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!

Here we go again. I will repeat myself - you are not a superior being because you refuse to use short cuts in your cooking, in fact you are coming across as an unmitigated snob.

Hopefully the purchaser of your rejected book is enjoying themselves making some tasty food.

@ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming
Are you American? And did I touch a nerve?
I can tell you're loving that 'cookbook' from the charity shop.

YES!!!

Also, to the heathen that mocked TimTams ( my heart is shaking at the very idea) Yes. smashed up TimTams mixed with ice-cream is delicious. Top it with Milo and you would be in heaven. It's not an actual recipe though.
Come to Australia and see , we are the perfect fusion of Asian and European cookery. Australians are as likely to cook a chicken green curry as a spaghetti bol as a roast. Best of all worlds here.
If you are ever lucky enough to come across a packet of TimTams do the Tim Tam suck. Nibble a corner off one end, then on the other end nibble off the opposite corner. Dunk one end in a flat white ( also an Australian creation) and then suck. Heaven.
With regards to the OP I see what you mean but maybe a green bean casserole or the one that has marshmallows on it is a nostalgic thing. Nobody is making you eat it. Also I have a recipe that I love and it involves one tin of condensed soup ( runs and hides).
Ta to all that made it to the end of that unexpectedly long post. I'm a bit of a foodie 😆

I'll give them a go if I'm ever there in that case. To be fair, boxed cakes are fine, even in the UK, if you just fancy a cake in a hurry as you say, but the ones I have had do seem to have a sort of chemically aftertaste. Maybe that's just me though.

I have no idea what cake mixes taste like in the UK, but the trick to eliminating any chemical taste in cake mixes is to add a bit of sour cream and some additional vanilla.

( packet fudge brownies are the bomb) - running away for good now

Cups etc. or eyeballing is totally fine for most cooking, but baking anything that is remotely advanced works better with grams, other than for liquid ingredients. Cups are always going to be an inherently inaccurate way of measuring things like sugar and flour, as the question of how tightly it is packed down etc. will dramatically change the amount in question, and with baking you can’t just adjust as you go along.

The more sophisticated American bakers (I mentioned Joy of Baking) do use grams, for this reason.

No, I am not an American. Nor did I buy your book as I am not in the UK (thank goodness if some of the posters on here are a sample of the general population).

OFGS this is getting ridiculous. ( I know I said I was running away) but unbelievably! shock horror! all Australian, and many other cookbooks are written using cups too. It's really not that hard. I mean if you are total patissier then maybe count your grams. I seriously doubt all the people on here so upset about using cups and tablespoons count their grams. Best of luck to you if you do. The rest of the world gets on fine. Here are my spoon measurements and my cup measurements ( couldn't find the 1/4 cup as my kitchen is a mess)
It's not hard!! " I am so weirded out by the "cups and spoons are no good people"

Having spent time with a fair few British people who exclusively drink instant coffee and only know how to make gravy with bisto, I’d say that’s a pretty sweeping one-sided statement.

Their 'sticks' or butter actually show you what tablespoon is.

I actually have cups, but they are metric so still don't work with US recipes.

And the number of times you see 'yellow cake mix'.

And then I watch masterchef (actually I watch the British Australian and US versions) and there are some fantastic cooks.

And masterchef junior - 8 year olds making beef wellington!

After all that I do think there are merits to weighing and using ratios (which is what cups are) depending on what you are cooking.

A basic sponge cake works best if you weigh the eggs and then add the same weight of butter, flour and sugar but it will still work out with 2 eggs, and 125g or 4oz of the dry ingredients.

And yes I know Australia uses metric cups some of the time, I brought a children's cook book for my niece with some Australian cup measures.

And I also admit to using condensed soup in my slow cooker.

The difference is that Americans assemble prepackaged ingredients and call it cooking, in the U.K. we dispense with the charade and throw ready meals into the microwave and don't pretend it's cooking.

I lived in the USA and the amount of prepared ingredients is shocking even to a Brit not afraid of a microwave meal. Friends were amazed I knew (without a recipe) how to do basics like a lasagna with béchamel sauce for instance (they would use ready made. Cake mixes were the oddest part, claiming they didn't buy cakes but relied on Betty Crocker mixes and pre-made frosting - at least I admitted I bought it!

I just look at those photos and see extra unnecessary washing up.

When I bake I sit my mixing bowl on top of my cheap old digital scale and chuck everything in. Usually I just have the bowl and mixing spoon or whisk to wash after.
I CBA with cleaning sticky or greasy ingredients out of multiple little cups.

It's me that's the lazy cook isn't it? And I'm not ashamed to admit it

@ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming
^^ This is what I am saying. Assembling pre packed ingredients and calling it cooking. Eg Betty Crocker cake mixes.
I don't know why you're being so sensitive and calling me a snob but not anyone else saying similar to me.

Americans do have class biases y’know. And I suspect that is where a lot of this use of mixes and tinned soup is coming from.

Because it is completely alien to my 15 years of experience in a UMC environment there. In my environment cooks were even more precious than the most tiresome UMC Brits concerning the provenance, sustainability etc of their food choices. But I certainly enjoyed the shopping, cooking and eating.

I think many PPs are getting a ‘two-fer’: they can bash lower class cooking practices in the guise of bashing Americans without being accused of class warfare - because after all, we’re just talking about Americans.

The use of tinned soup etc may not be one of my own choices but I wish to say that I don’t think less of anyone who takes this route. To each her own priorities. It’s those who are making the misinformed judgments who sound small to me. And yes, I believe what you are seeing on TikTok and other SM as well as in crap cookbooks, also readily available in the UK. I am asking why you would judge a culture based on this nonsensical sample?

Oh thank God it's from "us" !

Same.

I do have a set of measuring cups but I prefer using a scales, I just prefer the precision of weighing things. And I find it less messy. Digital scales take up next to no space.

Good to know. I'll give that a go next time.

Americans do have class biases y’know. And I suspect that is where a lot of this use of mixes and tinned soup is coming from.

Yes..and a certain amount is doubtless generational. British women of my DMs age (she'd have been 100 now) did use condensed soups in casseroles. DHs mother and aunt cooked meat in a crockpot with a tin of Campbell's. My DM tarted up her wartime/postwar rationing school of cooking with Coleman's sachets. Tbf they made liver just about edible.... We certainly had jelly with tinned fruit in it, just as a dessert with a can of evap. rather than calling it a 'salad'. Lots of tinned foods.

I think many PPs are getting a ‘two-fer’: they can bash lower class cooking practices in the guise of bashing Americans without being accused of class warfare - because after all, we’re just talking about Americans.

This is so true. Much of the cooking derided on this thread is definitely somewhat class-based in the US. So some posters can enjoy a bit of class superiority along with a splash of xenophobia.

Agreed. Some very unpleasant and unnecessary remarks on this thread. I'm still sticking with pounds and ounces. Suits me. Guess what? You can make 'modern' food, in US or UK, using old measures. Or metric measures. Or US measures. You can add what you like to your cooking, processed or not. Its not something worth fretting over.

Well I guess any imperial power can take the credit, but the credit for this imperial system is England.

Nailed it.

Well I guess any imperial power can take the credit, but the credit for this imperial system is England.

However, the US Customary Units were defined before current British Imperial ones - the latter were revamped and defined in the 19th century iirc. And they're all now formally defined in terms of grams and litres.

I hope all civilized people can agree that as a measure for beer, the imperial pints and half pints are ideal. Neither US mini-pints nor ludicrous litres do the job.