Introduction

The traditions of baking in America are as old as the country itself and as varied as the people who came to settle there. The native Indians were already growing and harvesting maize when the Pilgrims arrived, and although it was a foreign taste to the colonists, it saved their lives during the first hard winters. More familiar grains, such as wheat and oats, were not grown in large enough quantities to be readily available for more than 100 years. By that time the settlers had developed a taste for ‘Indian,’ as maize was called, and they continued to use it in their baked breads, puddings and muffins. George Washington built his own mill to grind his wheat and eventually became the largest flour producer in the colonies, as well as their first president after independence.