Food history

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Food history is an interdisciplinary field that examines the history and the cultural, economic, environmental, and sociological impacts of food and human nutrition. It is distinct from the more traditional field of culinary history, which focuses on the origin and recreation of specific recipes.

Contents

Anthropologists and historians

Since the 19th century, anthropologists have pioneered. the study of the role of food in traditional societies through direct observation, as well as reconstructing behavior from artifacts recovered from historical sites. The topic remains a central part of current anthropology and archaeology research as typified by K.C. Chang at Harvard. [1] [2] The systematic study of food culture by professional historians is a more recent development, inspired in large part by the French Annales school typified by Fernand Braudel. [3] However, there have always been numerous popular historical accounts, as typified by Waverley Root. [4] The first journal in the field, Petits Propos Culinaires , was launched in 1979 and the first conference on the subject was the 1981 Oxford Food Symposium. [5]

Politics of food

Historians and political scientists have explored many national and international political aspects of food history. [6] [7] For example, they have looked at food's role as a colonial tool in Africa and Asia; [8] "McDonaldization"; [9] the food dimensions of Mexican, Chinese and Italian diasporas; [10] class dimension in terms of the meals served in upper, middle, and working class cafés; the Green Revolution that averted starvation in the Third World; [11] and intense debates over Genetically modified food, and efforts to stop their importation. [12]

United Kingdom

From Prehistoric Britain onward, the British diet has been a story of adaptation. Early populations relied primarily on locally raised animals and crops, with their food choices continually evolving in response to changes in agricultural methods and the changing climate. The variety of British food is marked by a continual flow of external influences from invaders and global trade. Invading groups--Celts, Picts, Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Angles, Normans--each brought new ingredients and techniques, introducing staples like bread, butter, smoked fish, and spices. [13] [14] After 1600 the era of colonialism dramatically expanded the British larder. New products such as tea from China, along with curry, sugar, and chocolate, were introduced; British cuisine became a blend of global influences. [15] [16] Since the 1950s immigrant consumers and chefs from former colonies across the globe have greatly enlarged the food scene, street by street. [17]

Canada

The food history of Canada is a dynamic tapestry woven from several key historical themes involving region, ethnicity and creativity. [18] [19] [20]

Pre 1600

The earliest cuisines are rooted in the diverse traditions of many different tribes in the First Nations, as well as Inuit, and Métis peoples. They relied on hunting and fishing, and in some cases cultivated plots of corn, beans, and squash. They smoked meat to preserve foods for the long cold winters. Some used maple sap as syrup. [21] [22]

French and British

European settlers introduced wheat, dairy, cattle, hogs, poultry and spices as well as their own culinary traditions. [23] Early cuisine became a blend of Old World recipes adapted to local ingredients, seen in staples like the French-influenced tourtière (meat pie) and, later, the distinct French-Canadian creation of poutine. [24] The British and Irish settlers who arrived in the Maritimes in the 18th and 19th centuries brought their own culinary traditions and ingredients, such as potatoes, cabbage, and oats. They also introduced new food preservation techniques, like pickling and canning. These settlers influenced the development of dishes like fish and brewis, a Newfoundland specialty made from salted cod, hard bread, and fatback, and Irish stew, a meat and vegetable dish popular in New Brunswick. [25]

Regional diversity

Canada's vast geography and varied soils and climates created distinct regional food cultures. Thus Cuisine of the Maritimes is known for its seafood (lobster, cod, chowder). Quebec has its French-Canadian classics. [26] The Prairies focus on grains, beef, and foods tied to settlement groups like Pierogi (from Ukrainian settlers). [27] In the far north the Inuit have a distinctive Inuit cuisine. [28] [29]

Recent immigrants

Immigrant communities, from Chinese Canadians and Italian Canadians in earlier waves to South Asian Canadians, Middle Eastern Canadians, and others in the late 20th century, all came to Canada to prosper. They brought their distinctive flavors, ingredients, and cooking techniques. They often fused them with local products making Chinese distinctive ginger beef or sushi pizza) in ethnic restaurants across urban centers. [30]

United States

American cuisine consists of the cooking style and traditional dishes prepared in the United States, an especially diverse culture in a large country with a long history of immigration. It principally derives from a mixing of European cuisine, Native American and Alaskan cuisine, and African American cuisine, known as soul food. [31] The Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, South, West, Southwest, and insular areas all have distinctive elements, reflecting local food resources, local demographics, and local innovation. These developments have also given some states and cities distinctive elements. Proximity and territorial expansion has also generated substantial influence from Latin American cuisine, including new forms like Tex-Mex and New Mexican cuisine. Modern mass media and global immigration have brought influences from many other cultures, and some elements of American food culture have become global exports. Local ethnic and religious traditions include Hawaiian cuisine; Cajun; Louisiana Creole; Pennsylvania Dutch; Mormon; Chinese American; German American; Italian American; Greek American; Jewish American; and Mexican American cuisines. [32] [33] [34]

American cooking dates back to the traditions of the Native Americans, whose diet included a mix of farmed and hunted food, and varied widely across the continent. The Colonial period created a mix of new world and Old World cookery, and brought with it new crops and livestock from Britain and France. During the early 19th century, cooking was based mostly on what the agrarian population could grow, hunt, or raise on their land. With an increasing influx of immigrants, and a move to city life, American food further diversified in the later part of the 19th century. The 20th century saw a revolution in cooking as new technologies, the World Wars, a scientific understanding of food, and continued immigration combined to create a wide range of new foods. This has allowed for the current rich diversity in food dishes throughout the country The automobile enabled the drive-in and drive-through restaurants.. [35] [36]

American cuisine includes milkshakes, barbecue, and a wide range of fried foods. Many quintessential American dishes are unique takes on food originally from other culinary traditions, including pizza, hot dogs, and Tex-Mex. Regional cooking includes a range of fish dishes in the coastal states, gumbo, and cheesesteak. turkey is a staple at the annual Thanksgiving dinner. Modern American cuisine includes a focus on fast food, as well as take-out food, which is often ethnic. There is also a vibrant culinary scene surrounding televised celebrity chefs, social media, and foodie culture. [37]

African American

Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans. [38] [39] Originating in the American South from the cuisines of enslaved Africans transported from Africa through the Atlantic slave trade, soul food is closely associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States. [40] Soul food uses cooking techniques and ingredients from West African, Central African, Western European, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas. [41]

The concept evolved from describing the food of slaves in the South, to being taken up as a source of pride in the African American community across the country. [42] [43]

Soul food historian Adrian Miller said the difference between soul food and Southern food is that soul food is intensely seasoned and uses a variety of meats to add flavor to food and adds a variety of spicy and savory sauces. These spicy and savory sauces add robust flavor. This method of preparation was influenced by West African cuisine where West Africans create sauces to add flavor and spice to their food. Black Americans also add sugar to make cornbread, while "white southerners say when you put sugar in corn bread, it becomes cake". [44]

See also

References

  1. ↑ R. Kenji Tierney, and Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, "Anthropology of food" in The Oxford Handbook of Food History ed. by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, (Oxford University Press, 2012) pp.117–134.
  2. ↑ Christine A. Hastorf, The social archaeology of food: Thinking about eating from prehistory to the present (Cambridge University Press, 2017) online.
  3. ↑ Maurice Aymard, " Toward the history of nutrition: some methodological remarks" in Robert Forster, and Orest Ranum, eds. Food and Drink in History: Selections from the Annales, économies, sociétiés, civilizations (Johns Hopkins UP, 1979) pp.1–16.
  4. ↑ Jeffrey M. Pilcher. "Introduction" in The Oxford Handbook of Food History pp. xvii to xxviii; and Sydney Watts, "Food and the Annales School" pp. 3–22; online
  5. ↑ Raymond Sokolov, "Many Hands Stirring Many Pots", a review of The Cambridge World History of Food, Natural History 109:11:86-87 (November 2000)
  6. ↑ Enrique C. Ochoa, "Political Histories of Food" in The Oxford Handbook of food history (2012) pp.23–40; https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199729937.013.0002
  7. ↑ Jeffrey Pilcher, Food in World History (2005) pp.1–7.
  8. ↑ Verena Raschke, and Bobby Cheema, "Colonisation, the New World Order, and the eradication of traditional food habits in East Africa: historical perspective on the nutrition transition." Public health nutrition 11.7 (2008): 662–674.
  9. ↑ George Ritzer, "An introduction to McDonaldization." McDonaldization: The Reader (2002): 4–25.
  10. ↑ Ken Albala, Three World Cuisines: Italian, Mexican, Chinese (Bloomsbury, 2012).
  11. ↑ Edward D. Melillo, "The first green revolution: debt peonage and the making of the nitrogen fertilizer trade, 1840–1930." American Historical Review 117#4 (2012): 1028–1060. online
  12. ↑ Tony E. Wohlers, "The role of risk perception and political culture: a comparative study of regulating genetically modified food." Risk and cognition (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2015) pp.21–59.
  13. ↑ Christopher Dyer, "A simple food with many meanings: bread in late medieval England," Journal of Medieval History (2023) 49#5 pp.631–650, DOI:10.1080/03044181.2023.2250947
  14. ↑ Ben Jervis, et al. "Cuisine and conquest: interdisciplinary perspectives on food, continuity and change in 11th-century England and beyond." in The Archaeology of the 11th Century (Routledge, 2017) pp. 244-262.
  15. ↑ Colin Spencer, British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History 2007).
  16. ↑ Panikos Panayi, Spicing up Britain: The multicultural history of British food (Reaktion books, 2008).
  17. ↑ Ravi Arvind Palat, "Empire, food and the diaspora: Indian restaurants in Britain." South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 38.2 (2015): 171-186.
  18. ↑ Dorothy Duncan, Canadians at table: food, fellowship, and folklore: a culinary history of Canada (Dundurn, 2006).
  19. ↑ Franca Iacovetta, et al. Edible Histories, Cultural Politics: Towards a Canadian Food History (2012) online
  20. ↑ See also relevant articles in The Canadian Encyclopedia (2015) pp. 36-45. online
  21. ↑ Duncan, pp. 13-20,
  22. ↑ Annie Turner, “Delicious resistance, sweet persistence: First Nations culinary arts in Canada” (Thesis,  Carleton University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2006. MR13424) online.
  23. ↑ Franca Iacovetta, et al. Edible histories, cultural politics: Towards a Canadian food history (U of Toronto Press, 2012) pp.1-36.
  24. ↑ P.A.R. Ghadirian, et al. "Food habits of French Canadians in Montreal, Quebec." Journal of the American College of Nutrition 14.1 (1995): 37-45.
  25. ↑ Elaine Elliot, Maritime flavours: Guidebook & cookbook (1994).
  26. ↑ Julian Armstrong, A Taste of Québec (2nd ed, Macmillan, 2001).
  27. ↑ John Varty, "On protein, prairie wheat, and good bread: Rationalizing technologies and the Canadian state, 1912-1935." Canadian Historical Review 85.4 (2004): 721-754.
  28. ↑ Edmund Searles, "Food and the Making of Modern Inuit Identities" Food and Foodways (2002). 10(1–2), 55–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710212485
  29. ↑ OECD, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews: Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Canada (2016); statistics and analysis covering food history 1960 to 2015; 184pp.
  30. ↑ Ann Hui, Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada's Chinese Restaurants (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019).
  31. ↑ Jessica B. Harris (2025). Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine. Clarkson Potter. ISBN   978-0593139776.
  32. ↑ Kedall Park, "Ethnic Foodscapes: Foreign Cuisines in the United States" Food, Culture & Society (2017). 20(3), 365–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2017.1337390
  33. ↑ Paul Freedman, American cuisine: And how it got this way (2019) online
  34. ↑ Megan J. Elias, Food in the United States, 1890–1945 (, 2009)
  35. ↑ Harvey Levenstein, Paradox of plenty, a social history of eating in modern America (1993)
  36. ↑ Richard Pillsbury, No foreign food: The American diet in time and place (2018).
  37. ↑ David Page, Food Americana: The Remarkable People and Incredible Stories behind America's Favorite Dishes (Mango Media, 2021).
  38. ↑ ""Soul Food" a brief history". African American Registry. Archived from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  39. ↑ Moskin, Julia (2018-08-07). "Is It Southern Food, or Soul Food?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-06-08. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  40. ↑ "An Illustrated History of Soul Food". First We Feast. Archived from the original on 11 June 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  41. ↑ McKendrick, P.J. (15 December 2017). "The Diversity of Soul Food - Global Foodways". Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  42. ↑ "Soul Food". Macaulay.cuny.edu. Archived from the original on November 14, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  43. ↑ Hoekstra, Dave; Chaka, Khan; Paul, Natkin (2015). The People's Place Soul Food Restaurants and Reminiscences from the Civil Rights Era to Today. Chicago Review Press. pp. 1958, 1962. ISBN   9781613730621.
  44. ↑ Brownell, Kelly. "Adrian Miller on the History of Soul Food". World Food Policy Center. Duke Sanford. Archived from the original on 13 June 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.

Further reading

Foods and meals

Historiography

Asia

Europe

Great Britain

  • Addyman, Mary et al. eds. Food, Drink, and the Written Word in Britain, 1820–1945 (Taylor & Francis, 2017).
  • Barnett, Margaret. British Food Policy During the First World War (Routledge, 2014).
  • Beveridge, W. H. British Food Control (1928), in World War I
  • Brears, P. Cooking and Dining in Medieval England (2008)
  • Broomfield, Andrea. Food and Cooking in Victorian England: A History (Greenwood )
  • Burnett, John. Plenty and want: a social history of diet in England from 1815 to the present day (2nd ed. 1979). A standard scholarly history.
  • Clapham, John. A Concise Economic History of Britain: From the earliest Times to 1750 (Cambridge UP. 1949) online
  • Collingham, Lizzie. The Hungry Empire: How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World (2018)
  • Malcolmson, Robert, and Stephanos Mastoris. The English pig: A history (A&C Black, 1998)
  • Mennell, Stephen. All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present (2nd ed U of Illinois Press, 1996)
  • Meredith, D. and Oxley, D. "Food and fodder: feeding England, 1700-1900." Past and Present (2014). (2014). 222:163-214.
  • Mizelle, Brett. Pig (Reaktion Books, 2012) relation to humans, emphasis on art and literature. online
  • Oddy, Derek. From Plain Fare to Fusion Food: British Diet from the 1890s to the 1990s (Boydell Press, 2003). [ online]
  • Oddy, D. " Food, drink and nutrition" in F.M.L. Thompson, ed., The Cambridge social history of Britain, 1750–1950. Volume 2. People and their environment (1990). pp. 2:251-278.
  • Otter, Chris. "The British Nutrition Transition and its Histories", History Compass 10#11 (2012): pp. 812–825, [DOI]: 10.1111/hic3.12001
  • Panayi, Panikos. Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food (2010)
  • Spencer, Colin. British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History (2007). online
  • Spencer, Colin. From Microliths to Microwaves The Evolution of British Agriculture, Food and Cooking (2011)
  • Woolgar. C. M. The Culture of Food in England, 1200–1500 (2016). online

United States of America

African American

  • Eisnach, Dwight, and Herbert C. Covey, eds. What the Slaves Ate: Recollections of African American Foods and Foodways from the Slave Narratives (Greenwood, 2009).
  • Garth, Hanna, and Ashanté M. Reese. Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice (U of Minnesota, 2020.)
  • Harris, Jessica B. High on the Hog: A culinary journey from Africa to America. (Bloomsbury, 2010) African American food history..
  • Opie, Frederick Douglass. Hogs and hominy: Soul food from Africa to America (Columbia University Press 2008).
  • Paige, Howard. Aspects of Afro-American cookery (1987)
  • Poe, Tracy N. "The origins of soul food in Black urban identity: Chicago, 1914-1947" American Studies International. 37#1 (1999). pp.4-33.
  • Psyche, A. Williams-Forson. Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power (U of North Carolina Press, 2006)
  • Twitty, Michael W., and Stephen Crotts. The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South (2018)
  • Witt, Doris. Black Hunger: Food and the Politics of U.S. Identity (Oxford, 1999)

Canada

  • Gal, Andrea M. "Grassroots Consumption: Ontario Farm Families’ Consumption Practices, 1900-45." (2016). online thesis
  • Iacovetta, Franca et al. eds. Edible histories, cultural politics: towards a Canadian food history (U of Toronto Press, 2012) online
  • Knight, William. "Preaching 'the Gospel of Clean Fish': Rational Consumption at the Canadian National Exhibition, 1913–1919." Histoire sociale/Social History 54.111 (2021): 311-334. online
  • Mosby, Ian. Food will Win the War: The politics, Culture, and Science of Food on Canada's Home Front (UBC Press, 2014), World War II online
  • Strikwerda, Eric. " 'Canada Needs All Our Food-Power:' Industrial Nutrition in Canada, 1941–1948." Labour 83 (2019): 9-41. online
  • Veeman, Terrence, and Michele Veeman. "Agriculture and Food" The encyclopedia of Canada (2015) online

Journals

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