Cuisine of the Midwestern United States
[4] Iowa is the current center of pork production in the U.S.[5] Everyday Midwestern home cooking generally showcases simple and hearty dishes that make use of the abundance of locally grown foods.
[7] In addition to making cheese and butter, German and Swiss dairy farmers raised milk-fed veal and produced a type of white beer called weisse bier.
Some of the dishes found on the menu were cashew chicken, baked filet of Lake Superior whitefish au gratin and the ambiguous dessert called "floating island".
[12] Some European foodways have, by wide acceptance, become part of the local cuisine to a degree that they have shed most cultural associations with specific immigrant groups.
Italian-American cuisine continued to flourish in Chicago as American forces returned from World War II with a taste for Italian foods.
Now also available with chicken, roast pork, ham, shrimp, and even the vegetarian option tofu, the jibarito is distinguished from other sandwiches by substituting green plantains for bread.
[7] Cracker Jack was founded by a German immigrant who in 1871 started selling molasses-coated, steam-popped corn out of a candy shop in Chicago's South Side.
It is similar to the traditional porridge-like German peasant food stippgrutze but incorporates a higher proportion of meat-to-grain and is thicker, forming a sliceable loaf.
[19][better source needed] Taste of Cincinnati, the longest running culinary arts festival in the United States, is held each year on Memorial Day weekend.
Prominent examples of these include cavatelli, rigatoni, pizza, Chicken paprikash, stuffed cabbage, pierogi, and kielbasa all of which are widely popular in and around the city.
[27][better source needed] The large number of Irish and German immigrants who came to St. Louis beginning in the early 19th century contributed significantly to the shaping of local cuisine by their uses of beef, pork, and chicken, often roasted or grilled, and desserts including rich cakes, stollens, fruit pies, doughnuts, and cookies.
Two unique Italian-American style dishes include "toasted" ravioli, which is breaded and fried, and St. Louis-style pizza, which has a crisp, thin crust and is usually made with Provel cheese instead of traditional mozzarella.
[38] In the fall, the Twin Cities share along with Green Bay, Wisconsin, the tradition of the neighborhood booyah, a cuisine and cultural event featuring a hodge-podge of ingredients in stews.
Restaurants offering other cuisines of Asia including those from Afghanistan, India, Nepal and the Philippines are also recent additions to the Twin Cities dining scene.
During winter months when fish, clams and mussels were inaccessible the "river people", or alternately "shantyboat dwellers" hunted possums, beaver or raccoons.
The original version from Springfield was an open-faced sandwich made a horseshoe-shaped ham steak and two pieces of white toast but it is available with other types of meat also like chicken cutlets or hamburger.
Traditional recipes from Amana's communal kitchens include radish salad, apple bread, strawberry rhubarb pie, and dumpling soup.
Kringla, krumkake and lefse are found at church suppers throughout the holiday season when a typical lutefisk dinner would include mashed potatoes, cranberry salad,[66] corn, rutabaga, rommegrot, meatballs with gravy, and Norwegian pastry for dessert.
In Polish communities throughout the state, pączki can be found every year on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) in a wide assortment of flavors including lemon, blueberry, prune, and custard.
[85] Walleye, trout, herring, crappie, lutefisk, wild rice, raspberry, blueberry and strawberry are preferred ingredients in modern Minnesotan cuisine.
[86] Food selections served at the annual Minnesota State Fair in past years have included watermelon pickles, baked beans, hot dogs, buffalo burgers, deep-fried cheese curds, glazed ham and homemade apple pie[87] New foods for 2019 included fried tacos on a stick, Turkish pizza, stuffed cabbage rolls, feta bites, shrimp and grits fritters, blueberry key lime pie and assorted other dessert selections.
A farmer's wife writes to her cousin about harvest in Rochester, Minnesota "My hand is so tired perhaps you'll excuse penciling", explaining she woke before four to skim milk, churn butter and bake "6 loaves of bread & seven pumpkin pies".
[94] In those days a full multi-course meal served for a special occasions would have started with a typical soup followed by a choice of local fish and the so-called "boiled dishes" like chicken with egg sauce, ham or corned beef.
Norwegian ancestry was historically more widespread throughout the northern half and eastern third of North Dakota, and therefore plays a stronger role in local cuisine in those parts of the state.
Popular German-Russian cuisine includes kuchen, a thin, cheesecake-like custard pastry often filled with fruit such as cherries, apricot, prunes, and sometimes cottage cheese.
Coated in chocolate, with a partially exposed center of peanut butter fudge, in appearance the candy resembles the chestnut that grows on the state tree, commonly known as the Buckeye.
[120] The beer hall, on the other hand, was in German culture views as a place where working-class families drank and ate together in groups at large tables.
[121] Cities like New York did not want fast food to compete with local establishments, but the expansion of suburbs in the 1950s allowed fast-food franchises to grow into areas that lacked restaurants.
[123] Several restaurant chains have roots in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area, including Famous Dave's,[124] the now defunct Chi-Chi's, and Buca di Beppo, which was started out of a small Minneapolis basement in 1993.
Other notable chains include Harold's Chicken Shack, Skyline Chili, Spangles, Big John Steak & Onion, Graeter's, Maid-Rite and Cousins Subs.
