America's Melting Pot

America's Melting Pot

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America's Melting Pot

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America's Melting Pot

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America's Melting Pot

Wacky Cake photo coming soon

1930s-1940s

Wacky Cake

A moist chocolate cake made without eggs or dairy, designed to be made economically during times of scarcity. The cake uses vinegar and baking soda for leavening, reflecting Great Depression-era resourcefulness.

Great Depression and wartime American thrift kitchens40 minutes

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Food stories

Before 1776

The First American Table

American culinary history begins with Native nations that knew the land intimately. Corn, beans, squash, wild rice, maple, cranberries, pecans, peppers, tomatoes, and hundreds of regional foods were cultivated, gathered, preserved, traded, and honored long before the republic.

1776-early republic

A Young Republic Learns to Cook for Itself

The new nation had to feed itself in war, in taverns, in farm kitchens, and on working plantations. By 1796, Amelia Simmons's American Cookery gave printed form to a cuisine using American ingredients and American names.

1860s-1890s

The Chuckwagon, America's Working Kitchen on Wheels

The chuckwagon was a rolling kitchen and a center of order on the open range. Beans, sourdough, dried meat, coffee, potatoes, rice, onions, lard, and Dutch-oven desserts kept crews moving through hard country.

1865-1930s

Black Foodways and the Taste of Freedom

Black foodways are central to the American table. Rice knowledge, field peas, greens, oysters, barbecue, red beans, baking, market vending, church suppers, and Juneteenth foods carry stories of survival, skill, enterprise, and celebration.

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