Buffalo wings are one of the most famous foods created in Upstate New York, originating in Buffalo during the 1960s. Photo: FoodieFrame Studio/Shutterstock.com
Some of America’s most familiar foods have roots in places most people would never expect. Across Upstate New York, cooks, bakers, candy makers, scientists, farmers, restaurateurs, and food companies created dishes and products that eventually traveled far beyond the towns and cities where they began. Buffalo wings came out of Buffalo. Jell-O began in Le Roy. The modern chicken nugget was developed at Cornell. Half-moon cookies came from Utica, while Rochester gave the country the Garbage Plate and its distinctive white hot.
For this list, the standard is simple: the food, product, recipe, or cultivar had to have been created or developed in Upstate New York. Merely becoming popular here was not enough. In a few cases, historians still debate exactly who deserves individual credit, but the Upstate New York place of origin is well established. These twenty foods prove just how much of America’s culinary history was created far beyond New York City.
Granula (Dansville)
Long before corn flakes, Cheerios, or boxes of sugary cereal filled supermarket aisles, Dr. James Caleb Jackson developed Granula at his health retreat in Dansville in 1863. Made from graham flour baked into hard cakes, broken apart, and baked again, the cereal was so tough that it generally had to be soaked before eating. Smithsonian has described Granula as the first manufactured breakfast cereal. Jackson’s creation never became a mass-market giant, but it helped establish the idea that a prepared dry cereal could replace the heavy cooked breakfasts common in nineteenth-century America.
Jell-O (Le Roy)
One of America’s most recognizable desserts was created in the Genesee County village of Le Roy. In 1897, Pearle Bixby Wait experimented with gelatin and fruit flavoring while developing products at home. His wife, May Wait, gave the dessert its now-famous name: Jell-O. Wait struggled to market the product and sold the trademark in 1899 to fellow Le Roy businessman Orator Frank Woodward for $450. Woodward and the Genesee Pure Food Company turned the invention into a national phenomenon.
French’s Yellow Mustard (Rochester)
French’s yellow mustard grew out of an Upstate New York family business with roots in Fairport and Rochester. Brothers Robert and George French purchased a flour mill in Fairport in 1883, and the company later established itself in Rochester. In 1904, George and Francis French introduced French’s Classic Yellow Mustard to the public at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Its smooth texture, mild flavor, and bright yellow appearance helped define what generations of Americans came to think of as classic prepared mustard.
Buffalo Wings (Buffalo)
The exact story of who first created the Buffalo wing has generated decades of debate, but there is no serious dispute about where the dish was born. Buffalo is its hometown. The most famous account credits Teressa Bellissimo of the Anchor Bar with serving deep-fried chicken wings coated in a buttery hot sauce in 1964. Buffalo restaurateur John Young also played an important role in the city’s early chicken-wing culture. Whatever the precise sequence of events, the sauced chicken wing that became known around the world as the Buffalo wing emerged from Buffalo.
The Garbage Plate (Rochester)
Rochester’s Garbage Plate grew out of the combination plates served at Nick Tahou Hots. The trademarked name became attached to an enormous meal generally combining a choice of meat with sides such as home fries, French fries, baked beans, or macaroni salad, then topped with Rochester-style meat sauce and optional mustard and onions. Local legend says college students asked for a plate containing “all the garbage on it,” helping give the creation its unforgettable name. Today variations appear throughout the Rochester area, but the original Garbage Plate remains identified with Nick Tahou Hots.
The Rochester White Hot (Rochester)
Rochester’s white hot is a different kind of hot dog from the conventional red frankfurter. Made from a pale mixture of uncured meats, the regional sausage developed within Rochester’s German-American butcher tradition during the early twentieth century. Local historical research traces the earliest version to the Ottman family’s Rochester meat business, although several companies later became associated with the style. The white hot went on to become an essential part of Rochester cookouts, hot-dog stands, and Garbage Plates.
The Chicken Nugget (Ithaca)
One of the most widely consumed fast-food products in the world has an Upstate New York connection few people realize. Cornell University food scientist Robert C. Baker developed an early modern chicken nugget in the 1950s as part of his research into new ways of using poultry. Baker and his colleagues solved the difficult problem of keeping breading attached to processed chicken during frying. Unlike later commercial versions, Baker’s work was published rather than patented, allowing the concept to spread throughout the food industry.
Turkey Ham (Ithaca)
Robert C. Baker’s Cornell laboratory was responsible for far more than the chicken nugget. Baker and his research team developed numerous new poultry products, including turkey ham. The idea was part of Baker’s larger effort to expand the ways poultry could be processed, marketed, and eaten at a time when most Americans still purchased chicken and turkey primarily as whole birds. Cornell credits Baker with helping develop turkey ham into a commercially viable food product.
Cornell Bread (Ithaca)
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Cornell nutrition professor Clive McCay developed a high-protein bread designed to improve nutrition economically. Working with his wife, Jeanette, along with dietitians, bakers, and other specialists, McCay created what became known as Cornell Bread. The formula enriched ordinary flour with nonfat dry milk solids, soybean flour, and wheat germ. Originally developed in response to nutritional needs in New York State institutions, the recipe later spread to schools, commercial bakeries, and home kitchens across the country.
Salt Potatoes (Syracuse)
Salt potatoes came directly out of Syracuse’s nineteenth-century salt industry. Workers around the salt works near Onondaga Lake began boiling small potatoes in heavily salted water, creating an inexpensive and filling meal. By the 1880s, taverns and eateries in the Syracuse area were serving salt potatoes with melted butter. The dish remains one of Central New York’s most distinctive foods and a reminder that one of the region’s simplest recipes grew directly from the industry that once made Syracuse a national center of salt production.
Spiedies (Greater Binghamton)
The spiedie was created in the Southern Tier from Italian immigrant cooking traditions that took on a distinctly Binghamton identity. Cubes of meat are marinated in a mixture built around oil, vinegar, garlic, and herbs, grilled on skewers, and traditionally served with bread. Lamb was common in early versions, while chicken, pork, and beef later became popular. Historical research documents the spiedie in the Binghamton area by the 1930s. The exact individual inventor remains debated, but its birthplace in Greater Binghamton is firmly established.
The Michigan Hot Dog (Plattsburgh)
Despite its name, the Michigan hot dog is a Plattsburgh specialty. The dish consists of a hot dog topped with a seasoned meat sauce, often with mustard and diced onions either placed on top or “buried” beneath the sauce. Historical research has found advertisements for Michigan hot dogs in Plattsburgh as early as 1927. Exactly who created the recipe and why it was called a Michigan remain subjects of local debate, but the specialty itself originated in Plattsburgh and became one of the North Country’s defining foods.
Chicken Riggies (Utica-Rome)
Chicken riggies are native to the Utica-Rome area and grew out of the region’s Italian-American restaurant culture. The dish combines rigatoni pasta with chicken, peppers, and a spicy tomato-and-cream sauce, although recipes vary considerably from one restaurant to another. Several local cooks and restaurants have been credited with creating early versions, making the identity of one single inventor difficult to establish. What is clear is that chicken riggies emerged in the Mohawk Valley and became one of the region’s signature dishes.
Utica Greens (Utica)
Utica greens developed from the escarole dishes long prepared in the homes of the city’s Italian-American families, but the restaurant creation that established the modern dish was Greens Morelle. Chef Joe Morelle created the dish at the Chesterfield Restaurant in 1987, combining greens with peppers, cheese, breadcrumbs, and other savory ingredients. The dish spread rapidly through Central New York restaurants and became so closely associated with the city that the more general name “Utica greens” eventually became standard.
Half-Moon Cookies (Utica)
Harry B. Hemstrought created the original Halfmoon cookie recipe at his bakery on Genesee Street in Utica in 1920. The soft, cake-like cookie is frosted on one half with chocolate fudge and on the other with vanilla buttercream. Although half-moons are sometimes confused with New York City black-and-white cookies, the Utica version has its own texture, frosting, and documented bakery history. More than a century later, Hemstrought’s continues to identify itself as the home of the original Halfmoon.
Turkey Joints (Rome)
Turkey Joints may be one of the strangest-looking candies ever created in New York. The confection contains no turkey at all. Instead, chocolate and nuts are wrapped inside a hard, silvery candy shell shaped to resemble a small poultry joint. Oneida County Tourism identifies the unusual candy as a creation of Nora’s Candy Shop in Rome. The confection became a local holiday tradition and remains one of the most distinctive food creations associated with the Mohawk Valley.
Naples Grape Pie (Naples)
The Finger Lakes village of Naples transformed the Concord grape into one of Upstate New York’s most unusual desserts. Grape pies began appearing there during the late 1950s and early 1960s as local restaurateurs and bakers experimented with ways to turn the region’s grape harvest into a signature attraction. Irene Bouchard became the person most closely associated with popularizing the pie, eventually baking enormous numbers each season. Naples embraced the dessert so completely that the community became known as the Grape Pie Capital of the World.
The Peppermint Pig (Saratoga Springs)
During the 1880s, Saratoga Springs candy makers began producing pink peppermint candy molded into the shape of a pig. In Victorian culture, the pig symbolized prosperity, good health, and happiness. Families developed a holiday ritual in which the peppermint pig was placed inside a cloth bag and smashed with a small hammer after Christmas dinner, allowing everyone to share the pieces. Production faded for decades before the Saratoga tradition was revived, and the Peppermint Pig remains one of the most unusual candies ever created in Upstate New York.
The Cortland Apple (Geneva)
The Cortland apple was developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva by crossing McIntosh with Ben Davis. The variety was bred in 1898 by horticulturist Spencer Ambrose Beach and later introduced commercially. Its white flesh, sweet-tart flavor, and resistance to browning made it especially popular for salads, baking, and fresh eating. Named for Cortland County, the apple became one of the best-known varieties developed by New York agricultural researchers.
The Empire Apple (Geneva)
Another famous apple created in Geneva was the Empire. Developed by researchers at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station from a cross between McIntosh and Red Delicious, the variety underwent years of evaluation before being officially introduced in 1966. Empire proved to be one of the station’s most successful releases, combining the flavor and crispness New York apple growers wanted with qualities that made it practical for commercial orchards and storage.
From the first manufactured breakfast cereal and Jell-O to Buffalo wings, chicken nuggets, half-moon cookies, salt potatoes, and two famous apple varieties, Upstate New York has contributed an extraordinary collection of foods to American life. Some began in restaurants or family bakeries. Others came from university laboratories and agricultural experiment stations. What connects them is that they were not merely popular in Upstate New York. They were created here.
For more stories about New York food history, explore our History of New York Pizza, History of New York Cheesecake, and New York’s Vineyards and Wine Making History.
