7 Foods Nebraskans Grew Up on That Confuse Everyone Else

Order chili in Nebraska, and don’t be surprised if a cinnamon roll comes with it.

Nebraskans grew up thinking that’s normal. Everyone else needs a minute.

Here are the foods Nebraskans grew up on that confuse everyone else.

1. Dorothy Lynch Dressing

The original Dorothy Lynch dressing recipe called for tomato soup, celery seed, cane sugar, oil, and vinegar, based on a handwritten original.

Opinions on it are split.

Some people love it, and others love to hate it.

If you’ve only used it on salad, you’ve skipped the tacos and pizza that many people put it on, and the fries they dip in it.

Dorothy Lynch, who ran the St. Paul American Legion Club with her husband, introduced the dressing there around 1952.

Customers were so eager for it that some took bottles home.

By 1955, the basement operation was making 120 bottles a day.

Far-flung Nebraska expatriates are especially devoted to it.

2. Chili and Cinnamon Rolls

Chili and cinnamon rolls make one meal in Nebraska, and the pairing made a list of six Nebraska originals.

The plate is beef-and-bean chili next to a sweet, glazed cinnamon roll.

The pairing has been a staple in Midwest school cafeterias and restaurants.

If you grew up on it, you’re among many who don’t see why a sweet roll beside chili needs explaining.

Rolls and chili day was the highlight lunch of the school year, a Norfolk columnist learned as an elementary school teacher.

Even the teachers ordered the school lunch that day.

Many people dunk the roll in the chili, while others keep the two apart.

3. Cheese Frenchees

Cheese Frenchees are deep-fried American cheese sandwiches made crispy by a batter of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and spices.

They’re crispy on the outside and gooey and cheesy on the inside.

You can order them fresh and hot at Don & Millie’s, a local favorite.

They’re also a common sight at the Nebraska State Fair.

One Denver columnist wrote that the sandwich was named after France’s croque monsieur.

He recalled eating Cheese Frenchees at King’s Food Host, a burger chain that started in Lincoln, and called them the all-time No. 1 favorite food of his youth.

4. Kolaches

Kolaches in Nebraska are traditionally filled with fruit and cream cheese.

Texas-inspired kolaches are filled with meats, cheeses, spices, and even veggies.

Some people who grew up on the fruit-filled kind see a meat-filled Texas kolache as a different pastry.

Kolache dough has to rise and proof before baking, so they take some time.

5. Rocky Mountain Oysters

Rocky Mountain oysters aren’t seafood.

They’re deep-fried bull testicles, also called prairie oysters or cowboy caviar on some menus.

The dish comes from thrifty cattle ranchers who didn’t like wasting any edible animal parts.

If a menu item has you wondering, T.J. Olson, owner of Round the Bend Steakhouse in Ashland, says the taste is kind of like chicken strips.

They’re a specialty food.

6. Tin Roof Sundaes

The Potter Sundry in Potter says the tin roof sundae began there in the 1930s.

The shop started as a pharmacy in the early 1900s.

At the sundry, you get vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate syrup, then chocolate ice cream with marshmallow syrup and Spanish peanuts.

Pinky Thayer, who scooped the ice cream, invented the sundae and named it after the shop’s tin ceilings, its manager says.

Peanuts hitting the plate sounded like rain and hail on a tin roof.

The tin roof sundae also made that list of six Nebraska originals.

If you’ve only had hot fudge sundaes, the marshmallow syrup and Spanish peanuts can taste like a different dessert.

7. Valentino’s Pizza

Valentino’s pizza has been served in Lincoln since July 1957, when Val and Zena Weiler opened a restaurant near 35th and Holdrege streets.

The Weilers built the menu on family recipes dating back to the 1930s and 1940s.

As of 2017, Valentino’s was still using those same recipes.

The recipes passed to the Messineo and Alesio families when they bought the restaurant in 1971.

Zena Weiler adjusted her family’s sauce recipe until it was sweet with a touch of spice, one local history site says.

You can see the pizza’s pull on a University of Nebraska football Saturday, when Valentino’s president Tony Messineo said in 2017 the company sells more than 20,000 slices.

Nebraska's Official Soft Drink

Kool-Aid is the official soft drink of Nebraska.

Edwin Perkins of Hastings had a method for turning his liquid Fruit Smack into a powder by 1927.

Perkins had moved his business to Hastings in 1920, a more convenient distribution point.

If you've ever stirred a packet into a pitcher, you've used a Hastings invention.

It was first called Kool-Ade before the spelling changed to Kool-Aid.