Credit: Original photo by Candice Bell/ iStock
If you were to guess Boston cream pie was invented in Boston or Nashville hot chicken originated in Nashville, you’d be correct. But sometimes, it’s not so obvious that a food is named after its place of origin. Examples of this include one of the most popular cheeses on the planet, a fruit found in every produce section, and a common source of plant-based protein. Here’s a look at six foods you may not have realized are named for the places they came from.
Cheddar Cheese
Long before it was produced in Vermont or Wisconsin, cheddar cheese originated in the English village of Cheddar, located in the county of Somerset about 145 miles west of London. The cheese’s origins date to the 12th century, when it was stored in caves in Cheddar that helped maintain an ideal humidity and temperature for maturation. The cheese became popular by 1170 — a year in which Baron Alured de Lincoln is recorded as buying 10,240 pounds of cheddar (though the records refer to it as just “cheese” from the Somerset region).
So when did people start calling it “cheddar cheese”? The Oxford English Dictionary cites the earliest written record of the term dating to 1659. Indeed, it was a common custom at the time for English cheesemakers to name products after their place of origin.
Lima Beans
English-speakers typically pronounce the “lima” in “lima beans” as LY-ma, which is differently from how they’d say “Lima, Peru” (LEE-ma). That may be why people in the U.S. don’t often realize lima beans are named after Peru’s capital city.
What English-speakers know as lima beans refers to a native Andean legume called “pallar” in the region. The name “lima beans” caught on after the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Incas. Peru’s European rulers exported the local legumes to the United Kingdom and later the United States, contained in packaging that stated they were made in Lima, Peru. As you may suppose, that earned the legume the name “lima beans” in those English-speaking nations.
Fig Newtons
It’s a common myth that Fig Newtons were named for the English polymath Isaac Newton. In reality, the name of the fig-filled treat is a nod to its place of origin. The cookie was first manufactured in 1891 by the Kennedy Biscuit Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
At the time, the company liked to name its products for nearby communities (e.g., Shrewsbury biscuits, Beacon Hill cookies, etc.). So plant manager James Hazen opted to call this new cookie the “Newton” after the Boston suburb 6 miles away. In 1991, the city of Newton held a 100th anniversary celebration of the Fig Newton to honor that etymological connection.
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Jalapeño Peppers
The name “jalapeño” translates to “of Jalapa” in Spanish. Jalapa — or Xalapa, as is the more formal spelling — is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz, whose name comes from the Aztecan word “xalapan,” meaning “sand by the water.”
Though jalapeño peppers aren’t commonly grown in Xalapa, the city is where they were widely commercialized thanks to a food pickling business there. Known as La Jalapeña, the business was known for its canned goods, chorizo, and chilies. In 1922, it received a patent for pickled chilies, and thus began the successful worldwide commercialization of these spicy peppers. They were exported far and wide, and the term “jalapeño pepper” — inspired in part by the packaging, which read “La Jalapeña” — was coined in the U.S.
Waldorf Salad
The Waldorf salad is named neither for a country nor a town, but rather for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. This isn’t to be confused with the still-standing Waldorf Astoria located on Park Avenue — instead, it refers to the historic hotel that was razed in 1929 so the Empire State Building could be built at the site.
It was at that world-famous establishment that the leafless salad was created by Oscar Tschirky, a former busboy and popular maître d’hôtel who was a bit of a celebrity in his own right. In 1896, Tschirky published The Cook Book by “Oscar” of the Waldorf, which contained recipes he’d crafted in the hotel kitchen. The book included a recipe for the hotel’s namesake salad, though at the time the dish contained only apples, celery, and mayonnaise. Grapes and nuts were added later, sometime before the late 1920s.
Wiener Schnitzel
Wiener schnitzel has nothing to do with sausage, hot dogs, or any other foods that English speakers commonly refer to as “wieners.” Rather, the “wiener” in the name is German for the phrase “from Vienna,” as “Wien” is the German word for Austria’s capital city Vienna. “Schnitzel,” meanwhile, is the word for the breaded veal cutlet that serves as the dish’s primary component. Though variants of this dish have existed since the late 18th century, the term “wiener schnitzel” only dates to the 1850s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
That said, the name “wiener” as a nickname for hot dogs also has Viennese origins. In that case, the word refers to a Viennese-style sausage called “wienerwurst.” The culinary nickname “wiener” was coined in the United States no later than 1880, and it originally referred specifically to sausages from Vienna. But by the 1930s, Americans had begun saying “wiener” to describe hot dogs and other sausages, regardless of whether they came from Vienna.
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Inbox Studio, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
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