The Geograpy of Taste (Published 1996) (2024)

IT USED TO BE THTA THE FOOD YOU chose to put in your mouth revealed your roots as readily as the accent that came out of it. Now food preferences linked to region alone are beginning to fade. People move around. Food companies market nationally. Nonetheless, the quirks and wrinkles of particular tastes continue to faintly mark the culinary landscape. High sales of Nilla Wafers in the South, for example, or of chunky peanut butter in the West reflect endemic, though frequently inexplicable, affinities that have existed for generations. here are some of the things we like to eat, and where we like to eat them.

Babecue The number of barbecue restaurants in the country jumped from 5,947 in 1985 to 6,670 in 1992, the last time they were counted. What was originally a regional food is becoming national as the country's palate heats up - spice consumption, espeically of the hot peppers that go into barbecue sauce, has skyrocketed. Preferences remain regional, however, when it comes to the meat. Port is prefered east of the Mississippi, with vinegar in the sauce; beef in cattle country and in the West, where the sauce is tricked up with tomato paste.

Beef Consumptionw was up to 67.1 pounds per person last year, compared with 65.1 pounds in 1993, reversing an 18-year decline, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More people are ordering beef in restaurants (up 3.2 percent), especially in steakhouses, where business is up 24.5 percent. According to Morton's of Chicago, a chain of 31 restuarants, a 24-ounce porterhouse sells well in New York. The biggest seller in Palm Beach is the New York strip sirloin. Dallas likes its filet mignon rare; in Atlanta the preference is for medium and in the Deep South, well done. In 1994 there was an incrase of 11 percent in the servings of large hamburgers, 6 percent for large cheeseburgers and 18 percent for bacon cheeseburgers. Three-quarters of all beef eaten in the U.S. is in the form of hamburger, and burger consumption was up 2.7 percent in 1994. Eighty-seven percent of Americans ordered a hamburger or a cheeseburger in the past year, which translates to five billion hamburgers a year, 14 million a day.

Butter In the Northeast 72 percent of families use butter, compared with 39 percent in the South, where they use margarine. Economics drove that choice, from the time when margarine was a cheaper substitute, and habit has taken over. Salted is preferred to sweet all over the country.

Cheese White cheddar is preferred in New York and New England, yellow in the rest of the country. The color-coding started more than 100 years ago, when Wisconsin began mass-marketing cheese and wanted to differentiate theirs from everyone else's. In 1970 the per capita consumption of mozzarella was 1.19 pounds. IN 1995 it was 8.27 pounds, virtually all of it consumed on pizza.

Chicken Forty-six percent of folks in the South eat fried chicken, compared with about one-third of the residents in other regions. Seventy-three percent of those in the Northeast eat chicken baked or roasted. Americans spent $25 billion on chicken last year and at 70.5 pounds per person. Consumption is expected to increase to 74 pounds per person this year. In the past, when chicken-eating went up, beef-eating went down, but now both are gaining.

Chocolate Seventy-one percent of Americans prefer milk over dark chocolate. More milk chocolate lovers than dark chocolate lovers did not graduate from high school. People who prefer dark devoted chocoholics. The tend to buy it 30 percent more of it. Candy bars with peanuts are the nationwide favorites and most popular in the South. Goo Goo Clusters, a favorite in Tennessee, are not sold anywhere else. Snickers is the No.1 - selling candy bar.

Cookies In general, people who live in the mountain states eat 30 percent more cookies than those in other parts of the country. Mallamars are sold in the Northeast in fall and winter. (The dark chocolate can't be sold in war weather - it melts too quickly - and anyway it doesn't tempt the rest of the country.) Sixty percent of all Nilla Wafers sold end up in the South and the Southwest, often make the banana pudding pie recipe on the box. More people (35 percent) eat Oreos by twisting them open than by any other method, especially in Topeka, Kan.; Waco, Tex., and Birmingham, Ala. In New York, 39 percent twist, 29 percent dunk, 156 percent nibble and 16 percent freestyle. The top dunking city is Hagerstown, Md.

Hot Dogs Nobody seems to know for sure why they eat them the way they do in different parts of the country. But during the Depression, the Vienna Beef company of Chicago, the major purveyor in that city, collaborated with vendors on the Chicago dog: yellow mustard, chopped raw onion, sweet relish, dill pickles, tomato and celery salt on a poppy-seed bun. In New York hot dogs are topped with steamed onions and yellow mustard. In Kansas City sauerkraut and melted Swiss go on top, and coleslaw is popular in the South. People in the East and Middle West are more partial to hot dogs than residents of other regions because, according to the National Park Producers Council, more of them are descendants of Germans and Eastern Europeans.

Ice Cream Americans east an average of 13 quarts of ice cream a year and spend $3 billion on it. More ice cream is consumed in the South than in any other part of the country. But people spend more money on ice cream on the coasts, where the superpremium brands like Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's originated. Frozen yogurt is more popular in the East than in any other part of the country, perhaps because more yogurt is eaten there than anywhere else. Frozen yogurt sales have never encroached on ice-cream sales, which in any case are on the increase, resulting from an influx of low-fat and no-fat products in many ice-cream brands. Haagen-Dazs says vanilla is the top flavor nationwide. Chocolate is second. In the West, espeically Los Angeles, they prefer their chocolate with stuff in it, like chocolate chocolate chip. In the East, they like butter pecan, in New York, coffee.

Mayonnaise On the West Coast they treasure Best Foods mayonnaise. Always have. On the East Coast, Hellmann's. The Middle West clings to Miracle Whip, that Depression-era invention bulked up with starchy extenders to replace some of the fat. Mayo is king in New Orleans, where they eat 2.4 times as much as anywhere else. For the past 10 years, America's most popular sandwich has been ham with mayonnaise. The least amount of mayonnaise is consumed in Omaha.

Orange Juice Over the las tyear Americans drank 743 million gallons of orange juice, according to Florida Department of Citrus. New York is the city with the highest consumption, at more than 64 million gallons; in Los Angeles, consumption was 34 million gallons. Fewer people in the South use frozen O.J., which is used the most in the West.

Peanut Butter Average per capita consumption is 3 pounds a year, 9,120 calories. By brand, Skippy is the choice in the East and the West, Jif in the Middle West and Peter Pan in the South, the regions where these brands were originally produced. Red Wing is a cult favorite in New York. Creamy tops chunky by almost two to one, except in the West, where chunky gains. The manufacturers of Skippy speculate this is because chunky is perceived to be more "natural," and "natural" products play well in that part of the country. Thirty-three percent of all the peanut butter consumed on the West Coast is Skippy Super Chunk.

Pizza There are approximately 60,580 pizzerias in the United States, as of Jan. 31, 1996, up from 39,937 10 years ago. In New York State there is one pizzeria for every 3,525 people. Mississippi has only one per 9,777. Twice as many pies and slices are ordered with cheese no meat, in the Northeast, where restaurant pizza is also most popular. Frozen pizza, especially with meat (sausage, etc.), has the biggest following in the North Central region, where total consumption is highest. On the West Coast they like pizza with vegetables.

Potatoes French fries are the most popular form, and the Middle West eats the most of them. Fries are eaten mainly in restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants, and especially to go.

Salad Dressing Tastes run to Russian and Thousand Island in the South, French (the orange-colored kind) in the Middle West, Italian - especially Wish-Bone - in the East and ranch in West. Newman's Own Caesar dressing sells best in the West, where the Caesar was invented.

Salsa With salsa sales at $734.5 million, up 6.4 percent, and unit sales at $366.8 million, up 1.7 percent, as of Dec. 3, 1995, salsa is playing catch-up with ketchup. During the same period, ketchup sales reach $420.7 million, up 1.7 percent, with unit sales at $293.2 million, down 1.7 percent. Salsa is preferred hot, and often green, in the West and mild in the East. But Vermont is the exception, a salsa-loving corner where no fewer than a dozen brands - mild and hot, green and red - are produced.

Soup Some soup flavor preferences are easier to understand. Philadelphia is partial to pepper pot, which is said to have been created for Washington's cold, hungry troops at nearby Valley Forge in 1777-78. And Philadephia is the only city where the soup is now sold. And if they like French onion soup better in New Orleans than elsewhere, the demographics, with so many residents with French roots, are the reason. Campbell's chicken noodle? Cincinnati. But in Miami, chicken broth. Albany prefers Manhattan clam chowder; New York likes green pea. Indianapolis, chili beef; El Paso, chicken with rice; St. Louis, New England clam chowder and cheddar cheese in Memphis. A third of a billion cans of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup are consumed annually; Grand Rapids, Mich., is the city that likes it the most.

Tea The South is the iced tea capital, where it is made with tea bags, the cheapest way. That's how they can afford to give it away, as they do in most restaurants. Herbal tea is most popular in the West, where Celestial Seasonings is based. Instant hot tea is particular to the Central States; the East is where the most hot tea is drunk.

Tuna More than 90 percent of all the tuna consumed in America is canned, with highest consumption in the East, especially in Harfrod and New York. New York is No. 1 when it comes to white albacore tuna, with 25 percent of the total national consumption. Annual consumption of canned tuna (3 1/2 pounds per person) is higher than it is for peanut butter.

Source: Barbecue, the National Restaurant Association, Jack Daniel Distillery, American Spice Trade Council; Beef Association, Morton's of Chicago, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Butter, Land O'Lakes, the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers; Cheese, Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association, Pizza Today magazine; Chicken, the National Broiler Council; Chocolate, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, M&M/Mars; Cookies, Nabisco, the NPD Group market research; Hot dogs, the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, the National Pork Producers Council, Vienna Beef; Ice cream, Haagen-Dazs; Mayonnaise, Best Foods, Kraft Foods; Orange juice, the Florida Department of Citrus; Peanut butter, Best Foods, Hunt-Wesson, the Peanut Advisory Board; Pizza, the Pillsbury Company, Pizza Today magazine, the NPD Group; Potatoes, the NPD Group; Salad dressing, Newman's Own, the NPD Gorup; Salsa, Information Resources (Chicago), the Vermont Department of Agriculture; Soup, the Campbell's Soup Company; Tea, the NPD Group; Tuna, the United States Tuna Foundation.