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?

would strike lucky if they stayed with Seneca

Thanks. However, having over-indulged in comfort eating during prolonged stay-at-home periods, we are now on a healthy eating regime. No biscuits or banana pudding for a while until I can zip my favorite jeans.

The tuna noodle casserole I was introduced to by an American was cooked macaroni, tinned tuna and peas (I now add sweetcorn as well) mixed with condensed mushroom soup, a bit of cream and curry powder.
Put in a casserole dish, top with grated cheese and breadcrumbs and bake until bubbling.

Loving this thread. I've never been to the USA but I also want to stay with Seneca.

It's interesting that, despite also having the history of pioneering/isolated homesteads etc, Australia has a very different cuisine.

The Aussies, when I lived there, had a thing called tuna/salmon mornay, which I rather liked. Base of rice or pasta, layer of canned tuna or salmon, topped with cheese sauce and baked.

I love American recipes...a lot of mine are from a book I bought years ago...The Joy of Cooking. It's from the 1930's but has been revised over the years.
I've been to Texas a few times and just loved their food. Chicken fried steak with biscuits and gravy was awesome! I make it at home sometimes now. I remember going to Sonic at midnight for a grilled cheese and a cherryade...felt like I was in Grease lol.

@sleepyhead

The refrigerated Polish/World foods section in of Tesco etc is where to find big bottles of buttermilk- much cheaper than those tiny cartons you get in the dairy aisle.

It's called maslanka in Polish.

Aha! Top tip. I will have a look tomorrow, I know my local supermarket has a big Polish section

I've got an old Moosewood Cookbook - very old style veggie, sandal wearing hippy food. Classic 70s Americana.
Has a lovely Jicama and orange salad recipe in it, and varieties of cornbread. I used it a lot when we lived in Texas and I could get the ingredients.

@scentedgeranium, I love that book!!

Betty MacDonald, US author, wrote this in her 1955 book Onions in the Stew:

I looked and looked at my salad trying to guess what it was. When it could not be avoided any longer I took a bite and it was tuna fish and marshmallows and walnuts and pimento (just for the pretty color, our hostess explained later when she was giving us the recipe) and chunks of pure white lettuce and boiled dressing. I almost gagged ...

Lots more in the same vein. She was clearly not a fan of sweet elements in salad!

@magicstar1, I was given a Joy of Cooking as a new bride in 1988, and I've given copies to my DCs when they moved out to their own places.

I also have a Settlement Cookbook, vintage 1976, that I bought at a book sale, and New York Times Cookbook.

@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).

You are kidding, right? This is just pure snobbery.

The ingredients of pumpkin pie filling are pumpkin, spices, and sugar. Maybe a bit more sugar than you would put in a home made pie.

There is nothing inferior about a pumpkin pie made with a tin of straight pumpkin either.
Contents = pumpkin.

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...

@terrywynne
It may be too late, but here's an American pancake recipe:

cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1893-everyday-pancakes

You can use any mug you have in your kitchen as long as you use the same one for all the ingredients where cups are indicated.

Use self raising flour!
Skip the baking powder, which is problematic in recipe conversions.

You can substitute an unflavoured oil for the melted butter in the pancake batter. Cook them in butter for that buttery taste.

@WaltzingBetty, I don't know about the UK, but Irish flan is a single layer sponge cake with a slight depression in the middle, topped with lemon curd or jam and fresh fruits, served with whipped cream and/or ice cream.

Flan in the US is creme caramel, aka caramel custard. Flan is the Spanish term for this baked custard.

American Chilli Powder isn't chilli powder at all but a mix of spices!

Yes, mainly cumin and pretty light on the cayenne, @Nohomemadecandles.

I admit I chuckled at your heads being blown off by home made dishes. I made the same mistake myself as a rookie many years ago.

Oh, crikey!

[quote mathanxiety]@WaltzingBetty, I don't know about the UK, but Irish flan is a single layer sponge cake with a slight depression in the middle, topped with lemon curd or jam and fresh fruits, served with whipped cream and/or ice cream.

Flan in the US is creme caramel, aka caramel custard. Flan is the Spanish term for this baked custard.[/quote]
You can by sponge flan cases here. My mum used to fill them with tinned fruit and jelly.

@Flippyferloppy

Oh and "Italian" food that no Italian would be able to identify, with ingredients no-one uses in Italy

There's a lot of history attached to that, basically the history of 'Italian' emigration to the US, which essentially consisted of Sicilian and deep Italian South emigration, with northern Italian culture and language eventually becoming dominant in Italy, and what is called Italian American culture remaining very much Sicilian, Calabrian, and southern Italian.

After arriving in the teeming cities of the east in the heyday of canned beef, Italians were shamed for their excellent Mediterranean diet, but many persevered as best they could to preserve their culinary heritage, which is not and never was whatever 'Italian' means.

www.food.com/recipe/peach-cobbler-31901?soc=socialsharingpinterest#activity-feed

An easy and delicious peach cobbler recipe. During baking, the peaches end up under the batter.

*Yes, you can use fresh peaches.

You can by sponge flan cases here. My mum used to fill them with tinned fruit and jelly.

My mother used those too.
The tinned fruit was usually peaches and the jelly wasn't Chivers cubes or whatever but granules called "Quick Jel" mixed with boiling water.

"What flavour is it, mum?"
"Red. Now eat up!"

I’m surprised meat loaf hasn't featured more in this thread. I have a thing for mashed potatoes at the moment, but need proper gravy with that, but having looked at the meatloaf recipes, I can’t see where the gravy comes from, unless it’s just instant?

@Beetle76
I bake my meatloaf in a large cast iron pot, skim off the melted fat, and use the juices to make gravy with.

In Australia you get cheese sausages which are sausages which cheese in the middle.
Total crap mainly sold at roadhouses, I bloody loved them

Also in the US - cheese dogs, and chili cheese dogs. Made by Oscar Mayer.

Speaking of deep fried dough, nobody has mentioned hush puppies yet.

I remember my mum randomly started cooking dishes with condensed mushroom/chicken soup in the early 90s. I think they became popular in women's magazines

Oh.... feeling nostalgicabiut cinnamon gum and toothpaste.

Anyone remember those cinnamon toothpick things?

I use a similar recipe for peach cobbler to the one that mathanxiety linked, except that I use self-rising flour, so skip the baking powder and salt, and I don't use an egg. This is an old recipe that is often called "cuppa cuppa cuppa" because of the equal amounts of flour, sugar, and milk. I use fresh peaches when they are in season in the summer, but it is also very good with canned peaches. And we always serve it warm with vanilla ice cream. My son-in-law always requests it for his birthday, so we stick a candle in the ice cream.

@mathanxiety is making it in a pot a better method that gives you a tasty result or should I still aspire to a loaf pan? I’ve never even set eyes on a meatloaf, nevermind made one, but always assumed it was traditionally served as a slice of a loaf... do you slice it into wedges and serve it a bit like a slice of cake?

And do you put ritz crackers in yours or use bread crumbs? I have so many questions...

I’m loving this thread. I’m really quite happy and content to listen to people chat about food and it’s origins.

@SenecaFallsRedux could you share your cobbler recipe please? I have canned peaches