Lasagna soup anyone? American recipes that just never sound quite right...

[MaryIsA]

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/lasagna-soup-2268968

Partly its all the low sodium chicken broth, half and half, sticks of butter - but very often its the actual recipes. Just a bit off?

I’d love to get a bolognese recipe from you @StepOutOfLine

I have eaten astoundingly well travelling in the states, more consistently well than while travelling in the U.K. But in the last 10 to 15 years the uk has improved so much.

I remember struggling to take my very foodie London friend out to eat the first time he visited me in my new home in the northern seaside town I’d landed in. He was polite. He now comes to visit partly for the food it’s improved so much.

We always used to give people the choice of cream or milk in their coffee here in the the UK too. Not seen that for a while.
Either a little jug or those plastic jiggers. The cream were brown and the milk white.

Lived there for several years in the late 90s and tried to go native (in Texas), making such delights as noodle casserole.
Lost count of the times I was accosted in supermarkets by women peering into my trolley to ask what I was going to do with 'all those scratch ingredients'. There is a definite divide between cooking abs cooking from scratch which is what I understand as cooking.
But that was Texas.
My Californian friend is the biggest food snob in the world!!

This is a great thread, absolutely fascinating. Someone please describe a parmo. Or deep fried pizza. US definitely doesn't own the copyright to odd food. I haven't eaten either, you can't buy them down here where I am but the descriptions I've seen do credit to the originators.

Parmo is Middlesbrough isn't it? Never had one.

Deep fried pizza was my go to when a student and vegetarian, one of those little frozen pizzas deepfried by the chippy and then folded in 2. Food of the Gods when pissed or hungover.

@scentedgeranium I've just googled noodle casserole - couldn't help myself. It looks very like a chicken pasta bake - but made with tinned chicken soup.

[quote MaryIsA]@scentedgeranium I've just googled noodle casserole - couldn't help myself. It looks very like a chicken pasta bake - but made with tinned chicken soup.[/quote]
yep. Pretty much it! I mean there are more cheffy ways of doing it - with homemade chicken stock etc. But I kind of think the tinned version is more authentically american!!

Parmo is breaded chicken, covered with bechamel sauce and topped with cheese.
The Hairy Bikers do a slightly healthier version.

Wiki has this to say about its origins:

Parmo is said to have been created by Nicos Harris, a chef with the United States Army in World War II. He was wounded in France, but was brought to the United Kingdom to be treated in a British hospital. Eventually, he moved to Middlesbrough and opened a restaurant, The American Grill, on Linthorpe Road, where he created parmo in 1958. His son-in-law, Caramello, still lived in Teesside as of 2014, continuing the family tradition.

Tins of pumpkin pie filling? I truly don't understand the tins of pumpkin pie filling! Just cook the pumpkin (Power in the house permitting).

Please just cook the pumkin then make the filling!!!

It's lovely when autumn ends and that content stops!

I haven’t seen any for a long time, but still remember one where the ingredients included ‘a package of pasteurised processed cheese’.
(I didn’t make it.).

My sister in the US, usually very fussy and ‘healthy’ about food, really surprised me once when I was staying, when she asked me to make a ‘Mac’N’cheese dinner’ out of a packet for her young dd.

You had to add milk and butter (both of which DSis loathes) and the result was bright orange. 😱 DNiece apparently enjoyed it though.

@StephanieSavetowin

Tins of pumpkin pie filling? I truly don't understand the tins of pumpkin pie filling! Just cook the pumpkin (Power in the house permitting).

Please just cook the pumkin then make the filling!!!

It's lovely when autumn ends and that content stops!

You need to understand how some of our ancestors lived, especially the earlier European settlers, how canning and other preserving methods were vital. I wish it wasn’t such an acceptable attitude, sneering at aspects of this culture.

Well Batchelors make those pasta dishes in plastic that you pour hot water into - like a pasta pot noodle. Haven't had one since I was a student - but they still sell them.

I'm not entirely convinced Mumsnet is the place to try and work out whether the UK or the US generally speaking use more packet mixes and tins. There's a bias towards cooking from scratch on here - but there's a lot of packet stuffing, packet cake mixes, jarred sauced etc on my local supermarket shelves.

I have made pumpkin pie with both fresh and tinned pumpkin. Tinned pumpkin just works better in a pie. It has a smoother texture. I save the fresh pumpkin for soup.

I've not RTFT, but the packet mix I really couldn't get my head around is in the U.K. for normal pancake day pancakes (end of aisle display together with jif lemons usually). It needed making up with egg and milk, so basically it was flour, some completely unnecessary E numbers, plus instructions.

My sister in the US, usually very fussy and ‘healthy’ about food, really surprised me once when I was staying, when she asked me to make a ‘Mac’N’cheese dinner’ out of a packet for her young dd.

I wonder if it's a comfort food in the US like Heinz cream of tomato soup is here.
I remember (yet another) episode of Friends in which Monica has someone coming round to taste the amazing restaurant-style food she's made, but he arrives stoned and with the munchies.
He finds a packet of Kraft mac & cheese in her cupboard despite her being a chef.

I think collard greens are closer to Swiss chard

Collard greens are spring cabbage type vegetable braised in stock and have bits of bacon in them too don't they?

That's how they come at the American BBQ restaurant in my UK city.

@SilentBob

I have loved reading this thread!

I have a question for those who have mentioned it- what is in an American breakfast burrito? I do my (northern English version) of them in my bistro and they're really popular- I am intrigued to see if they relate in any way to the US version! I do a meat, vegetarian and vegan version.

An American breakfast burrito has scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, cheese (of course!) and salsa or hot sauce. Gorgeous and simple.

Tinned pumpkin is much less watery than fresh and gives a much better result. It's a bit like the difference between tinned tomatoes or passata and the pale, flavourless tomatoes we get over here for most of the year. No one sneers at people using tinned tomatoes, do they?

@Nohomemadecandles

Some of my favourite bread recipes are US ones but I do cut the sugar

I love Pioneer Woman & Ina - so relaxing. I think Geoffrey must have a lovely life!

I think poor Geoffrey must have arteries that look like stuffed cannelloni poor lamb. I am surprised his blood can squeeze through them!

@ErrolTheDragon

I've not RTFT, but the packet mix I really couldn't get my head around is in the U.K. for normal pancake day pancakes (end of aisle display together with jif lemons usually). It needed making up with egg and milk, so basically it was flour, some completely unnecessary E numbers, plus instructions.

I've never understood this! Same with a lot of cake mixes. It's more expensive than buying flour and you still have eggs to crack, mixing to do etc so no be benefit in terms of mess (I am terrible at egg cracking!) And only minimal time saving in terms of weighing dry ingredients.

I have been asked to make American pancakes this weekend (first time) and thanks to this thread I am now wondering if there is actually a good recipe out there or if everyone is actually making them from mix packets...

I've seen something called Sloppy Joes on US meal plans. Doesn't sound like something I'd want to try.

I really like Sloppy Joes.

Nigella has a recipe for them which involves a tin of cream of tomato soup.

(Mind you, I used to just think they were a type of jumper)

Geoffrey! Is he still going? Used to love Ina but always used to long for the day when Geoffrey turned round and didn't respect the "Geoffrey's going to love this" instruction.

Talking of deep fried pizza when pissed. In Manchester we did pizza sandwiches with those mini pizzas inside toasted bread with French mustard spread on the toast. You had to be there.