Food has always been one of the most crucial necessities in the lives of humans and food and cooking are associated with all cultures and communities irrespective of geographical boundaries, races, and ethnicities. The readings illustrate that most of the objects which have been found from the archaeology sites are somehow related to food, such as pots, platters, spoons, and any kind of wares (Ferguson 1992 and Sep.9, Lecture). These discoveries enable archaeologists to predict the kind of food people ate and would provide important insights into the daily lives of these ancient cultures and communities. Therefore, the study of social groups specifically includes the culinary habits, styles, and techniques in addition to the cutlery and cookery items used.
Food culture and tradition enable people to develop insight regarding the other related and preliminary activities of humans including planting, hunting, their customs, or even how the social structures behave. To further elucidate the subject, a dessert can be used to depict the Western-style meal in the United States of America, since, in most cultures, a meal is considered concluded, only after a relishing dessert. The importance, preference, and value of desserts in everyday meals would help me to examine the integration or acculturation of America along with other cultures with regard to the evolution of recipes over time.
This paper aims to analyze the evolution and acculturation of distinct cultures and communities by studying the evolution and integration of recipes of two different cultures.
After reading the recipes from the 19th century, it is very obvious to see that the authors of these cookbooks are aimed at female readers, especially the white middle-class housewives. Speaking of recipes, the initial authors generally addressed women in their books by asserting that âno woman who regards her own health or that of her family should ever allow a dumpling or paste pudding to be boiled in her houseâ (Hale 1841:77) and âIf your husband brings home company when you are unpreparedâ (Child 1833:62).
From the lectures and the readings (Oct. 12, Lecture), we know that women at that time had to take care of pretty much all the housework while the men were working outside, which means that it was their responsibility to keep the dishes delicious and healthy for their family. Almost all women were required to learn culinary art unless their mother had taught her how to cook well, and that was probably why cookbooks were very popular at that time.
Research confirms that the concept of âwork-disciplineâ enabled individuals to create the âself-maintaining individualâ, âaccording to a standard and is the chief way in which a capitalist society maintained stabilityâ and this âwork discipline was achieved through eating habits, personal cleanliness, and reading and speaking habits (Leone & Potter, 1994). Leone and Potter (1994) argue that âone of the ways in which work discipline was created and sustainedâ is âdining etiquetteâ.
In my opinion, sometimes when women had nothing to do at home, cooking and inventing new dishes may be considered as a very interesting entertainment to do and finally became one of their hobbies. Unlike todayâs dessert cookbooks, which are full of colorful and palatable pictures, the ancient cookbooks were like a textbook, full of words that didnât really separate each recipe individually, but the directions were like storytelling or a lecture.
Surprisingly, the contents of those dessert cookbooks have almost the same catalog as todayâs, which included: cake, ice cream, pie, pudding, bread, pastryâŠetc. In addition, most of the authors arranged the order from a very general subject, such as pudding or cake, and then went into very specific one, such as orange pudding, lemon pudding, custard cakeâŠetc. Through this kind of arrangement, it was very easy for the readers to see how a certain type of dessert is different from others under the same genre.
Changing foodways have always been studied by many scholars. Why people are changing their diet? Today, whenever we walk into a dessert store, we discover that besides all the common stuff which had been listed on those cookbooks, there are also many exotic desserts from different countries such as crepes, chocolate mousse from France, tiramisĂč, and panna cotta from Italy, and maybe egg tart or moon cake from China. At the time when these cookbooks were published, the cookbooks primarily included traditional recipes (Sep.23, Lecture) (Wilkie and Farnsworth 2005).
However, until the early 20th century when there will a lot of immigrants moving to American with their customs along with them, a wide variety of desserts started to appear. When the majority of the population were willing to embrace those desserts, it would generate a creolization and even a diffusion model in terms of those desserts (Sep.11, Lecture). The process of acculturation had begun like never before and America had initiated into the process of becoming a melting pot with the integration of so many distinct cultures and communities.
Technology played an important role here, too. As time changed, modern people became busier and busier than before. As a reader, we wonât have that kind of patience or spare time to find a certain type of dessert and certain procedures in those antique dessert textbooks, for instance, cookery shows began to be telecast on television. Modern dessert books would put many delicate pictures of the food, or even some graphs for each procedure. On one hand, it facilitated the whole process of making desserts clearer and more conceivable; on the other hand, the pictures helped arising peopleâs appetite and craving of making it if attracted our attention.
Moreover, with all the cooking tools we have right now, which not only save our time but also allow almost everyone to make a tasty dessert very easily including the microwave ovens which have replaced the traditional ovens of the early years. Oddly enough, those aged recipes didnât specify what kind of tools was needed for a certain dish. I just canât imagine how difficult it would be if I want to make a custard cake at that time as compared to the current modern life. One interesting aspect is that most of the desserts in those books can still be seen in todayâs life. The truth is that if a certain concept is accepted by most of the population, it will last for a long time. This fact tells us that Americans didnât abandon their traditional desserts when they absorbed other cuisines over time (Sep.11, Lecture).
Unfortunately, cooking is not my specialty. Based on the materials and the ways of making it from those recipes, I couldnât tell what those desserts would taste like two hundred years ago. Furthermore, for me as an example, it is a fact that most of the males donât cook in a family. But in general, most of the housewives would make the cuisines which their husbands liked. So the food and the desserts were usually gone along with the maleâs preference for the last two hundred years.
As for myself, I have only lived in America for two years, which means I am not very familiar with all the traditional food or desserts and so I am more used to the recipe, ingredients, and taste of the traditional recipes as compared to those which are found here in the United States. Thus, when I first tried a typical American apple pie, the first thought that came into my mind was that why is there something in the world, which is so sweet.
Personally, I prefer Chinese-style desserts. But, after eating so many Chinese-style desserts and food in America, I have realized that most of the Chinese restaurants here arenât real traditional Chinese cuisines; they were American-style Chinese food. This is an excellent example of how the âacculturationâ process must have been initiated and is a âculture producing and culture receiving processâ (Cusick, 1998). Food and its evolution into distinct styles and tastes is an ideal example of how different cultures âmeltâ into one another to form a unique style and tradition. Local chefs have to alter the taste by using certain seasonings or sauces in order to fit local peopleâs taste or the restaurant wonât have any business.
Luckily, I used to work at a Chinese buffet restaurant as a part-time job, and the owner taught me how to do some desserts such as yogurt, honey cake, and chocolate cookies…etc, but the steps were very simple because the chef already mixed up all the required materials. What I had to do was to shape the semi-finished material and bake it. From my observation, these desserts were neither Chinese nor American style as the recipes showed, but like a combination between the two styles. As a waiter, I could notice that many customers would consider those desserts as American. For me, maybe America has already over-exposed to too many outside cultures, and the so-called âAmerican cuisineâ is just a collection of everything in todayâs life.
It is really interesting to see how certain things changed as time flows, and here we have the dessert recipes. From the differences between the old recipes and modern dessert recipes, we can discover how the thought processes of people have changed both internally and externally. Technology, ideology, cultural exchange, and economic are all crucial factors why people shift their way of life. After all, materials tell us a lot of treasured information, and it doesnât have to be remains or great ruins. Here, we realize even a small dessert recipe can represent the movements culturally, and thatâs the magic in material anthropology.
References
Cusick, James Gregory 1998 Historiography of Acculturation: An Evaluation of Concepts and Their Application in Archaeology.
Leone M. P. and Potter, P. B. (1994). The Recovery of Meaning: Historical Archaeology in the Eastern United States, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.