Fish and Chesapeake Foodways
Courtesy of the New York Public Library, Circa 1894
Here is a 17 century description of Native American cookery in the Chesapeake region from the travel account of British captain John smith. He observed, “Their fish . . . they boyle [sic] either very tenderly, or broyle it so long on hurdles over the fire; or else after the Spanish fashion, putting it on a spit, they turn first the one side, then the other, till it be as dire as their jerkin beefe in the west Indies, that they keep it a month or more without putrefying." This is a description of the origins of today's local and slow food movement.
