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?

Banana pudding

@Notgotanyidea

Tuna casserole seems to be mentioned quite often in film and tv. I imagine a tin of tuna with veg in some type of gravy?

Actually, the classic tuna casserole would be tuna mixed with egg noodles and some kind of sauce (often a tinned soup) then baked.

I think they're more common in folklore than reality. I don't recall ever actually eating or making one.

Flan here is considered a Mexican dessert, so it being similar to Spanish flan makes sense.

And where I live in Florida, it's a Cuban dessert virtually identical to Spanish flan. It's very good. I live custard and all of its relatives.

Banana pudding reminds me of banoffee pie. Sounds similar. Biscuit base like for cheesecakes, sliced banana, can of toffee'd condensed milk topped with cream. Is that an american thing?

I find American recipes very bland. That's not to say I've not eaten great American food, we have an amazing full on American diner not far from us and the food is fantastic. But their "home cooking" recipes, I've never found one that involves any kind of flavour beyond salt. There was this woman on the Good Food channel the other day, it was on in the background, and some of the stuff she was making was so basic and she was going for the full on sell for how to wow your guests. It also appeared to take her far longer than necessary to make a simple salad 😂. Oh and she was making croutons with fresh bread and made a song and dance about getting the oil hot before putting the bread in the pan, and then proceeded to put her bread in while it was clearly still cold 🤦

That banana pudding looks lush!

@missconductUS that description of a tuna casserole is pretty much standard student grub from my youth. It would probably have had a tin of sweetcorn thrown in by adventurous non veg dodgers! In fact, we can probably go one better/worse with this stuff! groceries.asda.com/product/recipe-mixes/colmans-tuna-pasta-bake-recipe-mix/910000455296

@knittingaddict

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.

I love sweet and sour together! It isn't a specifically American thing. But it has to be done right.

There's a place near me that does a very thin-crust pizza with a wipe of garlicky tomato sauce and a layer of mozzerella, then linguica + grilled white onions + grilled jalapenos + grilled pineapple. It's really good.

Then there's the pig-and fruit you see all over eastern Europe: pork/sausages and some kind of potatos (I like it with latkes) served with apple sauce and/or barberry sauce.

Spiced salty couscous with nuts, dried apricots, raisins/sultanas, and cherries.

Caesar salad with dried cranberries or dried cherries.

Greens/herbs/baby spinach salad with grapefruit/pampelmousse and orange segments, plus grilled fennel and seared scallops.

Thai sweet and sour prawns with veggies and herbs, cherries and pineapple.

Georgian appetisers and dips made from aubergine/eggplant, pomegranate, walnuts, and garlic.

Any kind of blue cheese with pear or apple.

All so good.

Tuna casserole is considered a really retro dish, I think. DH loves it; I think some of that is childhood nostalgia so we have it a couple of times a year. But also the way we make it, it is essentially a delivery system for melted New York sharp cheddar cheese.

Sorry, I should say sweet and SAVOURY together.

Actually, the classic tuna casserole would be tuna mixed with egg noodles and some kind of sauce (often a tinned soup) then baked. I think they're more common in folklore than reality. I don't recall ever actually eating or making one

I can testify that they were alarmingly common in the Midwest in the 1980s. Washed down with root beer

I think a lot of these gross recipes date back to an era before everyone had a fridge. Unlike in most of Europe, it's common in America to live hours from a decent-sized town - unless you have driven through states like Montana or Texas, it's hard to get your head around just how spaced out settlements are. So people couldn't shop for fresh food every day, as used to be common in Europe, pre-fridges. In the US, people had to rely on store cupboards - hence the reliance on cans of mushroom soup etc.

Banana pudding reminds me of banoffee pie. Sounds similar. Biscuit base like for cheesecakes, sliced banana, can of toffee'd condensed milk topped with cream. Is that an american thing?

Banoffee pie is British. Banana pudding is layers of vanilla wafers (or sometimes other types of cookies, like shortbread), custard, bananas, and sometimes whipped cream. The traditional version does not have whipped cream and has a baked meringue topping. My family prefers the whipped cream version so that's what we usually do, but I like the old-fashioned meringue version best.

I remember when they had flan on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. It wasn't flan as I know it and was more like a set custard. Very strange

I couldn’t get past flaaaaaaaarn to figure out what it actually was made of . Took me ages to figure out they were saying flan.

Flans are what The Phantom Flan Flinger throws about

@breatheslowandtrust

I follow quite a few American vloggers (mostly MOrmon families) and they boast a lot about their home made, cheap and nutritious meals. Nearly EVERYTHING is from a tin though, they have massive pantries with shelves of chicken and mushroom soup which seems to be a staple for every single meals. The weirdest thing is a tater tot casserole that is a layer of hash browns, a layer of tinned veg, a layer of tinned turkey and then several tins of mushroom soup poured over the top and baked in the oven [boak]. They think this is really healthy .

Yes @breatheslowandtrust I follow some Mormon vloggers too and their recipes are hilarious! One of them did a ‘salad’ to go with a roast (which was actually not a roast but a slow cooker beef thing) and it was literally jelly and cream! And so many tins of soup. I have heard Americans making fun of Utah Mormon food though so I don’t think it’s typical of the US.

@LongPauseNoAnswer

I fucking HATE the measuring system. A tablespoon of melted butter?! A cup of flour?’ WHY DO YOU USE VOLUME FOR WEIGHT AND LIQUID MEASUREMENT FOR SOLID FOODS

The half a cup of this, a teaspoon of that is because when Europeans/ Brits went over, it was unlikely that they had their measuring utensils with them. As such everyone could use their kitchen crockery as a measuring tool and get consistent results each time.

I love Smitten Kitchen. Use her website all the time. Loving watching Ina Garten (and Geoffrey) too. Not so keen on the Pioneer Woman.

But yes, there are some odd American recipes out there. They do love canned soup! But this is my favourite American recipe. It's pretty complex so only for the confident cook.

I really want some banana pudding now 😋

Ocado (when it carried Waitrose) used to have an American ‘aisle’ that sold Kraft Stovetop stuffing. You literally just added water and a huge amount of butter or margarine and heated it up. So very unhealthy and seemed incredibly grim while you were heating up the dried breadcrumb and watery butter mixture...but my GOD I loved that stuff! It must’ve had some sort of evil, MSG-type ingredient because it was so addictive.

When Ocado switched to M&S they stopped selling it and I can now only find it for stupid prices on Amazon. Hmmmph.

My favorite sweet and savory combination is apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar on top.

And of course, one of the most iconic Southern foods is barbecue, which in my neck of the woods is pork, already a sweeter meat, served with sauces that are sweet, but usually quite spicy as well.

Damn. It's the middle of the afternoon here, and this thread is making me hungry.

Gorgonzola piccante and fig 👌 on a pizza

I love Ina Garten. She's so soothing to watch.

What the hell is canned succotash?!

Tbh a lot of American food seems to be designed for long term storage, but they are exceptionally good at all things breakfast. Plus big steaks!

One of my fav American recipes is Mongolian Beef so I guess you could argue it's Mongolian not American. But I guess American cuisine must have loads of influences from around the globe. Cajun is another cusine I like.

my us relatives quick dinner is pork chops (like minute steaks) cooked in s jaf of splle sauce.

It’s shit succotash in a can 😀 Lima beans and corn. Oh creamed corn ! I miss you too

Real succotash is much nicer obvio

I thought this was going to be another American bashing thread, but it's actually a good read.
I love taco recipes especially fish (OK, I know not technically a US recipe), plus lots of lovely veggie recipes. Cups are a dicey thing though, I did read an article recently about their unreliability as a measure, how you fill them can make a big difference to the weight of the ingredient, especially if scooping straight from the flour bag.

Gorgonzola piccante and fig 👌 on a pizza
❤️

The walking taco is genius!