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Which parts of North America? There are hundreds of communities that would each have their own specific food traditions. Answer from mg392 on reddit.com
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Food Tank
foodtank.com › home › agriculture › 20 native north american foods with stories to tell
20 Native North American Foods with Stories to Tell – Food Tank
July 8, 2020 - Through her company Native Harvest, LaDuke also sells indigenous American foods like wild rice, corn, and maple syrup. Similar cataloging and conservation efforts are also being carried out by Seed Savers Exchange and Slow Food International’s Ark of Taste. To help raise awareness of the rich biodiversity of foods native to North America, Food Tank has compiled a list of 20 foods in the region important to the cultures and food security of North Americans.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/askfoodhistorians › food in north america pre-colonization?
r/AskFoodHistorians on Reddit: Food in North America pre-colonization?
October 5, 2021 -

What did food in North America look like before European colonization? Are there any preserved recipes or cooking techniques?

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Which parts of North America? There are hundreds of communities that would each have their own specific food traditions.
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Check out America's First Cuisines by Sophie D. Coe. It's mainly about Prehispanic Mesoamerica and Peruvian cuisine. Basically, lots of corn. In Mesoamerica, most people mostly ate corn gruel (atole) flavored with chili, salt, beans, tomatoes, etc for the majority of their calories (just about everyone in the world ate gruel and simple carbs for most of their meals at the time). You won't find any recipes, but there are descriptions of feasts, and certain things like tamales, atole, and tortillas are made the same way (though there were a wider variety of all of these things). Something like a taco with guacamole and turkey meat (or any combination of sauces/meats made of Prehispanic ingredients) could easily have been found in a market in Tenochtitlan. Here's a list of popular street foods from Sahagun, a priest who wrote an ethnology of the Nahua shortly after the Conquest: "He sells meat tamales; turkey meat packets; plain tamales; tamales cooked in an earth oven; those cooked in an olla...grains of maize with chile, tamales with chile...fish tamales, fish with grains of maize, frog tamales, frog with grains of maize, axolotl with grains of maize, axolotl tamales, tamales with grains of maize, mushrooms with grains of maize, tuna cactus with grains of maize, rabbit tamales, rabbit with grains of maize, pocket gopher tamales: tasty--tasty, very tasty...Where [it is] tasty, [it has] chile, salt, tomates, squash seeds: shredded, crumbled, juiced. He sells tamales of maize softened in wood ashes, the water of tamales, tamales of maize softened in lime--narrow tamales, fruit tamales, cooked bean tamales,; cooked beans with grains of maize, cracked beans with grains of maize; broke, cracked grains of maize. [He sells] salted wide tamales, tamales bound up on top, [with] grains of maize thrown in; crumbled, pounded tamales; spotted tamales, pointed tamales, white fruit tamales, red fruit tamales, turkey egg tamales, turkey eggs with grains of maize; tamales of tender maize, tamales of green maize, brick-shaped tamales, braised ones; plain tamales, honey tamales, bee tamales, tamales with grains of maize, squash tamales, crumbled tamales, maize flower tamales. The bad food seller [is] he who sells filthy tamales, discolored tamales--broken, tasteless, quite tasteless, inedible, frightening, deceiving; tamales made of chaff, swollen tamales, spoiled tamales, foul tamales--sticky, gummy; old tamales, cold tamales-- dirty and sour, very sour, exceedingly sour, stinking. The food seller sells tortillas which [are] thick, thickish, thick overall, extremely thick; he sells thin [ones]--thin tortillas, stretch-out tortillas,; disclike, straight...with shelled beans, cooked shelled beans, uncooked shelled beans; with shelled beans mashed; chile with maize, tortillas with meat and grains of maize, folded...with chile--chile wrapped, gathered in the hand; ashen tortillas, washed tortillas. He sells folded tortillas, thick tortillas, coarse tortillas. He sells tortillas with turkey eggs, tortillas made with honey, pressed ones, glove-shaped tortillas, plain tortillas, assorted ones, braised ones, sweet tortillas, amaranth seed tortillas, squash tortillas, green maize tortillas, brick-shaped tortillas, tuna cactus tortillas; broken, crumbled, old tortillas; cold tortillas, toasted ones, dried tortillas, stinking tortillas. He sells foods sauces, hot sauces; fried [food], olla-cooked [food], juices, sauces of juices, shredded [food] with chile, with squash seeds, with tomatoes, with smoked chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, hot chile sauce, with "bird excrement" sauce, sauce of smoked chile, heated [sauces], bean sauce; [he sells] toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce."
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Gardenary
gardenary.com › blog › what-crops-are-actually-native-to-north-america
What Crops Are Actually Native to North America? • Gardenary
November 22, 2023 - Native Americans harvested the grains from their canoes using long harvesting sticks. These grains became a sacred food to the Anishinaabe people. It gave them protein, fiber, and tons of other important nutrients. Wild ramps are perennial onions that prefer the kind of sandy, moist soil you find in woodlands in eastern North America.
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What foods are native to North America?
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Food in North America pre-colonization?
Which parts of North America? There are hundreds of communities that would each have their own specific food traditions. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/AskFoodHistorians
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October 5, 2021
America has no original food
I love all these purists just straight up thinking that indigenous food doesn't exist. The US government did such a great job of destroying indigenous food culture that Europeans fully ignore them. The melting pot of the US includes some amazing food that wasn't "brought here" and yet it is never discussed when this topic comes up. Edit: I am heart happy seeing the wonderful discussion my indignation caused. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/iamveryculinary
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July 21, 2022
Why is Native American food not popular in America?
Hi! Native here- I’m from Cherokee, NC. I think that first off- there is no cohesive “native” cuisine. We each have our own regional foods. We all pretty much have frybread, but even then how it is eaten varies. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/NoStupidQuestions
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February 25, 2021
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Vawaa
vawaa.com › blog › a-roadmap-of-indigenous-north-american-cuisine
A Roadmap of Indigenous North American Cuisine | VAWAA
March 25, 2024 - When we talk about American cuisine, images of hamburgers, apple pies, or mac and cheese might come to mind. But these are relatively modern inventions. For thousands of years, indigenous communities across the continent have cultivated a rich and varied culinary heritage. From the succulent flavors of the Southwest to nutty wild rice, the only grain native to North America, let’s take a journey through the indigenous cuisines of modern-day USA.
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Foodwise
foodwise.org › home › articles › 10 foods native to the americas
10 Foods Native to the Americas : Foodwise
November 1, 2024 - To learn more about the pre-colonial roots of these foods, read What It Means to Decolonize Your Diet. As one of the “Three Sisters,” three main agricultural crops native to North America (along with beans and corn), squash varieties come in different shapes and sizes.
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Poncatribe-ne
poncatribe-ne.gov › services › health-services › diabetes-program › native-foods
Native Foods – Ponca Tribe of Nebraska
Edible plants domesticated by American ... These foods include corn, wild rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, squash and pumpkins, tomatoes, papayas, sunflower seeds, avocados, pineapples, guavas, chili peppers, chocolate and many species of beans....
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Tasting Table
tastingtable.com › 1949328 › iconic-ingredients-native-north-america
17 Of The Most Iconic Ingredients Native To North America - Tasting Table
August 30, 2025 - The wild turkey is native to North America, although there is one other species of turkey native to South America, with the two being the only turkey species on the planet. But the bird that's a staple of our holiday traditions and a popular food all over the world is a close descendant of the one that still roams the forests of the United States.
Find elsewhere
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USDA Forest Service
fs.usda.gov › wildflowers › ethnobotany › food › index.shtml
Food
Over time, the planting and propagating of useful wild plants led to domestication (the intentional selection for useful traits). As a result, many plant species became dependent on humans for survival and reproduction. Examples of important domesticated plants include: Middle East: wheat, barley, oats, apples, and figs · Africa: barley, millet, coffee, okra, and watermelon ... Native Americans used plants as a main source of food.
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NATIFS
natifs.org › home
North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems
October 31, 2025 - Indigenous Food Lab is a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center at the heart of our work establishing a new Indigenous food system that reintegrates Native Foods and Indigenous-focused Education into tribal communities across North America. We envision a future of developing and supporting multiple tribally operated kitchens bringing cultural and nutritional revitalization across North America! A kitchen and retail space that offers high-quality Indigenous foods and products to our community.
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NICOA
nicoa.org › elder-resources › indigenous-foods
Indigenous Foods
It is important to note that while Native people are predisposed to these conditions, they were very rare just 100 years ago. Four time periods describe the American Indian and Alaska Native diet before and after European colonization. Diets have changed dramatically since the introduction of European foods into the diet of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
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Civil Eats
civileats.com › home › the wild and native foods we should be eating
The Wild and Native Foods We Should Be Eating | Civil Eats
October 31, 2018 - Some currants, which share a genus with gooseberries, are native to North America, and almost all provide a major boost to health. Blackcurrants may be the most popular, but the red ones are worth another look. “The red berries have much value in terms of antioxidants and also anthocyanins, and inflammatory problems,” said Cuerrier.
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DCMGV
dakotamastergardeners.org › edible › vegetables-indigenous-to-north-america
Vegetables Indigenous to North America
Interest in native or indigenous plants, including fruits and vegetables, is on the rise as people begin to understand how these plants promote both a healthy environment and a healthy diet. This article will explore some of the vegetables that are indigenous to North America, including Minnesota and provide some useful references for those interested in exploring this topic more thoroughly.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Indigenous_cuisine_of_the_Americas
Indigenous cuisine of the Americas - Wikipedia
3 days ago - The most important Indigenous American ... included Indian corn (or maize, from the Taíno name for the plant), beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, wild rice, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, avocados, papayas, potatoes and chocolate...
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Christian Science Monitor
csmonitor.com › Business › The-Bite › 2016 › 0721 › 20-indigenous-foods-historically-and-culturally-important-to-North-America
20 indigenous foods historically and culturally important to North America - CSMonitor.com
July 21, 2016 - Through her company Native Harvest, LaDuke also sells indigenous American foods like wild rice, corn, and maple syrup. Similar cataloguing and conservation efforts are carried out by Seed Savers Exchange,Slow Food International’s Ark of Taste, and other organizations. To aid in raising awareness of the rich biodiversity of foods native to North America, Food Tank has compiled a list of 20 foods in the region important to the cultures and food security of North Americans.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › List_of_food_plants_native_to_the_Americas
List of food plants native to the Americas - Wikipedia
1 week ago - For a list of food plants and other crops which were only introduced to Old World cultures as a result of the Columbian Exchange touched off by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, see New World crops. ... Pinto, tepary, black, kidney, navy, scarlet runner (Phaseolus coccineus) and lima beans (Phaseolus†) ... Swamp dewberry (various species of Rubus, distinct from Raspberry, Blackberry, Salmonberry, Thimbleberry & Cloudberry) Several native species of Ribes, comprising Red Currants, Black Currants, Golden Currants and Gooseberries
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Tasting Table
tastingtable.com › 1297689 › native-american-foods-should-try-once
26 Native American Foods You Should Try At Least Once - Tasting Table
February 19, 2025 - It can be topped with gravy or homemade sauce, and pairs especially well with sweet, berry-based sauces — like wojapi sauce, another Native American creation — and a side of bitter greens. ... Akutaq is an Inuit ice cream-like dish that has transformed wildly over the years, although its early origins are unknown. In Northern Alaska, akutaq is made up of animal fat — traditionally from bear, muskox, or caribou — sea mammal oil, ice, and natural flavorings, usually in the form of wild berries.
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Quora
quora.com › What-are-some-popular-foods-native-to-North-America-excluding-vegetables-that-are-also-enjoyed-in-other-parts-of-the-world-today
What are some popular foods native to North America (excluding vegetables) that are also enjoyed in other parts of the world today? - Quora
Answer: This is an interestingly posed question…do you mean dishes? Excluding vegetables is a strange move, because they’re the most indicative element of indigenous cuisines. Also, do you mean pre-european? If we are talking pre-european, most bang for your buck is Hot Chocolate.
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IFIC
ific.org › home › diversifying myplate: north american indigenous cuisine
Exploring Traditional Indigenous Foods and Healthy Eating
May 5, 2025 - We are in the process of incorporating and revitalizing traditional foods and foodways while also mending our relationship to the land and food! Lastly, we need to remember that we can honor our health and respect our bodies without having to sacrifice our culture and traditions. Indigenous cuisine is one of many diverse cuisines that can serve as an example of healthy and nutritious eating. This cuisine can broadly encompass the recommendations promoted in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and their associated MyPlate graphic.
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HISTORY
history.com › home › articles › 7 foods developed by native americans | history
7 Foods Developed by Native Americans | HISTORY
May 27, 2025 - So when you eat beans on a corn tortilla, which was the basis of Aztec and Maya diets, you have a complete protein food that fuels empires.” · Another game-changing legume of the New World was the peanut, which originated in Brazil and made its way to Africa through the Portuguese slave trade. ... Pumpkins, gourds and other hard-skinned winter squashes (Cucurbita pepo, C. maxima and C. moschata) were part of the famous “three sisters” planting strategy practiced by Native Americans alongside beans and maize.
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Quora
quora.com › What-foods-are-truly-American-in-the-sense-of-completely-invented-in-America-and-not-an-American-take-on-another-countrys-food
What foods are truly American, in the sense of completely invented in America and not an American take on another country's food? - Quora
Answer (1 of 48): Well there is chop suey… Despite the fact that it is on just about every American Chinese Restaurant take out menu it actually originated in New York City. Ice Cream Cones originated in New York City by a Italian immigrant, Italo Marchiony invented his ice cream cone in New Yor...