New England Cuisine

The influence of New England cuisine is significant due to its connection with the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620.  It is considered by many to be the foundation of American regional cuisine.  The terrain the Pilgrims found upon landing was much different than their home for which they named New England after.  The coastline was windswept, rocky, and irregular.  Inland the Pilgrims found dense forests, large rivers and streams, icy lakes, mountains, and fertile valleys.  The weather proved to be a radical departure from what they were used to in England—severe, long, and cold winters with a much shorter spring to fall growing season.
Upon landing in the New World, it became immediately apparent to the colonists that survival would need to be their first concern.  Without help from the local Native Americans survival would not have been possible.  The Native Americans taught the colonists methods to cultivate beans, squash, and corn as well as how to forage the forests for fruits, roots, and greens.  They also introduced the colonists to the diverse plant and animal life which thrived in the region.  Without these new methods learned from the Native Americans and techniques such as drying, curing, and smoking brought from the Old World to preserve their food through the winter, the Colonists would never have survived their first winter in the New World.
Most of the original colonists were Puritans, known for their very strict interpretation of the bible.  Their religious austerity made finding sustenance for the winter even more challenging due to their habits of collecting and using the bare minimum of foods to sustain themselves and their families.  This austerity eventually created a simple but hearty cuisine we know today as New England cuisine.  As time went on, the colonists, even the strict Puritans, could not help but partake in the bountiful variety of meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, and fruits that existed in the region.
Many of the original dishes were cooked in a single pot or baked all together in a casserole for practical reasons. Examples of these single pot and casserole dishes adapted from the Native Americans are succotash, chowder, stew, hash, and baked beans.  Dished such as roasted fish and meat were eaten plain with few accompaniments.  Traditional English desserts such as cobbler, pie, pudding, and custard were still served, but local ingredients like molasses and maple syrup were substituted for sugar.
The holiday tradition of Thanksgiving has its roots in the New England region. In 1621 Massachusetts Governor William Bedford first proclaimed this feast as a day of observance. Two schools of thought exist with regard to the origin of Thanksgiving.  The first explanation is that it was a shared feast between colonists and the Native Americans to give thanks for their assistance in helping the colonists survive their first winter in the New World.  The second explanation was as a celebration of a military victory over those same Native Americans.  Although for many decades the turkey has been the mainstay of the Thanksgiving feast, it is unknown whether or not turkey was actually served during the first Thanksgiving celebration in Massachusetts.  Pumpkin pie and cranberries, two products indigenous to the New England region are also traditional accompaniments to the Thanksgiving meal.  Thanksgiving was declared a national American holiday by Abraham Lincoln in the 1860’s, and is now celebrated annually on the third Thursday of November.
A milestone in American history was the Boston Tea Party, which occurred in 1773.  The story began in 1767 when the English established the Townshend Act placing a three pence tax per pound of tea purchased in the American colonies.  This tax, considered heavy as well as an infringement on their rights, greatly angered the colonists.  In 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which legalized the British right to impose such taxes on the colonists. The Tea Act actually provided a monopoly to the financially unstable British East India Tea Company to exclusively sell tea to the colonies at prices so low they undercut the tea smugglers.  This infuriated the colonists and on the night of December 16, 1773, Paul Revere, Sam Adams, and their compatriots dressed like Native Americans, boarded three English ships in Boston Harbor, and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water.  This defiant act was a one of the preemptive moves signaling the start of the Revolutionary War.
Throughout the Revolutionary War, Americans continued their boycott of tea, perhaps one reason why today Americans prefer coffee instead of tea.  After the Revolutionary War, American companies established their own relationships with Chinese tea producers.  Two such entrepreneurs were George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman, who imported tea from China to America, eliminating the middlemen, and offering tea to their customers at a greatly reduced price.  Their business grew to be the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, later becoming one of America’s first supermarkets, the A&P, which is still in business today.
In sharp contrast to the American supermarket is the story of the country store, which also has its birth in New England.  The country store carries something for everyone, from gas to newspapers, flour to home-made jams and preserves, as well as a postal service.  Penny candy, a favorite among children, is still available in the remaining country stores; however, the candy is rarely still sold for a penny apiece as the name used to indicate.  Common crackers, a New England tradition, are still made with the original recipe and in the original machines from 1828. They are commonly found sold in bags stored in large wooden barrels.  The main commodity associated with country stores was friendliness.  The country store tradition in New England is today being quickly replaced by 24-hour convenience markets.
The Revolutionary War began in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1775.  The American Independence Day holiday commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This holiday, which was observed on July 4^th, in both small towns and large cities, typically concluded with a feast shared by the entire community, smaller groups, or simply a family gathering.  The feast included informal, homegrown dishes that were straightforward and in season.  In New England, coastal communities traditionally serve salmon with a dill mayonnaise accompanied by corn on the cob, new potatoes, and fresh spring green peas.  Inland, lamb was frequently served; however, since the end of World War II in 1945, grilled chicken, steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs are often substituted.  Regardless of whether the celebration is by the sea or inland, dessert is usually a summer specialty such as strawberry shortcake, blueberry pie, or slices of watermelon.
In the 1800’s when immigrants, particularly those from Ireland, Italy, and Portugal, began to arrive in mass to New England, the culinary customs they brought with them from their homelands were incorporated into the local cuisine and cooking style.  Single pot dishes such as meat and seafood stews commonly eaten in Europe were adapted to the local ingredients.  Braised, pickled beef, a mainstay of Britain and Ireland, became the popular dish called New England Boiled Dinner. Irish immigrants became so enamoured with potatoes from America, they took them back to Ireland where they are still so popular today, many believe that they originated in Ireland, even though that is not the case.
Today, the culinary traditions of New England grow richer and richer as more cultures are integrated adding to the diversity of the cuisine.  New influences from the Middle East, the Far East, and Latin America are current influences.  However, the roots of the region run very deep, and traditions such as Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July remain important holidays that the remainder of America celebrates.

New England Indigenous Ingredients

Apples: The first American apple orchard was planted in 1625 by the Reverend William Blaxton.  Originally the only apples growing in the New England region were crab apples.  When the Pilgrims planted the apple seeds they had brought with them from Europe, they discovered the apple varieties were different than what they remembered.  Unknown to the Pilgrims, cross-pollination was the cause of the change in the fruit.  Over time, experiments with the crossbreeding of apples created thousands of different varieties.  Some of the first varieties of apples that were produced in New England region include Lady in 1628, Roxbury Russet in 1630, Pomme Grise in 1650, Baldwin in 1740, Porter in 1800, Mother in 1844, and Wright in 1875.
Barbeque: Unlike the barbeque of the Deep South, Tex-Mex, and the Central Plains, a barbeque to a New Englander means to grill quickly over a fire made from charcoal briquettes, lump charcoal, hardwood, or simply cooked on a gas or propane grill.  In the New England region, the term barbeque and grill are used interchangeably.
Blueberries: A small, dark blue fruit common to the New England region. Maine has a reputation for producing the finest quality blueberries in America.  They are eaten raw, made into jams and jellies as well as used as an ingredient in pies, cobblers, cakes, and breads.
Blueberry Muffin: A quickbread with blueberries  baked in muffin tins.  Blueberry muffins are usually associated with Maine due to their excellent wild blueberries.
Bluefish: A fish common to the coastline of Cape Cod and Nantucket in the summer.  This round fish has a blue-silver skin and dark, oily flesh.  Bluefish is well suited for smoking, broiling, or sautéing, but must be used quickly as its freshness rapidly decreases.
Boston Brown Bread: A colonial bread traditionally served on Saturday evenings with baked beans.  Boston brown bread is made from cornmeal, molasses, and both rye and whole wheat flours and is steamed within a large can or mold.
Chowder: Originally this dish was served on sea voyages and was made with dried cod, hard biscuits, water, and potatoes and cooked in a large, black cauldron kettle.  On land, clams and milk were typically added to the chowder.  Throughout recent history, New England clam chowder is a creamy soup made with clams, onions, and potatoes and usually does not include celery, peppers or other vegetables.  Other well known varieties of clam chowder are Manhattan clam chowder, which has tomatoes and sometimes vegetables added to the broth, and Vermont clam chowder, which is usually even more spartan than the New England style and utilizes just a clear broth with clams, onions, and potatoes.
Cider: A hard alcoholic beverage made from fermented apples.  It was a very common beverage until the nineteenth century when the temperance movement began a campaign against alcohol consumption.  Prior to the nineteenth century cider or beer was consumed instead of the unreliable and sometimes polluted local well-water.
Clambake: A New England tradition adopted from the Native Americans.  Clams, lobsters, and corn were cooked on top of a seaweed bed over a burning fire which was built in a large, stone-lined pit dug in the sand and covered with a tarpaulin cloth.  Today, crabs, mussels, fish, chicken, and sausage as well as potatoes and other vegetables are found at a clambake, but the cooking process remains basically the same.
Clams: New England clams are available in two main varieties: soft and hard-shell.   The soft-shell clam is best cooked either steamed or fried.  Care must be taken because they tend to have more sand than the hard-shell variety.  The long neck-like siphon on the clam contributes to their nicknames—pisser, gaper and squirt. Small hard-shell clams are referred to as littlenecks, medium-size clams as cherrystones, and the large-size clams as quahogs.  These clams are eaten raw, steamed, or used to make New England Clam Chowder.  Other varieties of clams include the razor clam and the surf or bar clam. Breaded, deep-fried clams are a popular dish in New England and are found at many pubs and restaurants.
Cobbler:  A baked, deep-dish fruit pie with a biscuit or piecrust.  Cobbler is typically sprinkled with sugar before serving.
Cod: A fish so important to New England that the region’s largest cape, Cape Cod, was named after it.  The first commercial cod fishing started about 1623 just north of Boston, Massachusetts, on Cape Ann.  Codfish was important for its trade value.  Ships carried salt cod to Africa, picked up slaves and took them to the Caribbean, and to complete the triangle, carried sugar from the Caribbean to New England.  Cod is a bottom feeding fish and is usually between 2 ½ to 10 pounds.
Common Cracker: Round nugget-like crackers.  Originally from Vermont, these crackers are attributed to Charles Cross in 1828, who was said to have made them by hand, distributing them himself from a wagon. Stores that sold cheese would provide these crackers to their customers.  Today, common crackers are still made in Vermont and can be found in most country stores.  They are typically eaten with aged cheddar cheese or crumbled into a bowl of clam chowder.
Concord Grape: A cross between European and native varieties of grapes.  The Concord grape is large and deep purple in color and is known for its high juice content.  Mainstay American products such as Welch’s Grape Juice, grape jelly, and wines produced by Manischewitz and Mogen David all use the Concord grape as the main ingredient.  The most popular use of the Concord grape is in the peanut butter and jelly sandwich usually referred to as a P B&J.
Coral: Roe inside the lobster’s body that when cooked turns from black to orange.  The coral is frequently chopped and used in the stuffing for baked lobster or eaten plain with steamed or boiled lobster.
Cranberries: A tart red berry cultivated in New England since the early 1800’s.  Captain Henry Hall conducted the first experiments for commercial cranberry growing techniques.  He discovered that covering the vines with sand promoted rapid growth.  The island of Nantucket and Cape Cod are known as the home of the cranberry.
Cull: A lobster with only one claw.
Fiddlehead Ferns: The young, edible, coiled fronds of ferns that emerge during springtime.  Fiddlehead ferns are aptly named as they look like violin scrolls. In New England are only available for approximately two weeks, sometime between April and early May.  They are rich green in color and are about 2 inches long and 1½ inches in diameter; their flavor is similar to asparagus.  The ferns are usually served as a side dish or used raw in salads.  They must be washed very carefully before using.
Fig Newtons: A cookie that was the outcome of a machine invented by James Mitchell in 1891.  This invention allowed for a machine to pipe out hollow cookie dough while simultaneously filling it with a fig jam.  The product was a huge success and the company went on to become Nabisco Brands that was located in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts.  The Fig Newton cookie was named after the nearby town of Newton.
Glasswort: A slender, succulent plant that grows between May and October near the sandy beaches and saltwater marshes of New England.  Glasswort stalks can grow up to 10 inches tall and are translucent green in color.  The stalks are crunchy and have a slightly salty flavor making them a unique ingredient for salads.
Graham Bread: A bread first made in Massachusetts by a nineteenth-century health advocate named Sylvester Graham.  The Graham bread was originally made with unsifted whole-wheat flour including the kernel and mixed with nothing but water and yeast.  The product we know today as Graham Crackers is actually named after Sylvester Graham, but bears little resemblance to the original bread.
Johnnycakes: A cornmeal pancake made without a leavening agent, eggs, or butter and typically does not even have a sweetener.  No one is really sure where or how the name originated, but there are many theories.  One version is that the name is a variation on the pronunciation of journey cake or Shawnee cake, while another version has the name being derived from the joniken cake from northern England.
Lobsters: An icon of New England cuisine.  The Maine lobster is larger than its European cousin and possesses a rich, sweet flavor.  In Old English, lobster means spidery creature.  From time to time, the Maine lobster will molt and shed its shell allowing the lobster to increase in weight up to 50% of its original size.  It takes the Maine lobster almost five years to grow to one pound; therefore, large lobsters can sometimes be up to 45-years old.  When the Pilgrims arrived in New England there were reports of lobsters up to 4 feet long and weighing up to 40 pounds.  Contrary to popular belief, larger lobsters are not necessarily tougher than smaller lobsters—it is the cooking time that determines whether a lobster will be tender or tough.  Lobster is referred by different names in the industry depending on its weight: chicken lobster–1 pound; heavy chicken–1-1 ¹/₈ pounds; quarter–1 ¹/₈-1 ¼ pounds; select–1 ¼-1 ¾ pounds; deuce–1 ¾-2 pounds; heavy select–2-2 ¼ pounds; small jumbo–2 ¼-2 ½ pounds; and jumbo–over 2 ½ pounds.
The term “in the rough” is a local term indicating the conditions in which lobster is eaten.  Lobster eaten in-the-rough is usually done outdoors on a table with little more than lobster crackers and napkins.
Maple Sugar: A crystallized form of maple syrup.  If a recipe calls for maple sugar, maple syrup can be substituted, but use half of the amount indicated in the recipe. (see maple syrup)
Maple Syrup: Prior to the introduction to America of the honeybee by the Europeans, the only natural sweetener was maple syrup.  This sugar is actually the sweet sap from a variety of maple trees indigenous only to North America.  Even after the time when molasses and other sugars became available, New Englanders still preferred maple syrup as the sweetener of choice.  The best quality maple syrup is tapped from trees that have developed a lot of leaves on their branches.  New England and Canadian trees are known for their high quality sap and produce the best maple syrup in America.  Today, maple syrup is commonly used as a topping for pancakes and waffles.  Care should be taken when purchasing maple syrup as there are many maple-‘flavored syrups available.  These flavored syrups typically contain 10% or less of actual maple syrup and have little resemblance to pure maple syrup, which is sometimes hard to get and always very expensive.
Molasses: A sap product derived during the processing of sugar cane into sugar.  Molasses was first imported to America from the West Indies.  It is commonly found in two varieties: light and dark.  Light molasses is used as a syrup while the dark or blackstrap molasses is used primarily as an ingredient in recipes.
Mussels: The variety of black mussels found off the coast of New England is the same species as those found in the Mediterranean.  A beard is attached to the mussel, which needs to be removed prior to cooking.  Depending on the diet of the mussel, the flesh can be tan, coral, or pink in color.  Mussels are commonly used in soups, stews, and pasta as well as eaten steamed with a variety of sauces.
Necco Wafers: Created in 1849 by Oliver Chase, the machine used to make the round wafer-like candies was the first American candy machine.  The company, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, went on to become the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) and is still in business today producing in excess of 4 billion Necco wafers each year.
Oysters: In the days of the colonists, oysters thrived along the East Coast of America, but were harvested extensively, depleting many of the oyster beds by the early nineteenth century.  Recently, due to the efforts of environmentalists and the advancement of technology, many of the oyster populations in New England have been repopulated and are again available for consumption.  Oysters are generally named after the water they live in, such as Cape Cod Wellfleets and Cotuits.  Oysters are typically eaten raw or on the half shell in New England.  It is suggested by many that eating raw oysters is a cause of virility.
Paquette: A female lobster with black, fertilized eggs under the tail.  These very small eggs are in a cluster and referred to as berries.  Paquettes have up to 10,000 eggs.
Parker House Roll: A yeast-raised, white flour, soft roll with a cleft in the center.  It is claimed that the baker at the restaurant in Boston’s Parker House Hotel invented this roll in the mid-nineteenth century.
Periwinkles: A small mollusk with a spiral shell usually measuring less than an inch across. A periwinkle attaches itself to piers, pilings, and coastline rocks in either salt or fresh water. Also referred to as winkles or sea snails, they should be boiled in lightly salted water to remove the opening of the shell.  The meat can be easily picked out using a toothpick or skewer.
Popovers: An American variation of English Yorkshire pudding. Popovers are a type of muffin or bread that is made by pouring a batter of eggs, milk, and flour into butter that has been heated in a muffin pan.  They are typically served with beef items.
Pumpkins: A very hardy squash the colonists learned of from the Native Americans.  This squash is one of the foods that helped them survive their first winter in the New World.  Pumpkin is also the main ingredient in pumpkin pie, which is a traditional dessert for the Thanksgiving meal.
Roe: The eggs in a female lobster.
Salt Cod: Used first as a staple food on long ocean voyages.  The cod is preserved by drying and salting. (see cod)
Scallops: The white and sometimes pink muscle of a bi-valve that thrives off the coast and in the bays of New England.  Sea scallops are larger than bay scallops and are best cooked quickly by broiling, grilling, or sautéing.   These large scallops are well suited for making brochettes. Bay scallops are much smaller, very tender, and have a sweet, delicate flavor.  Bay scallops are popular marinated for salads and are many times eaten raw if they are extremely fresh.  Cape Cod and Nantucket Island in Massachusetts are well known for their high quality bay scallops.  Scallops harvested in America typically come already removed from the shell and without the roe—unlike how Europeans are used to seeing them.  Shell-on scallops also referred to as pink scallops are starting to become more available in America allowing for one to enjoy the roe as well as the muscle.
Scrod: A baby cod or a codfish of another variety weighing less than 2 pounds (see cod).  The term, scrod is claimed to have been started by the Parker House restaurant in an attempt to market their cod dish as one with the youngest, freshest cod available.
Sea Urchins: A spiny black crustacean foraged off of the coast of New England.  Sea urchins are not nearly as popular in America as they are in Japan, but their popularity is increasing as more and more people enjoy the sushi trend.  The edible part of the sea urchin is the orange roe inside the spiny shell, which has an unusually strong, nutty flavor.  Wearing gloves while handling sea urchins is advised to protect the hands.  The roe can be removed with a spoon after laterally slicing the sea urchin in half with a knife.
Shad: A member of the herring family.  Female shad are considered to better tasting than their male counterparts; however, all shad are known for their numerous bones.  The fish, which have a rich, oily flesh and delicate flavor, are seasonal and inhabit the rivers of New England and the Mid-Atlantic in the spring, when the fish returns from the ocean to spawn.
Shad Roe: The roe produced by the shad just before spawning.  It is considered a delicacy among the locals and has a unique, nutty flavor.  The roe is prone to burst and needs to be very gently simmered in flavored liquid.  After just a few minutes the roe can be sliced and served over a cooked shad fillet or used as an ingredient in other recipes.
Tea Bags: An American innovation started in 1908 by John Sullivan, who began to offer samples of his teas in little, hand-sown cloth sacks.  The concept caught on and the tea leaves had to be modified to compensate for the use of water that was not at the proper temperature for steeping. This created a product, where quality was sacrificed for the sake of convenience.
Toll House Cookies: A chocolate chip cookie first made by Ruth Wakefield in 1930, who with her husband ran the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.  The cookies became so popular that the Nestlé Company printed her recipe on every bar of semi-sweet chocolate they sold.  Today the Toll House cookie is the official state cookie of Massachusetts.
Tomalley: The liver of the lobster.  It will turn from green to red when cooked.  Many New Englanders consider tomalley a delicacy’ however, care must be taken as the tomalley can collect toxins if the lobster has been in polluted water.
Turkey: A large fowl indigenous to the New World.  Dating back over 40 million years, wild eastern turkeys were first domesticated by the Mexicans and then taken to Europe by the Conquistadors where, in turn, they were taken to other parts of the world.  Today’s domesticated turkeys are much different than the wild turkeys the Pilgrims were familiar with due to their special breeding which produces their exceptionally large breasts.  Benjamin Franklin once suggested that the turkey should be America’s national bird.
Vermont Cheddar Cheese: Made in the English tradition, Vermont cheddar cheese is a common product from the typical New England farm.  Cheese production in New England originated as a means to store milk in a less perishable form as well as a way to earn extra income by selling the cheese in local country stores.  The cheese is usually made in small wheels measuring approximately 18 inches across, protected by wax, a dry cloth, and a dry rind.  Small businesses in Vermont such as the Grafton Village Cheese Company, Shelburne Farms, and Crowley Cheese are recognized leaders in the field of hand-crafted quality cheddar cheeses.

Menus from New England Cuisine

Menu One

Butternut Squash Soup

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Clams Casino

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Roasted Turkey Roll with Giblet Gravy and Cranberry Sauce

Green Bean Casserole

Pearl Onions Mornay

Sweet Potatoes and Horseradish Gratin

Menu Two

Cod Cakes with Tartar Sauce

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Maine Lobster Salad

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New England Boiled Dinner with Horseradish and Nut Sauces

Menu Three

New England Clam Chowder

Mesclun Salad with Cranberries, Apples and Cider Vinaigrette

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Shepherd’s Pie

Glazed Turnips with Green Peppers