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 had grits once just to see. Probably won't bother again. Then again if I'd had porridge just the once I probably wouldn't be that keen ...

Had biscuits and gravy once as well - a scone in white sauce.

Also collard greens - which I really liked.

We went to a really fancy restaurant in New York, can't remember the name now, but super fancy. And everything was sweet. We left craving celery and salt.

But again I say I love eating in America, the service, the fact that everyone eats out - and you can eat really really well quite cheaply.

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

The British are equally guilty. Cauliflower Cheese confused the hell out of one of our friends, till we explained that it's cauliflower with cheese sauce, not cheese made from cauliflowers .

Toad in the Hole...spotted dick...we are as bad.

The first pumpkin pie I had was absolutely delicious. Lovely balanced spices, could taste the pumpkin in a fresh kind of way, unctuous but not cloying and served with crème fraîche I think to add a bit of tartness.

None of the others have lived up to it. In fact they all taste exactly the same, bland and far too sweet. I presume its the difference between a made-from-scratch pie and those with generic pie filling?

@ScrambledSmegs The difference between an apple pie made from cookers out of the garden and tinned stewed apple I suppose.

@SheCannaeTakeNoMoreCapt

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.

If they're on a restaurant menu they're there for tourists. Here's the menu for Tick Tock, the quintessential New York diner.

menupages.com/tick-tock-diner/481-8th-ave-new-york

No grits. And I've never seen them or been served them at someone's house. In the south, they are everywhere. It's a regional dish.

Yes, I never thought about Cauliflower Cheese. Quite right.

Pudding is confusing too, as it's often not an actual pudding.

What’s pudding then?

Isn't pudding something like Angel Delight? That's what I've always imagined anyway.

I like the cup system except I cannot fathom how you measure butter in a cup!

And despite googling I still don't understand what hamburger helper is. Lasagne soup sounds amazing though. I love lasagne and love soup, how much better can it get

Pudding in the US is a sort of blancmangey type thing I think.

I came on to say the Jello salad!

However, I do like a pumpkin pie made with tinned pumpkin. I make one every year around Halloween. My Grandmother always used to make one, although she had no connection whatsoever to America to my knowledge so I've no idea why!

I always thought Hamburger Helper was some sort of cereal or soya based filler to help your mince go further (much in the way MNetters chuck lentils in a cottage pie.)

Turns out it's basically pasta! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_Helper

I'm in Boston and grits might appear on a restaurant menu I suppose but I don't know any new englander who would actually cook them in their own home.

Americans definitely seem to have a preference for sweeter food in general but like anywhere there are good cooks and bad cooks, people who are interested in food and people who aren't.

The Pioneer Woman has some mixes/cans recipes - I actually remember the canned cheese recipe and she was being very funny about it. She also has some really great recipes from scratch.

There was a piece in Slate a while back where the woman cooked the same meal from her cookbook and from Thomas Keller (French Laundry) that was interesting slate.com/human-interest/2010/04/fried-chicken-cookoff-the-pioneer-woman-vs-thomas-keller.html

My ex step mum made me a Cesar salad that came in a box you added oil and water

My dads new wife is a slightly better cook famed for her spinach dip - tinned spinach mixed with a tub of cream cheese

Lots of flavouring of meat so a great steak will be totally spoilt by a steak mix that has loads of salt in when just pepper and a little salt would have been absolutely fine

Isn't pudding something like Angel Delight? That's what I've always imagined anyway.

Exactly correct.

I like the cup system except I cannot fathom how you measure butter in a cup!

16 tablespoons, or two four ounce sticks of butter are a cup.

And despite googling I still don't understand what hamburger helper is.

HH is a mix of dried spices and onion that you add to hamburger (mince of beef to you) while cooking it to season it. I've never cared for it.

@SheCannaeTakeNoMoreCapt

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.

In a tourist restaurant. Anyone north of the Mason Dixon line regards grits as a Southern abomination

In a tourist restaurant. Anyone north of the Mason Dixon line regards grits as a Southern abomination

Exactly correct, thank you.

Ah, so not an actual hamburger? That was what threw me. I was picturing something in a bun!

Thanks for the butter conversion. So 8oz butter is a cup. Must drill that into my head.

@Starsnores

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.

Passata + teaspoon or two of chipotle paste usually my go-to for enchilada sauce

I love grits. When I was staying with a friend in Georgia you'd get grits (and sweet iced tea) with everything. Breakfast, dessert, burgers... avoiding grits was not an option. You just stirred them into whatever else you were having and cracked on.

This reminds me of time when I was sitting in a cafe in Leeds and I heard a very panicky American mother tell her child "no, no don't eat that cheese!!!!!! This is the UK, the cheese has dairy".

Casserole. It's stuff baked into eggs.

Mmm I love American banana pudding, which seems to be banana, some sort of biscuit or cake and shit loads of cream mixed together. Heavenly.

I have a field day when I visit American MIL. Love going through her larder and marvelling at all the weird packet mixes and ready mixed seasoning and weird jars and ‘cans’ of processed shite. ‘Just add water and your own body weight in butter’ and you can have a tasty meal in minutes!’ .

Also love the fact that you can never have too many dressings or side sauces or sprinklings of cheese on everything and anything. I get very free with the honey mustard, sweet pickle relish and Monterey Jack when I’m there...

It’s a strange food culture, but no stranger than ours, I guess. I’ll never forget the first time my Italian friend had a roast dinner and her utter revulsion at gravy 🤢

American frugal cooking sites are great for cooking from scratch and meal planning. I love the cup system but butter sticks confuse me.