Each item on this all-American menu has something in common.
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None of them are made with products originating in the United States, or even in the Western Hemisphere.
Beef, cheese, apples, peaches, oranges, and even wheat are among the many common, even iconic, American foods foreign to American soil.
Cheeseburgers are a must-have American meal. But neither farm animals nor dairy cows are local to the Western Hemisphere. They arrived with European explorers as a result of Christopher Columbus’ voyages. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
You have to give credit to a guy reviled to this day: Christopher Columbus.
The Genoese explorer, sailing under the Spanish crown, much more appreciated by previous and more enlightened generations.
“The classic meals of billions of living people are the mute documents of a process initiated by Columbus. “
Columbus fostered global cultural integration more profoundly than any human being before or since. He did everything with sextants than with hashtags on social networks promoting his determination with diversity.
“The probably classic foods of billions of living people are the silent records of a process initiated by Christopher Columbus,” wrote food historian Raymond Sokolov in “Why We Eat What We Eat: How Christopher Columbus Changed the Way the World Eats. “
Depiction of Christopher Columbus arriving in America in 1492. Chromolithography by Louis Prang and Company. (Getty Images)
The Bolsa Colombina, as it is called, prospered.
The Roman emperor Julius Caesar tasted tomato sauce; The Irish patron saint, St. Patrick, peeled a potato; and the French heroine Joan of Arc liked chocolate soufflé.
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Tomatoes, potatoes, and chocolate all originated in the New World.
By contrast, many foods that we cherish as quintessentially American have unexpected global origins.
Here are 10 of them.
Apple pie is the popular one through which the American character of all things is measured. Johnny Appleseed is the epitome of American generosity.
Apples are thought to be a barometer of the American, but they are local to Central Asia. The first apple orchard in the United States was planted by first settler William Blaxton in the 1630s in Boston, Massachusetts. (iStock)
Apples, on the other hand, are local to Central Asia. The Pilgrims themselves celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621 with apple pie.
The first apple trees were planted 10 years later in Boston through William Blaxton, the city’s first settler.
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Roxbury Russet, from the original Blaxton orchard and named after a neighborhood in Boston, is now the oldest grape variety in the United States.
Imagine the land of milk and honey one or the other.
It’s America before Colón. No there’s a delicious metaphor for dealing with your sweet love, there’s no way to make fun of the fat-handed player who drops the ball.
“There was no dairy, no milk, no cream, no butter, no cheese (before European exploration). “
There’s no way to celebrate the victory at Brickyard on Memorial Day weekend.
The Indianapolis 500 winner celebrates his triumph each year by drinking and splashing milk given to him by an Indiana dairy farmer.
Swede Marcus Ericsson celebrates at Victory Lane by pouring milk on his head after winning the 106th Indianapolis 500 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Ind. , on May 29, 2022. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“There is no dairy, no milk, no cream, no butter, no cheese,” Sokolov wrote before the European exploration.
Dairy cows and domestic farm animals made their way into European exploration. Honey bees are also an import from the Old World.
Sizzling bacon, smoked pork, brisket, and cheddar-covered cheeseburgers form a hallowed alliance of all-American delicacies.
But red meat and beef are global imports that followed the transatlantic trade. That’s right: New York sirloin, Texas ribs, and Carolina shredded red meat are culturally appropriate.
A giant rib of smoked and fried fish from Pecan Lodge in Dallas, Texas. Meat farm animals are indigenous to America. Cattle (and red meat) arrived with European explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital )
“Red meat from farmed domestic animals [was] unknown in Mexico before the Spaniards imported it. . . Before 1492, Mexican cuisine did not include beef, pork, or lamb dishes. “
Cattle flourished and spread across what is now the United States.
We were given walks with farm animals, cowboys and John Wayne western movies.
The United States has the Orange State, the Orange Bowl, and Orange counties.
But there were no oranges before Columbus.
This sunny citrus fruit, native to California and Florida, is native to Southeast Asia.
Oranges are iconic cash crops in California and Florida. But oranges are local to the Western Hemisphere. They arrived as a result of the explorations of Christopher Columbus. (iStock courtesy of CactuSoup contributor)
The fruit arrived in the New World through Columbus himself on a subsequent voyage in 1493.
“Soon after, the Spanish brought the culmination of citrus to Florida,” reports the Florida Division of Historic Resources. “The Florida Indians received seeds from the Spanish missionaries and helped grow the fruit. “
Atlanta would be a maze of unnamed streets today, Georgia would be known as the land of a second-rate fiddle-playing demon, and “Reunited” would have been a solo hit through Herb in the 1970s, without Columbus.
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The peaches are local to China, but they have liked the American soil.
Thomas Jefferson discovered peaches and peaches and grew dozens of them at Monticello, his hilltop farm in Virginia.
Peaches grow in an orchard in Reynolds, Ga. , on Friday, July 8, 2022. Despite its ubiquitous agreement with the state, peaches are no longer Georgia’s largest fruit crop. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg Getty Images)
“The fishing came through Spanish settlers in St. Petersburg. John’s. Agustine, Florida, in 1565, or through the French in a remote colony in the Gulf of Mexico in 1562,” Monticello’s website reports.
“It probably grew in Mexico even at an earlier date. “
Wheaties, dubbed the “Breakfast of Champions,” has provided a forum to celebrate America’s wonderful athletes for nearly a century (tennis legend Billie Jean King is the latest).
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General Mills cereals and the amber waves of cereals used to prepare them are serendipitous American culinary icons.
Wheat was discovered in 1921 as a result of an “accidental spillage of an aggregate of wheat bran on a hot stove,” General Mills reports on its website.
Tennis legend Billie Jean King is a 39-time Grand Slam champion and equal rights champion. It appears in limited-edition Wheaties boxes, dubbed “the breakfast of champions,” starting in May 2024. (General Mills AP)
Wheat is a staple of the Spanish diet.
It flourished in America, first in Mexico and northward.
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The grain “was planted wherever the conquistadors established farms,” Sokolov writes.
“In 1535, Mexico was exporting wheat to the West Indies. “
For more lifestyle articles, visit www. foxnews. com/way of life.
Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter at Fox News Digital.