Cuisine of the Midwestern United States

Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the American Midwest. It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe.

Midwestern cuisine generally showcases simple and hearty dishes that make use of the abundance of locally grown foodstuffs. Its culinary profiles may seem synonymous with "American food." Quoted in an interview with the Daily Herald published Jan. 17, 2007, Chef Stephen Langlois described it: "Think of Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey and cranberry sauce and wild rice and apple pie."

Characteristics

Sometimes called "the breadbasket of America," the Midwest serves as a center for grain production, particularly wheat, corn and soybeans. Midwestern states also produce most of the country's wild rice.

Beef and pork processing always have been important Midwestern industries, with a strong role in regional diets. Chicago and Kansas City were historically stockyard and processing centers of the beef trade, while Iowa remains the center of pork production in the U.S.

Far from the oceans, Midwesterners traditionally ate little seafood, relying on local freshwater fish, such as perch and trout, supplemented by canned tuna and canned or cured salmon and herring, although modern air shipping of ocean seafood has been increasing Midwesterners' taste for fish.

Dairy products, especially cheese, form an important group of regional ingredients, with Wisconsin known as "America's Dairy Capital," although other Midwest states make cheese as well.

The upper Midwest, a prime fruit-growing region, sees the extensive use of apples, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, peaches and other cold-climate fruit in its cuisine.

As with many American regional cuisines, Midwestern cooking has been heavily influenced by immigrant groups. Throughout the northern Midwest, northern European immigrant groups predominated, so Swedish pancakes and Polish pierogi are common. Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Ohio and Illinois were destinations for many ethnic German immigrants, so pork sausages and potatoes are prevalent. In the Rust Belt, many Greeks and Greek Macedonians became restaurateurs, imparting a Mediterranean influence. Native American influences show up in the uses of corn and wild rice.

Traditionally, Midwestern cooks used a light hand with seasonings, preferring sage, dill, caraway, mustard and parsley to hot, bold and spicy flavors. However, with new waves of immigrants from Latin America and Asia moving into the region, these tastes are changing.

This section of the country is also headquarters for several seminal hamburger chains, notably McDonald's in Oak Brook, Illinois (founded in California, but turned into the iconic franchise by Ray Kroc beginning with a still-standing store in Des Plaines, Illinois). The Midwest is also home to Culver's in Sauk City, Wisconsin; Steak n Shake, founded in Normal, Illinois, and now based in Indianapolis; Wendy's in Dublin, Ohio; and White Castle in Columbus, Ohio.

Urban centers

Major urban areas in the Midwest often have distinctive cuisines that can be very different from those of the region's rural areas.

Chicago

Chicago has a distinctive cuisine of restaurant foods exclusive to the area, such as Italian beef, the Maxwell Street Polish, the Chicago-style hot dog, Chicago-style pizza, chicken Vesuvio and the jibarito, as well as a large number of steakhouses.

Chicago also boasts many gourmet restaurants, as well as a wide variety of ethnic food stores and eateries, most notably Mexican, Polish, Italian, Greek, Indian/Pakistani and Asian, often clustered in ethnic neighborhoods. Many of these cuisines have evolved significantly in Chicago. For example, the cheese dish saganaki was first flambéed at the table in Greektown.

The Midwest is sometimes thought to be behind the coasts in culinary trends, yet, perhaps ironically, Chicago is now the country's leading center of molecular gastronomy.

As a major rail hub, Chicago historically had access to a broad range of the country's foodstuffs, so even in the 19th century, Chicagoans could easily buy items like live oysters and reasonably fresh shrimp. Chicago's oldest signature dish, shrimp de Jonghe, was invented around the turn of the 20th century. Today, flights into O'Hare Airport bring Chicago fresh food from all over the world.

Cincinnati

Cincinnati is known for its namesake Greek-influenced chili, piled onto spaghetti. Goetta, a sausage made from pork and oats, often eaten at breakfast, and opera cream chocolates are less-famous local specialties.

Columbus

The Columbus, Ohio, area originated the Wendy's hamburger chain, which opened in Dublin, as well as Max & Erma's, founded in German Village.

Detroit

Detroit specialties include the chili dogs called Coney Island hot dogs, found at hundreds of unaffiliated "Coney Island" restaurants. Famous examples include Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island which stand next to each other serving Coneys all night in downtown Detroit.

Detroit also has its own style of pizza, a thick-crusted, Sicilian-influenced, rectangular type called square pizza. Other Detroit foods include zip sauce, served on steaks; the triple-decker Dinty Moore sandwich; and a Chinese-American dish called warr shu gai or almond boneless chicken.

The Detroit area (particularly the suburb of Dearborn) has many large groups of immigrants, most notably the largest Arabic-speaking population outside of the Middle East and the most Lebanese storefronts outside of Lebanon. It also has a substantial number of Greek restaurateurs. Thus, numerous Mediterranean restaurants dot the region and typical foods such as gyros, hummus and falafel can be found in many run-of-the-mill grocery stores and restaurants.

Polish food is also prominent in the city, consisting of popular dishes such as borscht and paczki. Bakeries concentrated in the Polish enclave of Hamtramck, Michigan, a suburb within the city, are celebrated for their paczki, especially on Fat Tuesday.

Indianapolis

Indianapolis was settled predominately by Americans of English decent, Irish and German immigrants, so much of the cities food draws upon these influences. Later immigrants included many Jews, Poles, Eastern Europeans and Italians, all of whom influenced local food. Two of the city's most distinct dishes are the pork tenderloin sandwich and strawberry shortcake.

A fast-growing immigrant population from places such as Mexico and India is also beginning to influence the local food. The area offers many diverse, locally owned ethic restaurants, as well as nationally and internationally renowned restaurants.

Kansas City

Kansas City is an important barbecue and meat-processing center with a distinctive style. The Kansas City metropolitan area has more than 100 barbecue restaurants and proclaims itself to be the "world's barbecue capital." The Kansas City Barbeque Society spreads its influence across the nation through its barbecue-contest standards.

Milwaukee

Milwaukee, known for its strong German influences, serves loads of bratwurst and beer. Frozen custard is also very big in the Cream City.

Like most large Midwestern cities, Milwaukee offers a diverse selection of ethnic restaurants.

Minneapolis and Saint Paul

Despite being major food-producing cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul offer few unique dishes of renown, instead sharing many tastes with the rest of Minnesota.

The Twin Cities share the obscure distinction (along with Green Bay, Wisconsin) of being associated with the neighborhood booya, a sort of mixture of cuisine and cultural event. Also, because of the strong influx of Asian immigrants over the past few decades, a form which combines traditional Midwestern dishes with Asian techniques and spices is developing, such as Chinese preparations of walleye.

The Twin Cities-based University of Minnesota has been a center for food research; such inventions as the Honeycrisp apple have come from the "U of M." Additionally, many important agricultural conglomerates, including General Mills/Pillsbury, International Multifoods and Cargill, make their home in Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Betty Crocker was born there.

The Twin Cities claim that all-American corn dog made its first appearance there, as well as the Pronto Pup,

One dish associated with the Twin Cities is the Jucy Lucy (or "Juicy Lucy"), a hamburger with a core of melted cheese. Several national restaurant chains, such as Buca di Beppo and Famous Dave's, got their start in the Twin Cities area. Dairy Queen is also headquartered in the Twin Cities.

Immigration from Somalia has brought an unusual number of restaurants serving cuisine from that country. The Somali Resource Center's website lists 20 Somali community restaurants, most of them concentrated in the South Minneapolis and West Bank neighborhoods. In St. Paul, there is a preponderance Southeast Asian restaurants, including Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian food, along University Avenue.

Omaha

Main article: Cuisine of Omaha

Omaha boasts unique steakhouses, several of which are Sicilian in origin or adjacent to the Omaha Stockyards. Central European and Southern influences can be seen in the local popularity of carp and South 24th Street contains a multitude of Mexican restaurants. North Omaha also has its own barbecue style.

Omaha is one of the locations claiming to have invented the reuben sandwich, supposedly named for Reuben Kulakofsky, a grocer from the Dundee neighborhood.

Bronco's, Godfather's Pizza, and the Garden Cafe are among the chain restaurants that originated in Omaha.

St. Louis

St. Louis, reflecting its varied immigrant influences, is known for dishes such as "toasted" ravioli (which is breaded and fried), frozen custard, gooey butter cake (a rich, soft-centered coffee cake), and for popularizing the ice cream cone.

St. Louis-style barbecue uses pork steaks or St. Louis-style pork ribs and large quantities of barbecue sauce. St. Louis-style pizza has a crispy thin crust and is usually made with Provel cheese instead of traditional mozzarella cheese.

The large number of German immigrants have made "beer and brats" (bratwurst) the standby at baseball games and street festivals. Neighborhoods like The Hill have many Italian restaurants. Mayfair salad dressing was invented at a St. Louis hotel of the same name, and is richer than Caesar salad dressing.

A St. Paul sandwich is a unique St. Louis treat available in Chinese-American restaurants. A Slinger is a diner and late night specialty consisting of a plate smothered with breakfast staples and chili, cheese and onion.

Regional specialties

Indiana

A popular dish seen almost exclusively in Indiana is sugar cream pie, which most likely originated in the state's Amish community. Another very popular food is the pork tenderloin sandwich, which is also considered to be a state food.

Iowa

Cuisine of Iowa includes the pork tenderloin sandwich, consisting of a lean, tenderloin-cut pork chop which is pounded flat, breaded, and deep fried before being served on a seeded hamburger bun with any or all of ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and dill pickle slices. The main ingredient of this dish bears a striking similarity to schnitzel and as such, may be related to the large population of German immigrants that originally populated central Iowa.

Iowa is the center for loose-meat sandwiches, such as those popularized by Maid-Rite, although they can also be found in western Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska.

Michigan

Western and northern Michigan are notable fruit-growing and wine-making regions.

Miners looking for a convenient meal to bring to work popularized the pasty, which is now the iconic dish of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Minnesota

Known for many delights, the most common three are walleye, hotdish, and lutefisk.

Walleye is the state fish of Minnesota. Its popularity with Minnesota residents means that the residents of that state consume more of the fish than in any other jurisdiction. In 2004, it was revealed that some restaurants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region had been substituting the less expensive, imported zander for the walleye indicated on the menu. Zander (pikeperch) is a closely-related species and is almost impossible to tell apart by taste, so the television station that did the exposé had to send samples of food for DNA testing. Though sold as "walleye", several samples were found to be zander, which is considered an illegal practice by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Hotdish is any of a variety of casserole dishes popular in the Midwest of the United States, although the term is used mainly in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Hotdishes are generally filling, convenient and easy to make, and well-suited for potlucks; they can be eaten either on a plate or in a bowl and may be considered comfort food.

Lutefisk is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries made from stockfish (air-dried whitefish) and soda lye (lut).

Ohio

A buckeye candy is a peanut butter and chocolate candy made to resemble the nut of an Ohio Buckeye tree, available throughout the Buckeye State.

Wisconsin

The Friday night fish fry, typically fried perch or walleye, is ubiquitous throughout Wisconsin, while in northeast Wisconsin along Lake Michigan, the Door County fish boil holds sway.

Besides beer, Wisconsinites drink huge quantities of brandy, often mixed into the unique Badger libation, the "brandy old fashioned sweet."

Seymour, Wisconsin, claims to be the birthplace of the modern hamburger, although several other locations make similar claims. The southern Wisconsin town of Racine is known for its Danish kringle.

Wisconsin is a notable dairy state, and it's home to numerous frozen custard stands, particularly around Milwaukee and along the Lake Michigan corridor, as well as cheese, with cheesemakers ranging from artisans who hand-craft their product from the milk of their own dairy herds to large factories. Cheese curds are common as a snack or fried as an appetizer.

Wisconsin is also well known for summer sausage and bratwurst.

Dishes

These dishes, while not all exclusively Midwestern, are commonly thought of as typical or exemplary of Midwestern foods or tastes. Many are shared with Southern cuisine and Northeast cuisine, though some are unique to the Midwest, or have a Midwestern preparation style.

• barbecue
• beans
• beef, especially steak, pot roast and prime rib
• bread-and-butter pickles
• beer
• beer cheese soup
• brain sandwiches
• brandy
• cabbage
• cheese, including cheese curds
• chicken Vesuvio
• cole slaw
• diner fare
• Door County fish boil
• duck
• freshwater fish, including catfish, perch, trout, walleye and whitefish and other panfish
• frogs' legs
• frozen custard
• fruit, especially apples, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, peaches and strawberries
• fruit wines
• hamburgers
• Horseshoe/Ponyshoe
• hot dogs, with several regional styles
• hotdish or casseroles
• Italian beef
• gyros (loaf-style)
• Jell-O salads
• Johnny Marzetti
• lefsa
• lutefisk
• maple syrup
• meatloaf
• morel mushrooms
• pancakes
• pasties
• pea salad
• persimmon pudding
• pierogi
• pizza, with several regional styles
• pork
• potatoes, including mashed potatoes and potato salads
• ramps
• sauerkraut
• sausage, including bratwurst, various ethnic types and summer sausage
• shrimp de Jonghe
• sugar cream pie
• sweet corn, on the cob, in creamed corn and in corn relish
• turkey
• wild rice

Serving

In the home, Midwesterners traditionally serve meals family-style or as a smorgasbord or buffet, rather than in set courses.

Language

Most Midwesterners refer to carbonated beverages as "pop." However, "soda" is more common in Milwaukee, St. Louis, Indianapolis and the surrounding areas.

External links

• Eating Habitats