Ask Lemmy

They were a garbage cut of meat that were tossed to the freed slaves of the south, and as black folk do, they turned it into a delicious snack with spices and seasonings. As culture desegregated, it became a trendy dish and that drove the prices up on what was once a trash cut.

I've never had them, but my guess is that they're essentially a sauce-delivery system?

In the two weeks before the superbowl the local news will start talking about ancillary things like what people eat in the cities who’s teams made the superbowl that you can serve at a superbowl party. In the early ‘90s Buffalo made the superbowl 4 years in a row, and thus the Buffalo wing gained national notoriety.

They’re not. They used to be the cheapest cut of chicken because most places would just toss them out. As buffalo wings became more popular people have been consuming them more driving up the price. They taste good, but they’re definitely not priced well at 3.99 a pound. I would expect them to be on par with the cost of chicken breasts.

I suppose it has to do with surface area. You could toss your drumsticks in buffalo sauce, but there’s a couple problems. It would be way messier and you’d end up with even more sauce on your face, and ultimately there’s more meat to surface in a drumstick so you’d end up with less sauce in each bite, including plenty of chicken closer to the bone with no sauce at all.

So-

1. Convenience
2. Maximum sauce

Drumsticks are superior

They used to be thrown away or used for stock, poor people turned them into trendy food and now it's expensive. Same with Osso bucco.

Surface area to volume ratio, they deliver sauce better and have high crispy skin.

They are good bar food, used to be cheap leftover chicken parts, lots of crispy skin and sauce, easy to cook with a deep fryer, slower to eat, and goes well with beer.

Very tender meat you get to eat off the bone, plus lots of crispy skin.

disclaimer: I don’t like wings either

I would buy the drumsticks too at that price. If you're not looking for the historical reasons, then it's purely preference and recipe. Drumsticks are higher in meat and chicken wings are higher in skin and sauce surface area. I usually prefer drumsticks but wings win when the recipe makes the skin super crunchy or I want a higher ratio of sauce.

Skin to meat ratio. Drum sticks fill you up faster, I eat wings for the spices and sauces not the meat. You can eat 12 delicious wings for every 6 delicious drumsticks. If you just want to get full faster go for drumsticks. If you want to savour the action of eating, go for wings.

More seasoning to meat ratio. And the meat is tender like breast meat, but fatty enough to not be dry. Easy to eat with your hands and to share. Easy to cook fast and thoroughly in a deep fryer. And used to be dirt cheap. I remember 10 cent wing nights at bars to bring in people and make them thirsty. Basically selling them at cost. Would be more like 50 cents now. But they got popular, so you never see it anymore. Now they sell for a huge profit.

I‘d go for the drjmsticks in that case. Wings are great but legs are equally good and if they are cheaper, sign me up!

Also those prices are insane… I pay 6.- over here for 500g of wings from the supermarket…

I just find that they taste better. It's the tastiest part of the chicken, especially the wing tip with 2 bones. Airfryer cooks them really nicely

They taste good. But i mean... Thighs are like the same meat and you get more of it for cheaper than any other part of the chicken except maybe the feet. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Buffalo Wings! The best shi evah

I don't know, man, it's just like... the way that it is.

Marketing.

It's part of the 'murican culture (because of marketing).