Arthur Bovino - The Buffalo New York Cookbook: 70 Recipes from The Nickel City

W ings are huge in Buffalo. Obviously. But theyre not the only thing the city has going for it, food-wise. Not by a longshot. Thats something I knew anecdotally, but didnt fully comprehend until I spent a month in the city eating at more than 120 of its most well-known and beloved restaurants. While eating and interviewing its chefs, food bloggers, writers, bartenders, and restaurateurs, I collected what I learned in a book called Buffalo Everything: A Guide to Eating in the Nickel City. It details more in-depth wing lore than you can wag a drumstick at, and goes into the origins of its other iconic foods, including beef on weck, Buffalostyle pizza, Tom & Jerry cocktails, sponge candy, stingers, chicken finger subs, and more. If youre looking for the best places to find those icons, that book provides the lists, grist, and context for understanding the people and history behind them.

Consider this as both standalone cookbook and kitchen companion guide to the first volume, complete with some 70 recipes.

The book is basically divided into two portions. The first covers the citys actual iconic foods. And surethat means wings. Youll learn how to make them the way theyre made in Buffalo, the secrets to a great wing sauce and buttermilk blue cheese dressing, and discover a little about why its difficult to find ones that are truly equal elsewhere. Additionally, there are preparations that arent as well-known outside Buffalo (like off-the-pit wings), and a few truly special and addictive ones that arent even as well-known there (like Elmos Cajun wings and the hot garlic Parmesan Red Sox or stinky wings served at Wiechecs and Bases Loaded).

And that doesnt even touch on the secret butter substitute some spots use or the recipe for Chef Marshal Gradys Bleu Bayou Wings served two hours east of Buffalo at Abigails in Waterloo, NY, which were named the worlds best by director Matt Reynolds and his group of experts after visiting more than 70 wing spots for his film, The Great Chicken Wing Hunt.

This first part of this book also explains, in depth, how to make Buffalos other and lesser-known food icons, with recipes based on firsthand experiences eating at Buffalos most storied places, as well as interviews with the citys most respected chefs, writers, and restaurateurs. These are dishes from across Buffalos culinary spectrumfrom fried bologna to spaghetti Parmmany of which originated from various immigrant populations and continue on today to defy cultural boundaries, helping define the citys blue-collar, comfort-food cuisine.

The second portion of this book is a testament to the culinary viral force that is Buffalo flavor.

When it comes to Buffalo-izing Americas favorite foods, there really are few limitations. Buffalo flavor is something the folks who come up with fast-food menus and snack food flavors have gotten increasingly savvy about. After taking over chicken and bar menus, and finding its way onto tables at international chains like TGI Fridays, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut, this classic flavor has become ubiquitous and gone way beyond wings, Buffalo-izing a dizzying number of other commercially successful products. There are Buffalo potato chips, Buffalo chicken nuggets, Buffalo and blue cheese cheese curls, pretzels, popcorn, cheese (Cheddar, Monterey, curds), Doritos, dips, and sauces. Theres even Buffalo wing soda!

And while true Buffalo flavor tastes like Paulas doughnuts, fried bologna at The Pink at two in the morning, chargrilled hot dogs at Teds, and beef on weck at Schwabls, its hard to argue with the effect of applying the flavor profile to many of Americas other favorite dishes. I would know. In the process of my research, I went from writing a cookbook to writing a guide book, and, eventually, to writing both. There was just too much to eat and too much to write about. In fact, in the process, the eating and writing almost became a compulsion. There came a day, after Buffalo-izing everything from bread crumbs and bacon to salmon and chicken Parm, when I had to look in the mirror and just say, You have to stop.

There are things Im sure you cant Buffalo-ize. But I struggle to think of them. And its not like I didnt have some failures along the way. (Trust me when I say that no matter what youve read or seen online, you dont want to line your tube pan with blue cheese dressing when making monkey bread.) But nothing that failed left me with the thought that it couldnt work if just done differently. In fact, if you suggest something you think wouldnt work, go ahead, tryCaesar salad, caramels, cotton candy, ice cream? I bet they wouldthe wheels start turning. I just begin thinking about ways they could.

Which leads me to explainbefore we jump into the ingredients and equipment you might want to check to see if you have (none of it too expensive or fancy)what I mean about Buffalo-izing, and a few insights about the best ways to go about it.

There is, of course, the urge to just add Franks to things. Theres a whole advertising campaign based on this school of thought: Ethels I put that @$%& on everything! And while I keep at least one bottle of Franks in the fridge on a shelf with some 20 other hot sauces, and several more bottles in the pantry, I dont fully buy into it. Not only does using Franks not do justice to Buffalo and the original inspiration (wings, obviously) for Buffalo-izing, but it just doesnt always help pull off the homage. You want that classic flavor, but adding other ingredients to round it out will frankly (pun intended) make dishes more impressive and delicious. Poblanos, jalapeos, and other hot peppers (seeds removed if youre cooking for the timid) will add depth of flavor.

The other thing is that some dishes can carry the flavor but dont have the classic crunch or crispiness of fried wings. When there are ways to reintroduce that textureto mac and cheese, for example with Buffalo-ized baconyou can deliciously echo the original wing. And while youre looking for ways to riff on the wings texture and flavor, also consider how to employ the iconic accompanying condiments in ways that both call up or reinterpret the original dish, but without forcing it. This all helps bring home the theme.

One of the things everyone loves about wings, once they hear the tale, is the eureka moment of their inception, that ingenuity inherent in Teressa Bellissimos original dish. Havent heard the well-worn story? Frank and Teressa Bellissimo owned a bar, and late one Friday night, their son and his hungry friends tumbled in. Teressa needed to come up with something on the fly and had some chicken wings on hand that she was going to use to make a soup. Instead, she fried them up and tossed them in hot sauce mixed with butter. The story is potentially a lot more nuanced, but the rest, as they say, is wing-story. And regardless of what happened in that kitchen, the spirit of the moment lives on: part of Buffalo-izing a dish in a way that echoes the original and creates something that stands on its own is to look for ways to channel that original energy.

Are there ways to integrate all the components of the original (wings/chicken, Franks RedHot, butter, celery, blue cheese dressing, and sometimes carrots) into whatever youre Buffalo-izing naturally? Look for dishes where theyre all organically there to be riffed on. Chicken soup and chicken pot pie already have chicken and the matching vegetables and creamy bases. Both are natural fits for being Buffalo-ized. Many of our favorite comfort foods, while they have nothing to do with Buffalo wings (just chicken wings in Buffalo), are also natural fits for the flavor riff. Mac and cheese, grilled cheese, deviled eggs, you name it. Consider these kinds of dishes.