Anne Royall at the table

In the young Republic, meals were not separated into French-style starter-main-dessert. The day was organized around a hearty morning 'breakfast', a midday 'dinner' (the main meal, where meats, vegetables, and breads often arrived together on the table), and a light 'supper' in the evening. For a traveler with modest income like Anne Royall, many meals were taken on the stagecoach, at relay taverns, or prepared quickly with whatever was on hand.

Corn — a grain of the Americas, perfectly legitimate here since we are in the United States — is the foundation of American folk cuisine. Paired with molasses (the poor man's sugar, a byproduct of cane sugar), it produced breads, puddings, and drinks that nourished an entire Republic, from Southern farms to post stations.