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?

@50shadesoflunacy

And I am sorry to our American friends but I don't get sweet potato and marshmallow . . .

Don't knock it, it feels strange eating it with turkey and potatoes but it's actually lovely

What gets me is all the cheese in a spray can stuff and then people have a go at us for having bland food!
That said, you might enjoy these recipe cards from Sainsbury’s in the 70s. www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/catalogue/search/sapub1361-recipe-cards

The link didn’t take me to the recipe so I can’t comment on that.

The fundamental principle of lasagna soup sounds quite good, and the recipe isn't bad.

My husband's ex mil used to make Jello salad - which was jelly with marshmallows served with steak. That was the salad. She was from Texas though.

I like American food, I love visiting America, and have some recipes that I turn to again and again. But...just...some of the recipes google turns up...no.

And yes, British food from the 70s, that was my childhood. Mostly mince to be fair. Minced horse it now appears.

Some of the hack instagram recipes that turn up on from UK are pretty wince making too.

I once had a Thanksgiving dinner cooked by an American friend who had raves about it for years beforehand. We had frozen sliced green beans with condensed mushrooms soup sauce with packet crispy onions on top. There was also sweet potato with marshmallow and brown sugar on top. The worst was cranberry sauce in a tin that was served as it came out of the tin which reminded us of Pedigree chum adverts from the 80s

@50shadesoflunacy

And I am sorry to our American friends but I don't get sweet potato and marshmallow . . .

Neither do I. It's another regional dish.

I have a lot of American friends and I tease them constantly about the abomination that is biscuits [greasy scones, they use horrible industrial veg fats and margarine] and gravy [actually white sauce, often lumpy with bits of gristly sausage meat]

Years ago I found canned pumpkin puree and made pumpkin pie, to a US recipe.
We weren't very impressed and I left it in the fridge for my neighbour who was feeding my cat while went away for the weekend.
She fed it to her husband, and assuming it to be something quiche-like, served it up with a jacket spud and salad.
[It is, of course, sweetened and spiced and meant as a dessert]

Just remembered chicken fried steak as well - a steak covered in KFC style crispy batter and deep fried, smothered in chicken gravy. Should be horrific but I loved it when I lived overseas (once in a blue moon due to being massively unhealthy). I have a weird palette obviously!

I've watched quite a few US cooking programs and they do seem to have a very sweet tooth with a strange need to put sweet foods on the same plate at savoury food. The Barefoot Contessa did a lunch for Valentine's day or some such thing and I remember the food that went on the plate was very odd. I wish I could remember what it was. In the UK we would definitely think of it as main and dessert on the same plate, only it wasn't.

I'm not complaining because I like eating food from different countries, but I wonder what the origins of their sweet tooth is.

@TheVanguardSix

That made me smile (re Mac 'n' cheese). There is a small shop by the Westfield bus station in Shepherds Bush that sells some American sweets and boxes of cake mix. I hate hershys and stuff like that but must admit I am interested in the white cake box mix as I imagine it is like the made birthday cakes over here where the sponge is white coloured not yellow and smells dreamy. I have always wanted to make it to see what it is like but as I had a phone call from a Dr recently going over my diabetes review so I had better not even look at it!

We went to the US in about 2003 and I did get a bit addicted to this cheese in a tin. It was processed, runny and an orangey yellow colour with chilli and you ate it like a dip.

I imagine it was completely made up of chemicals and e numbers, but I still remember it fondly.

I had baked potato soup in Vegas and it was lush - potato, cheese and bacon in a soup, what not to like. Tried to recreate at home using a US recipe, total sodding disaster so sometimes it’s just a bad recipe!

@Toomuchleopard

I once had a Thanksgiving dinner cooked by an American friend who had raves about it for years beforehand. We had frozen sliced green beans with condensed mushrooms soup sauce with packet crispy onions on top. There was also sweet potato with marshmallow and brown sugar on top. The worst was cranberry sauce in a tin that was served as it came out of the tin which reminded us of Pedigree chum adverts from the 80s

No turkey?

Some Yanks make an effort at Thanksgiving and some don't. I can assure you that at my house everything is fresh and made from scratch. I also don't do sweet potatoes. DH makes fresh green beans in a lemon butter sauce topped with slivered almonds that are out of this world.

You can't condemn a whole holiday meal tradition because of one lazy cook.

I like using cup measures too.

Corn syrup as well in everything,

But yy to the “two ingredient cookies” type thing, which is always a packet of cookie mix and peanut butter, or chocolate...

I went to the US fairly recently- some areas haven’t quite grasped vegetarianism yet. That was interesting..

I like the cup measuring thing. I had an American book of British recipes, and the Yorkshire pudding recipe from that, using cups, has served me well for over twenty years.

But the convenience foods, such as Hamburger Helper and Kraft Dinner, just look rank.

And I can’t get on with the soup naming either. Vegetable Beef just sounds wrong. What’s wrong with the word ‘and’?

And I can’t get on with the soup naming either. Vegetable Beef just sounds wrong. What’s wrong with the word ‘and’?

This reminds me of a Margaret Thatcher story. I have no idea if it's true or not.

She was having dinner at a posh restaurant with her cabinet members, all of whom are men. The waiter comes by and asks what she wants for her main course. She replies "I'll have the beef". The waiter nods sagely and asks "And for the vegetables?" She replies "They'll have the beef as well."

I think that was a Spitting Image sketch.

I've got an old American cook book from the 1950s by Peg Bracken called "The I Hate to Cook Book".

I'd already got her "I Hate to Housekeep" book and it's brilliantly (intentionally) funny as well as actually being a proper housekeeping manuel.

Equally, "I Hate to Cook" is meant to have serious recipes that you'd actually serve to your husband's boss - a big deal in the 50s - but with jokes.

It relies heavily on tins and packets (I thought all Americans have had huge fridges since the 50s) and I don't think I'd actually make anything out of it.

Anyway, it's got gems like:

Skid-Row Stroganoff (sp?)
"Brown the mince while you stand by the sink and sullenly smoke a cigarette"

a strange need to put sweet foods on the same plate at savoury food.

hmm corn bread (aka sponge cake) with meatloaf, sweetcorn & gravy

@LunaNorth

I think that was a Spitting Image sketch.

It was - and she asked for raw meat iirc

I agree, it made me want to have a ‘proper’ Thanksgiving dinner done nicely. This one was done as per the family traditions and they liked it but we didn’t!

I quite often see recipes calling for a 'jar of enchilada sauce'. I just used passata and fajita spice mix, no idea if its comparable.

Grits are very regional to the south. You won't find them anywhere else in the US

Rubbish. I ate them in New York and Boston.

@LunaNorth

I like the cup measuring thing. I had an American book of British recipes, and the Yorkshire pudding recipe from that, using cups, has served me well for over twenty years.

But the convenience foods, such as Hamburger Helper and Kraft Dinner, just look rank.

And I can’t get on with the soup naming either. Vegetable Beef just sounds wrong. What’s wrong with the word ‘and’?

The missing ands really make my teeth itch. Which is totally unreasonable but there you have it.

Also the practice of naming dishes after the receptical they're made in: chicken soy rice bowl, sheet pan chicken. That's possibly just MyFitnessPal though - they bloody love their "bowls".

Grits are all over!