Local specialties
Buckwheat
From preston county, used along with local pork to make their famous annual buckwheat cake and sausage dinners in september.
Swiss cheese
From helvetia, a local tradition since the 1800s.
Traditional West Virginia cooking is broadly similar to Southern cuisine, but it's technically part of the Appalachian style of cooking, which was mostly subsistence-based, meaning that people ate what they could grow or catch themselves. This style of cooking emphasizes wild or cultivated plants, berries, nuts, wild game and corn. While this does mean that some West Virginians eat opossum, squirrel and raccoon, you won't find them on any restaurant menus unless you visit the Roadkill Cook-off in Marlinton. Foods like fried chicken, sausage, cornbread, green and pinto beans, greens, squash casserole, mashed potatoes, fresh cucumbers and onions, ripe tomatoes, pickles and berry cobbler are commonly found throughout the state.