Southern and Country Cookin'

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

After some posts about yummy Indian food, I'm going to switch gears and talk some about Southern and country cooking.  First, let's talk a bit about some of the historical influences on American regional cuisines.

As the map of the dominant ancestry in each US county in 2000 shows, more Americans trace their ancestry to Germany than any other country.  So why are there not more German restaurants in the US?



Well, I argue that German cooking merged with other influences to become Southern and "country cookin'".
I joke that the largest German restaurant chain in the US is "Das Cracker Barrel".  I believe delicious German schnitzel became country fried steak.  And the mysterious word cole slaw makes sense once you know that the word for cabbage in German is Kohl.  From mashed potatoes and gravy to good ol' American apple pie, these foods all have equivalents originating in Germany.

Of course, Americans and their food are a mish-mash of all the tasty food traditions domesticated by Native Americans or imported from Europe, Africa, and Asia.  The cooking technique of frying food for instance is much more common in west African cooking originally than in European.  So, it is not surprising that the South with its strong African American roots loves its fried chicken, fried this and fried that.  On the other hand, more common western European colonial cooking techniques such as roasting still dominate traditional menus for European-introduced holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving.  And for that hot sauce on tables from Taos to Tuscaloosa, we have Native Americans to thank for domesticating and introducing various hot peppers to the American table.  So the next time you put a bit of hot sauce on your fried chicken sandwich, you can relish your lunch knowing the Asian-domesticated chicken fried in an African technique with European-invented mayonnaise and Native American hot sauce is as thoroughly American and global as our country.