A combination of corn chips, chilli and cheese (and the option of other Southwestern-style ingredients like refried beans and salsa), Frito pie isn’t really a pie at all. Though when served as a casserole it does resemble a Mexican-inspired take on a Shepherd’s pie. The dish can be made simply by splitting open a bag of Fritos (or another brand of chips) and pouring in some prepared chilli and a generous sprinkling of Cheddar cheese.
San Francisco sourdough bread was first commercially sold at Boudin Bakery in the mid-1800s and the naturally fermented bread has since become an American favourite. The bread became popular in California because early settlers didn't have easy access to yeast. This style of bread has a substantially more sour flavour than a traditional European-style bread made with a sourdough starter – but that signature tang is exactly what makes it so distinctive.
There's something romantic about American camping culture, and no dish is more connected to sitting around a campfire than the s’more. People have been sandwiching marshmallows and chocolate between graham crackers for almost 100 years, and the “recipe” for s’mores has changed very little over time. The secret to the perfect s’more is to cook the marshmallow over the fire so that it’s not burnt, but hot and gooey enough to gently melt the chocolate.
Americans didn’t necessarily invent coleslaw, but a healthy supply of cabbage planted by early settlers made it a staple salad in the US as far back as the 1770s. American coleslaw is typically made with mayonnaise (though there are plenty of oil-based versions out there) and it has become a ubiquitous side dish and picnic salad. Most famously, perhaps, it goes perfectly with American barbecue, particularly on top of a pulled pork sandwich.
Sometimes called “the pâté of the South”, the pimento-studded soft cheese spread is sold by the jar in Southern states, but can also easily be made at home. It’s most closely connected to the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, where many players enjoy a post-round pimento cheese sandwich.
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There are a fair few foods connected to the state of Hawaii – spam, poi, shave ice – but the one most embraced by the rest of the country is the poke bowl. Poke is a traditional diced raw fish dish that has long been served in Hawaii. But mainlanders have mostly celebrated it in bowl form, with the addition of sauces, rice and decidedly un-Hawaiian add-ons like avocado, corn and orange slices.
One of the most popular food trends currently sweeping across America, Nashville hot chicken was invented in the 1930s by Thornton Prince after a spurned girlfriend tried to prank him by serving him fried chicken doused in cayenne pepper. It’s still served at Prince’s Chicken Stack in the traditional way on white bread with pickles, but versions of the ultra-spicy chicken are now available all over Nashville and, increasingly, around the world.
Westernised Chinese food is famously deep-fried and sticky sweet, and no dish exemplifies this style more than General Tso’s chicken. The original recipe was formulated in China’s Hunan province by Peng Chang-kuei, but by the 1970s the idea made its way to the United States, albeit in a form that was deemed more palatable to Americans. That Americanised version is now a mainstay at Chinese takeout restaurants and buffets across the United States.
Wisconsin is known for its squeaky cheese curds and one of the best ways to serve them is battered and deep-fried. Curds, a cheese by-product that must be eaten fresh, have a salty quality that takes well to a fat-laden cooking method. Rarely seen outside of Wisconsin (only a proximity to cheese factories guarantees a supply of fresh curds) these little nuggets go particularly well with an ice-cold Milwaukee beer.
Bagels and lox may seem like a European combination – after all, smoked salmon is a Scandinavian delicacy and bagels have a foothold in countries around the world – but the marriage of lox, cream cheese and a fresh bagel (with capers and red onion, if you please) was popularised by Jewish communities in America. A bagel topped with silky smoked salmon has long been a huge star of New York deli culture and a standard at breakfast restaurants all over the country.
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Fresh and juicy Maine lobsters are one of the culinary jewels in America’s crown. While lobster is now considered a fancy food, it used to be a relatively cheap seafood, making it suitable for use as a lowly sandwich filling. The classic lobster roll is thought to date back to the 1920s and should be served on a humble buttered hot dog bun. The best rolls have the lobster meat tossed in just a little bit of butter or mayonnaise, so the seafood can speak for itself.
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One of Louisiana’s most beloved culinary concoctions, gumbo is a Cajun dish with roots that are believed to go back to West Africa, with Choctaw and French influences thrown in for good measure. The flavourful stew is usually thickened with either okra, filé (AKA sassafrass leaves) or a dark flour roux and filled with seafood, chicken, sausage and vegetables.
As the official pie of the state of Florida, key lime pie holds a fairly lofty position in American culture. The pie is, of course, made with the juice of key limes, which are smaller and rounder than a typical lime and carry a particularly tart flavour. To temper the intensity of that sourness, a traditional key lime pie is made with sweet condensed milk to give it a creamy flavour and ultra-smooth texture.
The history of Eggs Benedict is somewhat disputed, although it seems to have been invented at one restaurant or another in New York in the late 1800s. What we do know for sure is that the combination of poached eggs, ham and hollandaise sauce on an English muffin is delicious and has earned its status as a premium brunch dish. Many recipes have riffed on the classic Benny, replacing the ham with spinach, smoked salmon, short rib or other tasty ingredients.
Taco salad may be Mexican in inspiration, but it’s American in invention. It’s no wonder that this particular dish is so popular: it’s got all of the ingredients and flavour of an American-style taco in a fun and crispy tortilla bowl that can be broken up and eaten after the salad part is done. The key to a perfect taco salad is lots of ground beef and a tasty dressing, preferably with lots of cilantro and lime.
Invented in 1930 by Pat Olivieri in Philadelphia, the Philly cheesesteak is one of America’s greatest sandwiches. A classic cheesesteak needs to involve thinly sliced pieces of beef, onions and cheese on a long bun, but you’ll sometimes also see peppers or mushrooms (though those are more likely to show up outside of Philadelphia). Pat’s King of Steaks is still open for food lovers looking to try the original too.
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The California roll probably isn’t an American creation – Japanese chef Hidekazu Tojo claims to have dreamed it up while working in a restaurant in Canada – but it will be forever associated with its namesake state. Tojo wanted to create a sushi roll that wasn’t raw to better appeal to North American customers. He came up with a combo of crab, avocado and cucumber that’s still a mainstay on sushi menus throughout America.
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There’s no chicken whatsoever in a chicken fried steak. Rather, this Southern specialty consists of a piece of beef breaded and fried up like a piece of fried chicken. There’s speculation that the dish was developed by German immigrants, who based the concept on a traditional schnitzel, substituting steak for veal. Either way, it’s become a Texan favourite, available at diners across the state and beyond for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Chop suey is another American Chinese takeout favourite that doesn’t really have a lot to do with what people typically eat in China. It was developed by the Chinese-American restaurant community in the late 1800s and basically consists of a stir-fry of various ingredients, which would differ from restaurant to restaurant. Whatever the mix, Americans loved it and its popularity led to the country’s ongoing love for Chinese-American food.
One of America’s most spectacular deli sandwiches, the Reuben is a stack of pastrami (or corned beef), Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Russian dressing and rye bread. Like many century-old dishes its origins are unclear, but we know it was invented before 1930, probably by someone with either the first or last name of Rueben. No matter who deserves the credit, it’s a combination that has stuck around for a reason and is a staple of Jewish American cuisine.
Thanks to the 1970s TV show Alice, many people know the phrase “kiss my grits”, but outside of the US grits are considered a bit of an oddity. Grits are essentially coarsely ground corn or hominy kernels and are somewhat similar to Italian polenta, but with a decidedly Southern spin. They can be eaten at any meal and are often served with butter or cheese as a breakfast side or as a bed for cooked shrimp.
The tuna melt is synonymous with the old-school American diner and remains a favourite of road-trippers or anyone looking for a quick and casual lunch. A hybrid of a grilled cheese and a tuna salad sandwich, a tuna melt is quick to make, full of protein and deeply comforting. The sandwich has been around since the 1960s and is often served open-faced, giving the cheese a chance to crisp up.
Chilli con carne simply means “chilli with meat”, making it a complete meal for meat-eating Americans. Chilli is Texas’s official state food, which makes sense given the beef and bean mixture’s connection with rugged cowboy culture and Texas’s proximity to the Mexican border. Filled with Mexican-inspired Southwestern flavours, recipes vary across the country – but a nice bowl of chilli always goes well with a piece of cornbread and a sprinkle of cheese.
Apparently, the Caesar salad was actually invented in Mexico by an Italian-American restaurateur in the 1920s, but its creamy dressing and garlicky anchovy flavour has made it a standard side salad in every corner of the United States. These days a classic romaine lettuce Caesar is still the gold standard. The recipe can also be tweaked to make it into a full meal with the addition of grilled chicken, or switched up with an alternative green such as kale.
The United States doesn’t have a monopoly on roast turkey but a Thanksgiving turkey with all of the fixings is the ultimate American meal. Every American household does its Thanksgiving spread a little bit differently and the stuffing is a particular point of pride for many cooks. But as long as there’s turkey, gravy, potatoes and some kind of veg, this special dinner spread immediately conjures up the warmth of holidays.
The simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich is not a gourmet meal by any means, but it's the last-minute bite that many people turn to the most. Peanut butter started gaining popularity in the US in the 1890s and in 1901 the first PB&J sandwich recipe was published. The sandwich became an everyday item during the Great Depression and is still packed in lunch bags and whipped together as a quick snack by countless people every day.
Another sandwich that’s perfect because of its simplicity, a BLT is built on the combination of salty bacon, a juicy slice of tomato and crisp leaf of lettuce between toasted slices of bread with a touch of mayonnaise. BLTs were fairly common by the 1920s, but gained real popularity in the 1980s when chefs began using premium ingredients and playing with some of the elements.
The idea of eating tortilla chips blanketed with melted cheese and jalapeños unsurprisingly originated in Mexico, but over-the-top nacho platters have become a must-have at American sports bars. An order of nachos in the US can entail anything from a basket of chips with a bowl of melted American cheese to a tray of tortillas piled high with molten Monterey Jack, spiced ground beef, pickled jalapeños and refried beans.
Even though it seems like it must be an Italian dish, modern spaghetti and meatballs is truly an American food. New York-style Italian-American red sauce joints are a cornerstone of American cuisine and Italian food had become entrenched in American life by the 1950s. Spaghetti and meatballs isn’t only a satisfying restaurant order. The combination is also easy enough to cook at home, making it a regular weeknight meal for many American families.
Ranch isn’t just a salad dressing in the US – it’s a condiment. The mixture was invented in the late 1940s by a plumber named Kenneth Henson. He later named his creation after his Hidden Valley dude ranch in California, serving it to guests and later selling it as a dry powder in packets. A combination of buttermilk, herbs, onion and garlic, ranch is now America’s favourite dressing, often used as a dip for chicken wings or raw vegetables.
The New York strip got its start at Delmonico’s, one of New York’s oldest (and still surviving) restaurants. The restaurant is famous for its thick and juicy steaks, which are known in some places as “Delmonico steaks” but are more often called a “New York strip” or a “strip loin.” It’s a popular cut due to its size, tenderness and memorable name. It's also relatively easy for both restaurant chefs and home grillers to prepare.
Meatloaf is less expensive than a straightforward roast, because it’s made of ground beef and often bulked up with breadcrumbs and eggs. Thus, its popularity began during the Depression, when so many families had to be thrifty with their food. Meatloaf’s simplicity, not to mention its harmony with prepared convenience foods like ketchup, secured it as a popular choice in the 1950s. It was (and still is) a common sight in both diners and on families’ dining room tables.
Standard cookie dough and chocolate chips seem like such an obvious combination – so it’s hard to believe that the chocolate chip cookie is less than 100 years old. The cookie was invented by accident when an innkeeper named Ruth Wakefield (of the Toll House Inn) thought that adding chocolate chunks to butter dough would make a solid chocolate cookie. Instead she ended up accidentally inventing one of the country’s favourite treats.
Tacos clearly hail from Mexico and are still a popular food in that country, but Americans have embraced them heartily for decades. Tacos came to the US in the early 1900s along with Mexican migrants and quickly became a popular street food. They became Americanised in the mid-1900s with the addition of hamburger meat, Cheddar cheese and iceberg lettuce. However, things have gone full circle and Mexican-style tacos have gained considerable popularity over the last decade.
Fried dough is not a uniquely American phenomenon, but the idea of the classic doughnut with a hole in the middle seems to have been an American idea to solve the problem of Dutch “oil cakes” not cooking all the way through. The doughnut’s stock rose in 1924 thanks to an automated doughnut machine that was on display at the World’s Fair in Chicago. Then, America’s doughnut love really took hold later in the 20th century with the advent of shops like Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts.
“Gravy” can mean different things to different people, but in the case of this very American dish the “gravy” is a white sauce made with sausage, pan drippings, flour and milk. It’s an inexpensive but filling creation, primarily developed in the South by country families living in poverty. Paired with equally humble and inexpensive biscuits, the gravy makes for a comforting meal and has since become a common breakfast dish that reaches well beyond the South.
The “Buffalo” in question here is the city of Buffalo, New York, where a restaurant called the Anchor Bar started serving fried chicken wings drenched in a peppery sauce with a side of bleu cheese dressing in 1964. These days it’s hard to find a sports bar in America that doesn’t serve several versions of hot wings, with the heat range going from mild to mind-blowingly hot. Wing nights are a tradition in bars across America, usually served with a side of televised football.
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The grilled cheese sandwich, one of the easiest and most convenient hot dishes ever developed, dates back to the 1920s, making it about as old as sliced bread itself. There are many ways to make a grilled cheese: some people use a waffle iron, other spread mayonnaise on the outside of the bread in place of butter. The best way is also the most simple: slap a slice or two of processed American cheese between two slices of white bread with the buttered side out and fry until perfectly golden.
The process of smoking meat can be traced back to indigenous cultures in the Caribbean and evolved through the efforts of enslaved Black communities, where people would smoke their rations of pork. BBQ has grown to have strong regional differences, with various kinds of meat (pork ribs, beef brisket, chicken) and sauce styles being favoured in separate states. But the concept is generally the same, revolving around ultra-tender slowly smoked meat.
Another American favourite that grew out of a need for inexpensive but hefty meals during tough times, macaroni and cheese is based on traditional Italian cooking. But Americans have really made it their own. For some, mac and cheese is nothing more than a convenience food that comes out of a box. For others it’s a family tradition made with secret recipes passed down from generation to generation and fit for a holiday dinner.
Even though it’s often touted as the most American food imaginable, apple pie was most likely invented in England, with influences from other parts of Europe. But even if it wasn’t born in the US, the country’s surplus of apples made it a common dessert throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, conjuring up comforting images of family, home and the holidays.
You’ll find versions of crispy fried chicken all over the place, but most Americans claim home-cooked Southern-style chicken as the best in the world. Before KFC took over, fried chicken was a special occasion dinner. It’s since become a fast-food standard, as well as a breakfast food (with waffles, of course) and picnic-basket favourite. It’s believed that fried chicken was perfected by African Americans in the South, who adapted old recipes from Scottish slaveholders.
Few phrases are as commonly heard in American restaurants as often as “Do you want fries with that?” The country’s favourite side dish was probably invented in Belgium rather than France, but the story is that Thomas Jefferson discovered them while travelling in France and brought the recipe back home with himself and his enslaved chef James Heming. The modern American fry comes in a variety of shapes and sizes and is most often served with a side of ketchup.
Here are the incredible stories behind your favourite fast foods
Most people know that Naples, Italy is the birthplace of pizza, but America has taken the simple tomato sauce-topped flatbread and made it into its own category of food. Several major cities and regions have their own style of pizza: Chicago’s ultra-thick pies, New York’s thin and floppy slices, and California’s fresh toppings have all developed since Italian pizza first arrived in New York circa 1905.
Germans and Austrians may bicker over who invented the wiener/frankfurter, but the modern hot dog is a thoroughly American food. The hot dog’s American origin story starts with a German immigrant selling “dachshund sausages” from a food cart in the 1860s, winning over New Yorkers with the tastiness and portability of a sausage on a bun. Since then, the hot dog has become emblematic of summer cookouts, baseball games and days spent with friends and family.
There is absolutely no food more iconically “American” than the hamburger. Naturally, there is some dispute about its true origin, but the invention of the “hamburger sandwich” is credited to Louis’ Lunch, a casual restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut that started serving ground beef patties between two slices of toast in 1900. A burger can be eaten on the go, it adapts to individual taste and it offers good value for dollar, all of which has made it an emblem of freedom and entrepreneurship.