North American Cuisines & Recipes.

North America holds one of the world's oldest cuisines and one of its youngest, sharing a border. Mexican cooking runs on an unbroken line to pre-Columbian civilization — corn nixtamalized the same way for thousands of years, chiles bred into a spice cabinet of dried and fresh varieties, techniques like the comal and the pit oven still in daily use. To its north, the United States and Canada cook the food of immigration itself: regional styles — Southern, Cajun, Tex-Mex, barbecue belts — formed wherever arriving traditions met local ingredients and each other. The continent's common thread is generosity and fire; this is grilling and slow-smoking territory on every side of every border. The country pages below map each cuisine's essential ingredients and the dishes that define it, starting with the ones worth cooking first.

120 recipes on this route