More Food History

Looking at "American" food history--which can really only be defined as food cooked & eaten in America--a few things have struck me which might make America's food story a bit unique.  I say "might" because I can't say for sure since I haven't finished reading about our food history nor have I read about anyone else's, so these are TRULY just some thoughts I have about the things that might be unique to our food history:

*  Bounty.  One thing about America's first settlers--there was no shortage of food available if they could catch it.  Early American diets (as well as today's, probably) were incredibly meat-centric because there seemed to be no end of fresh birds, fish, and game available.  Back in Europe, the poor rarely ate meat as it was expensive or unobtainable.  Even the poorest of early settlers in America could eat meat if they could catch it, which it appears they did.  In the 1800s, diets were so lopsided toward meat & away from vegetables that Harvey Levenstein calls constipation the "national curse."

*  Sweets.  Everything I've read talks about how much Americans throughout history have liked sweets & sweetened things.  Not being much of a sweets fan, this one is out of my realm, so I thought I'd throw this one out for discussion.  Thoughts?

*  Protestantism.  Believe it or not, the sort of self-denial puritanism that pervades America's past may have had a huge impact on our food choices.  Whether believing that spicy food led to immoral behavior--or at least a lot of children--or  the Yankee ideal of plain living & high thinking that led to a reception featuring  bouillon, tea, and candy being praised for it's "simplicity" rather than its resemblance to hospital fare for one who has just had at least one vital organ removed.  William Henry Harrison's supporters actually campaigned that he lived on "raw beef and salt" and that it made him a better candidate than President Martin Van Buren who had a French chef in the White House (which may have worked as Harrison did win the election but died 32 days into his term--which doesn't speak well of that raw beef diet).  It seems that really awful food has quite often been a virtue in this country--which might explain McDonalds....

*  A very savvy food marketing industry in a young country.  We had food marketing & lots of methods of distributing information WAY before there were any limits to what sorts of claims advertisers could make, or any limits on how they could say them.  Betty Crocker informed her radio audience that Gold Medal flour made her food better, since Betty & Gold Medal Flour were owned by the same company.  Food magazine articles extolled whatever virtues their advertisers told them their products had.  Good Housekeeping even has ARTICLES--not ads--calling Jell-O an excellent and inexpensive source of nutrients.  "Experts" such as doctors, home economists or food magazine editors were hired to promote even the most revolting foods.  Remember the cookbook I found last summer which seemed to be written by a woman completely obsessed with Crisco?  Proctor & Gamble (who had introduced Crisco in 1911) hired Sarah Field Splint, editor of the food department of McCall's Magazine at the time and formerly Chief of Division of Food Conservation, U. S. Food Administration (later the FDA I believe), to write this book as well as several pamphlets, encouraging people to use Crisco in place of butter--even in sandwiches, where I'm assuming that weird white goo and its total lack of flavor might have been noticed.  I don't suppose professional pride existed if one can call oneself a "food expert" and still hawk something as tasteless as Crisco. 

* Prohibition.  I've discussed this one earlier as far as essentially killing off fine dining in America, but it seems to have given a huge boost to our consumption of ice cream, soda, and sweet cocktails (to cover up the nasty taste of illegal alcohol).  I guess if you take away one pleasure, people are going to find another.  Hm........makes me wonder what ELSE increased during Prohibition?  Birthrates?  Infidelity?  Gambling?  All of the above?????