Typical Diet.

The American diet at midcentury was based on two common staples: corn and salt pork. (Fresh pork was available only at slaughtering time.) One European traveler, tired of being served these ubiquitous foods, complained about "the eternal pork, which makes its appearance on every American table, high and low, rich and poor." Subsistence farmers, who grew their own food with a little left over to sell to others, often enjoyed more-varied diets than those who were farming market crops such as cotton and tobacco. Yet even those farmers who were free to grow the foods they wanted to eat were limited to what grew best in their regions. For example, New Englanders supplemented their diets by fishing for the plentiful cod. southerners grew sweet potatoes. Another important consideration was what the farmer could most effectively preserve to last the families through...