Perpetuating a Culinary Myth: Food and Whiteness in Appalachia

Examination of Appalachian foodways reform initiatives from the early 1900s reveals the persistence of an Appalachian myth that casts mountaineers as Anglo-Saxons ignorant in the cultivation and preparation of food, yet analysis of archival materials reveals a diverse population with extensive culinary know-how; interrogating portrayals of “mountain food” in contemporary media illustrates a disturbingly similar trend that is again overturned when we consider how mountain people represent their own foodways. At the turn of the twentieth century, missionaries and industrialists approached Appalachia with the mindset that the land and people were a wilderness in need of proper cultivation that once reformed, would yield a pure Anglo-Saxon American ideal. This mindset contributed to the formation and execution of cultural reforms which disregarded diverse expressions of mountain culture. Cultural reform efforts targeted Appalachian foodways in particular, and tracing the social dynamics at play in these initiatives throughout time reveals a startling continuation of misconceptions about the region and its people. Drawing on research of Appalachian studies and foodways scholars, my research delves into underutilized areas in new strands of scholarship. Comparing archival resources reveals a staggering discrepancy between missionaries’ perceptions of Appalachians’ knowledge and Appalachians’ actual knowledge, a discrepancy that persists in contemporary media. In my essay I explore how present-day representations also reveal the persistence of the Appalachian myth in widely accessible outlets, including travel shows and cookbooks. Moreover, I consider how this damaging discrepancy limits the ways in which both multi-ethnic and Caucasian Appalachian people represent their own foodways