Colonial American Food Culture Research Paper

Words: 1315
Pages: 6

Cameron Sloan Essay 2: Food World History.

In my opinion, I think that the Colonial American era was the most influential era in forming our contemporary food culture out of all the units we have learned about in class so far this semester. During Colonial America, the immigrants who came into the thirteen colonies not only brought food and cultural ideas that were British and Dutch inspired from Europe, but they improvised and started their own unique culture too. I think that this was beneficial to the development of American food culture because the ideas that they brought over acted as a base and they were able to expand on them to help America prosper even more. However, deciding which era was the most influential was a tough decision
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These settlers brought a lot of their food and supplies with them from the Netherlands instead of committing to establishing a new culture in the colonies (Cahn, Lecture 8). The ability to trade supplies between New York and the Netherlands allowed settlers to feel right at home as well as expand their culture to the new world. The Dutch diet consisted of traditional soups with bread, different types of meats, fish, fruits, cheese, and butter (Cahn, Lecture 8). Upon learning about their culture, I found it interesting how common these foods still are in today’s world. Although there still is regionality in America, you can pretty much find these foods in any single part of the country. Not only are they widely accessible, but they are very popular with consumers to this very day. I think that this is in part because the Dutch’s diets were typically more healthy compared to what the other colonies consumed, allowing them to prosper at a faster rate. On the other hand, colonies in the south such as South Carolina had completely different food cultures compared to the north because of the access to warmer climates constantly throughout the year. Much of South Carolina’s common foods were based on Western African cultures that settlers brought