Aug 18, 2022
People might vary on their heat preferences, and there is surely a debate to be had on whether they should be served with ranch or bleu cheese for dipping, but if you order a dozen wings, there is almost always going to be a few sticks of celery on your plate, too. Why, though? It definitely can’t be because people want to balance they’re sticky, saucy, sugary wings and ranch dressing with some veggies.  Photo Credit: iStock We think we’ve found the answer – and it takes us back to the snack’s roots. Buffalo wings were invented in 1964 in – of course – Buffalo, NY. Frank and Teressa Bellissimo owned a neighborhood Italian restaurant that only served chicken in spaghetti sauce until inspiration struck. Like many culinary masterpieces, the buffalo wing came to be almost entirely on accident. It happened one night when the bar had received an accidental shipment of wings (which people didn’t really eat back then) and also ended up with a bunch of drunk dudes looking for a midnight snack. Image Credit: iStock His wife figured she could find a better use for the wings than the trash, so she breaded them, fried them, tossed them in hot sauce, and – you guessed it – garnished the pate with leftover celery. The restaurant – and eventually the rest of the country – never looked back, but how has the garnish also remained tried and true? Some top chefs like Dale Talde have some theories.
Photo Credit: iStock
According to Mental Floss, the idea of serving up blue cheese and celery sticks with buffalo wings comes courtesy of the Anchor Bar, one of the supposed inventors of the buffalo wing. The story goes that Teressa served up the hot wings with blue cheese and celery sticks simply because they were the nearest available sides, basically serving up some extra leftovers. What Teressa wouldn't have known was that this random combination actually had some benefits. The high water content of the celery and the cool tang of the blue cheese complemented the hot, greasy, and salty taste of the wings, keeping them from being too heavy or rough on one's digestive tract. Blue cheese also helps to cool your mouth down, if you're a bit too sensitive to heat-based sauces. As Houston Methodist Leading Medicine explains, dairy-based products such as blue cheese contain a protein known as casein, which acts as a sort of "detergent" that washes away the oily capsaicin that burns your mouth. While water spreads the capsaicin around your mouth, much like how oil floats on water, milk-based products clean your mouth out and provide you some relief from the heat. Whether you're making your own buffalo wings or ordering them out from your favorite place, it's always best to keep a few celery stalks and a bowl of blue cheese alongside you — just in case. You wouldn't want to make a simple mistake like not having them, would you? ELI5:Why do they serve Wings with Celery Sticks? from explainlikeimfive
Jul 20, 2022 The one time celery is acceptable to serve to anyone. / mphillips007/iStock via Getty Images The combination of Buffalo wings and celery has long puzzled Friday night gatherings and Super Bowl parties. Why bother pairing our blandest vegetable with the decadent, fat-soaked wing? It was a matter of necessity. And leftovers. Back in 1964 in Buffalo, New York, Frank and Teressa Bellissimo were confronted with a late-night request from their adult son, Dominic, to find something for him and his friends to eat at the Bellissimos' Anchor Bar. To satisfy their appetites, Teressa threw together some wings, margarine, and hot sauce, birthing a regional and then national wing obsession. (Buffalo residents do not, however, refer to wings as Buffalo wings, in much the same way the French do not refer to fried potato sticks as French fries. They just call them chicken wings or wings.) Teressa finished off that first plate of wings with what she had on hand at the bar. She served the wings with house blue cheese dressing and some celery sticks she had left over from making an antipasto salad. Dominic and his friends devoured it all, and the combination stuck. While Teressa was using what was available, it turns out she picked some very complementary pairings. With its high water content and crisp texture, celery is a perfect contrast to the salt and fat of the wings. It provides a crunchy, somewhat hydrating break, particularly when your consumption gets into the dozens. And because they’re easy to digest, they don’t interfere with the caloric nuclear bomb already going off in your stomach. Some wing enthusiasts opt for ranch dressing over blue cheese. While either one has enough dairy fat to soothe any afterburn from the hot sauce, Buffalo natives consider ranch anathema. Back in 2018, Frank’s RedHot, a staple hot sauce for wing preparation used in Teressa’s first recipe, made the mistake of suggesting ranch on social media, leading to a virtual meltdown. Imagine what would have happened if they had suggested carrots. [h/t Tasting Table] Have you got a Big Question you'd like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing .
Gaze inward and ask yourself: If vibrantly sauced Buffalo wings were to arrive at your booth or barstool without a quartet of celery sticks peeking shyly around the blue cheese, would you calmly eat your chicken and move on with your day? No. Of course you wouldn't. Spicy, saucy Buffalo wings and their waifish vegetal accompaniments are inextricably linked. Theirs is a symbiotic American partnership on par with the cranberry gelée that escorts glistening turkeys to the Thanksgiving table, or hybrid Oreos and expensive dental work. Carrot sticks come and go, and crunchy cabbage has its place (namely, beneath wings as decoration). But Buffalo wings are celery's raison d'être. Imagine a lone, unaccompanied serving of celery sticks sitting atop a crowded bar. This has literally never happened. Meanwhile, only barbarians serve wings without a crispy accoutrement. "It's a desperate cry to break the salt, spice and fat of pounding 25 to 30 wings for a football game," Dale Talde, a chef and Buffalo sauce enthusiast with eponymous restaurants in Brooklyn, Miami and Jersey City, explains. "The cool, refreshing texture and slightly bitter flavor [of celery] is what you want when you eat wings." In chicken, as in life, success has many authors. According to the most widely acknowledged origin story, celery sticks have been served with Buffalo wings since day one. In 1939, Teressa and Frank Bellissimo purchased Anchor Bar, a watering hole in Buffalo, New York. As legend has it, when the clock struck midnight one fateful Friday in 1964, their son, Dominic, requested a meaty snack. (The Bellissimos didn't eat meat on Fridays, a relatively common practice among Roman Catholics of their era.) Like anyone cooking for a bunch of drunk people with late-night munchies, Teressa surveyed the random foodstuffs in her kitchen and thought, Sure, I can turn this into something edible. Due to a mail-order mix-up, Anchor Bar had surplus chicken wings. Teressa separated them into drumsticks and "flats," created an ad hoc marinade, skipped the breading and started frying. She garnished the plate with a few celery sticks left over from an antipasto platter, and thus altered the course of American history. Today, celery and wings are recurring costars, appearing in tandem not just at casual dive bars, but also on posher menus. At Beverly Hills' swish Bazaar by José Andrés, heritage boneless Buffalo chicken wings are topped with tiny, precious celery cubes. The pairing persists because it works. Electrolyte-rich celery provides "a nice, crisp-crunchy punch that's a satisfying contrast to warm, fatty" chicken, according to nutritionist and dietician Sidney Fry. Water-packed foods like celery "are easier to digest, [because they] take less heat and energy to burn, which could be perceived as 'cooling,'" Fry adds. Drew Cerza, founder of the National Buffalo Wing Festival, and a man whose email signature reads "Wing King," offers a pragmatic counterpoint. "Let's face it, there are a couple of calories in chicken wings," Cerza laughs. "When you eat them with celery, you get to think, I'm doing something good for my body as well." As anyone who has eyed the shopping cart of someone in the midst of a Whole30 sprint can attest, moderation is not a hallmark of the national diet. Buffalo wings and celery taste like America. |
Why do they serve celery with wings
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