Appalachian cuisine

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Appalachian cuisine is a style of cuisine located in the central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States. It is an amalgam of the diverse foodways, specifically among the British, German and Italian immigrant populations, Native Americans including the Cherokee people, and African-Americans, as well as their descendants in the Appalachia region. [1] [2]

Contents

The cuisine of Appalachia focuses on seasonal local ingredients and practices like pickling, foraging, canning and food preserving. [1] [3] [4] [2] Appalachian cuisine is a subset of Southern cuisine, and is specifically different because of the cold winters and the mountainous landscape. [3] [5] [6] [7] [8] Promoters of Appalachian foodways include Eliot Wigginton, [9] [10] Ronni Lundy, [8] John Fleer, [11] Lora Smith, [11] Kendra Bailey Morris, [11] Travis Milton, [11] Ashleigh Shanti, [12] and Sean Brock. [11]

History

Woman preparing "poke salad" made of pokeweed (or phytolacca americana) Woman preparing poke salad.jpg
Woman preparing "poke salad" made of pokeweed (or phytolacca americana)
Johnnycakes in a cast iron fry pan Johnnycakes.jpg
Johnnycakes in a cast iron fry pan
"slaw dog", a West Virginia-style hot dog with coleslaw and chili topping West-Virginia-style-hot-dog-01.jpg
"slaw dog", a West Virginia-style hot dog with coleslaw and chili topping
Pepperoni roll with hot pepper cheese from Home Industry Bakery of Clarksburg, West Virginia PepperoniRoll.JPG
Pepperoni roll with hot pepper cheese from Home Industry Bakery of Clarksburg, West Virginia
Cheerwine bottle Cheerwine bottle 2021.jpg
Cheerwine bottle
Fresh fiddlehead greens Fiddleheads Crosses de fougere.jpg
Fresh fiddlehead greens

British immigrants to Appalachia brought buttermilk, biscuits, dumplings, and moonshine. [2] Chefs from the region have noted other European-originated foods like Italian sausage, and borscht. [13] The Cherokee in Appalachia have contributed to the cuisine with dishes and ingredients such as boiled chestnut bread, fried creasy greens, ramps, pokeweed, corn, and fiddlehead greens. [2] [4] [14] Poet Frank X Walker coined the term "Affrilachian" to signify the importance of the African-American presence in Appalachia, including in the cuisine. [15] The African-Americans in Appalachia have contributed to the regional food history with ingredients such as kale, collard greens, peanut beans, foods infused with bourbon (baked goods, and vegetables), spoonbread, and the use of molasses and sorghum as a meat glaze. [15] [14]

Staples of Appalachian cuisine that are common in other regional cuisines of the south and in soul food include peanut brittle, sweet potato pie, pork chops, biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, collard greens, cracklings, and ham hocks. [2] Appalachia has a wide variety of wild game, with venison, rabbit, raccoon, and squirrel particularly common, thus helping to compensate for distance from major cities and transportation networks (this was particularly true in the 19th century). Many aspects of the diet came from economic necessity. [16] [17] Subsistence farming was the backbone of the Appalachian economy throughout much of the 19th century, and is still a practice in the present-day in some areas through farming revitalization efforts. [18]

Traditionally most Appalachia homes used a fireplace and a dutch oven for cooking, which cooks hotter than a wood-burning stove. [19] However some households preferred using a wood-burning stove. [19] Sunday dinners are a tradition for many in the region. [20]

List of foods

Breads

Beans

Pickles

Meat dishes

Other dishes

Desserts

Pies and cobblers

Cakes

Candy

Other desserts

List of beverages

List of common ingredients

Meats

Fruits

  • apples, the Golden Delicious apples are the state fruit of West Virginia
  • blackberries
  • peaches
  • pawpaw (asimina triloba)
  • plums
  • raspberries

Vegetables

Other common ingredients

See also

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References

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Further reading