Every state has at least one food or cuisine it’s well known for, whether it's Maine's iconic lobster rolls or Illinois' delicious deep-dish pizzas. But some ingredients, dishes and even full meals have elevated status as official foods, specially chosen to symbolise an entire state. Here, we look at some of the most intriguing state foods and the stories behind them – from Florida's Key lime pie to New Jersey’s recently designated ham, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich.

Click or scroll though our gallery to discover the weird and wonderful stories behind America's state foods.

Alabama has several state symbols, including edible goodies like lane cake – laced with bourbon and slathered with coconut icing – and its official nut, the pecan. In 2015, the buffet was joined by a state crustacean, the brown shrimp, all thanks to a campaign led by some school pupils. Third-grade students at Fairhope Elementary School had already successfully lobbied for a state amphibian, the Red Hills salamander, and a state fruit, the blackberry.

They chose brown shrimp, also known as crangon crangon, after researching the state's most fished crustaceans and studying the creatures – and they drafted a bill that was passed in the Alabama House of Representatives. The shellfish, caught year-round on the Gulf Coast, are among the state’s most popular foods, known for being smaller, easier to peel and stronger in flavour than some other types.

Arkansas might not be the first state that springs to mind when it comes to wine, but the Natural State’s official food is a nod to its well-established viticulture scene, which is the oldest in the Southern United States. It got its very own state grape in 2009. The Cynthiana (or Norton) grape is native to America, and it's sometimes referred to as the 'forgotten grape' because it all but disappeared after vines were ripped up during Prohibition, with European varieties later gaining favour.

It was actually cultivated in Virginia, but was planted widely in Arkansas and Missouri, too. Arkansas’ other official foods also reflect its prolific production. Rice is the official state grain (Arkansas is the top rice-producing state in the US), while the vine-ripened pink tomato occupies a unique status as the official state fruit and vegetable, perhaps because many people misidentify it as the latter.

Avocados were declared the state’s official fruit in 2013, at the same time as artichokes were named the state vegetable. Both play a part in popular sharing dishes like guacamole and steamed artichokes, but avocados are a particularly apt choice (the popular Hass variety is native to California). It’s hard to find a restaurant or café that doesn’t have them on the menu, whether they're packed into a burrito or chopped up in a breakfast scramble.

The creamy-fleshed favourites only kept their lofty status for less than a year, though; the declaration was made by an interim governor, and so far, it hasn’t been made permanent. There is, however, an Avocado Highway. The 22-mile (35km) stretch, between Escondido and Temecula in San Diego County in the south, is flanked by groves growing the waxy-skinned fruit. It was a popular nickname before being officially adopted in 1997.

Plenty of American states are famous for their unique pizza styles, from New York’s foldable slices to Michigan’s thick and fluffy rectangular pies – so it was a pretty bold move for Connecticut to declare the fast food favourite as its official food. The state (particularly the city of New Haven) is renowned for its unique pizza style, which is loved for its simplicity, often featuring just a couple of high-quality toppings on an extremely crisp base that's charred and blistered black.

Connecticut State Representative Patricia Dillon proposed a bill to make pizza the official State Food in 2021 – citing ‘the contribution of pizza to the state's cuisine and economy’. It prompted a heated debate, particularly with lawmakers in rival pizza-loving states New York and New Jersey, and it didn’t get taken up in the Senate in the end. However, a second attempt was made in 2023, and its status remains filed without a legal resolution.

Few foods are more intertwined with the identity of a place than Key lime pie. The classic dessert is particularly ubiquitous throughout the Florida Keys archipelago. It’s a tangy treat, too, like a cheesecake made with a base of crushed-up biscuits, with a cool, creamy condensed milk filling brightened by tart Key limes and topped with meringue or whipped cream. Yet its origins have been called into question.

Key West legend has it that the dreamy pie was first created by a cook known as ‘Aunt Sally’, who worked for millionaire William Curry in the late 19th century. But a more recent theory suggests the pie was invented by milk company Borden in its New York test kitchen, with the recipe published in 1931. Nevertheless, it became Florida’s official pie in 2006 – and it's such an important part of Key West heritage that there’s an annual festival in its honour.

Some state foods are surprising and even obscure. But Georgia is so strongly associated with peaches that the juicy stone fruit is the star of its New Year’s Eve celebrations. In the capital, Atlanta, a giant peach is ‘dropped’ from a tower at midnight, in a take on New York City’s famous ball drop. It was named the official state fruit in 1995, though Georgia’s association with peaches stretches back much further.

It’s believed that peaches were first introduced to the state via barrier islands St. Simons and Cumberland, planted by Franciscan monks in the 16th century. The commercial peach industry boomed in the small town of Marshallville, south of Atlanta, in the late 19th century. Most are sold fresh and at peak juiciness, though there’s also a small peach wine industry – and a number go into making the world’s largest peach cobbler at the state's annual Peach Festival.

Idaho has long been associated with potatoes, and the state embraces the root vegetable with gusto, claiming to grow the best spuds in the world. The first potatoes here are said to have been planted in the north of the state by Reverend Henry Spaulding, with a combination of rich volcanic soil, sunny days, cool nights and natural irrigation provided by rivers helping the crops to thrive.

It’s perhaps surprising that the potato wasn’t named the state’s official vegetable until 2002; there’s even an Idaho Potato Museum in the city of Blackfoot, after all. History exhibits are interwoven with fun memorabilia, including a Mr. Potato Head collection, though the main attraction is probably the giant baked spud that graces the entrance, topped with sour cream and cheese.

Illinois – or at least its biggest city, Chicago – is perhaps better associated with pizza, but popcorn has been the official state snack since 2003. Mason County, southwest of Chicago, grows more popcorn than any other county in the US. Or, rather, it grows the specific variety of corn whose kernels are then used to make the movie snack (though sadly, it doesn’t actually emerge puffed-up, salted and packaged in stripy boxes).

Popcorn has long been a favourite across the state, with varieties from plain to gourmet, but it was thanks to a class project at an elementary school that it was made official. A favourite variety is ‘Chicago mix’, which is a mashup of cheese and caramel popcorn (tastier than it sounds). The state also has pumpkin pie as an official state food, which makes it sound like a very delicious place to be indeed.

Louisiana is known for its distinctive (and delicious) cuisine, so it makes sense that the state has an official dish, rather than just a plain old ingredient. It also makes sense that the state dish is gumbo, the soupy, stewy, subtly spicy concoction made with rice, a rich roux base and differing combinations of meat, seafood and vegetables. The ubiquitous dish can be found on menus throughout the state, though not all gumbos are the same.

The different styles of gumbo reflect the rich and varied cultures of Louisiana. The best-known recipes are Creole-style – characterised by its tomato base – and Cajun-style gumbo, which usually contains either meat or seafood and is made with a darker roux. The Creole dish tends to be thickened with okra, too, giving it a sticky, satisfying texture and a rich complexity befitting the cuisine and its African, Native American and European heritage.

Maine gets a little greedy, with two pies given ‘official state food’ status: one is the state dessert, and the other is the state treat. But to be fair, we’d find it tough to choose between blueberry pie and whoopie pie too. The latter is kind of like a sweet hamburger; rounds of chocolate cake or soft cookies are the bun, and a thick marshmallow filling is the burger. They’re sometimes made with creamy frosting inside, and modern versions mix things up with different flavoured cake.

Some argue that whoopie pies are cakes rather than pies, and some believe that they're actually cookies. They’re also sometimes called moon pies. What is inarguable, though, is how beloved they are in Maine – even though it’s claimed that the recipe originated in Pennsylvanian Amish communities. The pies been baked in Maine since the 1920s and received the official state treat designation in 2011.

The Boston cream pie is, in fact, a cake: a buttery yellow sponge filled with custard or cream and topped with chocolate icing. It’s claimed to have been invented in 1856 at Boston’s Parker House (now Omni Parker House), and the hotel still serves its signature dessert. Pie and cake tins were often used interchangeably, so pies were often referred to as cakes, and vice versa.

It was declared the official state dessert in 1996 after a bill sponsored by a high school class. Other candidates considered for the honour included Toll House cookies, whose recipe was created at a Massachusetts inn and later sold to Nestlé for the price of a lifetime supply of chocolate. There are clearly a few sweet-toothed locals in Massachusetts, as the Boston cream doughnut and chocolate chip cookie are fellow state foods – along with baked navy beans, typically used to make the famous, sticky-sweet Boston beans.

Missouri holds on to its culinary heritage with one firm hand, probably with sticky, melting ice cream running down it – the Show-Me State’s official dessert is the ice cream cone. The clever, crunchy, edible ice cream container made its debut at the 1904 World’s Fair, held in the Missouri city of St. Louis.

Legend has it that an ice cream vendor ran out of paper cups, so rather ingeniously served the frozen treat in rolled-up waffles instead. The cone scooped its place as the state’s official dessert in 2008, following a proposal made by a group of home-schooled pupils in St. Louis County earlier that same year.

Whether you call it a Taylor ham sandwich or a pork roll, New Jersey’s signature breakfast sandwich is a savoury delight served at diners and no-frills joints all over the state. The most important component is Taylor ham, a type of processed pork first developed in 1856 by John Taylor that's highly specific to the state. The pork is fried until crisp, then served on a hard roll or English muffin with egg and American cheese.

The indulgent breakfast treat has long been considered the state’s favourite sandwich, but it all became official in May 2023 when New Jersey governor Phil Murphy light-heartedly declared the ‘Taylor Swift Ham, Egg and Cheese’ to be the state’s flagship sandwich. This was in celebration of pop star Taylor Swift's Eras Tour coming to the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. The announcement was met with mixed enthusiasm, with some locals still insistent that the proper name for the dish is ‘pork roll’.

Not to be confused with Texan chilli, New Mexico’s official state vegetable is the chilli pepper. Actually, it has two official state vegetables, with the potent peppers sharing the mantle with frijoles, or pinto beans. Their status was made official in 1965 – and the two are seen as inseparable when it comes to New Mexico's cuisine and cooking heritage, which has deep roots in Mexico and Central America.

The importance of chilli peppers goes further, though, spawning an official state question: 'Red or Green?' The answer reveals one’s preference for chillies grown and typically eaten in different parts of the state, with those in the south traditionally favouring green chillies and others opting for slightly smoother, smokier red chillies.

It’s probably not surprising that New York’s state fruit is the apple (big or otherwise) – but yogurt? The cultured creamy stuff was designated the official state snack in 2014. Only a handful of states have an official snack, often in addition to other foods, and yogurt might seem like an odd choice on the surface.

New York is actually the top yogurt producer in the US, largely due to the increasing popularity of thick, velvety, Greek-style yogurt. Two big brands that produce this type are based in the state, which overall accounts for more than 15% of all yogurt produced in the country.

North Carolina keeps it specific – and rather literal – when it comes to its state foods. It has a state red berry, the strawberry, and a state blue berry, the, erm, blueberry. Basically, both are so popular here, and so important to the agricultural economy, that the legislature found it impossible to choose between them. The debate began in early 2001, when elementary school children in Wayne County petitioned for the strawberry to be named the official state fruit.

Meanwhile, some argued for the blueberry, and others believed the scuppernong wine grape should represent the state. It became such a contentious issue that it was only resolved after months of debate. Eventually all three were recognised, with scuppernong separately crowned the state’s official fruit. Strawberries and blueberries are grown prolifically throughout the state, with pick-your-own farms particularly popular.

We thought the only real watermelon debate was whether to spit out the pips (and how to do so with a semblance of elegance). But Oklahoma sparked fury when it declared the round, watery fruit its state… vegetable. The controversial decision was made in 2007 after former senator Don Barrington argued that watermelon is both a fruit and a vegetable because it’s a member of the cucumber family; cucumber is also technically a fruit because it grows from flowers and contains seeds.

The state already had a state fruit, the strawberry. Whatever the classification, watermelons have a deserved place in the hearts of Oklahomans. Rush Springs is particularly famed for the red-fleshed gourds, grown in the area’s sandy soil. The town has held an annual Watermelon Festival since 1948, with events including themed rides and a seed-spitting contest, which the senator once won.

America’s smallest state punches above its weight when it comes to delicious produce – and it’s especially famed for seafood fresh from the Atlantic, pulled in daily by local fishing boats. Specifically, it’s known for small, sweet, delicate-tasting squid, served battered and fried in bite-size pieces. Calamari became the official state appetiser in 2014, reflecting its popularity and importance to the economy.

It’s not just any calamari, though. The official dish is Rhode Island–style calamari, a delicacy that sees tubes and tentacles dusted in flour laced with pepper and garlic, then pan-fried and tossed with hot cherry peppers (and yet more garlic). Pickle brine is sometimes added for extra tang, and the tender pieces are often tipped onto a bed of crisp lettuce.

There’s something particularly appealing about a state picnic cuisine, especially when it’s barbecue. The roots of barbecue are, of course, passionately debated. But South Carolina claims to be the true birthplace of barbecue, tracing the style of low, slow cooking to the 16th century, when Spanish explorers brought pigs to America and roasted them whole over fires using indigenous cooking techniques.

There are also frequent arguments about the best style of barbecue – with only pork classed as true barbecue in South Carolina – and whether sauce should be added during cooking, after cooking, or both. The state’s love of slow-cooked, smoky, soft-as-butter meat is undeniable, though; it was named the state’s official picnic cuisine in 2014, and there’s also a BBQ Trail highlighting the best spots to sample it.

It could appear that South Dakota is being a little greedy with its choice of state dessert. Kuchen is the German word for ‘cake’, which obviously covers quite a variety of sweet treats. Typically, it refers to desserts of German or Russian heritage that are in some ways more like pies or pastries, with the typical South Dakota or prairie-style kuchen having a thick crust and custard-based filling.

This variety, often referred to as a dough pie, was named the official state dessert in 2000 and is based on recipes introduced by German settlers in the 1880s. Its heritage is celebrated at festivals across the state, and many bakeries still specialise in it. Other popular styles of kuchen include one with a cake-like crust and apple filling, pastries with cinnamon and sugar, and a cheesecake-style number with cherries and custard.

Tennessee is famous for lots of delicious dishes, from Memphis barbecue to Nashville hot chicken – but amazingly, it doesn’t have an official state food. All that’s about to change, however; a proposal has been put forward by State Representative Kevin Raper to name hot slaw as Tennessee’s first-ever flagship food. The punchy side dish will be joining the ranks of other official state symbols, such as the tomato (the state fruit) and milk (the state beverage). But what actually is hot slaw?

You’d be forgiven for thinking Tennessee’s signature hot slaw is simply coleslaw served warm, but the ‘hot’ actually refers to the spice level. The tangy side dish is traditionally rich in mustard and vinegar, with added hot peppers making it the perfect accompaniment to hot dogs, hamburgers and Southern-style pinto beans. The story goes that it was invented at Cleveland’s Star Vue Drive-In theatre back in 1955. These days, the city has a Hot Slaw Festival, where cooks compete to create the most delicious version of the dish.

A spicy, smoky ‘bowl o’ red’ became Texas’ official meal in 1977, declared by the state legislature. The origins of chilli have been hotly debated, with some arguing it’s based on Mexican cuisine and others suggesting it was brought over from the Canary Islands. The Texan dish, though, was famously ladled out in a San Antonio market by so-called ‘chilli queens’ in the late 19th century, becoming a tourist attraction and spawning chilli joints throughout the state.

The official dish is made simply with meat and dried chillies, with beans and tomatoes noticeably absent. Though they're common additions to modern recipes, those ingredients aren’t considered part of Texas chilli heritage. The state has also been represented by pan de campo (a flatbread also known as cowboy bread), pecan pie, strudel, peach cobbler and sopaipilla, a honey-drenched pastry thought to have originated in New Mexico. And, to go with the chilli (or perhaps to snack on beforehand), the state snack is tortilla chips and salsa.

Utahns don't like Jell-O. They love it. At least, enough of them do for the branded jelly to have officially been named the state snack in 2001. The gelatine’s presence here is almost as old as the state itself; it was introduced in 1897, a year after Utah became part of the US, and it has long been a hugely popular food. More Jell-O per capita is consumed in Utah than any other state, and it featured on pins designed for the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City.

Senator Mike Lee even hosts regular ‘Jell-O Wednesdays’ at his Washington DC office to make 'visitors from Utah feel at home'. The most favoured flavour is lime, which is often eaten by the spoonful with the addition of grated carrots, and commonly brought to family get-togethers, church events and community cookouts. The widely held theory is that the jiggly stuff is so popular because Utah has a high number of teetotal Mormons, who eat sweet treats in place of alcohol.

There are few state foods as exacting as Vermont’s. The Green Mountain State designated apple pie as its official state pie in 1999, the same year it named the apple as its official state fruit. However, the legislation also specified that when serving apple pie in Vermont, a ‘good faith effort’ should be made to serve it with one or more of the following accompaniments: a glass of cold milk, a slice of Cheddar cheese ‘weighing a minimum of 1/2 ounce’ or a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Vermont apples are renowned all over the USA for their exceptional quality and flavour, so it's no huge surprise that the state is so protective of its signature pie. Vermont is home to a diverse range of apple types, including heirloom varieties that have been cultivated for centuries, as well as lots of craft cider makers and family-owned orchards that have been operating for generations. Tourists flock to the state in the autumn to enjoy the foliage, and to pick apples straight from the orchard.

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Last updated by Natasha Lovell-Smith.