Most popular food?

[Loyalist Dave]

The soldier's ration varied from post to post but this was a standard ration in Canada, and is thought to be fairly common from 1778-1779
NOTE that this is listed on a daily basis, but the men would get their ration once or twice a week, so multiply the amounts by a factor of three or four. So for example a private was issued a ration with an allowance of 1 oz. butter and 1 oz. rice per day, but if issued on Sunday for seven days, he was issued 7 ounces of rice and seven ounces of butter. Whether he boiled all of the rice and ate it or perhaps divided it in half, and used it in two meals, who can say...

Flour or Bread. . . . . . . . . 1 1/2 Pounds
Beef . . . . . . ... . . 1 Pound
or Pork. . . . . . . . . 1/2 Pound
Pease. . . . . . . . . 1/4 Pint
Butter. . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce
Rice . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce
1 quart of spruce beer (in winter)

Note the lack of vitamin C foodstuffs. The spruce beer provided enough C to ward off scurvy. Since the beer ration was not critical in summer it's likely the private men were supplementing their diet with green vegetables, using their meager pay. Note the lack of salt. Also note that all they were issued was flour or perhaps baked bread. IF it was flour they probably had to pay a few pennies for a camp follower to bake it up for them.

LD

 

[Carbon 6]

How are you guys defining "popular" ?

I'd say the the most popular food was the one that was exported the most. I think that was wheat.
Corn, (livestock feed) was what people ate so they could sell the more profitable wheat, but given the choice I am certain everyone would have preferred wheat to eat.
Beyond that, "popular" is just playing favorites .

 

[tenngun]

Wheat was the export grain, and only rich Americans had pure wheat bread on a daily bases. Mixed grain was more common fare.
I was thinking the thrust of the question was what was avrage meals in America the time.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I hadn't thought of "popular" being the most exported, and would think that would fall under "most profitable", so perhaps "most popular" might indeed mean the grain that farmers wanted to grow because they made the most money. On the other hand if one is going to use "profit" as the yardstick, then tobacco was the most popular crop, as it was by far the most profitable. They even used receipts for the amount of tobacco stored in local warehouses, as currency, for a time.

Archives of Maryland online, August, 1730:
Ordered by the Court that Thomas Predix pay unto John Brown thirty pounds of tobacco ....,

Ordered by the Court that William Whaley pay unto Richard Holland two hundred and seventy pounds of tobacco …,

Ordered by the Court that William Catlin pay unto Robert Blare, Charles Curtis, Elizabeth McDaniel son
and Solomon Toillson Ninty pounds of tobacco Each...,

Ordered by the Court that William Catlin pay unto Hannah Blare thirty pounds of tobacco...,

Now these people weren't handed all of this tobacco, but were paid with paper receipts for the stuff, which they could, if they wished, use to actually draw out the tobacco and ship it to England, or they could conduct all sorts of transactions with it.

On the other hand the OP was talking about "food" so the above is merely a side-bit of information.

Corn, (livestock feed) was what people ate so they could sell the more profitable wheat, but given the choice I am certain everyone would have preferred wheat to eat.

I'm not sure that maize was "livestock feed" in the 18th century. Not nearly as it was when the FDA in the 20th Century, stopped the use of a bacterial slurry to tenderize beef, and thus corn as feed became the primary method of making beef tender..., "tender" compared to grass-fed beef. I'm also not so sure that people would've "preferred" to eat wheat. They might have, true, but I don't think wheat was scarce because it was exported, and thus maize became the default grain. It may have been for perhaps the first half of the 18th century, that wheat was not in abundance in every colony where it was grown. I know for a fact from period references, that barley was not grown very often if at all, and all malted barley for brewing had to be imported.

Back to the wheat, we have this example from Maryland in October of 1742:

"An Act to prevent the Exportation of Indian Corn for the Time therein limitted.

Whereas, by the old Stock of Indian Corn being intirely exhausted, and a certainty of the shortness of the present Crop of the said Grain, it is apprehended by this present General Assembly, that there will not be a sufficient Quantity thereof made in the Province to answer the necessary Occasions of the Inhabitants; it is therefore prayed that it may be Enacted, and Be it therefore Enacted ..., That from and after the Twentieth Day of November next, no Indian Corn shall be Exported out of this Province at any Time, until after the First Day of July next...., Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall extend, to restrain the taking on board any Ship or Vessel Indian Corn for the necessary Victualling such Ship or Vessel, during the Voyage, not exceeding Five Bushels for every Person belonging to, and on board such Ship or Vessel; any Thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding."

So note, corn was being exported. Somebody out there liked eating it. Also, this is at the beginning of the fall, just prior to winter, and there is a shortage of Indian Corn, and Maryland was thinking about possible winter famine. And again, note that a ship may still take some of the grain as provisions, but that amount is limited to five bushels per person on board. Interesting there is no restriction on wheat, so was it so valuable they had to keep the flow of the wheat moving? Did the ships use corn for Victualling because it was cheap, and left any wheat they might have accessed to cargo, OR was there simply no wheat? The exporting of corn was such that stored stockpiles were low, and the present crop (which would've just been harvested) had come in "short", so it was profitable enough that the government was concerned that it might run too low for the present population.

LD

 

[Carbon 6]

Very interesting Dave,

 

[tenngun]

One thing I would THINK contributed to corns popularity was its relative ease to grown on new ground. Wheat takes a lot of prep work to clear the land. Corn planted in hills can go in to pretty rough plots. Then there is the three sisters aspect of corn. One hill of corn also grows peas/beans and squash. Three separate fields had to be prepped to grow old world grains, legumes and root ‘winter crops’.
Any small band of families tramping in to the woods to settle would be well served with corn as their seed especially in that first year or two.
I can’t point to any research to defend this point of view, but in 82 I moved on to three acres of woods, opened me up a pretty rough garden that spring, had three sisters growing and chickens. Save for some dairy products, some beef and pork bought it feed me over that first winter, I had a better garden the next. I never tried wheat, but even with chainsaws and rototillers I was two year before I had cabin built and open enough ground I could have raised it.

 

[necchi]

Note the lack of salt.

Hmm, that's only based on the premise that the beef and pork were provided as fresh.
(most likely not)
Other-wise the method of preservation at the time was salt packing.

You are right about the Vitamin C and scurvy issues, but it takes many months for scurvy to kick in.
It's actually an interesting study scurvy,,
(think Quinn the Eskimo?)(did he ever eat an orange?)
(sorry, biology major kicked in)

 

[Loyalist Dave]

It's actually an interesting study scurvy,,
(think Quinn the Eskimo?)(did he ever eat an orange?)
(sorry, biology major kicked in)

Nope, but he did eat livers and lungs....& etc

http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic32-2-135.pdf?level=1

Anthropology degree, you see....

LD

 

[necchi]

Heck Yes, even cracking the bones to suck the marrow out is a good thing,

 

[Carbon 6]

Note the lack of vitamin C foodstuffs.

LD

Peas do, but they probably boiled them for so long they leached out all the vitamin C and tossed it out with the cooking water.

 

[tenngun]

Most forts had a garden plot for the men where they grew fresh veggies at least. And forts drew business. Often forts just had a company of men. And a veggie plot would not have to be too big.

 

[Rifleman1776]

During the effort to expel the Redcoats beef was originally sold by individual farmers. They might only have one or two animals a year to sell. George Washington saw this as being inefficient and encouraged the formation of larger herds to provide beef for the troops. It's been several years since I read the bio that mentioned this, I forget the details but ole George can be considered the father of the beef industry in America.