New England Cuisine - by food author Howard Hillman

New England Cuisine

American

An insightful guide to
New England Cuisine
for diners and travelers

by an established authority

Why New England
Cuisine is special

The early colonists gave birth to New England cuisine, which was significantly influenced by the Narragansett Indian cuisine. This New England cooking style continued to mutate into the 19th century as waves of immigrants came from Ireland, Italy and Portugal.

Famous
dishes to try

How many of these classic New England Cuisine dishes have you tasted?

Boston Baked Beans

Navy beans are slowly baked for hours with molasses and salt pork.

Boston Brown Bread

Moist bread made originally with cornmeal. It is sweetened and heavily darkened with molasses. Boston Brown Bread is a customary accompaniment to Boston baked beans (see above).

Boston Cream Pie

It's a misnomer. Boston Cream Pie is a round layered cake, not a pie. It is liberally filled with custard and coated with chocolate icing.

Clambake

The authentic clambake occurs on a secluded sandy beach during a casual family or sociable outing. Lobsters, corn, and clams are sequentially layered in a stone-heated pit. Seaweed is strategically intra-dispersed. Then, the entirety is covered with sand. Unhurriedly, the components are smoke-steamed-baked.

Harvard Beets

Sliced beets are lightly sweet-sour pickled.

Indian Pudding

A fusion of cornmeal, molasses, and milk are baked for hours. Indian Pudding is served warm, topped with whipped cream (or vanilla ice cream).

New England Clam Chowder

A thick, creamy soup lavished with minced clams, diced potatoes, and salt pork.

Steamers

After the soft-shell clams are steamed (hence the dish's name), you remove their flesh from the shells and dip these morsels, one by one, into melted butter.

Succotash

Medley of corn kernels and lima beans. Introduced to the Pilgrims by the Native Americans.

New England

Cuisine insights

Native American influence

The England-reared Pilgrims brought their culinary traditions, but some were ill-suited for their new environment. The American Indians introduced them to many essentials including how to grow corn and harvest molasses, both indigenous to the New World. Without their help, the initial settlers might not have survived the first winter.

A plain and simple cuisine

The cooked foods of the Puritan settlers were relatively bland and uncreative. This reflected not only their religious tenets, but also the frugality forced upon them by the challenging environment. They had to deal with rocky-soiled farms and a short growing season. Their cooking conservatism was passed down from generation to generation.

Seafood

However, the ocean was bountiful in cod, haddock, clams and lobsters. The last was so abundant that it was considered among the people to be a low-status food. Times have certainly changed.

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