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Food
    From fried pork scraps to Tastykakes, Pennsylvania’s delicacies are a source of hometown pride .
Shoofly Pie
    There’s a rumor that shoofly pie is actually a French dish whose top looked like a cauliflower ( cheux-fleur in French), and eventually the term was shortened to “shoo-fly.” But Pennsylvanians don’t buy that. They know that Pennsylvania Dutch settlers invented shoofly pie in the early 1900s, when they ran out of fruit one winter and had only flour, molasses, and lard to make a dessert. Those chefs fashioned a sweet, gooey tart that’s often topped with a sugary flour crumble.
    Despite the French rumor, the sticky treat’s name probably comes from the number of flies it attracts as it cools, eliciting cries of “Shoo, fly!” from bakers. Today, shoofly pie comes in two varieties: “wet bottom” (soft filling and a crumb topping) or “dry bottom” (with the crumb topping mixed into the pie).
Scrapple
    After the bacon and chops have been cut, what’s a frugal farmer to do with the rest of his pig? In the case of German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania, they put the scraps—head, heart, liver, tongue, and skin—into a pot; boiled them; cut off the leftover meat; mixed that with cornmeal, onions, and spices; and created a new dish. Most people eat scrapple at breakfast (with fried eggs), but scrapple sandwiches are also popular. Common condiments: maple syrup, ketchup, apple butter, and mustard.
Red Beet Eggs
    The hue of these puckered eggs is more pink than red, but the name comes from the red beets used to color and flavor the eggs, and once again, this culinary delight comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch. Sweet, tart red beet eggs show up at nearly every Pennsylvania picnic.
    Recipe: Combine ¼ cup of sugar, ½ cup of vinegar (some people prefer apple cider vinegar), a pound of sliced red beets, and a sliced onion, and boil for 15 minutes. Then pour that mixture over one dozen peeled hard-boiled eggs. Put it all in a sealed container and let it marinate in the refrigerator for three days.
Tastykake
    Individually wrapped snack cakes from Philadelphia’s Tastykake company have attracted a cultlike following. Devotees live for favorites like Butterscotch Krimpets, Cream-Filled Buttercream Iced Chocolate Cupcakes, and Lemon Pie turnovers. The name comes from cofounder Herbert Morris’s wife who, when she tried the bakery’s early samples, proclaimed them “tasty.”
    For years the treats were on sale only in Pennsylvania. But as the company grew, so did its distribution, and today, Tastykake addicts worldwide can order their favorites on the Internet.
Tasty Trivia
    â€¢10 cents: Cost of the first Tastykakes.
    â€¢150 feet: Length of the company’s oven.
    â€¢2,000: Number of cakes an actress dressed as Marie Antoinette tossed from the tower of Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary to celebrate Bastille Day in 2008. She shouted, “Let them eat Tastykake!” as the desserts fell. (The prisonclosed in 1970 and is now a tourist attraction.)
    â€¢14,080: Number of Tastykake pies that, when laid end-to-end, would stretch for one mile.
    â€¢135,000 pounds: Amount of sugar the company’s bakers use every day.
    â€¢4.8 million: Number of treats that Tastykake bakers make daily.
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    Did You Know?
    In the late 1760s, British immigrants established a series of settlements in the West Branch Susquehanna River valley in what is now Lycoming County. But the British government recognized the land as belonging to the local American Indians, so the Crown didn’t govern the area—which meant that the settlers essentially had no government. So in 1773, they created their own. Every year, they elected three “fair-play men” to oversee all legal matters and to make sure everyone was treated fairly. The fair-play men’s word was the law, and the system worked well. It didn’t last