National Wing Day

What the day is

National Wing Day is observed on July 29. It celebrates chicken wings, which went from scrap to centerpiece within a single generation.

That transformation is the interesting part. Wings carry little meat relative to bone, and for most of the twentieth century American kitchens treated them as stock material or discarded them outright. They were cheap because nobody wanted them.

Origin and background

The standard account places the Buffalo wing at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1964, where Teressa Bellissimo fried a batch of wings and tossed them in hot sauce and butter as a late-night snack. A competing local claim credits John Young, who was serving sauced wings in Buffalo in the same era, and the dispute has never been settled to everyone's satisfaction.

What is not disputed is the effect on the market. As wings became a bar and sports-viewing staple, demand for a previously worthless cut climbed steeply, and wholesale wing prices now spike predictably around major American sporting events. The scrap became one of the more expensive parts of the bird by weight.

Buffalo sauce itself is an emulsion, not merely hot sauce. The butter softens the vinegar's edge and gives the sauce enough body to cling, which is why melted butter whisked into cayenne pepper sauce behaves differently from either ingredient alone.

How to take part

• Dry the wings thoroughly, and leave them uncovered in the refrigerator for a few hours if you can. Surface moisture is what prevents crisp skin.
• Toss them in a little baking powder with the salt before baking. It raises the skin's pH and produces a far crisper result in the oven.
• Cook hot. Whether frying or roasting, low heat renders the fat without crisping the skin.
• Sauce them at the very last moment, off the heat, or they go soft before they reach the table.
• Separate drums and flats before cooking; they cook at different rates left joined.
• Try a style other than buffalo: soy and garlic, lemon pepper, or Korean gochujang.