4 popular foods that were invented in Minnesota

If there’s anything Minnesotans are proud of, it’s being Minnesotan. Let’s add some fuel to the fire.

Here are four popular foods that were invented in the state:

Crispy, cheesy, and saucy, the Pizza Roll is a recognized snack nationwide.

With Reddit channels dedicated to them and being named a billion-dollar brand as of 2022, the mouth-burning play on pizza could be called legendary.

Who knew they were invented in Duluth?

Picture this: It’s 1950. World War II recently ended and people are beginning to desire more international foods in the United States. Something that became particularly popular during this time was frozen pizza.

A few years later, pre-prepared Chinese food was gaining speed, and that’s when Jeno Paulucci, a wholesale grocer from Hibbing, came onto the scene. He began by selling canned chow mein, expanded to include a whole line of prepared Chinese food and named the brand Chun King.

The business relocated to Duluth and grew in popularity throughout the 1950s. One of his employees Bea Ojakangas combined the convenience of a single-slice pizza and the most successful product from Chun King, the egg roll, into a pizza roll.

When Paulucci founded Jeno’s Inc. in 1968, Pizza Rolls were added to the shelves. From then on, they were a massive hit and switched ownership over the years until finally landing with General Mills in 2001.

There’s nothing quite like munching on popcorn at home, sitting on the couch, watching a movie you’ve seen 20 times and picking kernels off every inch of the cushions.

Next time, you can feel better about it with this tidbit: Microwavable popcorn was also invented in Minnesota back in the 1970s.

Percy Spencer discovered that popcorn could be microwaved in the 1940s, but Edina-based company Act II created a shelf-stable popcorn that was microwaved within the bag.

Initially, this product was Act I, but this included real butter and dairy products, which required the bag to be frozen. Act II replaced the real butter with butter flavoring and microwavable popcorn, as we know it today, was born.

Boxed cake mixes are a common fixture at celebrations and it wouldn’t have been possible without Minnesota’s own Betty Crocker.

Cake mix was first invented in Pittsburgh in 1933, but similar to Act I, this product used dehydrated dairy products, making the cake mix spoil more quickly.

Along with this, many people were skeptical about packaged cake mixes. Back then, mixes gave inconsistent results, had a low quality and often had soap included in the ingredients to create a lighter texture.

In 1947, General Mills brought its own cake mix to the market and a year later removed the dry eggs from the recipe, creating a shelf-stable version of a convenience product. It came just at the right time. World War II was just ending and women who remained employed had less time for making cakes from scratch.

Now, Betty Crocker fills baking aisle shelves and cake mix lives on in our pantries for the foreseeable future (mine has been sitting unused for about a year).

Chocolate and caramel. A a wonderful combination is found in Minnesota’s own candy bar.

Frank Mars, was sitting with his son in a Minneapolis diner when a lightbulb went off in his head: Let’s combine the flavors of a candy bar and a malted milkshake.

In 1923, the Milky Way went on the market. Within the first year of sales, the candy bar made over $800,000 and revolutionized candy at the time.

The warehouse on Washington Avenue employed many Minnesotans and made the treats until the end of the decade when the company, Mars Inc., moved to Chicago. Now, it is based in Virginia.

Mars Inc. continues to be a leader in the candy industry, earning $47 billion in revenue in 2023.

So just remember that whenever you purchase a Milky Way, you’re purchasing the product of a Minnesotan from over 100 years ago.