EP 66 United Tastes of America: A Treasury of Regional Recipes in “How American Eats”

As We Eat continues its exploration of seminal cookbooks with tried and true attempts at some of the recipes from Clemtine Paddleford’s “How America Eats.” This monumental volume (Kim’s revised edition weighs in at 500 recipes and nearly 900 pages!) chronicles Clementine’s journey around the United States to gather stories of real people and the recipes of what they love to eat, making it a unique and fascinating cookbook worth discussing.

Published in 1960, How America Eats draws what is perhaps the first culinary roadmap of its kind, capturing the diverse flavors and traditions of American cuisine from coast to coast, from city to country. The cookbook emerged during a significant moment for food in post-World War II America when prosperity and hunger for new culinary experiences were abundant. Unlike many contemporary cookbooks, "How America Eats" focused on whole ingredients in a proto-farm-to-table manner, reflecting a prevailing attitude about food that primarily featured ingredients largely available within the communities where they were collected.

For her recipe trials, Kim selected dishes reflecting the unique food cultures from her former home state of Ohio. With rich immigrant and settlement stories of people coming from Western and Eastern Europe as the Northwest Territory takes shape and Ohio achieves its statehood and African-American and Black “Great Migration” from the southern United States, Ohio becomes a veritable “melting pot” of food traditions.

It was Clementine's visit with the Dorcas Women’s Guild of the Magyar Evangelical and Reformed Church in Elyria, where she encountered Hungarian immigrants who preserved their culinary traditions while blending them with the new American influences, that inspired Kim to attempt Stuffed Cabbage, Chicken Paprikas, and Nokedli, which was met with certain challenges and some wild success!

We conclude this episode with a vivid discussion about how Clemtine’s efforts with "How America Eats" not only showcased the vast array of American dishes but also celebrated the people and communities eating this food. The cookbook offered a glimpse into the mid-century American culinary landscape, which we conjecture may someday inspire a scholarly interest in mid-century menus.

Sources & Books We Found Helpful for this Episode 

How America Eats by Clemetine Paddleford, first edition

The Great American Cookbook: 500 Time-Tested Recipes; Favorite Foods from Every State by Clementine Paddleford, revised by Kelly Alexander

Recipes You Really Need to Try

Chicken Paprikash with Nokedli - my nokedli looked NOTHING like this!

Transcript

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