U.S. food

I know each State has a flower and a bird - but I am not aware that each has a recipe.

I am aware of the ubiquitous burger and hotdog, and a few dishes and a few styles. This aside, I have no idea.

I'm guessing that every state has its own recipes. If so, I'd like recommendations for a U.S. cookbook covering U.S. cuisine across all or most States. (I'm happy to buy it from the U.S.)

Take a look at this from the Food Timeline FAQs: state foods. Has resources both online & cookbooks. Lists some (but not all) official foods. (Most states have not designated a state food or recipe.) Also has a "A selected list of traditional state foods."

if they do not massachusetts should have these 2 items listed.. along the coast fried clams and statewide cranberry sauce

Massachusetts has a bunch of them.

State fruit----Cranberry
State muffin----Corn muffin
State bean---Baked navy bean
State dessert---Boston cream pie
State cookie---Chocolate chip cookie
State doughnut---Boston cream doughnut

On the other hand, Jell-O is the official snack food of Utah. Blue crabs, not lobster, are the stet food of Maine. Ohio has a bunch of "state meals," including chicken fried steak. The official state meal of Oklahoma is "Fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbecue pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, strawberries, chicken fried steak, pecan pie, and black-eyed peas."

According ot the NY times, an Arizona restaurant "has started a petition drive to lobby the Legislature to officially adopt the chimichanga [as the state food], as lawmakers have done for the bolo tie (official neckwear), the saguaro blossom (official flower) and the Colt revolver (official firearm)."

Sheila Hibbens's The National Cookbook in the 1930s was the first such cookbook that I know of. The Time-Life volume on American food from the 1970s wasn't bad, but wasn't thorough. I've got an American Heritage cookbook from the 1970s that to tell you the truth I have hardly ever opened. Might be OK.

Neither was arranged by state, though. That wouldn't make any sense. It would be like a French cookbook arranged by departments. Culinary regions don't often align with state boundaries. You'll find low county cooking in coastal Georgia, South Carolina, and southern North Carolina, but not in the mountainous areas of any of those states, for example.

I really can't think of any recent cookbook that tries to cover all of US cooking but only US cooking. It would be hard to do. The recipes for moose and cutthroat trout that you'd have to have for Alaska would be no good for cooks in New Orleans, South Carolina, Florida, or New Mexico, and conversely Alaskan cooks might have trouble finding file powder, benne seeds, key limes, or panocha flour.

"State foods" (or muffins, desserts, etc.) are generally designated through a political process. Sometimes it's cute--Mrs. Smith's 5th grade class writes to their legislators recommending the meadow muffin for the state something-or-other, and the legislators obligingly set the wheels of law-making into motion. Sometimes it's a lobbyists' game--the state parsnip growers decide to push for designation of their product as the Official State Root Vegetable and the legislature goes ahead with it. It's not always a true reflection of local cuisine.

I used to buy a community cookbook (spiral-bound, fundraiser for schools, churches or hospitals) from somewhere in each state as we travelled and have enjoyed trying recipes as cooked by the locals for ingredients that get transported up here to Minnesota.

I own volume 1 and 2 of The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook which features a few recipes from each state, and is organized by state. Excellent recipes, mostly for breakfasts and a few for other meals. Maybe something like that would be of interest to you? http://www.amazon.com/American-Country-Breakfast-Cookbook-Vol/dp/1558530649

But Vinny is right about regional cooking, even within a state. A recent cookbook one of my friends co-authored emphasizes that - Minnesota Lunch: From Pasties to Banh Mi
http://mnsandwiches.wordpress.com/about/

Hey, at least my state has a stye of cuisine named after it--California Cuisine. I can think of only one other cuisine that has a state name and that's Tex-Mex.

New Mexico definitely has its own cuisine. Reflected in the Official State Question: Red or green?

But as I said, in general a state will be just part of one or two or three regions. I'm in the region of Chesapeake Bay cuisine, but so are Washington, DC and parts of Virginia. And not all of Maryland is in that region. After New Mexico adopted its Official State Question, a columnist here asked for suggestions for a Maryland equivalent. The winner was "Are you saving the claws for soup?" It never gained Official status, perhaps because legislators from the mountains would have asked "What the hell does that mean?"

And, conceding that the plural of anecdote is not data, I don't really notice a distinct cuisine in California the way I do in Charleston or New Orleans or Santa Fe.

What I was thinking of is a cuisine where the name of the cuisine includes a state (or Region) and the name itself is well known. Something that woulds work for ,say, a one line description of a restaurant in a guidebook.

House of Edibles, 123 Main St--German (or French, Italian, Scandinavian, Chinese, California, Tex Mex...)

I don't see "New Mexico" being well known enough that most readers (even American readers) would know what kind of foods a restaurant would offer, in the same way they probably would know Tex Mex.

No, you don't notice a distinct cuisine in California. "California cuisine" is not the same thing as "cuisine of California." California cuisine is a distinct style of preparing and serving food, just as French cuisine or Chinese cuisine are. Wikipedia says:

California cuisine is a style of cuisine marked by an interest in fusion cuisine (integrating disparate cooking styles and ingredients) and in the use of freshly prepared local ingredients. The food is typically prepared with strong attention to presentation. The term California cuisine arose as a result of culinary movements in the last decades and should not be confused with the traditional foods of California.

Alice Waters, the proprietor of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, has contributed significantly to the concept of California Cuisine.

I don't think you'll find anything called "California cuisine" outside of California, although I could be wrong. It sounds like what was called New American cooking thirty years ago. I've eaten at Chez Panisse and liked it, but the menu looked like a restaurant menu. Things were better prepared than in 99% of the places I've eaten, but the things themselves (that is, their names on the menu) were not distinct the way "carne adovada" is. It may be that some of the thinking behind "California cuisine" has become universal.

There's at least one restaurant in New York that offers a New Mexican, one in San Francisco, and a couple in the DC area. And of course hundreds in Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, as the Wikipedia article suggests.

If you've never had it, you should try it.

Many thanks for all replies.

Special thanks to Nutrax and Midwesterner for the links.

I very much appreciated your post at No. 4, Vinny.

nrclibn's political process point (5) was an eye-opener.

I won't join the 'debate' since I wouldn't know what I was talking about - but I'm following it with interest.

Interesting. I wonder if every state really does have an official dish? Some states are obvioius, like Maine, but Delaware, I can't imagine what it would be? Crab?

Manch, see my posts #1 and #3. Wikipedia's list of state foods

The state food of Maine (as given by Wikipedia) is NOT lobster, if that is what you are thinking. However, it appears that Maine actually has no official state food. It does have a state herb (wintergreen), fish (landlocked salmon), and berry (wild blueberry).

Delaware has a state beverage (milk) and a state dessert (peach pie).

New Hampshire has one official edible symbol--the state fruit. I'll leave it to you to figure that one out (it's not at all obvious). The state animal is the white tailed deer; I guess that counts as edible.

Lol....Pumpkin is the state fruit. I never would have guessed that in a million years because I never knew they were a fruit. I think MacIntosh Apples would be a better choice.

I think MacIntosh Apples would be a better choice.

It's Apple Macintoshes and I think that would be a terrible choice. You could, however, choose McIntosh apples.

Of course, there are those who shun PCs and swear by Apple Macs.

If Delaware were to name a state food, it ought to be scrapple. You can find scrapple on menus from Southern New Jersey to Baltimore, but a lot of it seems to be made in Delaware and even small markets will have a choice of three or four or five brands. The only other state that might consider scrapple a state food would be Pennsylvania, and I don't think it's known in western PA.

I own volume 1 and 2 of The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook which features a few recipes from each state, and is organized by state. Excellent recipes, mostly for breakfasts and a few for other meals

I got Vol. 1 of that set, and after trying some of the recipes, I concluded that the collected recipes were often redundant, usually or never untested by the editors, often overly rich, too reliant on convenience foods, eg, condensed soups; and overall, unreliable. Granted, there may be a gem or two hidden in that morass of excess.
I never got to Vol. 2.

Anonimo - I have the 1995 edition, which was updated a bit 8 years after the original. Like a community cookbook, these recipes were not tested by the editors, but rather "as submitted" by the various B&B's. Editors also make it clear that the recipes range from "everyday family" cooking to ambitiously experimental. I'd be interested to hear what you tried -- I've had good results for the baked goods (muffins, cookies, coffeecakes) and a couple of breakfast casseroles I tried.

MW; there are no doubt worthwhile recipes in the B&B Cookbook. The trick is to figure out which they are. I do use it to scan over the various ways of making a dish, but usually come back to a more reliable source book.

There just is no central consistent approach to cooking in the American Country Inn & B&B Cookbook. It makes for interesting reading, but it just doesn't seem very reliable to me.
I have the 1987 edition, but it is in nearly intact condition; no stains or smudges, which is evidence it hasn't been used much in our kitchens. I'd have to go through the whole book to find recipes I've tried.

I just opened it up and went to the New Mexico section, which is one of the more appealing parts, and here, on P. 254 is a weird recipe for cinnamon rolls from the Sunset House B&B. All the ingredient quantities are listed, except for the flour. The instructions say to add enough to make a stiff dough. (!?!)

A bit further along it tells you to "flatten the dough". To what dimensions, at least approximately? Then to sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. In my experience, that will not stick unless some sort of butter or egg wash is first applied. "Make into cinnamon rolls". WTF! That presupposes you have some experience already with making them. It's all so vague. I do have a lot of baking experience, both at home and professionally, and other than the list of ingredients, this recipe is essentially irrelevant to me. By the way, "makes 4 dozen", but that depends on how large you cut the rolls.

I'm now looking at the part from the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in , and nearly every other recipe has cheese or sour cream in it. One recipe, for Chile Verde, actually has neither. But it does use canned California green chiles, a scandal in New Mexico, land of Red and Green Chiles!

Of course it's not fair of me to single out this one chapter and two B&Bs, but I think this slapdash approach or variable consistency is typical throughout the book. So I read it for background and entertainment more than for useful, reliable recipes.

Comments noted with thanks, Anonimo.

Thanks Anonimo - I agree -- some 25-year-old cookbooks are better than others. The quirks you find so annoying that you won't try the recipes are the ones that I find charming and make me willing to attempt them, supplementing as-needed with other info (from a reliable book like Joy of Cooking or Better Homes & Gardens cookbook). Same reason I like community fund-raiser cookbooks. Looks like the New Mexico chapter recipes weren't tried by me yet, but a few are going on my list. The cinnamon roll recipe reads like it was jotted down while being handed-on by a grandmother as you observed her making them, and the technique of using a hot wet towel to steam for 20 minutes after baking is one I'd like to try to keep rolls tender rather than crusty. Anything with cheese, cream cheese or sour cream is worth a second-look, although I'm likely to substitute low/no fat versions. And since I'm in MN, canned California green chiles are easy & available year-round.

"Enough flour to make a stiff dough" is fine with me, especially in a recipe from the high desert.

I used to live in Riyadh, and flour measurements whether by volume or weight needed a lot of adjusting if they had been conceived of with repect to flour that had some moisture to it.

I used to live in Riyadh, and flour measurements whether by volume or weight needed a lot of adjusting if they had been conceived of with repect to flour that had some moisture to it.

This has never crossed my mind - but it's a hell of a good point.

As a baker, I'm aware that amounts of flour will vary from flour to flour. But the recipe contributor should have given a ballpark amount for the cinnamon rolls.

"Enough flour to make a stiff dough" is fine with me, especially in a recipe from the high desert.

With the caveat that I'd like a ballpark estimate, so I know if I even have enough flour on hand. I prefer recipes that say things like "5-6 cups of flour...add 5 cups and continue adding flour until you have a stuff dough."

This is actually worthy of its own thread. The older the cookbook, the less the instructions, on the assumption that the cook already knows the basics. For instance, my grandmother's famous cake recipe, as given to me, did not mention minor details like separate the eggs and beat the whites until stiff.

But how valid is that assumption today? I've read that modern cookbooks have to give more details because younger cooks have never learned basic skills.

Nutrax et al: please read my sigline.