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Massachusetts - Traditional New England Foods

New England Foods

New England cookery combines the older English methods of steaming and boiling with ingredients familiar to Native Americans, like corn, game, shellfish, potatoes, cranberries, maple syrup, and cornmeal. New England has meager and rocky soil but it has a bounty of fish — especially cod — and shellfish, including clams, oysters, and lobster. Boston baked beans, which became a Saturday supper staple because of the Puritans’ Sabbath rules, cranberry dishes of all kinds, and maple syrup and candy have all found a place in the American palate through New England.

Clambake

The New England clambake is both a meal and an outdoor construction project. The work begins with cooks assembling the ingredients (lobsters, whole fish, ears of corn, clams, mussels, red bliss potatoes, and onions) and cooking gear (firewood, charcoal, stones, seaweed, tarps, and shovels). The crew begins by digging a hole – preferably on the beach -- and lining it with stones, wood, and charcoal. Essentially, they are creating a below-ground bonfire and heating the rocks to create a steam bath for the food. When the wood has burned down to ash, saturated seaweed is laid over the hot rocks, creating a pit of steam. Small packets of seafood, corn, and potatoes wrapped in wet cheesecloth are laid on top of the seaweed. The food packets are covered with more seaweed, and the whole pit is covered with a tarp for up to about two hours. At the end of the cooking time, the food is unearthed and served with lots of drawn butter and compliments for the cooks.

Lobster

A New England lobster feast is no place for the shy or faint of heart. It takes work and skill to bust open the exoskeleton of the bright-orange, spiny beast, but the delicate taste of the lobster meat, dipped in drawn butter, is well worth the effort. The most popular variety in the United States is the Maine lobster. It has five pairs of legs; the first pair is large, heavy claws that contain a good amount of meat. The other meat-rich portion of the animal is its tail. Boiled lobster is served with a bib, drawn butter, a cracking tool, and a narrow fork for easing the meat out of the broken shell.

Cod

Cape Cod, the sand-scoured curl of land extending from Massachusetts into the Atlantic, didn’t get its name for nothing. Cod is New England’s fish, a white, lean, firm and mild-tasting meat. Cod and scrod (the name for young cod and haddock) can be baked, broiled, poached and fried. Whole fish, which can range in weight from one-and-a-half to 100 pounds, can be stuffed. Cod cheeks and tongues are a local delicacy.

Clam Chowder

Clam chowder has many varieties, and each has its loyal following. One three-way division of clam chowders is New England clam chowder, with a creamy broth; Rhode Island clam chowder, with a clear broth; and Manhattan clam chowder, with a tomato-based broth. The chowders made by early settlers used salt pork and biscuits. Today chowder cooks discard the biscuits, but often sprinkle crackers on top of the chowder. Clams, hard or soft, are the basis of the most common chowders, but other types of fish are often used, depending on the season and the catch. According to “50 Chowders” by Jasper White, the oldest known fish chowder recipe in print appeared in the Boston Evening Post on September 23, 1751.

Cranberries

Shiny, scarlet cranberries have a bigger job than just looking beautiful on the Thanksgiving dinner table. They grow wild but also are extensively cultivated in huge, sandy bogs, mostly in Massachusetts. The peak period to buy and use fresh cranberries is October through December. Apart from cranberry sauce, this fruit makes delicious chutneys, pies, and cobblers. Because they are sour, cranberries are best combined with other fruits, such as apples or dried apricots.

Maple Sugar

The maple forests of northern New England do more than cover the hills with blankets of gold every fall. In later winter – February to March — the combination of freezing nights and warmer days causes sap in the maple trees to begin to move. The Indians collected sap by making slashes in the tree trunks. Early European settlers in New England at first copied the Indians’ sap-collection methods, but by 1800 they began harvesting the sap by drilling a small hole in the tree and inserting a tube made from a hollowed twig. In the early years, maple sap was boiled down and made into maple sugar, not syrup, because it was easier to store the dried and hardened sugar. Early makers of maple products boiled sap in iron kettles hanging over an open fire. This process evaporated water out of the sap, leaving the essential syrup. When it was thickened, the syrup was stirred until it began to crystallize, and then poured into molds. Today, during March and April, hundreds of sugar houses all over New England welcome visitors to watch the process and taste the fruits of the maple tree.

Boston Baked Beans

The short definition of Boston baked beans is dried navy beans baked slowly with molasses and salt pork. The early colonists learned to cook dried beans from the American Indians, who would dig pits in the earth and slow-cook beans with maple sugar and bear fat. This dish evolved into baked beans with salt pork and molasses. It was traditionally served on Saturday nights in Colonial times. The Puritan Sabbath — when no cooking could be done — ran from sundown Saturday to sundown on Sunday. Puritan wives baked beans in brick ovens on Saturday for that night’s supper. The leftovers were still warm when the family returned from church Sunday morning.

New England Boiled Dinner

This dinner, with roots in Ireland, is a one-pot meal native to New England that contains various ingredients, but primarily corned beef, cabbage, carrots, turnips, and potatoes. These ingredients, along with seasonings, are added at various times during cooking and slowly simmered together to create a hearty one-pot meal. Common condiments include horse radish, mustard, and vinegar. The dish is representative of the cultural heritage of the region, notably that of the Irish.

New England is Apple Country

Apple growing has found a fertile home in rocky soils, long, hot summers, and crisp fall days of New England. The New England apple industry is still largely family-owned and orchards are an important community resource. Many growers offer pick-your-own sales and farm stands that sell homemade apple butter, applesauce, pies, and other treats. Among the other treats is apple cider -- fermented (“hard”) or non-fermented. Until the mid-1800s, hard cider was the most popular beverage in North America because apples were plentiful; it was cheap to make; and, unlike milk, it would not go bad. All the colonists, young and old, drank hard cider at all types of family and church occasions.



The Irish Experience -- Salem
March 12, 2010 to March 13, 2010
Open Hearth Cooking Class: Breads, Cakes and Biscuits -- Deerfield
March 13, 2010
Sisters in Soul – New Bedford
March 13, 2010
Winter Fiesta -- Winchester
March 13, 2010
St. Patrick's Day Celebration -- South Yarmouth
March 13, 2010
Roomful of Blues & Bellevue Cadillac-- Salisbury Beach
March 13, 2010
Jazz Vocalist Rachel Price -- Rockport
March 13, 2010
The Seventh – Boston
March 13, 2010 to March 14, 2010
Maple Sugar Days at Brookwood Farm -- Milton
March 13, 2010 to March 14, 2010
Gustafer Yellowgold's Show -- Northampton
March 14, 2010
Maple Festival -- Norwell
March 14, 2010
South Boston Saint Patrick's Day Parade
March 14, 2010
Worcester St. Patrick's Day Parade 2010
March 14, 2010
Scituate St. Patrick's Day Parade 2010
March 14, 2010
Three Choirs Festival Concert -- Worcester
March 14, 2010
Erin Go Bragh Whiskey Tasting -- Boston
March 17, 2010
Celtic Crossroads -- Worcester
March 17, 2010
St. Patrick's Day Activities at the Children’s Museum – Boston
March 17, 2010
The Glengarry Bhoys -- Salisbury
March 17, 2010
Richie Havens-- Salisbury Beach
March 19, 2010
Plymouth Rock Blues Festival -- Plymouth
March 20, 2010
Le Grand Cirque -- Springfield
March 20, 2010
Opening Day at Plimoth Plantation -- Plymouth
March 20, 2010
Robert Cray Band -- Salisbury Beach
March 21, 2010
Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade 2010
March 21, 2010
Holyoke St. Patrick's Day Parade 2010
March 21, 2010
Manchester St. Patrick's Day Parade 2010
March 21, 2010
Wine Dinner Series: Tempranillo -- Boston
March 22, 2010
Flavors of Neponset Valley – Foxboro
March 25, 2010
Lighten Up with Loretta LaRoche -- Worcester
March 26, 2010
Gershwin's “Porgy and Bess” -- Worcester
March 27, 2010 to March 28, 2010
Blackstone Valley Bluegrass Band -- Lancaster
March 27, 2010
Stuart Highland Pipe Band Concert -- North Chelmsford
March 27, 2010
Ray Charles Tribute with the Boston Pops -- Boston
March 29, 2010 to May 29, 2010
Harriet Tubman's Freedom Train - Foxboro
March 31, 2010
The Fabulous Thunderbirds -- Salisbury Beach
April 1, 2010
Jo Dee Messina -- Salisbury Beach
April 2, 2010
Judy Collins – New Bedford
April 2, 2010
Bunny Bonanzoo -- Stoneham
April 3, 2010
“Sleeping Beauty” Performed by Moscow Festival Ballet -- Worcester
April 6, 2010
The United States Air Force Band of Liberty -- Worcester
April 7, 2010
Riverdance Farewell Performances -- Worcester
April 9, 2010 to April 11, 2010
Richard Marx & Matt Scannell -- Salisbury Beach
April 10, 2010
Wine Dinner Series: Alsace – Maison Hugel -- Boston
April 12, 2010
In The Mood -- Worcester
April 12, 2010
Celebrate Seafood Dinner Series -- Boston
April 13, 2010
“Girls Night: The Musical” -- Worcester
April 15, 2010
Joan Osborne -- Salisbury Beach
April 17, 2010
Defending the Caveman -- Worcester
April 17, 2010
“Oliver” -- Worcester
April 23, 2010
Curtis Adams -- Springfield
April 24, 2010
Earth Day at Garden in the Woods -- Framingham
April 24, 2010
Beaucoup Blue -- Lancaster
April 24, 2010
Wine Dinner Series: Austria -- Boston
April 26, 2010
Wine Dinner Series: Austria -- Boston
April 26, 2010
Sampling of International Wine & Food -- Worcester
April 30, 2010
Donna Lee and Landslide: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac -- Chicopee
May 1, 2010
Boston Pops Season Opening Night -- Boston
May 4, 2010
Idina Menzel and the Boston Pops -- Boston
May 5, 2010 to May 6, 2010
Lord of the Dance -- Springfield
May 6, 2010 to May 7, 2010
Wine Dinner Series: Blind Tasting -- Boston
May 10, 2010
The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers -- Boston
May 21, 2010 to May 22, 2010
Maureen Mcgovern and the Boston Pops -- Boston
May 25, 2010 to May 26, 2010
Ray Charles Tribute with the Boston Pops -- Boston
May 29, 2010
Dave Brubeck with the Boston Pops -- Boston
June 1, 2010 to June 2, 2010
A Tribute to Duke Ellington with the Boston Pops -- Boston
June 4, 2010 to June 5, 2010
From the Top with the Boston Pops -- Boston
June 8, 2010
An Evening with Cole Porter with the Boston Pops -- Boston
June 9, 2010 to June 11, 2010
Gospel Night with the Boston Pops -- Boston
June 12, 2010
The World of Arlo Guthrie with the Boston Pops -- Boston
June 17, 2010 to June 18, 2010
Father's Day Family Concert With Daniel Bernard Roumain and the Boston Pops -- Boston
June 20, 2010
Click here for a full list of events.

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