Jackson Free Press

Most of the time, I eat my meals without a thought to the history and development of the recipes. But even the simplest of dishes can have a complex history, influenced by tradition, availability of ingredients and creativity of the cooks.

Here are 10 classic American dishes with a fascinating background.

Since the early 1900s, Senate bean soup has been served daily in the U.S. Senate restaurant in Washington, D.C. Sen. Fred Dubois of Idaho sat on the committee that oversaw the restaurant, and the story goes that he insisted that bean soup be served every day.

Others say that Sen. Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who loved the bean-soup recipe, was the instigator. The original recipe included mashed potatoes, but today's Senate bean soup leaves them out.

Boston cream pie, which is actually a cake, originated around 1856, when the Parker House Restaurant in Boston featured the "Parker House Chocolate Pie" on its menu. The chef derived the recipe from older British desserts. In 1996, Boston cream pie was named the official dessert of Massachusetts.

Fried chicken, known as one of the South's most popular foods, was originally brought to the South with Scottish immigrants who settled here. African American slaves who were allowed to keep their own chickens further developed the recipe with their own spices.

Shrimp and grits is a classic southern recipe that is often featured at gourmet restaurants. Local fishermen created the dish in South Carolina and called it "Breakfast Shrimp." Originally, it was a combination of river shrimp, grits and bacon fat.

Bread pudding recipes have existed for thousands of years as a way to avoid wasting food. The Romans, Egyptians and Indians all created recipes for bread desserts. An iconic southern food, bread pudding is also eaten today in South America and Europe.

A common southern staple, the po' boy sandwich was invented in New Orleans in 1929. The streetcar conductors went on strike, and Clovis and Bennie Martin, two brothers who owned a French Quarter restaurant, supported their cause. They agreed to give away free food to any striking workers. Their gigantic sandwiches easily served several workers. When a striker arrived at the restaurant, one of the Martins would say, "Here comes another poor boy."

Cabbage and black-eyed peas are traditionally eaten on New Year's Day to bring good luck and fortune. Several explanations for this custom exist. One says that the dish must be eaten before noon on New Year's Day to ensure prosperity. Another insists that you must eat 365 black-eyed peas. The tradition of eating black-eyed peas dates back to Egyptian pharaohs, who ate them so that they could remain humble.

A reference to jambalaya first appeared in print in 1872, and it has remained a popular dish ever since. Jambalaya allows for versatility and creativity, since it can be made from a few main ingredients along with whatever else is in the kitchen. According to one legend, a hungry traveler stopped in New Orleans for the night, but the hotel had run out of food. Jean, the cook, mixed haphazard ingredients together. The traveler loved the meal, and because the Louisiana dialect for "mix together" is balayez, he named the dish Jean Balayez.

There's nothing more American than apple pie. Truthfully, pies have been around for millennia, though early pies were made with meat. Fruit pies developed in England during the 1500s and arrived in America with English settlers. The story goes that the Pennsylvania Dutch further developed the recipe, which spread throughout American cuisine during the Revolutionary War.

Red velvet cake, made immortal by the armadillo cake in "Steel Magnolias," is a relatively recent invention. Velvet cake recipes were published in the late 1800s, but it wasn't until 1920 that a recipe for a red cake was published in Kansas. Recipes that included red food coloring emerged during the 1960s.