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There are some incredibly weird food names out there, and many might make your stomach turn if you’re not familiar with them. Many names don’t give any clue as to what the dish may be like, some sound absolutely terrible if taken at face value, and some just sound like nonsense words.
These funny food names may sound bizarre, but the dishes are actually delectable.
There is nothing froggy about this dessert-like dish from Utah. Tiny round pasta called acini di pepe are mixed with pudding, Cool Whip, and canned fruit for a spin on ambrosia. The name probably comes from the appearance and texture of all those little spherical noodles.
Try it yourself: Allrecipes
Leave it to the British to come up with some weird food names. Bubble and squeak is a cheap dish of leftover potatoes and cabbage fried together, sometimes with meat or bacon. Supposedly, the name comes from the sound on the ingredients frying.
Try it yourself: Kitchen Sanctuary
If you’re not familiar with funeral potatoes, you’re probably familiar with the casserole by another name, including cheesy potatoes and hashbrown casserole. In many parts of the Western U.S., it’s called funeral potatoes because it was an easy dish to bring to events like funeral potlucks.
Try it yourself: Cheapism
Head to Rochester, New York, to try a garbage plate yourself. It’s a big mess of food, starting with a base of some kind of fried potato and macaroni salad, topped with meat like a hamburger, hot dog, or sausage, and then usually covered in chili-like “hot sauce.” Unsurprisingly, the legend is it was created for college students.
Try it yourself: The Life Jolie
If the thought of eating oysters nowhere near the ocean makes your stomach churn, don’t worry, because Rocky Mountain oysters are not a seafood dish. The problem is that they might still be unappealing, since they’re battered and deep fried bull testicles. It’s a cowboy dish, and some people love serving them to unsuspecting tourists.
Try it yourself: Shepherd Song Farm
The Upper Midwest (specifically northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula) are home to booyah, a humble stew with a silly name. It probably originated with Belgian immigrants in the region, and the name may have come from the word bouillon. It’s usually made with chicken, sausage, or beef, plus vegetables like carrots, onions, and potatoes. You’ll often find it prepared as a fundraiser for churches and other organizations.
Try it yourself: A Farmgirl’s Dabbles
We’re going back to the UK for this one, which has nothing to do with toads. It’s made with sausages baked in a Yorkshire pudding (think of a big, puffy, savory pancake) and often served with gravy. It’s a popular dish that’s been around for centuries as a way to stretch expensive meat.
Try it yourself: Allrecipes
There is a whole world of American fruit desserts out there with weird names, including the slump. It’s a regional variation on a cobbler, with a biscuit-like dumpling baked in stewed fruit. Why it’s called a slump is anyone’s guess.
Try it yourself: Simply Recipes
This is another American fruit dessert variation. A grunt is like a cobbler, but instead of baking it, the fruit and dumplings are steam-cooked on the stovetop in a covered skillet or Dutch oven. It’s particularly popular in New England. (If you’re looking for even more weird fruit dessert names, there’s also Pandowdy, sonker, and Boy Bait.)
Try it yourself: King Arthur Flour
We’re all familiar with this childhood favorite of peanut butter in celery stalks with raisins on top. But you’ve got to admit, it’s a pretty weird name, even if we’re all used to it. No one’s really sure where it came from, but we do know it’s a tasty snack.
Try it yourself:HealthyHappyLife
Devils on horseback are a very old appetizer made with cheese- or nut-stuffed dates or prunes wrapped in bacon. They were probably given the unusual name because they are often served sizzling hot.
Try it yourself: Allrecipes
Beaver tails are a Canadian sweet treat of a big oval of fried dough, usually coated in cinnamon sugar. They resemble their namesake, but have no actual beaver in them, of course. If it sounds familiar, it’s because they’re very similar to elephant ears, another bizarrely named food.
Try it yourself: Fed By Sab
Popular in Arkansas, possum pie is less ‘yikes’-inducing than it sounds. It’s a layered dessert of chocolate and vanilla puddings, usually with pecans. The oldest reference to the name dates back to the 1980s, but similar layered chocolate desserts had been popular in the area for a while.
Try it yourself: Allrecipes
If you’re a breakfast or brunch fan, you may already know what a Dutch baby is: a huge, puffy pancake baked in a cast iron skillet with a custardy center. They were first named in Seattle in the 1950s at Manca’s Cafe, which trademarked the name “Dutch Babies.” They’re a smaller version of a similar German pancake.
Try it yourself: Allrecipes
Whatever you do, please don’t give your dogs any puppy chow meant for humans, since it’s made with chocolate. It’s rice or wheat Chex coated in chocolate and peanut butter, then coated in a thick layer of powdered sugar. Puppy chow is the name of the treat in the Midwest, but other regions know it as Muddy Buddies, which is the commercially made product.
Try it yourself: Joy Food Sunshine
In parts of the Upper Midwest, people eat raw beef around the holidays, and it’s often called cannibal sandwiches or tiger meat. The tradition probably came about from northern European immigrants in the area, and it’s kind of like a poor man’s beef tartare. It’s made with freshly ground beef, raw onions, and rye bread.
Note: We didn’t include a recipe here because trying cannibal sandiches without a reputable butcher is a bad idea.
Head to the South Side of Chicago where ordering a mother-in-law will get you a sandwich instead of a woman. They’re a fast-food staple made with a mass-produced hot tamale steamed and placed in a hot dog bun topped with chili. No one seems to know the origin of its weird name.
Try it yourself: Food Network
Pot likker (or sometimes pot liquor, or potlikker) is the liquid left behind in the pot when you boil greens like collards. It’s delicious since it’s usually tangy, rich, and flavored with smoked pork or turkey. Thanks to the greens, the pot likker is full of iron and vitamins.
Try it yourself: Grandbaby Cakes
Fluffernutter is a sweet sandwich in the same vein as a peanut butter and jelly: just swap the jelly for marshmallow fluff. It’s been a New England staple ever since marshmallow cream was invented in the area in the early 1900s. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the name fluffernutter was used in ads.
Try it yourself: Southern Living
Lady fingers sound like a Halloween party food, but they’re really used almost exclusively in tiramisu and other desserts. They’re long, oval-shaped Italian meringue cookies that are almost always purchased in a package.
Try it yourself: Baran Bakery
This delightfully-named pie has an old Pennsylvania Dutch origin. It’s similar to a coffee cake, but baked in a pie tin with a dense, gooey, molasses bottom layer and crumbs on the top. Its name probably derives from an old brand of molasses.
Try it yourself: Allrecipes
The origins of hushpuppies in the South are murky (and full of likely incorrect anecdotes), but how can you not love the fun name? They’re just as tasty as they are fun to order, too, made with deep fried cornmeal dough, often with additions like onions, peppers, and spices.
Try it yourself: Southern Plate
This traditional British dessert has been served at Eton College practically forever, which is where it gets its name from. It’s a “mess” because it’s made of broken crunchy meringue, whipped cream, and juicy strawberries or other berries.
Try it yourself: Natasha’s Kitchen
Johnny Marzetti is a casserole, and you’ve probably never heard of it unless you’ve lived in the Columbus, Ohio area. The dish dates back at least a century, and was created at the long-gone local Marzetti restaurants. The pasta, red sauce, meat, and cheese casserole was named after the owner’s brother-in-law, or perhaps a businessman in the area at the time.
Try it yourself: Simply Recipes
No, there are no frogs in this South Carolina dish (we seem to be saying that a lot…). Frogmore stew is a seafood boil with shrimp, corn, potatoes, and sometimes sausage, and it’s named after the Lowcountry fishing community of Frogmore near Hilton Head.
Try it yourself: Discover South Carolina
Slumgullion is a funny name for something you’re probably already familiar with: American goulash or American chop suey. Frankly they’re all funny names, and slumgullion is just a mysterious variation for the dish of ground beef, macaroni, and tomato sauce.
Try it yourself: Allrecipes
There’s a whole world of Southern biscuits, and cathead is just one of them. They’re so named because they’re larger than most biscuits — about the size of a cat’s head. Since they’re drop biscuits and don’t require rolling or cutting out, they’re easy and fast to make.
Try it yourself: Serious Eats
