Southern Regional Cookery: Early Influences

The first settlers were the Spanish, who established a permanent colony in Florida. Though unsuccessful in their attempts to colonize farther north, in what would become Georgia and Carolina, the Spanish nonetheless influenced the cooking of the later British settlers who found figs and peaches from Spain naturalized in the area and wild Spanish pigs roaming the coastal plain. Saint Augustine, settled in northeastern Florida in 1565, was the first European city in North America. Egg custards, rice dishes, and the use of spices unknown in England at the time are some of the lingering culinary traditions of this part of the South, where the early diet was also influenced by a small number of Moors and Africans who came with the conquistadors. In 1768 a group of Minorcans who had been brought to Florida as indentured servants established a colony near the failed plantation; with them, they brought a taste for their own hot pepper variety, the datil, which flavored their pilaus.