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!

Probably a bit of a sweeping statement but based on the Facebook reels I keep seeing I know what you mean.

So many "recipes" involving mixing and layering various tinned and packet foods to create some casserole monstrosity 🤮

It's a sweeping Generalization however I know exactly what u mean and that's why I don't use Pinterest for recipes as I find it super frustrating, so go to bbcgood food. I do find it bizarre and I think it's an important conversation to have and not just in America, as I'm sure convenience is a problem in uk. Its about learning the skill of cooking from scratch. Many parents don't teach their children. And that's why people look for super convenient. My mum used convenience food and I've taught myself but many don't. I will be teacher my daughters to cook from scratch.

I also wanted to add I also think it comes down to time , I think here we have minimum wage so people r not needing one than one full time job I would say maybe Americans as they don't have that they might not get the time to cook so convenience is needed. But I don't know. That's an assumption

Not at the point in the thread where I posted my comment there wasn't. No need for the snotty comment.

The US has both a federal minimum wage and a state minimum wage. The state wages are much higher. In New York, where I am, it's currently $15 per hour and is scheduled to go up next year.

I buy Tesco butter and it does. Maybe you're right it's those slabs that aren't 250 or 500g.

Why when I see YouTube shorts of waitresses do they talk about getting like $3 an hour and then talk about their added tips and then everyone in comments telling people they need to tip else they are being selfish and those employees won't be able to pay rent and live? That doesn't sound like they get a minimum wage. Or at least a living wage.

I actually had an argument with someone in US on YouTube arguing that minimum wage is not compulsory as its actually a harmful thing for employee as it "inflates prices and limits job opportunities "

The tipped minimum wage is lower. If the employee's tips don't raise their pay up to the statutory minimum wage, the employer is required to make up the difference.

https://dol.ny.gov/minimum-wage-tipped-workers

Probably a bit of a sweeping statement but based on the Facebook reels I keep seeing I know what you mean.
It pays to do awful food shorts, or do spelling mistakes, or wrong facts on all those short platforms, so I’d take that with a pinch of salt, short form content on fb is not going to be representative.

If the company will pay the extra why is there such a obsession with needing to tip? And I've never heard that before. I thought the whole point that is drummed into customers is they need to tip, else the workers don't get paid. Basically guilt tripped into it.

Love the link here. Cups are a terrible and time consuming way to measure ingredients, leading to an increase in popularity of terrible cake mixes. QED.

Who on earth uses a tablespoon to measure butter?

I have done it myself, on more than one occasion. I wish we had sticks of butter here however.

What is all this horror over using a can of soup in a recipe? My mother, who cooked mostly from scratch, had a casserole recipe which called for a can of soup, it was delicious.

So much snobbery over cooking on this thread, it's distasteful. You aren't some superior being just because you weigh your ingredients and faint at the idea of a shortcut or two.

I've just googled and first thing that comes up is that "The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour." How is $7.25 an acceptable living wage. How are workers meant to realistically afford rent and food with that an hour. I've just googled what's countires minimum wage and I know its Wikipedia so not sure how reliable but US is $7.25 and UK is £14.27 so over double with exchange rate so i think my point still stands, they might have a minium wage by law but not a living wage.

My comment was meant to quote this!

So time will be an issue for some and probably the lowest paid workers.

Utter rubbish! I don't live in America or the UK, and I prefer using cups and spoons - struggling to understand how they are "a terrible and time consuming way to measure ingredients"

How this works in restaurants is a bit complicated. I tended bar while in uni, so I'm familiar with it. When you tip your server, he or she is required to "tip out" to other staff who are not tipped directly, so bussers, food runners, hostesses, etc. all get tipped out by the server. I had to tip out to my barback when I tended bar. The tip out is based on sales, not the tip the server actually gets. So if the server has to tip out 8% of sales and you leave nothing, they have actually lost money serving you.

Some fine dining restaurants have tried to eliminate tipping, and in this case, they have lost 30-40% of their staff because they make less money. Prices just go way up to compensate as well.

https://ny.eater.com/2020/7/20/21331797/danny-meyer-ushg-no-tipping-nyc-restaurants-outdoor-dining

When tourists visit the US, it's understandable that the system seems odd, but unless they follow the local custom, they're just screwing their servers.

Re Facebook recipes. One of my guilty pleasures is watching Cookist reels on instagram. 1 million ways to use a sheet of puff pastry. I've never made a single one (and I cook & bake a lot).

Just because people watch crap recipes doesn't mean they cook them.

Worst food I’ve ever had was in NY! I was more impressed with a delicious chicken dish I had in Ethiopia.

@MuchuseasaChocolateTeapot

@mathanxiety is always a highly knowledgeable source and not remotely rude. Perhaps you have seen some uncomfortable truths in her comments? That would explain your defensiveness.

Hear, hear.

When someone's established understanding of something is wrong and this is explained to them it causes cognitive dissonance, which is unpleasant and is often ascribed to the explainer being "rude".

Unfortunately I was served green bean casserole last week by my dear niece who learned it from her mother, my SIL. The good news is that she had some left over chorizo and, as an experiment, tossed it in for flavouring. It worked a treat, but yes it’s not a dish I would want to eat more than once a year.

Really? I don't live in a particularly overweight child hot spot, it's a very diverse place with people from all kinds of backgrounds, many London commuter families. And when I was living in the US, the most overweight people I knew were the Brits or the Aussies.. Britain has a huge problem with obesity and low quality food. I had a lot of choice in the US for good quality, nutritional take out, can't say the same for where we live now - some nice restaurants but very few that offer genuinely healthy nutritious food. The US is made up of 50 very different states, and many of the problems re obesity that people associate with the US are found predominantly in certain states, by no means all of them.

Thank u for explaining it sounds so complicated, and i honeslty dont think i fully understand, what I don't understand is why don't employers just pay their staff higher wages so there isn't an massive emphasis on customers tipping. And they wont leave if tipping stops. If employees were paid high wages to begin with their wouldn't be a need for tipping. I'm guessing because companies would prefer to make customers pay and they receive higher profits and just keep the system going.