LA CONNER — The Skagit County Historical Museum is offering up an exhibit that people can really sink their teeth into.

After all, who isn’t a part of the culture of food?

The museum’s new exhibit, “Key Ingredients: America by Food,” uses a relatively small space to tell a large story, beginning with the pilgrims and culminating with the rise of kitchen conveniences and fast-food restaurants.

There’s a lot to learn about America through the lens of its agricultural and culinary traditions. Food defines the regions of the country. Washington apples aren’t mentioned in the exhibit, but there are references to the Idaho potato, the Philly cheese steak sandwich, and even the cheese-headed football fans in Wisconsin.

The exhibit is the second Smithsonian Institution traveling show that has come to the museum.

“It’s sort of nice to bring in a national perspective every once in a while,” said Karen Marshall, museum executive director.

While the bulk of the 2,185-square-foot exhibit space is devoted to the Smithsonian displays, the museum still remains true to its mission by reflecting the local culture.

One corner of the room is devoted to the culinary traditions of the Croatian community in Anacortes. Images of Croatian feasts and recipes are displayed over antique items from the kitchen and dining table of local Croat Kay Bacetich.

Across the room is a display of old kitchen gadgets from Skagit County households, including some that date back to the 1800s. The museum’s staff created a quiz: Match the gadget with its name. Some are easy — the flour sifter, the corkscrew. Harder to identify for the modern cook might be the Texas doughnut cutter and the hog scraper.

Those who are comfortable with their packaged meats and frozen entrees are reminded that it wasn’t too long ago that the cook had to scrape hair off the hog before preparing a ham for dinner, or pluck a turkey of its feathers before Thanksgiving dinner.

The exhibit shows us how far we’ve come as a country. A nation that once relied on the ice man now can’t do without its “Frigidaires.”

It’s not clear what, if anything, the refrigerator-door paintings by Anacortes artist Quinn Thompson have to say about the rise of the appliance in the post-war industrial boom. But these 1950s refrigerator doors with manic Pablo Picasso-like images were “just too good to pass up,” Marshall said.

So was the opportunity to connect the exhibit’s theme with the holiday season. At 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23, the museum will present a lecture by Kathleen Kennedy on holiday “culinology” and food trends. After a talk on Nov. 30 on Victorian menus and etiquette, a third and final presentation comes in time for America’s favorite New Year’s resolution. The history of diet fads will be presented Saturday, Jan. 3, on the exhibit’s final weekend.

Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .