A lot of “American foods” — hamburgers, hot dogs, apple pie — weren’t actually invented in the States. Rather, they were imported from other countries. Americans still have plenty of cuisine to call their own, including a heck of a lot of desserts. Here are 22 American foods and the year — or approximate years — that they were invented.
Boston cream pie (1856)
Let’s start with an American food with an American name. This pie was created by Chef M. Sanzian of Boston’s Parker House Hotel in 1856 as his spin on existing desserts known as “American pudding-cake pie” or “Washington Pie.” Sanzian’s version stuck around, and after several monicker modifications, so did the name “Boston cream pie.”
Cream cheese (1873)
In 1872, New York dairyman William A. Lawrence attempted to recreate Neufchâtel cheese, but after adding extra cream, he ended up with an even more spreadable and obviously more creamy variety. He dubbed it “Philadelphia cream cheese” because Philly was known for high quality food at the time, and the product sold extremely well. The brand was later purchased by Kraft in 1928 and can still be bought in stores under the name Philadelphia cream cheese.
Fudge (1880s)
Fudge is such a simple dessert — all you need is sugar, butter, milk, and one more ingredient (like cocoa powder) based on the flavor — that you’d think it was invented thousands of years ago. But fudge recipes didn’t come about until the 1880s, with one popular story claiming it was all unintentional. A confectioner in Baltimore, Maryland, wanted to make chocolate caramels but accidentally ended up with what we now refer to as chocolate fudge.
Chocolate brownies (1893)
In 1893, Bertha Palmer, a Chicago socialite and wife of the owner of the Palmer House Hotel, asked the resident pastry chef to create a cake-like dessert that could be served in boxed lunches. The result was the first chocolate brownie, according to the most popular story, at least!
Corn Flakes (1894)
Kellogg’s website will tell you that Corn Flakes were invented by W.K. Kellogg in 1894. What they don’t tell you is that this staple breakfast cereal was created by Kellogg for the patients at Michigan’s Battle Creek Sanitarium, a health resort founded on Seventh-day Adventist Church principles.
JELL-O (1897)
Gelatin has been around for hundreds of years. Powdered gelatin was patented in 1845 (by the same guy who designed the first American steam locomotive). But JELL-O wasn’t invented until 1897. Pearle White of LeRoy, New York, was creating a cough remedy and laxative, and while experimenting with powdered gelatin, he came up with a dessert to which he and his wife, May, added strawberry, raspberry, orange, and lemon. The patent for “JELL-O” changed hands a few times, but eventually, the product caught on, and now generates nearly $1 billion dollars annually.
Hershey’s Bars (1900)
After cutting his teeth with caramels (not literally), Milton S. Hershey sold his original company, worked on perfecting chocolate, and created the Hershey’s Bar in 1900. His production facility was so large and successful that it took over the town of Derry Church, Pennsylvania, which was later renamed Hershey, Penn. The bars were made in a windowless factory in order to increase employee productivity, but to boost employee morale, Milton built the Hersheypark amusement park.
American cheese (1916)
Some people love it, some people hate it, but at least the origin of American cheese is not up for debate. Although the name initially referred to cheddar cheeses exported in the late 1700s and early 1800s, “American cheese” was eventually attached to a type of processed cheese patented in 1916. The man who patented it was James L. Kraft, the founder of what would later be known as Kraft Foods Inc.
Corn dog (1926)
The inventor of the corn dog is hotly debated, with folks across America claiming to have invented it in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. But the earliest verified mention is actually in a patent filed in 1926 by Stanley Jenkins of Buffalo, New York, for a “Combined Dipping, Cooking, and Article Holding Apparatus,” which mentions “wieners” as the very first item that tastes great when deep fried on a stick.
Twinkie (1930)
The Twinkie is such an American staple that when Hostess went bankrupt and ended production of the spongecake snack in 2012, there was a public uproar. The company was quickly snatched up, and factories once again started turning out Twinkies to end a scary eight-month ordeal. It’s no wonder why so many people felt an attachment to Twinkies, as they’ve been around since 1930, when they were invented by James Alexander Dewar. The original Twinkies had a banana cream filling, but this was changed to vanilla when bananas were rationed during World War II.
Philly cheesesteak (1930s)
The exact date and story behind the cheesesteak is uncertain, but it’s generally accepted that frizzled meat in a sub roll topped with onions and melted cheese was created in the 1930s by brothers Pat and Harry Oliveri. Due to the cheesesteak’s popularity, Pat opened up his own restaurant, Pat’s King of Steaks, which is still open for business today.
Cobb Salad (1937)
If the Cobb salad’s ingredients of greens, tomato, chicken, cheese, eggs, avocado, and bacon seem like a random hodgepodge, that’s because they are! The Cobb salad was first cobbled together at the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant using nothing but leftover ingredients. The person who first made it and the year it was invented are up for debate (although 1937 is the generally accepted date), but one thing is for sure: it was named after the L.A. restaurant’s owner, Robert Howard Cobb.
Chocolate chip cookies (1938)
You’ve probably heard of Nestlé Toll House chocolate chip cookies, but did you know the Toll House was a real place? Opened in Whitman, Massachusetts, in 1930, the Toll House Inn was owned by Kenneth and Ruth Graves Wakefield, and the latter was the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie! While experimenting with her butter drop dough cookies, Ruth and her assistant, Sue Brides, cut up a Nestlé chocolate bar into small pieces, baked them into the cookies, and created an American classic in the process.
Ranch dressing (1950s)
While working in Alaska in the early 1950s, plumber Steve Henson created a salad dressing to serve to his crews. After retiring in his 30s a few years later, Henson bought the Sweetwater Ranch in Southern California in 1956 and began serving the dressing concoction in its kitchen. Henson got the dressing’s moniker from the new name for his new homestead: Hidden Valley Ranch.
Bananas Foster (1951)
Bananas, butter, brown sugar, and rum go into Bananas Foster, a dessert created by Ella Brennan and chef Paul Blangé. Although it was first served at Brennan’s New Orleans-based restaurants in 1951, the recipe was actually an adaptation of a dish often served by Brennan’s mother.
TV dinners (1953)
Numerous companies experimented with the concept of pre-frozen dinners, but the first one to make them available nationally was Swanson. After being left with 520,000 pounds of turkey following disappointing Thanksgiving sales, the company created a three-compartment tray that works for both cooking and serving, added peas and sweet potatoes, and debuted the TV dinner in 1953. They sold 10 million units the following year, and a whopping 25 million in 1955.
Tater tots (1953)
French fries come from either France or Belgium, but tater tots were invented in the U.S.A., baby! And if you’ve ever bought Ore-Ida’s tots, then you’ve had the OG version. In 1953, the company’s founders wanted to use the excess potato scraps for something marketable, so they chopped them up, mixed them with flour and seasonings, and shaped them into little nuggets that were then deep-fried to perfection.
German Chocolate Cake (1957)
Okay, we first need to point out that German Chocolate Cake is not, in fact, German — nor does it have anything to do with Germany. The pecan and coconut-topped chocolate cake was created by Mrs. George Clay of Dallas, Texas, and first appeared in The Dallas Morning News as the recipe of the day on June 3, 1957. The name, which was originally “German’s Chocolate Cake,” instead comes from the fact that it uses a dark baking chocolate invented by Samuel German, an English-American baker who worked for Baker’s Chocolate Company.
Tang (1957)
Tang is a drink, but since it comes in powdered form, we’re going to include it here. The orange beverage was invented in 1957 and introduced in powdered form in 1959, but sales were slow to start. It wasn’t until astronaut John Glenn brought Tang with him in 1962 when he became the first person to orbit the Earth that sales took off. The creator, food scientist William A. Mitchell, went on to create Pop Rocks and Cool Whip.
Buffalo wings (1960s)
Chicken wings weren’t a popular food prior to the 1960s. They were usually used for soup stock or thrown away. But in 1964, Teresa Bellissimo, the owner of Buffalo, New York’s Anchor Bar, came up with the idea of deep-frying the wings and tossing them in hot sauce. However, another Buffalo eatery, Duff’s, claims they invented Buffalo wings in 1961, and that the Anchor Bar didn’t start selling them until more than a decade later. We won’t make a ruling here, other than saying that Buffalo wings now rule Super Bowl parties, tailgates, and pub menus.
Big Mac (1967)
The original McDonald’s restaurant opened in 1940, and the company became a chain in 1955, but Big Macs didn’t make their big debut until 1967. Credit for the infinitely infamous burger goes to Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchise owner in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, but the Big Mac appeared on menus across the country only a year later.
Cronut (2013)
New Yorkers are always looking for the next big thing in food, and in 2013, that thing was the “Cronut.” Pastry chef Dominique Ansel created the croissant-donut hybrid as an offering at his eponymous NYC bakery, and the food was named one of Time Magazine's best inventions later that year. It also earned Ansel a James Beard Award in 2014.
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