Colonial whiskey and squirrel pie reveal surprising early American tastes, 'America the Bountiful' host says
"America the Bountiful" host Capri Cafaro reflects on recreating historic whiskey recipes, confronting the realities of squirrel hunting and revealing how colonial-era dishes remain part of regional American food traditions today.
A new documentary exploring Revolutionary-era food has given host Capri Cafaro a firsthand look at the ingenuity that helped colonial Americans adapt, survive and ultimately break from Great Britain.
As Americans celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary, Cafaro said the biggest lesson from making the "America the Bountiful: America's 250th Anniversary Special" was seeing how colonists transformed local crops, livestock and wild game into a self-sustaining food system when European imports were no longer reliable.
"Food is a really interesting anchor, culturally," Cafaro told Fox News Digital. "It has an opportunity to tell infinite stories from economics to agriculture to the environment to science."
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In planning the show's 250th anniversary special, Cafaro said she was "really looking to identify the ways in which colonial settlers were able to adapt in North America without being able to rely on European imports."
She traveled to landmarks of colonial America to trace the roots of foods that are integral to the nation's palate today, including cheese and whiskey.
American colonists had to be creative and resourceful to become food-independent from Great Britain, a new documentary hosted by Capri Cafaro, right, shows. (America the Bountiful)
Colonists turned milk into cheese because fresh milk spoiled quickly. They used the byproducts of the grain they milled for many different things, including making alcohol, Cafaro said.
In the documentary, Cafaro is shown sampling whiskey produced as it would have been at George Washington's Virginia estate, Mount Vernon. She described it with a laugh as "alcohol-grain-forward" and contrasted it with a whiskey suited to "more of a modern-day palate."
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The most challenging experience Cafaro said she had while making the show involved hunting and eating small game.
Squirrel pie and stew were popular in 18th- and 19th-century America, she said, and are something people can still find today, particularly in the Appalachian regions of the United States.
Grain and milk were two of the foods colonists innovated with to create the American culinary heritage. (America the Bountiful)
"It was tough for me to be part of a squirrel-hunting process and then be faced with having to eat it," Cafaro said. "I joked at the time that I may be a vegetarian in the 18th century, having to rely on small game like squirrel."
Many U.S. presidents, including James A. Garfield, were fans of squirrel stew and squirrel pie, Cafaro said.
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Colonists diversified crops, developed preservation techniques for meat and dairy and varied their hunting and trapping methods for small game, Cafaro said she learned while making the documentary.
She added that the documentary also explores the roles Indigenous peoples, European settlers and enslaved people played in growing, harvesting and preparing food.
In a new documentary, Capri Cafaro, right, shows how American colonists used grain to make many things, including whiskey. (America the Bountiful)
For example, Indigenous people shared their knowledge of making tea from local plants and herbs with colonists. After American patriots held the Boston Tea Party, these Liberty Teas turned "an everyday beverage into a symbol of independence," the documentary says.
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Cafaro said she was most struck by "the innovation and the ingenuity that settlers employed, and ... that became a hallmark of the American identity."
She said she hopes the documentary amplifies the voices of farmers, ranchers, fishers and "anyone who works to put food on our table."
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"The American identity isn't possible without their resourcefulness and hard work," she said.
