Cuisine of Michigan

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A pasty, a cultural icon of Michigan's Upper Peninsula
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History
Ingredients and foods
Styles
Ethnic and cultural
Holidays and festivals

The cuisine of Michigan is part of the broader regional cuisine of the Midwestern United States. It is reflective of the diverse food history of settlement and immigration in the state, and draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Native North America.[1]

Agriculture

See also: Cherry production in Michigan

Michigan is a leading grower of fruit in the U.S., including

pickling cucumbers, navy beans and petunias
.

Metro Detroit

The city of Detroit and surrounding metropolitan area is known for its wide variety of food items. The area's specialties include Coney Island hot dogs, found at hundreds of unaffiliated "Coney Island" restaurants. Not to be confused with a chili dog, a coney is served with a ground beef sauce, chopped onions and mustard. The Coney Special has an additional ground beef topping. It is often served with French fries. Food writers Jane and Michael Stern call out Detroit as the only "place to start" in pinpointing "the top Coney Islands in the land."[6]: 233 

Detroit-style pizza

Detroit also has its own style of pizza, a thick-crusted,

Domino's Pizza in nearby Ypsilanti.[14][15] Two of those chains, Little Caesars and Domino's Pizza, are both in the top three largest pizza chains in the United States.[16]

Detroit also has a substantial number of

gyros, hummus and falafel
can be found in many run-of-the-mill grocery stores and restaurants.

Polish food is also prominent in the state, including popular dishes such as

kolbász
.

A Detroit-style Coney dog

Chinese restaurants in the Detroit area serve almond boneless chicken,[17] a regional Chinese-American dish consisting of battered fried boneless chicken breasts served sliced on a bed of lettuce with a gravy-like chicken flavored sauce and slivered almonds.[18]

The Detroit area has many large groups of immigrants. A large Arabic-speaking population reside in and around the suburb of

wet burrito, said to have originated in Grand Rapids

Lower Peninsula

In

Ann Arbor, the Chipati, a tossed salad, is served inside a freshly baked pita pocket with the "secret" Chipati sauce on the side. The Chipati's origination is claimed by both Pizza Bob's.[19] Ann Arbor is also famous for their “Hippie Hash”, a vegetarian breakfast dish consisting of fried potatoes, vegetables, and feta cheese, which originated at Fleetwood Diner in the 60’s.[20]
The name is a nod to the city’s counterculture movement, which was embraced in the 60’s and led to the city being the first in Michigan to have legalized marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.

wet burrito, which is said to have been created in Grand Rapids in 1966.[22]

Additionally, German cuisine is fairly common in the area of Frankenmuth, with multiple restaurants in Frankenmuth serving German food, including those at the Bavarian Inn.[23]

The Northwestern Lower Peninsula, specifically the Traverse City area, is world-renowned for its cherry production. Harvesting over 90,000 tons of cherries each year, Michigan is the nation's leading producer of tart cherries. The Montmorency cherry is the variety of tart, or sour, cherry most commonly grown in the state.[24] A Hungarian sour cherry cultivar, Balaton, has been commercially produced in Michigan since 1998.[25] Additionally, Traverse City hosts the National Cherry Festival each July, and is commonly known as the "Cherry Capital of the World".[26][27][28]

The city of Pinconning is known as the "Cheese Capital of Michigan".[29] This is because Pinconning is locally noted for its former production of cheese and cheese products, especially Pinconning cheese, made and distributed by Pinconning Cheese Company and Wilson's (Horn) Cheese Shoppe.[30][31]

Upper Peninsula

The Upper Peninsula has a distinctive local cuisine. The pasty (/ˈpæstiː/ PASS-tee), a kind of meat turnover originally brought to the region by Cornish miners, is arguably the most famous food of the Upper Peninsula. Pasty restaurants and shops line highways across the peninsula. Varieties include chicken, venison, pork, hamburger, and pizza, all of which many restaurants serve.[32] Many U.P. restaurants also serve potato sausage and cudighi, a spicy Italian meat.

Leipäjuusto
) and saunamakkara (a ring-bologna sausage) have become so ubiquitous in Upper Peninsula cuisine that they are now commonly found in most grocery stores and supermarkets.

chokecherry jelly are a treat.[35]

Trenary Toast is another food with roots in the Upper Peninsula. The snack product hails from

Trenary, a small town in Alger County, and consisted of toast coated in a blend of cinnamon and sugar.[36]

Additionally, the peninsula, especially Marquette and Copper Country, are known for their brewery industries.[37]

Other

Fish fries are common on Fridays and during Lent in Michigan, usually set up buffet-style with items including rolls, potatoes (typically in the form of french fries and mashed), salad, coleslaw, apple sauce, deep-fried fish, and sometimes fried shrimp and baked fish. Fish is generally popular throughout the state due to the state's location on four of the Great Lakes. Trout, walleye, perch, and catfish are common. Whitefish is a regional specialty usually offered along the coast, with smoked whitefish and whitefish dip being noteworthy.[38]

Alcohol

Michigan's

Kalamazoo, another city known for its breweries.[40]

Mackinac Island fudge

Mackinac Island, between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, is world-renowned for its fudge. Phil Porter wrote a book entitled "Fudge: Mackinac's Sweet Souvenir", which explains how fudge became such a popular treat in Mackinac. After the fur trade in the region collapsed, the island became a summer vacationing spot. Visitors began to associate sweets with the island, originally starting when Native Americans began collecting maple sugar. In 1887, though, the Murdick family opened the first candy shop on the island.[41] Fans were used to send the scent of their fudge out into the community to draw in customers, and the scent of fudge, as well as the increase in shop openings, became commonplace on the island.[42] Additionally, every August, the island hosts the Mackinac Island Fudge Festival.[43] Mackinac Island's visitors became known as "fudgies", a term which has spread to cover any tourists, regardless of whether or not fudge is purchased, across Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.[44] Today, fudge shops are also common in Michigan's tourist towns outside Mackinac Island, such as St. Ignace and Traverse City.

Battle Creek cereal

Further information: Kellogg's § History

W. K. Kellogg, an industrialist, had worked for his brother, John Harvey Kellogg, in a variety of capacities at the sanitarium in Battle Creek. Tired of living in the shadow of his brother, W.K. Kellogg struck out on his own, going to the boom-towns surrounding the oilfields in Oklahoma as a broom salesman. Having failed, he returned to work as an assistant to his brother. While working at the sanitariums' laboratory, W.K. spilled liquefied cornmeal on a heating device that cooked the product and rendered it to flakes. He tasted the flakes and added milk to them. He was able to get his brother to allow him to give some of the product to some of the patients at the sanitarium, and the patients' demand for the product exceeded his expectations to the point that W.K made the decision to leave the sanitarium. Along with some investors, he built a factory to satisfy the demand for his "corn flakes". It was during this time of going their separate ways for good that Dr. John Harvey Kellogg sued his brother for copyright infringement. The U.S. Supreme court ruled in W.K. Kellogg's favor, due to the greater sales and public profile of W.K. Kellogg's company. Inspired by Kellogg's innovation, C. W. Post invented Grape-Nuts
and founded his own cereal company in the town. For this reason, Battle Creek has been nicknamed "the Cereal City."

Montmorency cherries, a variety commonly grown in the Traverse City area

Companies

Below are restaurants, as well as food and beverage companies, founded in or based out of Michigan, unless otherwise specified.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Michigan/Great Lakes Region." Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine Community Based Food and Farming. Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems at Michigan State University Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed July 2011.
  2. ^ Agriculture Experiment Station. "Michigan Blueberries". Michigan State University. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
  3. ^ Hanson, Eric (July 28, 1998). "Small Fruit Crops". Ag Experiment Station Special Reports. Michigan State University. Archived from the original on April 17, 2006. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
  4. ^ Thiel, Craig. "Michigan agricultural exports" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on September 9, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
  5. ^ Andersen, Jeff (October 7, 2011). "Number of farms and land in farms, 2009–2010" (PDF). National Agricultural Statistics Service, Michigan Field Office, Michigan Department of Agriculture. NR-09-77. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 15, 2006.
  6. ISBN 978-0-547-05907-5
    .
  7. ^ LaGrou, Lisa (2021-02-09). "Zip Sauce Recipe for Steak". Oakland County Moms. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  8. ^ Ochab, Courtney. "5 essential corned beef sandwiches in Detroit". Thrillist. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  9. ^ "War Su Gai: Almond Boneless Chicken Recipe". The Spruce Eats. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  10. ^ Clarke, Rod Meloni, Kayla (30 October 2018). "Original Little Caesars pizza shop location closing". www.clickondetroit.com. Retrieved December 1, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Rubin: At the original Caesars, life and pizza go on". Detroit News. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  12. ^ "About Jet's Pizza". Jet's Pizza. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  13. ^ "Our History to Date". Hungry Howie's Pizza. Retrieved 2013-04-12.
  14. ^ "Domino's Pizza - About Domino's / History". Domino's Pizza. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  15. ^ Allen, Jeremy (April 21, 2014). "New gourmet burger joint opening in original Domino's Pizza location". mlive.com. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  16. ^ "2018 Top 100 Pizza Companies - Pizza Today - U.S. Biggest Pizza Chains". Pizza Today. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  17. ^ "Almond Boneless Chicken". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  18. ^ "The Mystery of Almond Boneless Chicken - Chinese - Michigan - Tina Caputo". Zester Daily. Archived from the original on 2015-07-17. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  19. ^ "Home". www.bobspizzapalace.com. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  20. ^ [email protected], Jacob Hamilton | (2021-07-03). "Local Eats: As pandemic subsides, Ann Arbor's Fleetwood Diner is back 24/7". mlive. Retrieved 2025-03-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Fallows, James (2013-08-10). "Welcome to Holland". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  22. ^ "Our History | Beltline Bar". www.beltlinebar.com. Archived from the original on 2017-04-20. Retrieved 2016-09-02."Beltline Bar | Local First". www.localfirst.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-16. Retrieved 2016-09-02."Grand Rapids Magazine : Online Feature June 2015". www.grmag.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-13. Retrieved 2016-09-02.
  23. ^ "Bavarian Inn Restaurant". Frankenmuth. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  24. ^ Michigan Agriculture Facts & Figures (PDF) (Brochure). Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. n.d. n.p. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  25. ^ Charles, Dan. "A Hungarian Cherry Tree's Long Trek To Michigan". NPR.
  26. ^ "Cherry Industry". Traverse City Tourism. 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  27. ^ "National Cherry Festival". Pure Michigan Travel. National Agricultural Statistics Service. n.d. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  28. ^ "History of Cherries". www.cherryfestival.org. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  29. ^ "Pinconning: The Cheese That Michigan Loves". The Cheese Professor. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  30. ^ Rose, David (June 6, 2019). "Pinconning celebrates its cheesy life". Route Bay City. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  31. ^ "About us". Pinconning Cheese Company.
  32. ^ Abbey-Lambertz, Kate (March 27, 2014). "You've Probably Never Heard of a Yooper, But Here's Why You'll Wish You Were One". HuffPost. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  33. ISBN 978-0-9709094-0-4
    . Retrieved March 31, 2007.
  34. ^ "Michigan Fish & Game Advisory" (PDF). Michigan Department of Community Health. 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
  35. ^ "Travel & Leisure, Driving Michigan's Upper Peninsula". Travelandleisure.com. Archived from the original on September 14, 2008. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  36. ^ "Cinnamon Trenary Toast". Trenary Home Bakery. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  37. ^ Land, Jesse (2016-05-08). "Your Lowdown on the Upper Peninsula Breweries". www.awesomemitten.com. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  38. ^ "Michigan Fresh: Great Lakes Lake Whitefish (E3211)". MSU Extension. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  39. ^ "Grand Rapids is Beer City, USA". www.experiencegr.com. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  40. ^ Stafford, Paul (2021-11-02). "The 20 Best Beer Towns in the United States". TravelMag. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  41. ^ "Our Story". Original Murdick's Fudge. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  42. ^ "How Mackinac Island Became Fudge Capital Of The World". mackinacisland.org. June 4, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  43. ^ "2022 Fudge Festival". Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  44. ^ "The vocabulary of yoopers, trolls and fudgies". Michigan Radio. 2014-03-30. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
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