Food historian helps define Iowa’s food culture, explains how it formed

After years of working in agriculture journalism and interviewing home cooks from farms across Iowa, author Darcy Daugherty Maulsby knew there was more to Iowa’s food history than its humble population took credit for.

When she told people about “A Culinary History of Iowa,” the book she first published in 2016, they had a common reaction: “Iowa has a culinary history?”

From her family’s Century Farm in northwestern Iowa, she recognized Iowa’s anomaly in much of American culture. In a fast-moving society, food is an enduring frontier that documents a place’s evolution while reminding others of its past.

And Iowa’s food culture has been evolving right under Iowans’ noses all along.

“It’s meat and potatoes, but it’s a bit more than that. What defines Iowa food is the fact that we’re such a farming state,” Maulsby said. “Our society today is incredibly mobile, but not for farmers. That’s what’s so wonderful about Iowa foods — they take you back in time, but they’re this comfort that’s as relevant as ever.”

Why does Iowa serve chili with cinnamon rolls?

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Food history is something that many Iowans think is relegated for other places — the kinds that most know by name or can point to on a map. But even today, residents can find a piece of their culture anywhere from churches to convenience stores.

In recent years, Iowan and Midwestern food has been piquing the interest of big publications and institutions on the coasts. Every caucus cycle, Iowans remind presidential candidates of the virtues of Casey’s General Store breakfast pizza, but there are plenty of other bites taken for granted in the Hawkeye State that were either born here or have evolved here thanks to immigrant populations — Scotcharoos, hamballs, kolaches and even Jell-O.

One that often sparks lively conversation is chili served with cinnamon rolls.

“That’s one of those great mysteries. No one knows for sure why (it started),” Maulsby said.

Growing up in Lake City, Maulsby was served caramel rolls with her chili for lunch — something she later learned was not universal among Iowans, much less the rest of America.

With inroads in Nebraska, a slice of Wyoming and a rare mention in Minnesota, she has a theory about cinnamon rolls and chili. Starting around the 1960s, she believes stay-at-home housewives and mothers with kitchen experience started to work with basic commodities at schools like water, ground beef and beans.

“My guess is they were doing their best to make meals that were halfway healthy and appealing to kids. They looked at what they had and said, ‘We can make chili, and cinnamon rolls for dessert.’ ” Maulsby said.

Another intriguing mainstay in Iowa culture is its obsession with Jell-O, she said. With an abundance of gelatin salad options in recipe collections, Iowa rivals only Utah in terms of consumption.

“If you look at any small town, large town, church or community cookbook, I guarantee there’s a big section in there about Jell-O salads,” she said. “If you’re not in Iowa, people (are) horrified we consider Jell-O a salad.”

At an upcoming appearance in Cedar Rapids, Maulsby will tell the stories of Iowa traditions across the state like Maid-Rites, breaded pork tenderloins, church dinners, and a cookie recipe from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s brief time in the state.

“I’m passionate about helping people make the farm-to-fork connection and reconnecting with Iowa history,” she said. “If you have an appetite for adventure, you can’t do better than Iowa when it comes to history, culture and one-of-a-kind culinary experiences.”

Eastern Iowa connections to Iowa cuisine

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Iowans need not look much farther than their backyard to find the source of many traditions that have since become a statewide heritage.

Kolaches sourced from Czech immigrants, for example, have taken on multiple iterations across this side of the state with rivalries between different styles.

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Maulsby was familiar only with the open-faced style until she visited Spillville. At a church there, those cooking them in a folded style that concealed the fruit filling would call the open-faced bakers “lazy” in good fun.

“I say they’re delicious, no matter how you make them,” Maulsby noted, for the record.

In Cedar Rapids, the food culture fostered by former servants at the Brucemore mansion stands out among Iowa’s farm-centric cuisine, with a lifestyle that wasn’t normal for most Iowans.

“It’s a wonderful way to see a side of Iowa’s culinary history you don’t see in other places in the state,” the author said. “Historically, these people’s lives were not the ones being written about in newspapers.”

There’s also the Ingalls Butter Cookie from Burr Oak in far northeast Iowa, where the storied Ingalls family lived for a time. With basic ingredients, Maulsby called it a gateway recipe to learn how to cook.

What’s the secret ingredient to Iowa cuisine?

With access to some of the best beef and pork in the world, Iowa is an epicenter of food production. But the food historian said there are no “secret ingredients” in its culture.

With strong roots in the European immigration waves that shaped Iowa’s food during the 19th and 20th centuries, the state’s cuisine isn’t done evolving. Today, it’s being shaped by new waves of immigration from Latin America and Africa.

“The main thing that defines great food is good, quality ingredients and having the heart to put time and effort in. It doesn’t mean you have to buy rare, expensive ingredients,” Maulsby said. “For some of the best cooks I know in this state … their recipes are the type where you can go to any small town grocery store, find ingredients and produce memorable meals.”

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Memorability — perhaps a core element to the best parts of any food culture — is often made by those surrounding the table rather than the dishes on it.

Many farm cook subjects in her interviews have said their children didn’t know how to make the best family recipes because they were too busy. Iowa’s food historian hopes her research reminds others to slow down and connect around the dinner table, where food fosters lifelong connections and passes lessons on from one generation to the next.

“I wanted to see the recipes and culinary heritage preserved so that when people have more time in the future, they’ll have this knowledge,” she said.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.