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Upstate Origins


docsconz

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Upstate New York has been the birthplace of a number of food classics. While Coca Cola may not be one of them (see thread on Coca-Cola glazed ham), apparently Potato chips are, at least as claimed in this article in the New York Times. The relevent quote:

But of all chips, which is the perfect chip? This is a question that many have tried to answer since 1853, when the potato chip was invented by a Saratoga chef named George Crum in response to a diner's complaint that his potatoes weren't crispy enough. "To get even, Crum sliced potatoes thin, deep-fried them, put salt on them and said, 'Here, take these,' " said Ann Wilkes, spokeswoman for the Snack Food Association. "I don't think he had a specific recipe, just boiling hot oil and salt."

Another legend of American food , Apple Pie A la Mode, is claimed to have originated at the Cambridge Hotel in Cambridge, New York in the 19th Century.

Any others?

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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I'm wondering.... is "Firehouse Chicken" the same as "Cornell Chicken"? It's a sort of slightly tangy marinade - almost like a really thin, translucent cream sauce.

Salt Potatoes are definitely a Syracuse area specialty to the best of my knowledge. The Irish workers in Syracuse's salt industry took to using some of the briny water readily available at the work site, boiling it in buckets and throwing in baby new potatoes to boil for lunch. It's now a long accepted local tradition and a staple at the State Fair and all sorts of clambakes and cookouts. Most of the local gropcery stores sell them in season - it's just a bag of new potatoes with a bag of salt included (the amount of salt being approrpriate for the saltiness desired).

I can think of two other items but they're beverages.

1) White Birch Beer - clear birch beer with a stronger birch flavor than any of the commercially available birch beers I've yet tried. It was bottled by a small independent outfit in the area and vanished about 10 - 15 years ago.

2) "Wapatula" - perhaps they had these in your area as well? It's a beverage served at "get drunk parties", typically by young folks either just of or just below drinking age and typically at the end of the school year or in early to mid summer. A new, previously unused plastic garbage can has a buttload of ice dumped into it and then many cans of Hawaian Punch and other miscellaneous fruit juices. The party attendees are required to bring quarts or fifths of various types of distilled spirits - typically the clear ones. Everyone arriving dumps their liquor into the can with more ice and fruit juice being added randomly as needed. Some people also throw in chucnks of fresh fruit and if it's for a smaller even, will mix the entire batch in a plastic ice chest rather than a trash can.

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I'm wondering.... is "Firehouse Chicken" the same as "Cornell Chicken"? It's a sort of slightly tangy marinade - almost like a really thin, translucent cream sauce.

Yes, I believe they are one in the same. Dr. Baker, a professor at Cornell developed the marinade/baste in the 1950's. Sometimes it is called Cornell Chicken, Church Chicken and even Firehouse Chicken.

Cornell Chicken Marinade

woodburner

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Beef on a Wreck?

Either Buffalo, NY or Moreys Bar in Ithaca.

Also that fried, split and quartered hot dog on a bun with relishs, onions, mustard and Kethchup served to students from Ithaca College and Cornell don't remember the name, but judging by the lines had some fame.

Irwin :blink:

I don't say that I do. But don't let it get around that I don't.

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  • 2 months later...

Welcome to eGullet WTMM!

Please expand on the white hots. I'm personally not familiar with them. What are they and what part of the State are they from?

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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Beef on a Wreck?

Beef on Wick (Kummelwick) is a local Buffalo sandwich.

That Cornell chicken bbq sauce is amazing. I'm the third generation to use that little beauty. Now if I could just stop scrambling the egg in it. I guess I'll just have to make it more often. It makes an amazing marinade.

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Welcome to eGullet WTMM!

Please expand on the white hots. I'm personally not familiar with them. What are they and what part of the State are they from?

Yes.... welcome WTTM! Good to have you here!

Doc - Check a Price Chopper "Super Center" (I'd suggest Wegman's but I think they don't play in the Golub's back yard). PC most likely carries the Hoffman's brand, which will be labeled as either "Snappy Grillers". They're a Syracuse area phenomenon in terms of NY state popularity but have German origins.

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I think the "Garbage Plate" at Nick Tahoe's in Rochester may indeed be unique to upstate (for very good reasons).

Although I've never attended one or drunk the beverage... there is an eponymous drink / party that younger folks out in the sticks in central NY are known to hold during the summer months. m peopel I know from the Marcellus and Skaneatles areas have told me of them and I'm curiouds to know if this tradition exists elsewhere.

The party and the drink are called Wapatula. A brand new, clean forty gallon garbage can has many, many cans of Hawaiian punch poured into it along with blocks or bags of ice. Guests are required to bring the distilled liquor of their choice (any type and any brand as long as it's the hard stuff) and also additional cartons, bottles or jars of any other variety of fruit juice (the base always starts with Hawaiian Punch).

Have any of you heard of this? People have also been known to do this on a smaller scale using a large plastic ice chest as the container but there are limits to how small a Wapatula can be - apparently a function of how the blending and mixing occurs.

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Well, if we're talking beverages, I believe that Utica Club is uniquely Upstate. :biggrin: UC/Matt's was all I could afford as a poor undergrad.

A few years ago at a beer festival in North Carolina, I asked the Saranac (Matt's Brewery) rep where the UC was. She replied, in a very serious tone, "back in Utica."

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Phaelon - i've neve rheard of watapula, and at least in my era i don't recall this party/practice whatever.

i have had the punch before tho. it was a fixture at frat parties when i was in school. that was downstate on the island tho.

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  • 4 weeks later...
I'm wondering....  is "Firehouse Chicken" the same as "Cornell Chicken"? It's a sort of slightly tangy marinade - almost like a really thin, translucent cream sauce.

Yes, I believe they are one in the same. Dr. Baker, a professor at Cornell developed the marinade/baste in the 1950's. Sometimes it is called Cornell Chicken, Church Chicken and even Firehouse Chicken.

Cornell Chicken Marinade

woodburner

This baste/marinade sounds great.

I've read in various places that a bird can bathe in this marinade for many hours before cooking, with great results.

I've also read that this is just a basting sauce.

My question is, from a marinade process, will the vinegar toughen or otherwise affect the chicken meat? Is there a max time a chicken should marinate in the cornell marinade?

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