Americans are lazy cooks

[Dogonthebed]

I’m an avid Pinterest collector of recipes. I see something I like the look of then pin to that’s week meal plan only to find out it is an American recipe Recipe stretching it as they seem to have shortcuts for everything we can’t get in the UK. Can they actually cook? It is the equivalent of us making a cottage pie from a Coleman mix. Anyone else find it bizarre how much help they get for basic recipes then having the cheek to set up a blog as recipes??? They could just read the back of the instructions fgs!

There is a 'cheese' called "American cheese". It may have been developed by NASA - I don't really know or care about its origins. It's the plastic cheese so many sneer at. A little like the Irish Calvita cheese of my youth.

The rest of the cheeses, some excellent, some not so hot, that you find in America are not "American cheese". There is a huge variety of cheese made in America.

Availability of raw milk varies according to state, and there are varying regs even among states that permit it. Raw cheese can be bought if aged at least 60 days. I buy raw cheese at my local Farmer's Market and it's also available in my local supermarkets.
I can also buy raw honey everywhere.

My Mum continued this disinterest when she had us but through in some vegetables. I only remember one family in the 1980s/90s suburban London childhood where the Mum did care and did things like cut Sandwiches in to four triangles, lined them up against each other with a cocktail stick through the middle and then a crescent of crisps on the side. She also did cooked loads of fancy American burgers and hotdog style dinners when we had chicken and pear casserole with peas to go home to!

That's interesting, great to be able to get raw honey. I don't think that is as easy here or maybe I am just a lazy person that doesn't go to many farm shops😬

I think you might find them more of a hindrance than an asset if you were kneading dough or rubbing in butter.

You probably have it already 🐝

Is Rowse honey raw / unpasteurised / cold filtered or heated as part of the preparation?

The UK (and formerly EU) honey regulations don’t allow honey packers to heat honey to pasteurisation temperatures as this may destroy the natural enzymes that have to be present to be lawfully declared as honey.

All our honeys arrive at Rowse in their natural state and we gently warm them through to filter out bee wax or hive parts. The honey we pack into our bottles and jars is pure and natural and never pasteurised.

The term “raw” isn’t recognised in the UK (and formerly EU) honey regulations and we believe the term is misleading, therefore it is not used by Rowse in its labelling, marketing or website.

https://rowsehoney.co.uk/faqs#about

Well that was an unnecessarily rude and nasty response. I don’t think the OP was being vicious and you have repeatedly hijacked the thread with rude responses.

I don’t know what people are talking about with American-bashing, it’s not something I’ve seen on here so I’m not sure you need to be so defensive. It is hard to follow American recipes without the measuring cups, ingenious sticks of butter etc. live and let live. And for fuck’s sake, unclench.

😁goodness that has just highlighted how much interest I take in cooking. I don't need to as my DH is obsessed and spends way too much on his creations!

@Crimpolene, that's because Ann Romney is Mormon and the book was probably designed to appeal to a Mormon audience... VERY big families, plus a focus on food storage - so lots of cans. Look up "Mormon funeral potatoes" for example.
You can find many good cook books that aren't like this at all!

One of my favourite recipe sites at the moment is American. The author mostly writes about Asian dishes and the few I've tried are fab. The dish I'm making tonight is a fried chicken dish with a gochujang sticky sauce. Yes, I bought the gochujang paste from an Asian supermarket but everything else reads like any good recipe, down to marinading the chicken, making the coating, loads of different (fresh) ingredients going into the sauce.

I don't think you can brand a whole nation as junk food eaters 😳

@MuchuseasaChocolateTeapot

Do you honestly not see the offensiveness of your post, which I quoted?
'Aunt Fanny's (whatever) corn syrup' - hello??

As to rude? No, merely correcting the baffling ignorance on this thread, and challenging the ugly stereotypes, while also trying to throw some light on the difference between weight and volume that so many here seem to have a problem with.

Presumably you make all your tortellini by hand?

It cracks me up that British people are on here acting all superior, we are the land of fry up and beans on toast. Only Italians can get away with acting this snooty and we know even they don't all cook like their Nonnas did.

I know. It's so difficult to measure out a tbsp of butter. Why on earth would anyone use this as the default?!?

What is wrong with an English Breakfast? I have Scandinavian heritage and certain preferences have been handed down through the generations, I wouldn't say they were particular more interesting than the British food.

This thread sent me down a rabbit-hole of American recipes 😂 And, yes, I did find a whole lot of - erm, quasi-food (sorry) made largely of pre-processed, packaged stuff.

It's also notable that those things have become so embedded in traditional American cuisine, keen cooks are taught how to make replacements from scratch - green bean casserole being my prize example. If you don't use condensed soup, you've got to make a heavy cream of mushroom soup - which you will then pour over green beans and bake. What a crime!

The dish was invented by Campbell's but is now such an essential part of Thanksgiving, the conscientious American cook must spend an hour (and a lot more money) on substituting it. It's a triumph of marketing over both tradition and sense.

Anyway - I settled on Delish as a good online source of American food made from actual food, without superfluous sugar. I'm still somewhat shaken by the amount of butter, cream and cheese in practically everything! Their low-carb section is the only one I'd eat from on a regular basis - not for the low carb aspect; I'm happy to eat wheat pasta - because it isn't heavily gummed up with dairy fats.

That was Mama June, the mother of Honey Boo Boo. The series was a fine example of car crash TV, focusing on the people involved in the child beauty pageant world. Mama June got her own spinoff.

Most Americans found it astonishing, to put it mildly. Ditto Jersey Shore.

The "raw honey" question highlighted what is, to me, the most glaring difference between a standard American diet and a UK/EU diet. Lots of US foods are illegal here.

We don't have "raw honey" because the pasteurised product - what Americans think of as normal honey - can't be sold as honey here. ALL our honey is "raw".

This is one of the very big reasons to resist erosion of EU protocols in Brexit Britain. We want our food to be what it says it is!

On the subject of green bean casserole - how come cauliflower cheese is acceptable?

Disclaimer: I've never had a green bean casserole, either at home or anywhere else I've celebrated a winter holiday. My American exMIL who became a housewife in the 1950s never made one. None of the ILs ever made one either.

@WhatNoUsername

There have been several explanations of the packaging of butter in America, and even a photo.

No actual tablespoons are required.

Never felt that at all.

You know, British butter used to have lines on the side of the pack as well, so you could easily slice off 25g, 50g. I wondered why this had stopped. Thought it may be something to do with the switch to foil wrappers, but it's working in their favour now we've got shrinkflation 😬

One of the best sites I've found for vegetarian recipes is American:
https://cookieandkate.com/

As an American I've never had condensed mushroom soup in my life, I do think it's somewhat regional/generational

I was once in the US and watched a TV Cookery show called something like “Semi Home-made” and the host had a supermarket pie, she scraped out the filling and threw it in the bin, just had the pastry base left. Then she opened up a can of pumpkin pie filling, tipped it in and then put some decorations on the top. We were absolutely astounded watching it 😂

I am from a European country with cooking many Mumsnetters claim to love. Having lived in America for about 15 years and now the UK for a bit less, I find the anti-American posts on this thread very weird and inaccurate.

Up and down West Coast, the produce even in Safeway simply puts ours to shame, although yes it can be very expensive. Of course Whole Foods, greengrocers and farmers’ markets are even better, but priced accordingly. However ethnic markets in urban neighbourhoods - especially Latino and Asian - can have incredible produce, meat and fish at reasonable prices. (This is similar to the UK, but there is more abundance in the US)

Thanks to PPs for explaining the concept of measurement by volume. I really did not have the energy.

Three of my favourite online cooking resources are Serious Eats, the NY Times Recipe Collection (one must be selective) and Cooks Illustrated. Also Epicurious and Food52 (be selective with the latter). We have some fabulous chefs in Britain , but the only reliable user friendly, multi-author British site I find myself using as often is BBC Good Food.