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“Traditional Food” is a term that is bandied about in Foodie circles, and used to give a feeling of authenticity to whatever method a particular author is defending as being the most superior way of making a thing. Traditions are funny things though… They tend to evolve over time, and become something different than what they started as.
To many people in the US, boxed macaroni and cheese is now a traditional food. It is the food their grandmothers served to their mothers and fathers.
To some people, the meaning of traditional food means they have looked back a hundred years or so, and have decided that this is how humanity always did a thing.
To others, it means going back far enough that all traces of industrialism are removed from the processes — and most of these people have NO idea how far back they really have to go to achieve that goal.
A further wrinkle in defining “traditional” is that historic methods of preparing and preserving foods varied from family to family, culture to culture, and climate to climate.
Chinese traditional cooking and preserving is different than European traditional cooking and preserving. While they have many aspects in common, details vary widely.
Because of the confusion, I’ve preferred to use the term “Historic” rather than “Traditional”. Historic Foods encompass those foods used to sustain human life and population growth for nearly seven millenia. It had to be successful to do that!
In general, if you want to remove industrialisation from the food arena, you must go back at LEAST 200 years. This removes the industrialisation processes only from food preparation and preservation. It does not remove industrialisation from farming.
Mono-cropping on a large scale was practised for some time prior to that, first on a very limited, then increasingly large scale.
To achieve truly historic food — that is, food that is clean, produced by nature (with or without the cooperation of people), and purely healthy, you must go back in time both in how the food is prepared, AND in how it is grown. This is true of plants, and animals. You must remove industrialisation as far as possible from the production of the food, from birth or sprouting, to consumption.
Industrialisation in food has caused more harm to the quality of food than anything else. Governments have entrenched industrialisation into virtually all commercial food production processes — requiring the use of artificial means and methods, prohibiting the use of natural and healthy means and methods.
If you buy it in a grocery store, the hand of government controlled industrialised contamination is already upon the food in one way or another. The only exception to that is a very few small local stores that carry food direct from small farms that are exempt from government regulation. If the product is marketed nationally, the hand of government has already dirtied it.
Mass produced foods have lower nutrition, higher chemical contamination, higher food-borne illness contamination rates, and far lower digestibility. There is nothing about them that is superior to the customer in any way. They are NOT lower in cost. They only appear so, because they are subsidized by tax money, which you pay in ways that you do not associate with the food you are purchasing.
All of those natural conditions can be either utilised, or recreated on a poly culture, permaculture style farm.
Farming becomes an endeavour of managed ecosystems involving the full range of organisms, rather than a science of crop management designed to produce hundreds of acres of a single crop on semi-sterile ground.
Production rises, profit rises, and food quality is enhanced exponentially when the entire complement of crops and beneficials are balanced.
Food is then handled and processed cleanly — without chlorine or other chemicals, without artificial additives, and in small batches to control potential pathogen outbreak.
Food gets from the producer to the customer fast — so it is not required to be genetically modified or chemically preserved to retain the appearance of freshness, and so that pathogens have no time to become dangerous contaminations.
People are treated to fresh ingredients, which they then prepare from scratch. Preserved foods are dried, pickled, cold stored (root cellared type crops), or cured — some may be frozen. They are not heat sterilised, nor are they chemically embalmed (both processes destroy the majority of nutrients, and may introduce other problems as well).
Below are top 10 world’s traditional foods:
1. Hamburgers, US
Although the origins of the hamburger are disputed, there is no argument over the popularity of this classic dish. Toppings and accompaniments vary from region to region, but for an original version visit Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, which has been serving hamburgers since 1900 and claims to be the oldest hamburger restaurant in the US.
2. Ackee and Saltfish, Jamaica
Despite ackee’s unhappy origins as slave food, Jamaicans have reclaimed it as part of their national dish. A nutritious fruit with a buttery-nutty flavour, ackee resembles scrambled egg when boiled.
Jamaicans sauté the boiled ackee with saltfish (salt-cured cod), onions, and tomatoes. Sometimes the dish is served atop bammy (deep-fried cassava cakes) with fried plantains.
3. Coo-Coo and Flying Fish, Barbados
A polenta-like cornmeal and okra porridge, coo-coo pairs perfectly with flying fish, which is either steamed with lime juice, spices, and vegetables or fried and served with a spicy sauce.
4. Bulgogi, Korea
Beef bulgogi (fire meat) is a dish of thinly sliced, prime cuts of meat marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, onions, ginger, sugar, and wine and then grilled.
It is often eaten wrapped in lettuce or spinach leaves and accompanied by kimchi (fermented vegetable pickle).
Many Korean restaurants have miniature barbecues embedded in tables where diners grill the meat themselves.
5. Kibbeh, Lebanon/Syria
Dining well Levantine-style often means sticking to the delicious mezes (appetisers). Kibbeh, a versatile confection of ground lamb, bulgur, and seasonings, is a core component of mezes. It is often fried in torpedo or patty shapes, baked, boiled, or stuffed, but is tastiest raw.
1. Goulash, Hungary
Gulyás—Magyar for “herdsman”—became a national dish in the late 1800s, when Hungarians sought symbols of national identity to distinguish themselves from their partners in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
A filling stew of beef, vegetables, red onions, and spices, goulash gets its flavor from the use of slow-cooked beef shin, or similar richly flavoured cuts, and paprika.
2. Wiener Schnitzel, Austria
Made with the finest ingredients and served fresh, this simple dish of pounded veal cutlets breaded and lightly fried is Austria’s food ambassador, despite the dish’s Italian origins. Austrians typically eat Wiener schnitzel garnished with parsley and lemon slices, alongside potato salad.
3. Pot-au-Feu, France
Originally a rustic dish that was stewed continuously all winter and topped up as needed, pot-au-feu (pot-in-the-fire) is a warming, fragrant dish of stewing steak, root vegetables, and spices. Traditionally, cooks sieve the broth and serve it separately from the meat.
4. Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, England
Despite England’s increasingly cosmopolitan cuisine, this dish remains a much-loved Sunday lunch and national symbol. Named for England’s eponymous county, Yorkshire — or batter —puddings originally served as fillers before the main course for those who could afford little beef. Today, the two are usually eaten together alongside gravy-soaked roast potatoes, vegetables, and horseradish sauce.
5. Irish Stew, Ireland
Originally a thick broth of slow-boiled mutton with onions, potatoes, and parsley, Irish stew nowadays often incorporates other vegetables, such as carrots, and many cooks brown the mutton first. It is a staple of Irish pubs worldwide. — Food Journeys of a Lifetime.
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