Digesting the American-Canadian Cooking Project

The dishes have finally been put away in New York and Ottawa, and we’ve finished off the last of the Nanaimo Bars and Sweet Potato Pie. With a chance to step back, Jill and I begin to reflect on the outcome of our American-Canadian Cooking project. Perhaps without realizing it, we concocted a recipe of distinctive ingredients – one part culinary detective work, one part cultural exchange, and one part oral history. It was a tasty cross-border collaboration So, what did we learn? Jill and I compare notes:

TW: First of all, if you're going to get involved in a major cooking project, you should clean the oven first! But beyond that, I thought it was fascinating to track down the history of several dishes. I knew nothing about the menu items you suggested, and with the exception of pea soup, had never heard of any of them before. It was sort of like a culinary treasure hunt with only a name as an initial clue. Everywhere I looked I found a new story linked to each of the food items on my Canadian list.

Jill: And if you're going to make clam chowder, you should really invest in a large stock pot to avoid a tidal wave of clam broth in the kitchen! While I had heard of the dishes you selected, I had never made any of them and knew little about their background. Along with learning about the history of the menu items, I got caught up in all sorts of interesting side-tracks, making for a combination culinary and American history lesson. I also made the (pleasant) discovery that my pre-conceptions about some of the dishes were wrong.

TW: There was tradition and history layered into every dish, and lots of local variations. While I ended up picking some of the more classic versions of each recipe, there were many distinctive versions that had grown out of specific cultures and communities.

Jill: I found it fascinating to look at some of the early recipes for the American dishes and see how they had evolved over time. It seems that recipes have changed or new versions been created as a result of the availability or popularity of certain ingredients, changing tastes, and to adapt to different cooking methods.

TW: It was surprising to discover how passionate Canadians are about certain dishes. I mean, there is actually a national dialogue about the qualities of butter tarts, and everyone drinks Bloody Caesars! In the U.S., there are certainly debates about regional foods, but I'm not sure Americans are collectively vocal about a single dish, unless it's pizza or burgers and fries.

Jill: Maybe it's because our population is so much smaller - there's room for everyone to get involved in the butter tart debate. I certainly discovered a very lively discussion about the various types of chowder, including some particularly vehement commentary on the merits of Manhattan clam chowder. By the way, while it's well-known that we all eat doughnuts, I can't confirm that all Canadians drink Caesars.

TW: Lydia at "The Perfect Pantry" blog noted, with good humor, that all of the Canadian foods were brown. Would you care to comment on that further, Jill?

Jill: Don't forget about the red and green Caesars! Still, I can't deny that I picked a decidedly neutral-toned menu. Your choices produced a much more colourful meal. But T.W., let me assure you and Lydia that not all Canadian food is brown. We grow apples, blueberries, and peaches, to name a few colourful foods, and we really do have fresh veggies.

TW: It seemed like most of the Canadian foods had roots in Europe, and actually have a certain longevity. The stories of the food become part of the fabric of the culture in each province. However, some of the American foods may have fallen out of fashion.

Jill: I found it curious that Country Captain, which seems to me to have quite "modern" ingredients and appeal, has come in and out of fashion. New England Clam chowder, on the other hand, appears to have consistently maintained its popularity. It's certainly an essential part of the region's culture.

TW: I was just as interested in what you were discovering about American foods as what I was learning about Canadian cuisine. I had never heard of the story of Oscar Tschirky and Waldorf salad, nor Cecily Brownstone's passion for Country Captain.

Jill: I agree. I think I learned as much about Canadian cuisine as I did about American dishes. Walter Chell's creation of the Caesar, the official Naimano Bar recipe, and the history of the butter tart were all new to me.

TW: There were some subtle connections between countries and cuisines that started to emerged as we shared our individual research.

Jill: With the proximity of Canada and the U.S., it's not surprising that our foods share many connections. It was interesting to discover that some of the dishes we chose may have particularly close ties, for example, chowder first being brought to eastern Canada and then down to New England, and the theory that butter tarts descended from the pecan pie brought to Canada by American slaves. I even found a recipe for tourtiere in a New England cookbook, reflecting the French Canadian influence in that region.

TW: Of course, you didn’t tell me until after the fact, that you were not a great fan of tourtiere! I was impressed with your investigative skills, the trips to the library and the detailed Internet searches. At one point, I was pressed for time, and just ordered several Canadian cookbooks on the Barnes and Noble website.

Jill: Until we started this project, I wasn't aware of the amazing historical cooking sources that exist electronically. For instance, I could have spent hours (in fact, I did) browsing through the Historic American Cookbook Project at the Michigan State University Library. I was impressed by your research as well, but also by how whole-heartedly you and your guests immersed yourselves in the Canadian experience. You may have to celebrate Canada Day this July 1st!

Well, I’m always game to add another day of feasting to the calendar. When we first started this exploration, Jill listed burgers and fries when I asked her what came to mind when she thought of American cuisine. We’ve certainly learned that there is some deep history, tradition and a bit of legend attached to the foods of Canada and America. Jill has confirmed there is more to American cuisine than burgers and fries, and I’ve come to appreciate the therapeutic value of starting out a good Canadian meal with a round of Caesars, and concluding with the esteemed butter tart!

©2007 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

The Canadian Feast in America

The morning of the Canadian Feast begins with a desperate attempt to clean the oven. Last night, while preparing the butter tarts, the oven decided to do a vivid imitation of a smoke stack and wouldn’t stop spewing gray fumes into the kitchen and living room. The smoke alarm was piercing and I was forced to admit that one should really use the self-cleaning function on the oven more frequently than once every nine years.

The house smells like a pioneer campfire, which might be a nice touch of cinema verite for my Canadian Bannock Bread, often cooked on an open flame. I open the windows, letting in the balmy 27 degree morning air and set the self-cleaning function which operates at the peak of efficiency – it takes a mere 4 hours and 20 minutes to complete its task. Immediately the oven begins belching smoke again, so I retreat to the basement to save my lungs and watch DVDs.

After several hours the smoke dissipates, and I return to a chilly kitchen and sparkling clean oven. I set the table with Canadian colors of white and red and the traditional Maple Leaf and roll out pastry dough for the Tourtiere. The dough is a little temperamental at first, but eventually it bends to my will and I’m pretty confident that I will have a buttery, flakey crust.

My guests for the Canadian Feast are my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and my friend “Lee Sloan,” a grande dame of food and wine on the New York scene, who has been following this project with great interest. At 1:00 p.m. I pick up Lee at the train station. She comes bearing Canadian Riesling from the Niagara Peninsula and a satchel full of venerable cook books that might offer insight into our meal. I tell Lee about my problems with the oven, and she smiles wryly. “That’s why I don’t cook anymore,” she says. “I just call the caterer.”

Back home, the rest of the party is arriving, and I set up a round of Bloody Caesar cocktails which hail from Alberta. My brother Ken offers a toast, “To the successful celebration of Canadian cuisine.” The combination of vodka, Clamato juice and Worcestershire and Tabasco is smooth, spicy and tastes of the ocean on a hot summer day.

Everyone has taken to the Canadian theme. On the stereo, we’ve got Canadian musicians of all types – Diana Krall from Nanaimo, Gordon Lightfoot from Ontario and Michael Buble from Burnaby. My mom wears the pin my older brother brought her from a visit he made to Expo 67 in Montreal. Ken is sporting a plaid shirt for the “lumberjack look.” Lee has brought a cookbook published in 1972 called “Cecily Brownstone’s Associated Press Cook Book.” You may remember that Jill came across Cecily’s name during her research of the dish Country Captain. Lee was good friends with Cecily, a food editor at the Associated Press, and they would dine together. We find Cecily’s recipe for Country Captain on page 76, and talk about the fact that Cecily, who campaigned for recognition for the dish Country Captain which was popular in America, was actually born in Canada!

I prepare a recipe of Bannock in the skillet and serve the flat bread with blueberry preserves and butter. This time, I’ve fried these bread biscuits – popular among Canadian pioneers and First Nations People – in butter and they have a crisp golden coating and a tender crumb.

The French Canadian Pea Soup is a lovely flaxen color, mild and silky, with an herbaceous aroma and smoky flavor. This dish will provide the majority of our vegetables for the meal, which is just fine with my sister-in-law Pam who is not a fan of vegetables, but is quite taken with this intriguingly yellow pea soup.

Next, I pull the Tourtiere from the oven, the traditional pork pie served by French Canadians after midnight mass as a centerpiece of the holiday supper celebration. The domed crust is nicely bronzed thanks to an egg wash, and I’ve decorated the pastry with Canadian Maple leaves. The recipe from Canadian Living is a winner – festive, aromatic spices of cinnamon, pepper, savory and cloves tickle our senses and we relish the flaky pastry and robust filling of tender pork and earthy mushrooms.

Before dessert, we check in with Jill by telephone to offer our impressions of the menu she designed for us. Overall, it has met with resounding approval. Jill tells us her house is filled with the caramel aromas of roasted sweet potatoes for the finale to her American Feast, the sweet potato pie. Lee mentions another interesting connection in this cross-continental culinary exchange. Acadians, who populated Nova Scotia, eventually migrated to Louisiana, where the yam (cousin to the sweet potato) is a staple of the local cuisine.

We retire to the living room for our buffet of Canadian sweets. The bite-sized, honey-colored butter tarts, baked in muffin tins are delicate and just slightly runny. I’ve made two varieties, some plain and some with raisins. We sample each and join in the national butter tart debate of Canada over which type is superior. My dad and Lee vote in favor of raisin tarts. Dad likes mince pie, of which this is reminiscent and Lee likes the additional flavor and consistency. Ken, Pam and my mom support the unadorned version, rich and buttery with notes of vanilla. I sit squarely on the fence. I like them both.

The Nanaimo Bars threaten to send us all into sugar shock, but in a good way. Dark and sinfully rich, and dotted with almonds and coconut, are they brownie, or are they fudge? Whatever the label, Nanaimo Bars are a chocoholic’s dream.

In one Sunday afternoon, our armchair culinary journey has taken us across a country that is the second largest in the world. We have sipped cocktails in Alberta and tasted the foods of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. And with each bite, comes a story of history, ingredients, individuals and ingenuity.

As we begin to clean up the dishes and I hand out butter tarts and Nanaimo bars for all to take home, Jill is just about ready to welcome her guests for the American Feast in Ottawa.

©2007 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved