Published: July 17, 2008 10:44 am            

Discovering Hoosier’s philosophy on food

Hoosier-in-training, Part III

Last week, your “would-be Nancy Drew” — that’s me — continued to investigate the Hoosier character by looking at your “need for speed” and how your inventions and innovations improved the ways we get around in the air and on the ground.

Today, we’ll look at a favorite Hoosier pastime: eating.

It’s often said Hoosiers eat mostly “pale food,” for example, a dinner of pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes and corn or a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. Midwest novelist Edna Ferber wrote, “Roast beef, medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy. Roast beef, medium, is safe, sane and sure.” Hoosiers like their beef and other ‘hearty’ fare. In fact, the Campbell Soup Co. reports its most popular soup in Indiana is Chili Beef, and more french fries are consumed in the Midwest than any other part of the country, according to “Calling the Midwest Home” by Carolyn Lieberg.

Lieberg writes, “The prosperous Midwestern soil yields staples galore: corn, pork, cream, beef, cheese, butter, flour, cereals, cherries, apples and blueberries.” But, she adds, something happens annually to counterbalance “the delicious pork gravy, the Dutch Apple pies, the scalloped corn and potatoes, and the beef goulash.” That “something” is gardens. The rich soil rewards planters with “fresh carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, peas, radishes, zucchini and squash.”

Persimmons grow in southern Indiana and are sometimes used in ice cream. “My husband the Hoosier” tells stories of the rhubarb cobbler of his youth baked by his Aunt Bibbit. His mother tells me she grew up dipping a stalk of rhubarb into a saucer of sugar and, oh, the tart and sweet tastes that assailed her all at once were heaven.

On Saturday mornings, farmers’ markets in Zionsville and cities and towns across the state beckon Hoosiers to indulge in the season’s freshest offerings or can and preserve them for the coming months. (Quick. What did the Ball brothers of Muncie invent for this very purpose?).

In addition, Indiana’s ethnic diversity guarantees the survival of dishes your ancestors brought from “the old country” and those of African-Americans who came to Indiana in the 1800s and during the “Great Migration” of 1900-1920.

The most populous groups in Indiana, Lieberg tells us, are those of German, Irish and English ancestry. If your family was of German origin, you might have grown up eating “spatzle” (noodles), boiled potatoes, white asparagus called “spargel,” sausage and sauerbraten.

If England is your family background, you may be familiar with “hot pots” (lamb-and-black pudding slow-cooked in a covered casserole with sliced potatoes on top), fish and chips (cod or haddock deep-fried in flour batter with chips dressed in malt vinegar), or Shepherd’s pie (lamb pie in a casserole topped by a layer of mashed potatoes). Lamb stew, corned beef and cabbage, “boxty” (a kind of potato pancake) and Irish soda bread might be what your mom made if Ireland was your family’s “old country.”

Traditional African-American dishes include red beans and rice, hush puppies, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato pie, collard greens and corn bread.

As the tapestry of cultures continues to expand, today Hoosiers can enjoy all these plus Mexican, Cuban, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Italian and French foods. Here in Zionsville, we can dine on sushi, spanikopita or veal piccata at restaurants within a block or two of each other.

What does all this tell us? That Hoosiers are a convivial bunch who enjoys the foods they know and willing to try those they don’t. Your adventurous palates match your adventurous spirits.

Next time, how Hoosiers have fun. Hint: there is no “corn-hole” in Connecticut.

A lifelong Connecticut resident, Cynthia DiTallo Starks and her family moved to Zionsville in 2006. E-mail her at cindy.starks@timessentinel.com.

        

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