Favorite Pennsylvania Foods
Everyone knows about Philly Cheesteaks and soft pretzels but here are afew more iconic Philadelphia foods!
1. Tastykake
Headquartered in the Philadelphia Naval Yard, Tastykake was established in 1914 and originally only sold it’s bakery treats in the Philly Metro area. The company now distributed throughout the east coast and is expanding nationally. Soon you may be able to get your Krimpets and Peanut Butter Tandy Kakes all over the Country.
According to Wikipedia Utz foods began in 1921 as "Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips" when William and Salie Utz began making potato chips out of their home in Hanover, Pennsylvania[2], with an initial investment of $300. In 2019 Utz acquired rival snack food company Snyder. Having sponsored the Yankees and the Phillies in previous years, Utz currently sponsors the Baltimore Orioles and the Philadelphia Eagles. Utz is known for their chips and cheese curls.
- Scrapple
An acquired taste (and my father certainly acquired it), scrappleis a mush (a mush!) of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and wheat flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed (congealed!) loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then pan-fried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering, not used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste. Scrapple is found in supermarkets throughout the region in both fresh and frozen refrigerated cases.
- Yuengling
Did you know that Yuengling is the oldest operating brewing company in America? Established in 1829, Yuengling is headquartered in Pottstown PA and has been run by successive generations. Try the ice cream!
- Shoofly Pie
Again thanks to Wikipedia we know that Shoofly pie began as a crust-less molasses cake called Centennial cake in 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.[3] In the 1880s, home bakers added a crust to make it easier to eat alongside a cup of coffee in the morning, without plates and forks..[2]
Because the cake contains molasses but no eggs, historians conclude that it was typically baked during the winter, when chickens laid no eggs but when molasses would store well in the cold weather. The use of baking powder places its invention firmly after the Civil War and in the 1870s, when Pennsylvania Dutch bakers began using baking powder.
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