9 Dishes That Reveal Exactly Where an Ohio Potluck Is Being Held
Walk up to a potluck table in Ohio, and the food can be a clue to which part of the state you’re in.
Ohioans from different corners bring dishes that rarely travel far from home.
Here are the dishes that can give away where the potluck is being held.
1. Cincinnati Chili
Cincinnati chili is a spiced meat sauce served over spaghetti noodles.
If you see chili over spaghetti on the table, Cincinnati is a good first guess.
Cincinnati Magazine says brothers Athanas and Ivan Kiradjieff opened Empress Chili Parlor on Vine Street on October 24, 1922.
The brothers were Greek-Macedonian, and their sauce is like pastitsio, a Greek lasagna.
What the Ways Mean in Cincinnati Chili
Cincinnati chili is ordered in ways, and the number tells you the toppings.
A two-way is chili and noodles.
A three-way adds cheese.
A four-way adds onions or beans.
A five-way comes with everything.
If you hear that the secret ingredient is chocolate, the magazine calls that claim inaccurate.
2. Hungarian Hot Dogs
Tony Packo, the son of Hungarian immigrants, opened his restaurant in Toledo’s Birmingham neighborhood during the Great Depression.
On your plate, Toledo’s Hungarian hot dog is a split Hungarian sausage, called kolbasz, in a bun with chili sauce on top.
A Hungarian hot dog at your potluck is a decent hint that someone brought it from northwest Ohio.
Jamie Farr, the Toledo native who played Corporal Klinger on M*A*S*H, got the restaurant’s name worked into several episodes.
The restaurant says it still serves the recipe Packo created.
3. Polish Boy
Cleveland Scene describes the Polish Boy as a Cleveland sausage sandwich piled with coleslaw, fries and barbecue sauce.
A Polish Boy at your potluck points to Cleveland, though anyone can build one.
Virgil Whitmore, who launched his first barbecue shop in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in the 1940s, is credited as the originator.
Whitmore built the sandwich from ingredients he already had on hand.
4. Noodles Over Mashed Potatoes
Noodles over mashed potatoes is a plate on Amish Country restaurant menus in Holmes County.
Ohio Magazine says Boyd & Wurthmann in Berlin is known for noodles over mashed potatoes.
The restaurant began as a grocery store in 1938.
Dale Boyd and Herman Wurthmann bought it and added a lunch counter in the 1940s.
The state tourism site lists a buffet with noodles and mashed potatoes at Der Dutchman.
Those are restaurant menus, not proof of what lands on a potluck table, so if you spot the plate, Holmes County is a reasonable guess.
5. Goetta
Goetta is a mixture of pork, beef, oats, onions and spices.
Many German immigrants settled in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in the 1830s.
When goetta turns up on your table, the Cincinnati area is a good first place to look.
Bob Glier founded Glier’s Meats in Covington, Kentucky, in 1946, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
Psst! How much do you know about Ohio’s regional food? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Ohio Food IQ
Answer nine questions on Ohio food and the places behind it. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
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6. Sauerkraut Balls
Ideastream Public Media reports that you'll find the round appetizers almost exclusively in Akron, where it says they were invented.
No one has laid claim to being the first to make them.
Akron is a good first guess when a tray of sauerkraut balls turns up on your table.
Readers of the Akron Beacon Journal voted the sauerkraut ball Akron's official food in 1996.
The Akron RubberDucks, the city's minor-league baseball team, announced a one-night rebrand as the Akron Sauerkraut Balls for August 18, 2023.
7. Johnny Marzetti
Columbus Monthly describes Johnny Marzetti as a baked casserole of noodles, ground beef, tomatoes and cheese.
The earliest recipe found ran in the Columbus Dispatch on April 11, 1916.
Johnny Marzetti is remembered at sports banquets, neighborhood potlucks and family reunions.
If a pan of it is on your table, Columbus is a fair first guess, though the dish is a loose clue.
8. Lake Erie Perch
Lake Erie yellow perch is a Northeast Ohio favorite, according to Cleveland Magazine, and features prominently at Lenten fish fries in spring.
Fish fry spots typically serve it battered and fried.
A fish fry tray at your potluck likely means Northeast Ohio, near the lake.
9. Pawpaw Ice Cream
At the Ohio Pawpaw Festival at Lake Snowden in Albany, in Athens County, past cooking-competition winners have included pawpaw ice cream, according to Ohio Magazine.
People in southeast Ohio may know pawpaws as Appalachian mangoes.
Its flavor is described as tropical, and the fruit is compared to a custard apple.
Ohio law names the pawpaw the state native fruit, under a bill that took effect April 7, 2009.
Because the pawpaw is the state's native fruit, pawpaw ice cream is the loosest clue on the list.
Southeast Ohio is still the best first guess when it turns up on your table.
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