Midwest Soups State by State

Spoonful by spoonful, we salute the Badger State's German beer, bratwurst and cheese heritage with this hearty chowder. The tang of the beer and smokiness of the brats hold up to the bold cheddar and caraway.

The Show Me State stockyards once helped deliver some of the finest steaks to the world. Our version of the KC steak soup uses lean ground sirloin mixed with veggies and seasoned with a blast of steak sauce and Worcestershire. It cooks in just 25 minutes.

This thick chowder blends corn, pumpkin and chunks of sweet potato. We based it on the Prairie State's prolific production of corn (second only to Iowa) and pumpkin (80 percent of the world's crop is processed here).

For the Great Lakes State (four of the five lakes touch it), fish chowder was an easy choice. Freshwater salmon teams up with two more state ingredients (potatoes and asparagus) for an exceptionally satisfying meal in a bowl.

German-Russian immigrants brought this creamy potato-ham soup with biscuitlike dumplings to the Peace Garden State. This popular North Dakota soup specialty also is known as knoephla.

North America's largest remaining virgin grassland, the Flint Hills, is located in the Sunflower State, where more than a million beef cattle graze each summer. So we simmered beef with bulgur, in honor of Kansas wheat, and sprinkled it with spices and a little cayenne pepper for zip.

Pork and corn lace our bowl born in the Hawkeye State, which leads the nation in producing both. Thyme, oregano and lemon-pepper seasoning flavor this oven-baked stew, which includes potatoes and green beans. Like even more corn? We love corn muffins with this dish.

Short on time? Try our soup from the North Star State, which leads the nation in turkey production. Smoked turkey mixes with the state grain, wild rice. Meaty shiitake mushrooms add more substance to the bowl.

This healthful, veggie-packed, side-dish soup counts on rich tomato production in the Buckeye State, where tomato juice is the state beverage. Fennel, with its hint of anise flavor, and hot-style vegetable juice add some spunk to mellow tomato.

Although the ring-necked pheasant isn't native to the Mount Rushmore State (it was introduced in 1898), it has thrived and become the state bird. Wild pheasant brings full, dark-meat flavor to this stew baked in individual servings with a crown of pastry. Time-consuming? Yes. Worth it? Yes, especially for entertaining.

The Hoosier State is home to two of our nation's big duck processors, Culver Duck and Maple Leaf Farms; they inspired this oven-baked stew. Chunks of vegetables join the dark-meat poultry.

This soup plays up two of the Cornhusker State's bumper crops: Great Northern beans (no state produces more) and beef (Nebraska ranks third in production). Chuck ribs cook separately while beans bubble away in the soup. They meet up when served.