American Plate - Bite #5: American Bison

Most American kids learn about the noble bison/buffalo in their first history classes. Inevitably, they learn about how invaluable a resource they were to Native Americans. The massive beasts generally topped out at 700-2000 pounds, and every part of them was utilized by early native tribes. A species that once dominated the landscape was killed to near extinction, but what those kids in history class might not be learning is that this population crash was not entirely due to over-hunting.

Bison caught diseases from cattle, they were dispatched to make way for incoming railroads, and worst of all, a government policy directing the slaughter of bison in order to force desperate Native Americans onto reservations all contributed to their near disappearance.

Fortunately, we still have bison, not only for a diversity of species, but because they're still a damn fine food source. It's more nutritious than domestic animals such as pigs, cows, and chickens; it's got higher vitamin content, is lower in calories and cholesterol, and their fat does not marble their meat. 

Dried buffalo meat can be incorporated with nuts and berries into pemmican, a sort of early version of a Clif bar. Without access to the warm buffalo fat needed to make that, I had to rely on ground bison meat. At home, I made it into meatballs to serve on pasta, while out at restaurants, bison burgers are a popular choice.

They were both very good, which did not come as a surprise. Bison is easy to overcook, but if you can avoid that, and season it properly, it can be a highly satisfying star of any meat dish.

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American Plate - Bite #29: Tea and Coffee

By modern standards, tea is the hot drink of choice for England, China, and many other countries, while America favors coffee. Such was not always the way. As colonists, Americans enjoyed tea just as much as their mother country. Drinking it was not only done to satisfy thirst; the ritual of preparing and serving tea was just as important as the consumption of it.

Then a little thing called The Boston Tea Party happened. Perhaps you've heard of it? At the time (1773), coffee was not an unheard of drink in the colonies. As of the early 1700s, it was already the preferred breakfast drink. The American Revolution came as a heavy blow to tea's reputation. Drinking it was akin to supporting the redcoats, and coffee's popularity surged. Just as now, its use as an energy booster gave it a leg up.

Tea regained some of its clout after the war, but it was another war that would make coffee the dominant hot drink in American mugs. When Union soldiers came home from the Civil War, they were used to having coffee as part of their standard battlefield rations, and saw no reason to stop. Coffee's popularity proliferated from there, and today, it accounts for 83% of all hot beverages consumed in the United States.

I am certainly contributing to that large percentage. Every workday is kicked off with a mug of coffee, with one or two more throughout the day. I can get pretty irritable without it. I also tend to order it when having breakfast out at a diner or restaurant. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for tea in my heart, too. Hot tea hits the spot when the mood strikes, or if I'm not feeling particularly well. I'm not a huge iced tea drinker, but once in a while, I'll indulge. And then, of course, there's dinner or dim sum at Chinese restaurants, which would feel incomplete without a pot of hot tea on the table.

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American Cake - Cake #21: Mary's Cherry Upside-Down Cake

Time Period: 1946 - 1962

The entry for this cake is a little strange. It details a short history of Mary Drabik, a woman who had to make every penny count, so she grabbed every free sour cherry she could from her sister's trees, and made all sorts of things out of them, including this cake, which won first prize at the Minnesota State Fair in 2014. Why is some random lady's recipe included in a book meant to be a holistic representation of the country's cake history? Unclear. I suppose I could see an argument for it, since cherries are so popular nationally, and heirloom recipes are important when describing the evolution of American cake over time.

Here's another fun fact: I hate cherries and anything cherry-flavored. Still, a deal is a deal, and I agreed to bake every cake in this book. I used the opportunity of a Memorial Day BBQ to bake it for a potluck, and foisted it off on friends instead of eating any myself. I'm told it turned out very tasty, and will take their word for it!

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