Feast Your Eyes on the Signature Dish From Each State

Every U.S. state can claim a signature dish that tradition has handed down, residents have perfected, and visitors seek out. A trip to Maine would scarcely be complete without sampling a lobster roll, and a journey through the Midwest is more than likely to feature a stop for a Chicago deep-dish pizza.

🍝 Iconic Eats or Food Fights? The Battle for Every State’s Signature Dish 🍽️

The trouble is, most states have a cornucopia of foods to hold up as their iconic dishes, opening up endless opportunities for debate and disagreement.

Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Oysters are not actually oysters, but something else entirely.

New York’s signature food might be the bagel, especially one smeared with cream cheese and topped with lox, but what about thin-crust pizza, spicy buffalo wings, and zesty Manhattan clam chowder? In Maryland, crab cakes might take center stage, but steamed blue crabs, she-crab soup, and fried soft-shell crabs all are legitimate contenders. In Mississippi, shrimp and grits and rich chocolatey mud pie are as iconic as is the crispy, meaty fried catfish.

In plenty of states, stand-out dishes materialize from the plentiful crops, like Alabama’s almonds, Georgia’s peaches, Wisconsin’s famed cheese production, and Wyoming’s hunting culture and cattle industry, giving us nut-laden cake, fruit cobbler, fresh curds, and elk and beef jerky.

RELATED: Bread Winners: See the Signature Sandwich From Each State

Some dishes travel, like Alaska’s king crab, Maine’s lobster rolls, and Florida’s Key lime pie, especially in modern times. Other dishes like chocolate gravy, bierocks, and the Juicy Lucy seem to have stayed put. Immigrants are to thank for some of the tastiest specialties like jibaritos in Chicago, runzas in Nebraska, knoephla soup in North Dakota, and chislic in neighboring South Dakota.

Ohio’s buckeye candy resembles buckeye nuts.

More than a few dishes are classically uncomplicated, as though their simplicity gives them appeal and staying power, like Indiana’s sugar cream pie, Pennsylvania’s shoofly pie, boiled dinners in New Hampshire, and buckeye candy in Ohio.

👇🏼 Keep scrolling for the full list of state dishes. 👇🏼

None of the dishes will help anyone shed any pounds or take inches off the waistline, nor should they. Signature dishes are ones to be sought out, savored, and remembered.

Stacker compiled a list of signature dishes in each U.S. state, consulting local newspapers, histories, and recipe collections. It’s guaranteed to be mouthwatering and not at all scientific.