(CNN) — What comes to mind when you think of American cuisine are terms like “fast,” “junk,” and “processed,” which more accurately characterise the oily, grinding industrial product from other countries. However, American residents also have a remarkable propensity for consuming high-quality goods.
In honour of the United States’ boundless culinary imagination, here is a list of the 50 best foods in the country. Obviously, you’re going to want to have a few.
Establishing the guidelines Recognize that attempting to describe American cuisine is difficult; further recognise that selecting beloved American dishes necessarily involves leaving out or mistakenly omitting certain much-loved regional specialities.
Put on your rubber apron, because we’re about to get started. Get ready for a food war!
1. Baked dessert with key lime filling
Don’t waste those limes on limeade; bake a Key lime pie instead. The Florida Key Lime Pie is the official state pie of Florida, and its sassy tartness has earned her a global reputation, which began in the same place from whence the small limes that give the pie its name originate: the Florida Keys.
In the late 1800s, the first Key lime pie was cooked by William Curry’s aunt Sally, who worked as a chef for the state’s first self-made billionaire. Key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks were likely invented by Florida sponge fishermen so that the mixture could be “cooked” (thickened) by a chemical reaction of the components) while at sea.
2. Tater Tots
We like French fries, but if you’re looking for an American take on the potato, go no farther than the Tater Tot, a staple at Sonic drive-ins and school cafeterias throughout the country.
These commercial hash brown cylinders are Ore-exclusive Ida’s property; look for the trademark symbol on the packaging. One of the Grigg brothers, who started Ore-Ida, had to figure out what to do with the scraps of potato that were left behind after cutting them up. After adding flour and salt to the mash, they formed it into little tots and released them to the public in 1956. After over half a century, Americans now consume nearly 32 million kg of these potatoes per year.
3. Sourdough bread from San Francisco
Ancient Egyptians likely ate sourdough since it has been around as long as the pyramids. But the sourest and most popular kind in the United States is produced in San Francisco.
Since the days of the Gold Rush, sourdough bread has been as much a part of Northern California’s culinary tradition as Napa Valley wine. Once upon a time, miners (nicknamed “sourdoughs”) and settlers would wear pouches around their necks or on their belts that contained sourdough starter (more trustworthy than other leavening).
Thankfully, that is not how things are done at San Francisco’s historic Boudin Bakery, which has been baking “bite-back” bread since 1849.
4. Salad with Cobb cheese and meatballs
The chef’s salad may have been created in the East, but Western American lettuce chefs weren’t about to be outdone.
In 1937, Brown Derby owner Bob Cobb threw together a salad at the restaurant’s North Vine location using whatever ingredients he could find in the fridge: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, cold chicken breast, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese, and some old-fashioned French dressing.
According to legend, the Brown Derby was where “Immediately, he began to cut. Sneaked some crispy bacon from the kitchen of a hard-working cook.” The restaurant added the salad to its menu and quickly became a hit in the Hollywood area.
5. Pot roast
For many baby boomers, pot roast will always be the symbol of Sunday dinners spent with family and friends. A entire generation can’t function properly without it.
Beef brisket, bottom or top round, or chuck is placed in a deep roasting pan with potatoes, carrots, onions, and whatever else your mother threw in to be infused with the beef’s simmering juices to make the pot roast, which may be anointed with red wine or even beer and cooked on the stovetop or in the oven.
6. A Case for Twinkies
Since its creation in 1930 by James Dewar at the Continental Baking Company in Schiller Park, Illinois, Hostess’s signature “Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling” has been a go-to sugar fix.
During World War II, when bananas were scarce, the Twinkie abandoned its original banana cream filling in favour of vanilla. They were popular for deep-frying during the Texas State Fair, as if their already absurdly wonderful taste wasn’t enough.
While their name was inspired by a billboard selling Twinkle Toe Shoes, the ladyfinger form (which is perforated three times to inject the filling) and the associations with recess at noon are what really endear Twinkies to their fans. As of the time of Hostess’s bankruptcy filing in July 2013, they had been out of stock since November of that year. They have now returned, and are doing well.
Since its creation in 1930 by James Dewar at the Continental Baking Company in Schiller Park, Illinois, Hostess’s signature “Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling” has been a go-to sugar fix.
7. Jerky
Jerky, which is made of dried, shrivelled beef, is a popular high-protein snack among hikers, campers, and motorists.
It’s hearty, spicy American fare, just the way we enjoy it while we’re roughing it in the bush.The origin story that it evolved from American Indian pemmican, which combined fire-cured meat and animal fat, is appealing to us. Cow, hen, fowl, deer, buffalo, and even ostrich, gator, yak, and emu may be seen on menus. Finished in four different ways: with pepper, smoke, honey, and a BBQ grill. Teriyaki, jalapeo, lemon pepper, and chilli seasonings.
The Army is experimenting with jerky sticks that contain the caffeine equivalent of a cup of coffee because jerky is so adaptable, portable, and carries so much nutritious value.
Whether you like your jerky with caffeine or without, in strips, chips, or shreds, you should be ready to chew for a while. Can you confirm that you still have all of your natural teeth?
8. Fajitas
Consider a group of vaqueros at work on the range and the cattle that must be killed to sustain them. Include the scraps of meat in the hands’ take home pay, and let their cowboy inventiveness shine.
Campfire skirt steak (faja in Spanish) wrapped in a tortilla is the origin of a long-standing ritual in the Rio Grande valley. The fajita is widely believed to have entered mainstream society in 1969, when a man named Sonny Falcon started selling them from taco booths at Texas rodeos and other outdoor events.
It didn’t take long for restaurants in Texas to start serving the meal, and its popularity quickly expanded beyond the Lone Star State thanks to the ubiquitous addition of grilled onions and green peppers, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, and sour cream. Bring some Altoids just in case.
9. Banana Split
Because of the banana’s health benefits. But whomever came up with the sundae twist known as the banana split deserves credit. There’s the tale from 1904 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, of how future optometrist David Strickler was playing about with sundae ingredients at the drugstore soda fountain and accidentally created the banana boat.
And there’s that time in 1907 when Ernest Hazard, a restaurant owner in Wilmington, Ohio, thought of the idea to lure in customers from the neighbouring college. In the 1920s, the split became famous when a Chicago Walgreens made it its trademark dessert. If you happen to be in Wilmington on the second weekend of June, you may attend the annual Banana Split Festival, where you’ll discover lots of interesting debates and discussions on the origins of the banana split.
10. Cornmeal bread
Cornbread is a staple of Southern cookery, but it is also a staple of the diets of people of many other races and ethnicities north and south of the Mason-Dixon line. Grits are made by grinding maize into a coarse meal, whereas hominy is made by soaking corn kernels in an alkaline solution (which we encourage you to cook up into posole). Made with finely crushed cornmeal and leavened with baking powder.
Cornbread, whether in the form of Southern hushpuppies and corn pone or New England johnnycakes, cooked in a skillet or in muffin tins, flavoured with cheese, herbs, or jalapenos, remains the quick and easy go-to bread that made it popular with Native American and pioneer mothers and keeps it on tables across the country today.
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