Food in the Gilded Age: What Ordinary Americans Ate (Rowman & Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy)

The Gilded Age Is Renowned For A Variety Of Reasons, Including Its Culture Of Conspicuous Consumption Among The Newly Rich. In The Domain Of Food, Conspicuous Consumption Manifested Itself In Appetites For Expensive Dishes And Lavish Dinner Parties. These Received Ample Publicity At The Time, Resulting Later On In Well-developed Historical Depictions Of Upper-class Eating Habits. This Book Delves Into The Eating Habits Of People Of Lesser Means. Concerning The African American Community, The Working Class, The Impoverished, Immigrants, And Others Our Historical Representations Have Been Relatively Superficial. The Author Changes That By Turning To The Late Nineteenth Century's Infant Science Of Nutrition For A Look At Eating And Drinking Through The Lens Of The Earliest Food Consumption Studies Conducted In The United States. These Were Undertaken By Scientists, Mostly Chemists, Who Left Their Laboratories To Observe Food Consumption In Kitchens, Dining Rooms, And Various Institutional Settings. Their Insistence On Careful Measurement Resulted In A Substantial Body Of Detailed Reports On The Eating Habits Of Ordinary People. This Work Sheds New Light On What Most Americans Were Cooking And Eating During The Gilded Age. -- Publisher's Description Nutrition History -- Mountaineers And A Nutrition Transition In Appalachia -- African Americans And Soul Foods -- Rich And Poor And The Seasonality Of Diet -- Immigrants' Diets -- Contrasts. Robert Dirks. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 185-199) And Index. TABLE OF CONTENTSPREFACECHAPTER ONE: NUTRITION HISTORYRELATIONSHIP TO CULINARY HISTORYMEXICAN-AMERICAN DIETS IN THE RIO GRAND VALLEYMETHOD AND TECHNIQUES IN EARLY DIETARIESSTRUCTURE OF A DIETCHAPTER TWO: MOUNTAINEERS AND A NUTRITION TRANSITION IN APPALACHIACROOKED CREEKFRONTIER FOOD HABITSNORTHEAST GEORGIABACKWOODS NUTRITIONMARYVILLEIMPERFECTLY SKILLED MECHANICSSOUTHERN STUDENTSTHE NUTRITION TRANSITIONCHAPTER THREE: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND SOUL FOODSTUSKEGEE AND THE BLACK BELTEASTERN VIRGINIAURBAN COMMUNITIESTHE INSTITUTE FOR COLORED YOUTHCONTINUITIES AND DISCONTINUITIESNUTRITIONAL SUPERIORITY OF METROPOLITAN DIETSCHAPTER FOUR: RICH AND POOR AND THE SEASONALITY OF DIETUPPER AND MIDDLE-CLASS DIETSWHAT MEMBERS OF THE WORKING CLASS ATEOn Chicago's West SideAround Rundown Parts of Washington, D. C.Inside the Tenements of New York CityCOMPARING NUTRITIONAL VALUESANNUAL EBBS AND FLOWSThe Rural SouthCotton and the post-harvest dead seasonThe pellagra seasonThe Urban NorthSEASONAL HUNGER AND ITS CONSEQUENCESCHAPTER FIVE: IMMIGRANTS' DIETSEUROPEAN IMMIGRANTSItalian AmericansRussian-American JewsOrthodox Diets Liberal DietsBohemian AmericansIrish AmericansBritish AmericansGerman AmericansEATING LIKE KINGSTHE NUTRITIONAL CONSEQUENCESCHAPTER SIX: CONTRASTSCOLLEGE EATING CLUBS AND DINING HALLS: REGIONAL PATTERNSEATING HABITS AND GENDERThe Training Table: Red Meat Barely CookedHow to be PlumpFOOD CULTURES EAST AND WESTChinese AmericansFrench-Canadian AmericansLIST OF TABLESTable 1.1. Nutritional Values, Mexican-American Diets, Las Cruces, Spring, 1896-1897Table 2.1. Typical Diet at Crooked Creek, Late Summer, 1904Table 2.2. Average Nutritional Values, Various Diets, Georgia and Tennessee, 1895-1904Table 2.3. Typical Maryville Diet, Late Fall through Early Spring Diet, 1901-1903Table 3.1. Typical Winter-Spring Diet, Tuskegee, 1895-1896Table 3.2. Typical Winter Diet, Poor African Americans, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, 1892-1906Table 3.3. Average Nutritional Values, Various African American Diets, 1895-1906Table 4.1. Typical Fall-Winter Diet, Middle Class Households. Northeastern and Midwestern States, 1895-1897Table 4.2. Typical January through March Diet of Poor Working-Class Families, New York City, 1897Table 4.3. Average Nutritional Values by ClassTable 5.1. Foods Commonly Part of European-American Diets about 1900Table 5.2. Average Nutritional Values for Diets of Nine Immigrant GroupsTable 5.3. Average Nutritional Values of Bohemian Diets by Length of Residence in the United StatesTable 5.4. Average Cost and Dietary Variety among Sets of ImmigrantsTable 6.1. Average Nutritional Values, Diets Associated with Strenuous Activities, 1896-1903Table 6.2. Typical Menu for the Day, Maine Lumberjacks, Winter, 1901-1903LIST OF RECIPESRecipe 1.1. New Mexican Chile SaladRecipe 2.1. Apple CobblerRecipe 2.2. Chow-ChowRecipe 3.1. Roasted PossumRecipe 3.2. Sweet Potato PuffsRecipes 4.1. Indian PuddingsRecipe 4.2. Boiled Leg of Lamb in Caper SauceRecipe 4.3. Lyonnaise EggsRecipe 5.1. Zuppa di FagiuoliRecipes 5.2. Borsht and Other Beet SoupsRecipe 5.3. Fried Pork TenderloinRecipes 6.1. Prune and Raisin Pies LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHSPhoto 1.1. Preparing Tortillas in Aguas Calientes, MexicoPhoto 2.1. A.J. Dorsey's Cabin. Family at BreakfastPhoto 2.2. Mountain FamilyPhoto 2.3. PicnicPhoto 2.4. Noon Hour Brookside Cotton MillsPhoto 3.1. African American Couple Sitting in One Room Cabin near FireplacePhoto 3.2. Sixth Street Market (typical vegetable men), Richmond, Va.Photo 3.3. Hampton Institute, Va. - a graduate (dining) at homePhoto 3.4. Easy LivingPhoto 4.1. Tea at Hostess HousePhoto 4.2. This Boy and Brother were Picking Discarded Fruit Out of Barrels in Market near 14th St. N.Y. City . . . .Photo 4.3. Woman Carrying Baskets - Salvation Army Christmas Dinner, New YorkPhoto 5.1. Mrs. Palontona and 13 Year Old Daughter, Michaeline, Working on "Pillow-lace" in Dirty Kitchen of Their Tenement Home . . . .Photo 5.2. Two Jewish Girls Carrying Pots of Food for the SabbathPhoto 5.3. Remember When . . . Bakery Smells Filled the Neighborhood?Photo 5.4. Mulberry St., New York, N.Y.Photo 6.1. Oxford College Dining RoomPhoto 6.2. Syracuse Freshmen at Dinner, PoughkeepsiePhoto 6.3. Chinese Field Hands 1898Photo 6.5. Six Cooks Wearing Aprons Stand in a Lumber Camp Dining Room . . . . The Gilded Age is renowned for the excesses of the robber barons and tycoons. The lavishness of their tables impressed contemporaries and historians alike. But what about the eating habits of ordinary Americans at the time? Robert Dirks answers that question by peering through the lens of what then was a newly emerging science of nutrition.