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8 things you probably didn’t know about American cuisine

March 19, 2015 09:16 by author

When you think of American cuisine it’s easy to think of fast food chains, drive-throughs and unhealthy snacks.

While some of the stereotypes may ring true, there’s plenty more to the USA when it comes to food than meets the eye.

Did you know for example that it’s now more than 60 years since the world’s first TV dinner? Or would you like to hazard a guess at just how many donuts are eaten in the States every year?

Here are a few things you probably didn’t know about cuisine in the USA... tuck in!

Shall we have dinner in front of the TV?

One of the largest and most difficult meals to cook, 46 million Thanksgiving Turkeys are devoured every year – now that’s a whole lot of Turkey. Interestingly, the world’s first ready meal can also trace its roots back to the celebration as Swanson developed a TV dinner meal of turkey, cornbread dressing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes in the 1950s. Despite predicting sales of 5,000 for the first year, Swanson sold around 10 million in that time!

How do you like your Oranges?

The state of Florida is the second largest producer of oranges in the world, behind only Brazil. Production of orange juice between Sao Paulo in Brazil and mid-south Florida makes up approximately 85% of the global market! Texas, Arizona and California also have large Orange plantations, although the majority in the latter are sold as fresh fruit, rather than juice products.

Looking for a morning Coffee?

For coffee lovers in America, finding home grown produce is rather difficult. That’s because the only growing and production of coffee beans in the US takes place on the islands of Hawaii. The Kona region is home to between 650 and 700 coffee farms alone. Stats from the start of 2015 reveal that American’s spend $21.32 on coffee every single week – that’s more than $1,100 a year on coffee!

Lettuce rejoice for all round greens

Yuma County in Arizona supplies 90% of America’s lettuce needs from November through to March – purely because the region has an incredible 350 days of sunshine a year. There’s even a festival to mark the occasion – imaginatively named Yuma Lettuce Days!

Going organic

Walmart is the biggest seller of organic milk in the entire world, helping thousands of cows to get some exercise in the process!

Donut mad

It is estimated that American’s eat more than 10 billion donuts every single year!

Grape Scott – we need a trip to California!

There are many reasons to travel to California but for grape lovers there’s really only one. A whopping 98% of all eating grapes that are produced in the US come from the Golden State!

Sorting the wheat from the chaff