Table of Contents

Illustrations Series Foreword Acknowledgements Time Line Introduction Foodstuff Food Preparation: Cooking and Cooks Eating Habits Concepts of Diet and Nutrition Selected Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

This narrative explores the critical aspect that food played in the settlement and adaptation of the early American settlers and illuminates the whole of their experience.

About the Author

Sandra L. Oliver has been a food historian for 30 years, is the author of Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Food in the 19th Century (1995), and is the Publisher/Editor of Food History News, a quarterly newsletter. She is also a food columnist for New England publications.

Reviews

Detailed accounts of food gathered, grown, and prepared in the early days of European settlement in America create an interesting perspective on our country's early history.
*Curriculum Connections*

Food in Colonial and Federal America, by Sandra L. Oliver examines American foodways through 1825 and shows how imported English, Dutch, Spanish, French, and African tastes blended with Native American foods and agricultural practices to form regional cuisines. Oliver looks at specific foods, food preparation (basically variations on fireplace technology), regional eating habits, and colonial concepts of diet and nutrition. A good primer for historical reenactors as well as students of food technology.
*College & Research Libraries News*

Cuisine and history go hand in hand here. Bountiful food led, in part, to the successful beginning and growth of a new nation. As Oliver so deftly shows, America grew up as a fast-food nation. Indeed, by the early 1800s, Americans had a desire, for convenience and speed in food preparation, and an inclination to eat hastily. A beginning chronology takes readers from 1567 with the settlement by the Spanish in Florida, to 1825 when wheat from the West was available, through the Erie Canal, to the East. An extensive introduction follows, explaining the different trials and tribulations of Spanish, English, and Dutch settlers, as well as those of Native Americans of the period….Extensive notes follow each chapter, and the book concludes with a brief glossary and ample bibliography….This offering is perfect for students who need information on this aspect of our history.
*School Library Journal*

This scholarly treatment of food culture as it reflects the daily life and values of early Americans starts with a chronology from 1567- 1825. A New England food historian, who publishes Food History News, traces the evolution of regional American cuisine from homeland and indigenous cultures. Oliver examines food preparation and the influences of health, nutrition, and religious beliefs (Christian, Jewish, and African slave) on menus.
*SciTech Book News*

The success of the early American settlements depended in large part upon food: it's availability and its bounty helped build the early colonies and built regional food habits which blended immigrant foods with new American ingredients. Food in Colonial and Federal America traces these food influences in early American history, reviewing relationships between Native Americans and early settlers which were forged by food, considering how food was handled daily and for special occasions, and surveying immigrant group contributions to food use. An excellent history evolves.
*MBR Bookwatch*