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?

M&S had a Christmas lasagne hot dip, which was nice. I mean, it was just a bowl of lasagne without the sheets so hard to go wrong! I assume lasagna soup would be similar

Raises hand as someone who’s used a British block of butter in place of an American stick not realising sticks are half the size. Still stuck on noodles meaning both noodles for Asian dishes and pasta for Italian dishes. Pasta isn’t noodles!! Ina is fabulously crap and pioneer woman is amusingly annoying. Smitten kitchen however works every time, gives metric measurements and frankly should be made a dame.

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!

@LaMarschallin

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"

Ha! I was brought up on these twin household classics. They were my mother’s bibles. So glad they have a modern-day audience!

@LaMarschallin - The Cockeyed cake in the Peg Bracken I Hate to Cook book is really very good

I like Sloppy Joe’s

Mince in a sauce served in a bap (I don’t bother with the orange cheese though)

Bananablondie

So glad they have a modern-day audience!

Do you remember the poem "Evolution" from the "I Hate to Housekeep" one?
Where the host starts off making perfect martinis with lemon peel and olives...
As the evening (and martinis) wear on, he first forgets the lemon, then the olives until:

"How tiresome, in truth, was that silly Vermouth;
How crystalline clear now, how virgin the gin"

LadyMonicaBaddingham

LaMarschallin - The Cockeyed cake in the Peg Bracken I Hate to Cook book is really very good

Ooh, thanks, LadyM. I might give it a go.

(Although are you sure you'd know? Wasn't it Taggie that made it for your shooting party? )

Last time I was in America I had several meals ruined by the use of what I presume was a fake buttery flavoured cooking oil. It just overpowered everything with its fakeness. Although dp wasn’t bothered by it at all.

it's the gravy that worries me...WHAT IS IT??
as in Biscuits and Gravy
is it actual gravy so thickened with flour it is white, or a white sauce unrelated to any part of the meal and just slopped over for effect?

Love this thread!

I thought baked potato soup was the maddest thing I'd ever heard and then I tried it... sooooo good.

However I still haven't recovered from trying a Pittsburgh Salad, which is a salad with a bunch of fries on top. Just, why????

Casserole, as far as I can tell, is anything with multiple ingredients mixed together and baked in the oven.

@LaMarschallin I'm definitely buying that book! There is a 50th anniversary edition

@PickAChew

Like this

You're buying the wrong brand! Sainsbury and adds both still have 50g ones on their wrapping and Kerry Gold has 25g lines.

I like cup recipes most of the time but butter does confuse me - a cup melted? Packed down tightly? Or converted to a weight

LaMarschallin I'm definitely buying that book! There is a 50th anniversary edition grin

I'm sure you won't regret it, noodlezoodle
And, no, I don't have shares in it

Actually picked up the original IHTH when I was 13 and living in a North American community in South America.
There were regular garage sales when people moved back to the US and I found it in one, plus my first ever Jilly Cooper book, "Emily" (which was almost the rudest thing I'd ever read!).

Happy days

Two sticks of butter:

Aye, but I like this one @terrywynne! It's softer and so easy to spread unless the room is very cold. Also makes lighter cakes and better pastry than the cheaper stuff I used to get from sainsburys.

We used to eat Yorkshire using with golden syrup

My nanny was from Yorkshire it was eaten as a sweet food

My gran made Yorkshire pudding with marmalade and custard (Lancs), my Mum also made a gorgeous sweet omelette, all fluffy with a sugar crust.

when I lived in the us (mid 90s) a lot of alkohol cooking spray was used.
tasted faintly of lemon cleaning product. especially on grilled seafood. is that still the case?

@ARoseDowntown I think you mean 'budder'

I’ve always been confused by sticks. I feel enlightened.

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 cheese is wrong though.

I like sweet and savoury.love an American sandwich. An American sandwich with American cheese is good. It’s usually sweet and savoury and hits the spot.

But American cheese is Wrong.

This is my favourite US cookery book, I've just had to order a new copy as mine hasn't returned from loan. I also love the Thug Kitchen veggie cookbooks.
Have to admit my thoughts on what is American food, doesn't tally with lots of the comments here. My American friends are all good cooks, lots of fresh veg, lots of spices. Though friends are from California and NY, so that might make a difference.

Pre-COVID v frequent visitor to the US, and so many things I love about Americans and the food. However the cheese... it’s NOT CHEESE!!! It’s some sort of fluorescence that comes in both gloop form or slices and doesn’t taste of anything. Not worth the calories let alone the disappointment. Never seen real milk in its life mostly, unless you go in a posh deli or such. Lots of other v v tasty stuff to have instead so just doubled up on that

Hello to you all across the pond, miss visiting

This thread is making me miss my home country, will I ever taste the food of my people again? fuck off covid so I can eat Kraft mac n cheese with my sisters again

I would kill for a deli sandwich right now. Turkey, provolone, lettuce, mayo and mustard on a big white roll. I don't know why its so much better in America but it is.

I also miss:
Cinnamon raisin english muffins
Cinnamon gum
Chex cereal
Goldfish crackers
Pizza by the slice
Cold root beer
Kosher hot dogs
Good bagels
Dunkin donuts
Breakfast sausage
Italian sausage (very different those two items)
Grilled cheese from a diner
Pickles
Pastrami on rye and so much more!!

I remember stove top stuffing being an amazing treat but last time I tried it it was too salty to eat!

American cheese is wrong though.

If you are talking about the type of cheese called "American cheese", you are right. I hate it. I call it plastic cheese. But if you are talking about cheese made in the US, no, we have some great cheeses in the US. DH comes from New York State where some of the best cheddar comes from. There are also many small cheese producers in the dairy states.

But as much as I love cheese, I never order a cheeseburger in the US because chances are it will be a slice of that bland so called "American cheese." Even if you ask and get an answer that suggests that you will get real cheddar, it will likely be that orange slice, which once melted you can't scrape off.

Went to a restaurant where one of the sweet items was 'Grandma's dump cake' .... not helped by the fact it was stodgy and chocolate flavoured!

I remember ordering a hot pastrami on rye as my first deli sandwich as I'd heard it in cop shows. I always wanted to put out an APB too but alas that was not to be .

@GalesThisMorning

This thread is making me miss my home country, will I ever taste the food of my people again? fuck off covid so I can eat Kraft mac n cheese with my sisters again

I would kill for a deli sandwich right now. Turkey, provolone, lettuce, mayo and mustard on a big white roll. I don't know why its so much better in America but it is.

I also miss:
Cinnamon raisin english muffins
Cinnamon gum
Chex cereal
Goldfish crackers
Pizza by the slice
Cold root beer
Kosher hot dogs
Good bagels
Dunkin donuts
Breakfast sausage
Italian sausage (very different those two items)
Grilled cheese from a diner
Pickles
Pastrami on rye and so much more!!

I remember stove top stuffing being an amazing treat but last time I tried it it was too salty to eat!

Cinnamon is definitely not a flavour which appears very often on the British palate! We have loads of cinnamon gum (and cinnamon toothpaste) brought back from our last trip, would happily post you some.

I’d kill right now for proper buttermilk ranch dressing. Have tried making it but it’s never quite right. And actual kosher dills! British pickles are all too weirdly sweet and even Polish brand ones usually too briny.