PrintWhat would be considered "American Peasant Food"?
I'm thinking maybe old traditional BBQ because it started out as poor peoples food, or how about the ole' Hotdog and baked bean casserole? What do you think would be classified as American peasant food?
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23 Comments:
I guess I'd go with stuff like fried chicken, potato salad, biscuits and gravy, banana pudding, salted watermelon, black-eyed peas and cornbread. Basically the stuff they served on my grandma's farm down south. And awesome food it was, too.
chisai at 11:06AM on 12/10/07
Ramen noodles?
I agree with Chisai, I think the best examples of American peasant food (vs. still heavily immigrant food: But hey, what about the Italian-American meatball?) will be traditional Southern cooking.
You might also look at pioneer cooking, but that has probably fallen more out of favor.
My doubt about BBQ is that it is so meat-heavy. I don't usually consider large hunks of pork or beef to be poor peoples food. More like chicken and dumplings, fried gizzards, oxtail stew, liver and onions.
you can look to cajun (not the fancy creole stuff) food too: po' boys, turtle and gator meat, etc.
renzata at 11:42AM on 12/10/07
Two of my favorites: chitlins and ox tails. Those are about as delicious and peasant-foody as it gets.
And don't forget greens! Mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens, kale...YUM.
sheeats at 12:06PM on 12/10/07
Grits!
Library Lady at 12:06PM on 12/10/07
Corn
NSW at 12:14PM on 12/10/07
Oh, yes! How could I forget grits?!? Thanks, Library Lady. :)
sheeats at 12:17PM on 12/10/07
Also, please see this page, and then let us never speak of hot dog and baked bean casserole again.
sheeats at 12:20PM on 12/10/07
ham and beans, with cornbread
biscuits and gravy
lemons at 12:34PM on 12/10/07
If by peasant you mean the poor. Today that would be fast food.
Colorado Jim at 12:54PM on 12/10/07
I'd say most traditional "American" dishes have "peasant" origins. They tend to be about using all edible parts of the food, using long-life foodstuffs (cured meats, apples, potatoes, etc.), and stretching the things that come dear (meat, etc.) with lots of stuff from a kitchen garden. Of course, most originated in other countries -- e.g., what cuisine doesn't include braised dishes? But we've definitely evolved our own American slant.
I do tend to think of Southern foods, first (esp. BBQ/soul food). But there are actually many from all regions.
LoCo at 12:55PM on 12/10/07
thats the fun part of being American, the peasant food I remember the best growing up was "non American" saltcod and especially caldo verde are the two that spring to mind.
huney_bumper at 1:07PM on 12/10/07
I'm thinking beef stew, meat loaf, pot roast, baked beans. Peasant food that everyone loves? Definitely barbecue!
sugarstack at 1:18PM on 12/10/07
In today's world, in the USA, taking into consideration the social class overtones of "peasant" I'd have to agree with Colorado Jim and say fast food and "snack foods".
Plus anything made in a crock-pot.
Karen Resta at 1:38PM on 12/10/07
I am immediately inclined to say pot roast, stew, pasta, pea soup, turnips. I'm thinking of economical foods (like cheaper cuts of meats) that are home cooked. I think culture is also a factor. For example, my Asian friends would probably say rice and vegetables while my latin friends may say tortillas and beans.
Although in reality, I think the poorest Americans tend to eat the most cheap fast food ie taco bell and white castle.
KtMc24 at 4:40PM on 12/10/07
I'd have to respectfully disagree with the fast food/snack food remarks. Peasant food is stretching a buck or the harvest in all cultures. It doesn't mean quick and unhealthy. Canned fruit and vegetables from the garden or market, homemade breads and sweets, soups and stews and braised meats - the less expensive cuts. I grew up on many of those foods and it was delicious. Today there are freezers, larger refrigerators, fewer gardens, frozen and canned food readily available and affordable. I'm not sure peasant food today would be as tasty with all of our modern conveniences.
PerkyMac at 6:14PM on 12/10/07
It's an interesting point that fast food could be considered today's peasant food, and yet it is not at all about stretching a buck (not really). It seems cheap and it is satisfying, but when you consider the cost to the planet and to our bodies, it's probably one of the most expensive cuisines imaginable. And yet it is available to everyone, absolutely everyone is our country. There isn't even one Border's Bookstore in Montana, but there are hundreds of McDonald's! If the place delivered, I don't think there would be a man, woman or child in America who had not had at least a taste of Mickey D. So easy availability has to count for something. And the cuisine certainly does use scraps and offal and the tail-end of just about everything. So this might be a symptom of our great national eating disorder: one terrible, terrible type of food is tasty and nationally available, and it becomes our Everyman Cuisine. Ask anyone on the rest of the planet what American peasant food is, and they'll tell you soon enough.
annien at 7:02PM on 12/10/07
Cajun?
There is something romantic about it and the way the genre came to be. Beanie Weenies don't even come close.
kmnola at 7:23PM on 12/10/07
Interesting how it's become 2 inquiries, this bucolic notion of the American peasant who lives close to the land (if not on a farm, then by eating seasonally and frugally) and what poor people eat now.
Stretching a buck with long stewed oxtails and beans is certainly what I'd think of as "peasant" food, but for poor people now, that time is rarely available, and those oxtails are rising in price. In that vein, I stick with my first answer, ramen noodles, and add fast food, of course, and things made with ground hamburger or chicken legs and potatoes or corn.
If this starts to sound unfair, let it be known that I am poor and live in a poor neighborhood. Luckily, we have a decently stocked grocery store. It's interesting to compare the average loaded shopping cart there with one in my mom's neighborhood, but that's getting quite far off the topic.
renzata at 8:05PM on 12/10/07
Peasant means "of the land".
Peasant also implies that one is dependent on a land-lord for survival. It can mean a share-cropper also.
Regardless of the level of land ownership a peasant's food is what is right in front of them - the recipes develop based on what one can get, and sometimes it is not much, in the peasant's world, for peasants do not have many choices.
So there are several ways one can take this in terms of the United States. One can look at the foods of sharecroppers or those who are "of the land" in our history. Subsistence farmers. Slaves. All of these brought some of their own traditions to America when they came here. There are some recipes that could be said to be American peasant food within that grouping, where the recipes have been altered from the original ones that existed before the move to America.
Today "of the land" in terms of the US, across the land, as part of the landscape where modern-day peasants live (those dependent upon others without the ability to access foods of greater variety than is right in front of them either due to lack of money and/or lack of land) there is fast food. And there is snack food. I'd actually rather go for "snack foods" as my ultimate naming of American peasant food for it is what I see the group that could be transposed into the idea of peasants (for peasants do not really exist here today for the most part in large groups as they may have in the past in terms of categorization to my mind) eating the most. Snack snack snack. Snackfoods are here there and everywhere. They are "of the land" and my goodness do they get gobbled upon and on and on. They are in the hands of people from age one to age one hundred. They are relied upon as a standard of nourishment (or what passes for it and certainly the level of nourishment can be seen by watching the size and shape of people who walk into Wal-Mart at any given hour) for the people of our land.
For past history, based on the reports of the overwhelming amount of lobsters teeming in the waters of New England when settlers first arrived here I'd have to say lobster would have been considered an American peasant food. It was cheap and "of the land".
Karen Resta at 8:18PM on 12/10/07
Potatoes
paris221966 at 11:10PM on 12/10/07
My peasant may differ from yours. My italian family ate pasta with anything and everything. They also ate a lot of greens. Garlic is on everything. Things we grew; tomatoes and anything. Simple puddings, cakes, various and sundry biscotti with whatever. Whatever beans we had thats what went into the food. Whatever was at hand was the food of the day. Pizza with anything and everything on it.
Sometimes I used to actually say to my grandmother, "We can afford meat why do we have to eat this peasant stuff?" I usually got smacked.
JerzeeTomato at 1:50AM on 12/11/07
Stew or soup. Historically, these items were made to "stretch" the protein in the household to accommodate big families. Vegetables were added, more for bulk than extra nutrition.
therealchiffonade at 6:29AM on 12/11/07
I'd say organ meats and greens define a large part of it. Whatever is leftover after the landowners get their share, or whatever is left over after more "desirable" foods go to market. The market sells the chicken, the peasant eats the gizzards. The market sells the turnips, the peasant eats the turnip greens.
zapatista at 2:48PM on 12/11/07