sapidus|blue crabs]] in the East. Other shellfish include [[abalone]] and [[geoduck]] on the West Coast, while on the East Coast the [[Atlantic surf clam|surf clam]], [[quahog]], and the [[soft-shell clam]]. [[Oyster]]s were eaten on both shores, as were [[Mussel#As food|mussel]]s and [[Common periwinkle|periwinkles]].<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Root|De Rochemont|1981|pp=21,22}}</ref>

====Cooking methods====
Early American natives used a number of cooking methods that have been blended with early European cooking methods to form the basis of American cuisine. [[Grilling]] meats was common. [[Spit roast]]ing over a pit fire was common as well. Vegetables, especially [[root vegetable]]s, were often cooked directly in the ashes of the fire.

As early Native Americans lacked pottery that could be used directly over a fire, they developed a technique many [[anthropologist]]s call "[[stone boiling]]". They heated rocks in a fire, then added the rocks to a pot filled with water until it came to a boil to cook the meat or vegetables. In what is now the Southwestern United States, they also created [[adobe]] ovens, dubbed ''[[horno]]s'' by the [[Conquistadors|Spanish]], to bake products such as [[cornmeal]] bread. Other parts of America dug [[Earth oven|pit ovens]], which were also used to steam foods by adding heated rocks or embers. One technique performed extensively by New England tribes was adding seaweed or corn husks on top of the layers of stones to steam fish and shellfish as well as vegetables.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} A later addition was potatoes, a garden plant that came to New England by the 18th century, added while still in skin with [[corn]] in husk, later to be referred to as a [[clambake]] by colonists.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Root|De Rochemont|1981|pp=31,32}}</ref>