<P> In the Midwest and especially Minnesota, the tradition of the church potluck has become a gathering in which local foods reign, and so it has been since the era of the frontier: pioneers would often need to pool resources together to have a celebration in the 19th century and that simply never changed . Nowhere is this more clear than with the ever famous hotdish: this is a type of casserole believed to have derived somehow from a Norwegian recipe, and it is usually topped with potatoes or tater tots . Next to the hotdish at the potlucks usually is where the glorified rice is found: this is a dish made of a kind of rice pudding mixed with crushed pineapple and maraschino cherries . Next to that is the booyah, a thick soup made of a number or combinations of meat, vegetables, and seasonings that is meant to simmer on the stove for up to two days . Lefse, traditionally a Scandinavian flatbread, has been handed down to descendants for over a hundred years and is common on the table . Behind that is the venison, a popular meat around the Great Lakes and often eaten in steaks, sandwiches, and crown roasts for special events . If in North or South Dakota, tiger meat, a dish similar to steak tartare, is present . Last on the table are the dessert bars and most especially the brownies: this confection was created originally in 1898 in Chicago and has gone on to become a global food . </P> <P> Further South, barbecue has its own style in places in Kansas and St. Louis that are different to the South and the American West . Kansas City and St. Louis were and remain important hubs for the railroad that connected the plains with the Great Lakes and cities farther east, like Philadelphia . At the turn of the 19th century, the St. Louis area, Omaha, and Kansas City had huge stockyards, waystations for cattle and pigs on their way East to the cities of the coast and North to the Great Lakes . They all had large growing immigrant and migrant populations from Europe and the South respectively, so this region has developed unique styles of barbecue . St. Louis - style barbecue favors a heavy emphasis on a sticky sweet barbecue sauce . Its standbys include the pork steak, a cut taken from the shoulder of the pig, grilled, and then slowly stewed in a pan over charcoal, crispy snoots, a cut from the cheek and nose of the pig that is fried up like cracklin and eaten dipped in sauce, pork spare ribs, and a mix of either beer boiled bratwurst or grilled Italian derived sausage, flavored with fennel . Dessert is usually something like gooey butter cake, invented in the city in the 1930s . Kansas City - style barbecue uses several different kinds of meat, more than most styles of American barbecue - turkey, mutton, pork, and beef just to name a few - but is distinct from St. Louis in that the barbecue sauce adds molasses in with the typical tomato based recipe and typically has a more tart taste . Traditionally, Kansas City uses a low - and - slow method of smoking the meat in addition to just stewing it in the sauce . It also favors using hickory would for smoking and continual watering or layering of the sauce while cooking to form a glaze; with burnt ends this step is necessary to create the "bark" or charred outer layer of the brisket . </P> <P> When referring to the American South as a region, typically it should indicate Southern Maryland and the states that were once part of the Old Confederacy, with the dividing line between the East and West jackknifing about 100 miles west of Dallas, Texas, and mostly south of the old Mason - Dixon line . Cities found in this area include New Orleans, Miami, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Charleston, and Charlotte with Houston, Texas being the largest . These states are much more closely tied to each other and have been part of US territory for much longer than states much farther west than East Texas, and in the case of food, the influences and cooking styles are strictly separated as the terrain begins to change to prairie and desert from bayou and hardwood forest . </P> <P> This section of the country has some of the oldest known foodways in the land, with some recipes almost 400 years old . Native American influences are still quite visible in the use of cornmeal as an essential staple and found in the Southern predilection for hunting wild game, in particular wild turkey, deer, woodcock, and various kinds of waterfowl; for example, coastal North Carolina is a place where hunters will seek tundra swan as a part of Christmas dinner; the original English and Scottish settlers would have rejoiced at this revelation owing to the fact that such was banned amongst the commoner class in what is now the United Kingdom, and naturally, their descendants have not forgotten . Native Americans also consumed turtles and catfish, specifically the snapping turtle and blue catfish, both important parts of the diet in the South today . Catfish are often caught with one's bare hands, gutted, breaded, and fried to make a Southern variation on English fish and chips and turtles are turned into stews and soups . Native American tribes of the region such as the Cherokee or Choctaw often cultivated or gathered local plants like pawpaw, maypop, spicebush, sassafras, and several sorts of squash and maize, and the aforementioned fruits still are cultivated as food in a Southerner's back garden . Maize is to this day found in dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the form of grits, hoecakes, baked cornbread, and spoonbread, and nuts like the hickory, black walnut and pecan are commonly included in desserts and pastries as varied as mince pies, pecan pie, pecan rolls and honey buns (both are types of sticky bun), and quick breads, which were themselves invented in the South during the American Civil War . </P>

Food customs in the united states began with the first english colonists