Food curations

How food is grown, cooked, traded and eaten, and how it shapes cultures and bodies. Quick lessons on ingredients, cooking and the stories behind what ends up on the plate.

Collections in Food

How food, history, and power shape the anthropology of food

The anthropology of food traces food's material and symbolic importance and how these intersect, including food's role in social distinctions, shared meals, industrialization, and global labor and commodity chains. These lessons answer how food connects history and power, helping readers understand how food systems and meanings change over time. They follow the links between food, historical identity, and economic change.

by Curiate·the anthropology of food

How culinary traditions around the world evolve

Culinary traditions around the world are styles of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques, and dishes, usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. They evolve from regional resources, with climate, agriculture, trade routes, and cultural exchanges shaping their distinctive flavors and practices.

by Curiate·culinary traditions around the world

From automats to postwar fast food

The rise of fast food in post-war America is the growth of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. Fast food was created as a commercial strategy to accommodate large numbers of busy commuters, travelers and wage workers.

by Curiate·the rise of fast food in post-war america

How to build a better homemade hamburger

The hamburger, often known as a burger, consists of fillings, usually a patty of panfried or grilled ground meat, typically beef, placed inside a sliced bun, sesame seed bun, or bread roll. Hamburgers are commonly prepared at home and typically associated with fast-food restaurants, but are also sold at other restaurants, including high-end establishments.

by Curiate·The hamburger and how to cook it at home

How American barbecue and smoked meat cooks low and slow

American barbecue and smoked meat is a cooking method using live fire and smoke; in US cuisine, meat is roasted or smoked over wood or charcoal at low temperatures for several hours.

by Curiate·American barbecue and smoked meat

How fried chicken became an American tradition

Fried chicken, also called Southern fried chicken, is chicken pieces coated with seasoned flour or batter and fried, and Hannah Glasse published a recipe for deep-fried chicken in 1747. The lessons answer how fried chicken became an everyday Southern dish and how its traditions developed across communities and regions. They connect its preparation, changing popularity, and place in American food culture.

by Curiate·Fried chicken and the American fried-chicken tradition

How chili became a Texas staple

Chili con carne and Texas-style chili is a spicy stew of Mexican origin made with chili peppers, meat, tomatoes, and beans. How did chili become a Texas staple, and what can its history help us understand about the dish? The lessons trace its path through food traditions, practical cooking, and changing ideas about what belongs in chili.

by Curiate·Chili con carne and Texas-style chili

How cities depend on imported food

Food security means ensuring the world's food supply, a concern because shortages can cause social and political problems. What makes cities depend on food brought from elsewhere, and how does that dependence connect urban diets to distant production? The lessons trace these connections through transport, trade and the inputs used to produce food.

by Curiate·how cities depend on the food they import

How sugar shaped slavery and capitalist power

How sugar became a modern commodity and a question of power concerns the political economy of food commodities, studied by American anthropologist Sidney Wilfred Mintz, born in 1922, through historical and ethnographic studies. The lessons ask how sugar connects slavery and capitalist power. They trace the relationship between plantation systems, labor, and wider economic change.

by Curiate·how sugar became a modern commodity and a question of power in Sweetness and Power

How kitchen tools changed what we eat

Consider the Fork is Bee Wilson's witty account of how cooking changed around the world, revealing the history of everyday kitchen objects. The lessons answer how tools used for eating helped shape what people ate and how they ate it. They trace changing ideas about table manners and the place of utensils in everyday meals.

by Curiate·how kitchen tools and cooking technology changed what we eat

Collections in Food

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