Americana...Always Starts with Food

Chef Rodney Worth's Certified Angus
Beef Burger is Freshly Ground and
Served On An Organic Bun. ~The Peasant
and The Pear Danville

Even the culinary disinclined would agree that one of the best ways to really appreciate a country’s culture is to understand its food. Entire chapters of a nation’s history are writ large at the table and its soul revealed on every plate. Today’s obsession with authenticity, ethnicity, sustainability, health, and the occasional indulgence will become America’s edible legacy for future generations. 

In the coming weeks, we’ll explore the taste of a nation, looking at current crazes, beloved classics and regional legends that have gone beyond mere sustenance to become an actual slice of “Americana.” We begin with a salute to a couple of B’s steeped in red, white and blue tradition: burgers and bbq sauces.

While the origins of the hamburger are still hotly debated today—1826 at NY’s Delmonico’s Restaurant, 1885 at a Wisconsin county fair, that same year at a Hamburg, NY county fair—or Louis’ Lunch in 1900, they are inarguably a distinctly American phenomenon. We still can’t get enough of this juicy delight, as evidenced by the proliferation of restaurants in the 00’s featuring ‘better burgers’ made with premium grade meat and locally sourced ingredients. Today’s offerings have raised the innovation bar even further, moving away from traditional beef to a slew of alternative offerings. Some headline makers include:

Veggie burgers: At Seattle’s Plum Bistro, the Portobello burger is huge and hearty,  deep-fried, panko-coated, topped with Buffalo hot sauce, ranch, grilled onions, cucumber, and mixed greens with a side of russet fries; the brown rice & mushroom sliders topped with spicy mayo at Chicago’s Mana Food Bar, reports Thrillist.

Turkey burgers: Everyone from Martha Stewart to Wolfgang Puck has tried their hand at raising the profile of these popular meat subs, with the most successful recipes going heavy on the mushroom for an umami taste. Puck uses a mushroom puree and a chunky tomato salsa compote, Stewart adds button mushrooms and Swiss cheese, NY Times food writer and cookbook author Martha Rose Shulman ups the ante with a base of cremini mushrooms and mushroom powder seasoned with baharat, a Middle Eastern spice blend.

Belly Burgers: a first in the foodservice market from US Foods, made with a delectable combo of beef and smoked pork belly. On the cutting edge of the trend: Tom Pizzica, host of Food Network’s Outrageous Food, who opened his own Big Chef Tom’s Belly Burgers in 2010,  slinging 100% pork belly burgers onsite at Silicon Valley household names like Pinterest, Spotify, StubHub and Craig’s List, and opening a sit-down restaurant in San Francisco. Also on his progressive menu are burgers made of fresh ground chicken thighs and a veggie smash up of roasted eggplant, fried onions, chick peas and shredded carrots.

Regional preferences rule the barbecue sauce market, and while Kansas City proudly pours the molasses, the Carolinas go tart with a vinegar base. Stirring up the sauces big-time…

Kansas City sauce: Going for the sweet, the best Kansas City sauces incorporate multiple sources, such as brown sugar, molasses, honey, and onion, along with tartness (vinegar, lemon juice, hot sauce, and steak sauce), and heat (American chili powder, black pepper, mustard, and hot sauce), according to Amazing Ribs. There’s the legendary Arthur Bryant’s sauce; Gates Gates Bar-B-Q Sauce, a KC classic for 60 years, based on a family recipe; Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, named by Anthony Bourdain as “One of Thirteen Places to Eat Before You Die;” and Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue, raved about by Maxim as “the greatest piece of Kansas City barbecue that  ever, ever.”

Texas style sauce often uses meat drippings as a base, spiking it up with a range of ingredients like ancho, chipotle, garlic, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce. Barbecue icons in the heart of Texas include Franklin Barbecue and the Salt Lick, both in Austin, Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland, “merely the single greatest piece of barbecue of my entire life, or was it the most magnificent piece of beef ever cooked at any time in history,” raves a hyperbolic GQ writer; and in the small town of Lockhart, designated as the barbecue capital of Texas, five top picks include Kreuz Market, one of Texas’s oldest, opened in 1900, Black’s Barbecue, Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Q, Smitty’s Market, and one of the newest, two-year-old Mad Jack’s BBQ Shack.

Carolina-style vinegar sauce is best served with whole hog and pork shoulder, with the sweetness and smokiness of pork complemented by vinegar's acidic tang. USA Today ranks the South’s best as: Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Ala. and N.C.; Dreamland BBQ, first opened in Tuscaloosa, Ala. in 1958, when the University of Alabama Paul "Bear" Bryant started coaching, and still famous for its popular secret recipe sauce; and Marion Pit Barbecue in KY, where pork shoulders are smoked over a hickory-fired pit for 16 hours and covered in the restaurant’s trademark sauce.

Americana – Profitable, Innovative and Delicious