United States: Recipes and Cuisine

Apple cake is popular throughout the United States, especially during the fall when the new apple harvest is coming in. This simple, moist, rich cake really hits the spot.

Here is an easy, quick recipe for basic American breakfast biscuits. Spread with jam or serve topped with a generous portion of sausage gravy. Baking powder biscuits make a great addition to any Sunday morning breakfast.

The earliest colonists in North America learned how to slow cook beans with maple syrup from Native Americans. Molasses was a common sweetener in the United States throughout the 19th century, and Boston was a center of production. One tasty result of this abundance was Boston baked beans. It's not called Beantown for nothing!

Caramel apples are a traditional autumn treat in the United States, especially popular with children around Halloween.

Chicken pot pie is a hearty American wintertime dish that uses produce that is in season during the cold months of fall and winter. Classic recipes have the chicken stew encased entirely in flaky pastry. This simpler version uses a tasty biscuit topping instead.

Chicken-fried steak, or country-fried steak, is an old farm recipe designed for cheaper, tougher cuts of beef, primarily round, Swiss or cube steak. It is particularly popular in Texas, where it originates. But it is found north into the upper Midwest and east into the old South. A popular truckstop menu item, it is most often served with mashed potatoes and a simple vegetable, often green beans.

It's a little unclear where chili originated. The combination of powdered chiles and meat is likely an ancient one, familiar to the Aztecs and the Maya. But in its current form, chili seems to have started somewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexicans generally shun it as American. Most Americans are fine with that and regard it as their own.

The club sandwich is popular around the world in restaurants, hotels and private clubs, where it probably acquired its name. It is speculated that the sandwich--with its layers of chicken, tomatoes and bacon--was originally made at the Saratoga Club House in Saratoga Springs, NY, the same place that invented potato chips. The original version had only two pieces of bread.

This fun cake originated in the Southern United States. Bake one up when you find yourself stuck with some flat leftover soda. A favorite for birthday parties.

Corn dogs are American carnival, fair, and amusement park food. They are one of many "foods-on-a-stick" found at such celebrations and venues. A favorite of children, corn dogs are best served with a good amount of ketchup. The beginnings of the corn dog are hotly disputed, and possible places of origin include New York, Minnesota, Texas and Muscle Beach in California. They seem to have appeared sometime in the 1930s or 40s. Known as pogos in Canada.

This recipe is for Southern cornbread, a drier, crunchier cornbread than its more cake-like Northern counterpart. It is best eaten same day it is baked. Stale leftovers can be used to make cornbread dressing. See the variations to make the Northern version.

Cornbread dressing is the only dressing there is for many Southerners. It's a favorite for Thanksgiving. The recipe below is a basic foundation for many variations. Each cook has his or her favorite version.

Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patricks Day dish for Irish Americans, but not for the Irish themselves. The meal became popular with immigrants from Ireland in the 19th century. The word "corned" comes from the Old English for "grain" or "pellets," and pellets of salt were originally used to cure the beef for this dish. These days corned beef is usually sold brined in vacuum-packed bags with a spice packet for flavoring. A variation of the dish with root vegetables makes up a New England boiled dinner. A Canadian version is served with pease pudding.

This steamed pudding is popular on the American Christmas table. Flame it with rum and serve it with eggnog sauce for an extra treat.

Cranberry sauce is an essential part of any American Thanksgiving meal. Many families serve it for Christmas dinner too. Some people have to have cranberry sauce in the shape of a tin can; others prefer this more naturalistic version. A less sweet cranberry sauce is served with game birds in northern Europe. Don't limit cranberry sauce to the holidays. Cranberries are a "superfruit" with amazing antioxidant qualities. Use as a side dish at summer picnics or as a spread on your favorite sandwich.

Cream-style corn is an old-fashioned midwestern American dish that deserves to be rediscovered. Given a bad name by mushy canned versions, this dish is amazingly simple to make yourself. And the use of fresh corn, not frozen, yields a delicious side dish for summertime meals.

Although descended from European winter restorative beverages, or "noggins," eggnog is an American invention that appeared in the late 1700s. Over the years, this rich and creamy drink, spiked with rum, has become an American Christmas tradition.

Guacamole is popular in Mexico and throughout Central America. The name comes from the Aztec worlds ahuacatl (avocado) and molli (sauce). Guacamole is also common in Tex-Mex and American Southwestern cuisine. In Mexico it is this rich and creamy condiment is often still made with a traditional mortar and pestle called a molcajete. Often called guacamol in other parts of Central America.

Gumbo, one of the most famous of Cajun-Creole dishes, acquired its name from quingombo, a Congolese word for okra. It came about through a fusion of French, African, Native American and Spanish influences in early Louisiana cuisine. There are two main types of gumbo--those thickened with okra and those thickened with filé powder. This one uses okra.

Hangtown fry originated in Placerville, California, during the Gold Rush. The town was known as Hangtown in recognition of the harsh justice often meted out there. The story goes that a prospector struck it rich, walked into a restaurant in town and ordered the best meal that money could buy. At that time, in that place, Hangtown fry was it.

Haupia is a popular Hawaiian dessert, often served on a ti leaf at luaus. It is also used to cover cakes and as a top layer on pies.

Hoppin' John is an old Southern dish, especially popular in South Carolina. No one really knows how it came by its name, but its culinary roots seem to stretch back to Africa. It is traditionally eaten as part of a New Year's Day meal, as black-eyed peas supposedly bring good luck. For maximum luck eat Hoppin' John immediately after midnight along with a side of greens.

Lemonade and its basic theme of lemon juice, sugar and water is a popular drink around the world. It is a summertime favorite in the United States, where ramshackle stands selling glasses of the sweet-tart beverage are a favorite way for children to earn a little spending money.

Macaroni and cheese is an old American favorite dating back almost to the time of the American Revolution. Always a Southern favorite, its popularity really took off after Kraft® introduced a boxed version in the 1930s. Kraft's version became so popular that some people now prefer their packaged to the homemade. We still think homemade is best.

Mashed potatoes are popular on both Irish and American dinner tables, particularly with meals of roast beef or fried chicken. The basic recipe arrived on American shores with Irish immigrants in the 1800s. Mashed potatoes are often served topped with a dollop of butter or a richly flavored pan gravy.

This soup is delicious in its simplicity. Oyster stew is a traditional Christmas Eve dish in some American households, a custom said to have originated with Irish immigrants.

Also known as flapjacks, hotcakes or griddlecakes, pancakes are a traditional breakfast food in the United States. Variations of the pancake, sweet and savory, are found around the world, from the French crèpe to Indian dosas. In England, Canada, Ireland and Australia, pancakes are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)--a day sometimes known as Pancake Day--as a way to use up rich foods like butter, milk and eggs before the fasting of Lent.

Cobbler is a traditional American dessert that uses the freshest fruits of the season. The fruit is baked with a sweetened batter that rises up and around it to form a crispy crust. Peach, apple, berry and cherry cobbler are all popular variations.

Kalua pork, or pua'a kālua, is a traditional Hawaiian lu'au dish. It is ideally made with a whole pig in a pit, or imu, where it roasts slowly all day, acquiring a deep, smoky flavor. This recipe lets you to make kalua pork easily at home without having to dig a hole in your backyard.

Like roast turkey and cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie is an essential part of any American Thanksgiving meal.

So central is turkey to American Thanksgiving holiday that that holiday is often referred to as Turkey Day. The two-step roasting method in this recipe produces a golden brown turkey with moist breast meat. Roasting the turkey breast-side down forces juices into the white meat of the breast that would otherwise dry out. Roast turkey is a also a traditional main course for an English Christmas dinner.

Roasted pumpkin seeds are a Halloween favorite, and making them is a great activity for kids. Turn making them into a family tradition every year at pumpkin-carving time.

When served with baking powder biscuits, this sauce becomes the famous and beloved Southern breakfast dish "biscuits and gravy." It's equally tasty served over mashed potatoes or toast.

The sloppy joe has a foggy history, but it seems to have originated during the Depression as a way to stretch ground beef during hard times. Several sources place its creation in a small cafe in Sioux City, Iowa, where it was called a "loosemeat" sandwich. No one knows if there was an original Joe, but they sure are sloppy!

Smothered pork chops are an old-fashioned Southern favorite. It's a very easy dish to prepare and packed with tons of flavor. The onion gravy goes especially well with rice.

These easy-to-make cookies are a favorite in the United States. It is unclear where the name originated, but the Joy of Cooking suggests that it derives from the German Schneckennudeln, a type of cinnamon-scented sweet roll.

Fried chicken is an American favorite, especially in the South. Pieces of chicken are dredged in seasoned flour and then fried to crispy perfection in a skillet of oil. Often the chicken is soaked first in buttermilk or a brine to make it extra juicy and flavorful. Southern fried chicken is perfect for picnics and celebrations. Fried chicken leftovers are even better cold the next day.

Greens are an old staple food in the American South. They began as an American dish when slaves took the tops of turnips and beets--discarded after harvest--and slow simmered them in a pot, often with a ham hock thrown in for flavor. Gradually collards came to be the favored green, although other greens, including kale and mustard greens, are often used. Greens were also common with poor Southern whites, and they have high quantities of vitamins and minerals.

Spaghetti and meatballs has been a favorite of the Italian-American community since immigrants from southern Italy first arrived on U.S. shores early in the 20th century. Although the dish is no longer made in Puglia and Sicily, its popularity continues in the United States and has spread to the population at large.

Sweet coleslaw is a type of cabbage salad, or slaw, that is popular in the Midwestern section of the United States. This recipe comes directly from Chef Brad's father Dan Harvey in Macedonia, Iowa.

Tuna noodle casserole was in deep vogue during the 1970s in the United States when casseroles in general were all the rage. Tuna casserole was particularly popular since it could be quickly and easily thrown together with canned and dried goods that most people had in their cupboards. This version eliminates the canned soup and substitutes a homemade sauce. The tuna, though, still requires a can opener.

Wild rice is not a true rice, rather a type of grass seed that grows wild in the upper midwestern section of the United States and central Canada. Native Americans would harvest the grains from lakes and streams where the aquatic grass grew. Wild rice pilaf is the perfect accompaniment to duck, goose, and game meats. It is also an ideal addition to a Thanksgiving meal.