Minnesota is a food destination like no other. Here you’ll find comfort food to rival your mother’s cooking, from oven-baked bars to steaming bowls of stewed meat.
Try these dishes when you start looking for homes for sale in St. Paul, MN.
Bars and Scotcheroos
Bars and scotcheroos are a popular delicacy in Gopher State. And no, they’re not chocolate – in Minnesota speak, these tasty treats are cookie-like bars with the texture of cake. Traditionally prepared in a pan and baked in an oven, the finished product is cut into squares and served at parties.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get better – bars and scotcheroos come in a variety of flavors. Popular versions include fall harvest, rice krispies, and almond.
Have them for breakfast, dessert, afternoon tea, or Christmas morning. Delicious and versatile, Minnesota bars are amazing with coffee and milk.
Booyah
Minnesota’s cold and long winters are made more bearable by this hearty dish – picture a huge vat filled with broth, beef, chicken, pork, oxtail, cabbage, carrots, and lima beans, though anything goes as far as the locals are concerned. This dish has many versions, with the most popular ones including slow cooker Belgian chicken booyah and thick broth booyah.
This is a dish that can be personalized in many ways, since there are no hard and fast rules to the kind or amount of ingredients to be used. Some prefer to add more cabbage, while others use just one type of meet, usually beef.
The only thing that you need to remember about traditional booyah is that it is cooked outdoors in a large single pot, and people make lots of it at a time – sometimes up to 100 gallons.
Perfect for fall, Minnesotans typically finish the leftovers day by day until winter, or depending on the amount cooked, until the following summer.
Hotdish
Minnesotans console themselves during particularly harsh winters by making a hotdish, or a casserole as it’s known in the rest of the United States. This sumptuous Upper Midwest tradition is a meat and potatoes affair layered with cheddar cheese, soup, milk, and mixed vegetables. It’s a complete meal that offers comfort and sustenance in the biting cold.
It can also feed many people in one sitting, making it the best potluck idea for all those Christmas parties you need to attend.
Best of all, it’s a simple and inexpensive recipe that only requires you to brown the meat in a skillet, layer the ingredients, and bake in an oven.
Jucy Lucy
This cheese-stuffed meat marvel is the dish to end all Minnesota dishes. The Jucy Lucy is a greasy, delectable, and uniquely Gopher State take on the regular cheeseburger, with cheese tucked inside the meat and adding flavor to it as it turns into a glorious mess in your mouth at first bite.
The burger patties themselves are often brushed with butter, and the buns, toasted, for even more flavor.
Waiters will warn you not to sink your teeth into a Jucy Lucy right away when serving one at your table. The molten cheese can be too hot when fresh off the griddle and has burned many tongues over the years. The best way to eat a Jucy Lucy is to wait a minute or two before digging in.
Enjoy these dishes year-round when you live in Minneapolis and St Paul, MN. Contact me, Jerry Arguello, here, or call 612.250.6287 to start the initiate the home buying process!
