Forages through New England's most famous foods for the truth behind
the region's culinary myths
Meg Muckenhoupt begins with a simple question: When did Bostonians start
making Boston Baked Beans? Storekeepers in Faneuil Hall and Duck Tour
guides may tell you that the Pilgrims learned a recipe for beans with
maple syrup and bear fat from Native Americans, but in fact, the recipe
for Boston Baked Beans is the result of a conscious effort in the late
nineteenth century to create New England foods. New England foods were
selected and resourcefully reinvented from fanciful stories about what
English colonists cooked prior to the American revolution--while
pointedly ignoring the foods cooked by contemporary New Englanders,
especially the large immigrant populations who were powering industry
and taking over farms around the region.
The Truth about Baked Beans explores New England's culinary myths and
reality through some of the region's most famous foods: baked beans,
brown bread, clams, cod and lobster, maple syrup, pies, and Yankee pot
roast. From 1870 to 1920, the idea of New England food was carefully
constructed in magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks, often through
fictitious and sometimes bizarre origin stories touted as time-honored
American legends. This toothsome volume reveals the effort that went
into the creation of these foods, and lets us begin to reclaim the
culinary heritage of immigrant New England--the French Canadians, Irish,
Italians, Portuguese, Polish, indigenous people, African-Americans, and
other New Englanders whose culinary contributions were erased from this
version of New England food. Complete with historic and contemporary
recipes, The Truth about Baked Beans delves into the surprising history
of this curious cuisine, explaining why and how "New England food"
actually came to be.
