Top Five Foods Born in America

Much of what is eaten in the United States comes from somewhere else: pasta from Italy (and ultimately China), tortillas from Mexico, and hamburgers from Europe. But there are many foods that were invented here- made from fresh local ingredients, often created out of necessity. Here are the top five foods that were born right here on our shores:

1. Hoe Cakes
Hoe Cakes go by many names in the United States: Johnny cakes, cornpone, Shawnee cake, and mush bread. They are an excellent example of food created through need. The first European settlements in North America suffered severe food shortages as they were not used to farming in that climate and soil. The native Americans showed the settlers how to grow and harvest corn, also called maize, and how to grind the dried kernals into a corn meal or course flour. The settlers learned how to make a simple unleavened bread with only corn meal, salt and water. This was mixed into a stiff dough and cooked over an open fire on heated hoes- hence the name. Hoe cakes are still popular in the South and considered a regional cuisine although hoecakes are almost certainly originally from New England.

2. Cranberry Sauce
When you think of Thanksgiving or Christmas, you think of cranberry sauce. It graces most tables in the country at these two holidays. Cranberries, along with blueberries and Concord grapes, are one of the three native fruits that are commercially harvested today. Cranberries grow naturally nowhere else in the world. They were harvested for medicine, food and color dyes by native populations since the 16th century. The berries are full of vitamin C and were often taken on long voyages to ward off scurvy. Cranberries were used for juice and boiled into a sauce soon afterward.

3. Pastrami
Although the original seasoning recipe likely came from Romania, pastrami sandwiches are a completely American invention, and began selling commercially in New York in the late 1800's by kosher butchers and restaurants. Pastrami is a brined and smoked meat, partly dried to preserve the meat without refrigeration. Traditional pastrami sandwiches are served hot on rye bread with mustard or sauerkraut.

4. Shoofly Pie
This traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipe doesn't sound like much until you try it. It is perfect Amish simplicity: crust, molasses and crumbs. The Amish and Mennonites from Germany and Switzerland began to settle the Pennsylvania area in the early 1700's. They brought with them only those non-perishable pantry staples that could make such a long journey. How the pie came to be called "Shoofly Pie" is a mystery although many believe that the pools of molasses that form on the top would attract flies that would need to be shoo'ed away.

5. Boston Baked Beans
Boston Baked Beans is a favorite comfort food that has spread across the country. In colonial times, Boston was a trade point for the production of rum. Sugar cane, produced and cut by slaves in the Caribbean, was shipped to Boston to turn into rum. Molasses is a byproduct of sugar cane and Boston Baked Beans are dried beans cooked slowly in molasses until the beans are tender and sweet. It was a hardy staple food in New England and provided sustenance for rum workers.