We know Graeter’s, Skyline, LaRosa’s, Montgomery Inn – local brands that have a following even outside of the Greater Cincinnati area. But there are a number of brand-name foods that we don’t typically recognize as being from around here.
Here are some famous food brands you probably didn’t know are from Cincinnati:
Pringles
Procter & Gamble used to have a food division. P&G chemist Fredric J. Baur cooked up Pringles potato crisps when tasked with creating a potato chip that wouldn’t be broken or greasy. The saddle-shaped crisps are stacked in a cylinder, rather than in a bag. Released in 1968, they were originally marketed as Pringle’s Newfangled Potato Chips, but because they are made from potato-based dough rather than fresh potatoes, they couldn’t be called chips, so Pringles uses the word “crisps.” The brand was sold to Kellogg’s in 2012.
Frank’s RedHot Hot Sauce
America’s No. 1 hot sauce was founded in 1920 by Cincinnati’s Frank Tea and Spice Co., using cayenne peppers processed in Louisiana and shipped here. Frank’s is also the secret ingredient in the original Buffalo wings created in 1964. The hot sauce is now owned by the flavoring company McCormick.
Our history:Who knew? Frank’s RedHot Hot Sauce was founded in Cincinnati more than 100 years ago
Airheads
The flat taffy candy was invented by marketing director Steve Bruner in 1985 for Van Melle, Inc. (now Perfetti Van Melle) in Erlanger, where it is still manufactured. Bruner suggested taking the rice paper off a fruit chew being developed and use a mylar wrapper that the candy wouldn’t adhere to. For a name, he asked his kids what they called someone silly. Airheads stuck.
Slush Puppie
The flavored icy drink was created by enterprising salesman Will Radcliff in 1970. The Western Hills High School graduate bought a slushy machine at a restaurant trade show, then came up with the name and hound dog mascot with the help of his mother and sister, and started his own company with $970. He turned Slush Puppie into a $25 million dollar a year business with a factory on Price Hill’s Bald Knob. The brand is now owned by the Icee Co.
McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish
Lou Groen, owner of the McDonald’s franchise in Monfort Heights, needed to do something to drum up business on Friday nights, when the 87 percent Catholic population would forgo meat. He came up with a fish sandwich, battered halibut with a slice of cheese, in 1959, but McDonald’s owner Ray Kroc didn’t like the idea of his stores smelling like fish. Kroc had his own idea: the Hula Burger, a grilled slice of pineapple with cheese on a bun. They held a contest to see which sold more – and the fish sandwich won. The Filet-O-Fish, made of whitefish, was added to the menu for all McDonald’s stores.
More:Final Jeopardy question was about a Cincinnati tradition
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