American Cuisine - Determining the real staples of American Cuisine

[Trombonista]

The Seckel pear is the only widely available pear cultivar native to America. Cranberries grow throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but they're typically associated with the northern United States.

 

[Titos]

Are we counting feather indians in this? Because if you've never had Navajo tacos you are missing out. Prickly Pears are delicious. I don't know if it would be considered "American" but where I grew up we had a shitton of squirrels and due to peoples business it was just normal to give your kids a .22lr and have them pop a few then fry them. Delicious little rodents.

 

[jje100010001]

I tried to figure out American cuisine before and I came to the conclusion that at it's core, US food is a mix of British and German dishes. (Most of the stuff I like is, anyway.)

Bob Evans restaurant is the most basic American food place I can think of right now. https://www.bobevans.com/menu

I do sort of wish that American cuisine drew more from the continent's native species and recipes rather than importing British cuisine wholesale, and that an elite British-native hybrid cuisine had further developed before the influx of mass European migration in the 19th century. As of now, native cuisine is a footnote, mostly supplanted by those of the successor cultures. Even high-end 'modern' native cuisine is really that same European cuisine with a rug (a Bison hide?) thrown over it.

That being said, American cuisine is very regional, especially in borderland regions and places that had culturally matured before mass travel- i.e. the Southwest, Louisiana and the general American South. The most unique it'll ever get is in those regions, especially in New Orleans (with its own elite cuisine utilizing local ingredients developed for the creoles), and maybe in the 20th century working class recipes like the garbage plates.

As of now, I don't believe that there is a fashionable 'American' cuisine at the forefront, as the Euro-centric nature of it has become a sort of faux-pas to liberal senses. The notion of a national cuisine has ultimately dissolved, and though many people would still enjoy a hamburger or a roast turkey, the newer generations do their own thing now, especially as further waves of immigration have essentially brought the world's cuisines into America.

 

[norbo]

Growing up I did a lot of crabbing on the water and we used to do large community crab steams. Lots of old bay and a whole mess of corn, cornbread, fish, etc. Then everything left on Saturday went to feed others on Sunday at our neighbors church. My dad would set the pots together and then go out in the early morning to get them.

Between that most of my childhood was smoked brisket, ribs, pulled pork and usually in either a Texas or Carolina style. Ungodly amounts of chicken.

It was meat heavy for sure.

 

[Haramburger]

 

[gampboonerisms]

idk here's some southern recipes:
grits (water, grits, salt, pepper, butter)
chicken casserole (chicken, cream of chicken, sometimes peas or small cut green beans, cheese ritz crackers butter)
tuna casserole (tuna, cream of mushroom, peas, maybe 1-2 other veggies like beans and corn things that can hold up during baking, sometimes noodles)
sweet tea (this woman is how we made it, also i don't want to hear it:

we used to let ours reeeeally steep)
fried chicken plate (fried chicken, cornbread, turnip greens, and potatoes w/gravy or mac and cheese)
GREENS!!!!!! VEGGIES LOVE THEM WITH MY WHOLE FAILING HEART mustard, turnip, collard with ham hocks, squash, tomatoes all kinds warm from the hot sun fresh from the vine omg, peppers
PEPPER SAUCE !!

fried fish plate with hushpuppies, coleslaw, peas, mashed potatoes, macaroni salad, potato salad

A "plate" for us was one meat, one bread, and 2 sides. but when it's casserole, it's the main which is the casserole, the bread sometimes, and a fried veggie or sometimes a macaroni/potato salad.

idk, i used to love cooking, but i can't cook a whole sunday dinner for one person (i live alone). but this was the cooking i was used to.

 

[gampboonerisms]

I do sort of wish that American cuisine drew more from the continent's native species and recipes rather than importing British cuisine wholesale, and that an elite British-native hybrid cuisine had further developed before the influx of mass European migration in the 19th century. As of now, native cuisine is a footnote, mostly supplanted by those of the successor cultures. Even high-end 'modern' native cuisine is really that same European cuisine with a rug (a Bison hide?) thrown over it.

That being said, American cuisine is very regional, especially in borderland regions and places that had culturally matured before mass travel- i.e. the Southwest, Louisiana and the general American South. The most unique it'll ever get is in those regions, especially in New Orleans, and maybe in the 20th century working class recipes like the garbage plates.

As of now, I don't believe that there is a fashionable 'American' cuisine at the forefront, as the Euro-centric nature of it has become a sort of faux-pas to liberal senses. It has ultimately dissolved, and though many people would still enjoy a hamburger or a roast turkey, the newer generations do their own thing now, especially as further waves of immigration have essentially brought the world's cuisines into America.

I wanted to make a separate post for this:
I think the Julia Child's phenomenon kind of ruined American cruisine. This guy

hits on some interesting points about how the celebrity chefs are spoiled brats that have a lot more than the (for example) Waffle House cook. I think the celebrity chefs who have spent their life "training in Europe" to be a chef have brought nothing to American cuisine. The food is either too expensive in time or money, or it's with ingredients that aren't in the common home cook's pantry cause it came from the "healthy food store".
America's a huge place! Where IS the "New England" recipes with ingredients from stuff local to NE, or where IS the rhubard inspired plates. Like it's nothing amazing in America and I don't know why we have so many recipes we love and pass down, but have nothing to offer the rest of the world.

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Sausage gravy and shit on a shingle, no-one in Bongland has heard about them but I love making both, I use mince for the SOS. Cant buy biscuits here for the gravy so just use scones since I heard they're similar.

Lobster rolls too would be distinctly american too I guess, nowhere outside new england does them. Miss me some lobstah when travel was allowed.

 

[Slap47]

I wanted to make a separate post for this:
I think the Julia Child's phenomenon kind of ruined American cruisine. This guy https://youtube.com/watch?v=9i3zKU8Q6ZI hits on some interesting points about how the celebrity chefs are spoiled brats that have a lot more than the (for example) Waffle House cook. I think the celebrity chefs who have spent their life "training in Europe" to be a chef have brought nothing to American cuisine. The food is either too expensive in time or money, or it's with ingredients that aren't in the common home cook's pantry cause it came from the "healthy food store".
America's a huge place! Where IS the "New England" recipes with ingredients from stuff local to NE, or where IS the rhubard inspired plates. Like it's nothing amazing in America and I don't know why we have so many recipes we love and pass down, but have nothing to offer the rest of the world.

Celebrity chefs are a meme. They put prestige above all else, and to them prestige means foreign.

Italians in Italy don't make garlic bread? That means garlic bread is not proper high dining.

You can even see it in the comments. Joe is correct. Garlic bread as we know it comes from America. However, the consensus among celebrity chef fans is that American food is trashy, unsophisticated and unworthy.

 

[NoReturn]

My contribution: Honey
It's more an ingredient than a recipe, but god damn the US has some amazing honey, but you have to know what you're looking for. You want single-source honey from a specific region or even farm if you can find it. Colorado and the Pacific Northwest are standouts in the flavor department. Midwest is kind of bland in my experience, and honey from the south tastes... somehow less floral imo.

Can I piggyback in on this please? I love me a good breakfast. I tend to to my grocery shopping early, like first thing when the store opens, and I fancy doing an American style breakfast. Any suggestions would be awesome please. I love eggs, can make US (Ie, real, none of that crepe faggotry) pancakes, and will eat anything at least once. If anyone fancies throwing some suggestions my way I'd appreciate it!

Eggy toast!

Spoiler: EGGY TOAST

Eggy in the hole

Soft-boiled eggy with dipping toast

Any my personal favorite, soft-scrambled eggies on toast

In two of the three images above, though. Something is wrong. See, in my opinion, you need sourdough. It can't be that sliced white-or-wheat bread that comes in a bag. Sourdough and real butter is what makes it delicious.
And to clarify, you need yellow butter, not white:

White butter is just a fat source and provides no depth of flavor, and you certainly don't want margarine or any of those shitty "mixed" butters.

Do americans visit the coffee shop every morning? Is it that weird ass perculated coffee or real coffee?

If I had to guess, they were probably more popular from the 50s through the 80s or so.

We've basically always had coffee. It's so ubiquitous I really would put it in the category of "American food" not in the sense that we created or improved upon it, but because it's just so important to us that sometimes we don't even notice it. Like asking a fish to see water.
Heck, I remember a silent film I watched once, Lonesome, that surprised me because here's this thing from 1928 and even they just have some casual coffee as part of the "getting ready for work" segment. So much has changed since then, but the inclusion and consumption of coffee is almost exactly the same. Sure we have more options now, but there's the coffee, plain as day.

Spoiler: Some clips from the movie

 

[Ira the Weatherman]

As a Eurofag, I can say that maize is one of the few American staples that hasn't really been integrated over here. Go to an average large European supermarket and you'll find shelves of Tex-Mex, barbecue stuff and hotdogs and hamburger buns, but you'll struggle to find a cob that isn't pre-packaged, processed sweetcorn. When I went to a Wall-Mart in Jersey, the thing that caught my attention the most was the big shelf filled with unhusked corn. It was literally the first time in my life I had seen maize in its natural state.

I felt like a Bushman from the Kalahari entering civilization for the first time for being so amazed at something so mundane.

You can even see it in the comments. Joe is correct. Garlic bread as we know it comes from America.

Yeah, whoever's quoting Wikipedia is a retard. Bruschetta isn't anything like garlic bread, garlic isn't even a necessary ingredient.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I do sort of wish that American cuisine drew more from the continent's native species and recipes rather than importing British cuisine wholesale, and that an elite British-native hybrid cuisine had further developed before the influx of mass European migration in the 19th century. As of now, native cuisine is a footnote, mostly supplanted by those of the successor cultures. Even high-end 'modern' native cuisine is really that same European cuisine with a rug (a Bison hide?) thrown over it.

That being said, American cuisine is very regional, especially in borderland regions and places that had culturally matured before mass travel- i.e. the Southwest, Louisiana and the general American South. The most unique it'll ever get is in those regions, especially in New Orleans (with its own elite cuisine utilizing local ingredients developed for the creoles), and maybe in the 20th century working class recipes like the garbage plates.

As of now, I don't believe that there is a fashionable 'American' cuisine at the forefront, as the Euro-centric nature of it has become a sort of faux-pas to liberal senses. The notion of a national cuisine has ultimately dissolved, and though many people would still enjoy a hamburger or a roast turkey, the newer generations do their own thing now, especially as further waves of immigration have essentially brought the world's cuisines into America.

Southern foodways are primarily American Indian. Some African and European crops were added as well as the African and European livestocks, but most of the core vegetables and cooking techniques are the same ones that the Five Civilized Tribes based their agriculture around (extremely heavy use of beans and corn) and barbecuing was imported from the Caribbean where it originated from those tribes.

Similarly, Southwestern foodways (so, Anglicized Mexican foodways) are heavily derivative of Mesoamerica and local tribes.

Elsewhere in the country there was very little Indian influence of major, significant effect. Vegetables were added in, but were not used with the same primacy.

 

[Matthew216]

I think that if anything can be called truly American cuisine, it's smokehouse barbecue. That and Acadian origin New Orleans stuff.

 

[CrazyRandomZyn]

Depending on the restaurant the food can be greasy or smothered in cheese
I haven't had that problem usually
...though currently my mom is traumatized by Applebee's as they served her raw chicken one time and she's very finicky on her chicken.

 

[cummytummies]

 

[Slap47]

I do sort of wish that American cuisine drew more from the continent's native species and recipes rather than importing British cuisine wholesale, and that an elite British-native hybrid cuisine had further developed before the influx of mass European migration in the 19th century. As of now, native cuisine is a footnote, mostly supplanted by those of the successor cultures. Even high-end 'modern' native cuisine is really that same European cuisine with a rug (a Bison hide?) thrown over it.

That being said, American cuisine is very regional, especially in borderland regions and places that had culturally matured before mass travel- i.e. the Southwest, Louisiana and the general American South. The most unique it'll ever get is in those regions, especially in New Orleans (with its own elite cuisine utilizing local ingredients developed for the creoles), and maybe in the 20th century working class recipes like the garbage plates.

As of now, I don't believe that there is a fashionable 'American' cuisine at the forefront, as the Euro-centric nature of it has become a sort of faux-pas to liberal senses. The notion of a national cuisine has ultimately dissolved, and though many people would still enjoy a hamburger or a roast turkey, the newer generations do their own thing now, especially as further waves of immigration have essentially brought the world's cuisines into America.

Italians use tomatoes and Chinese + Indian people use peppers from the new world.

Every culture uses majority foreign ingredients for their high quality cuisine.

 

[CrazyRandomZyn]

My mom's fiancé got shat on for demanding his sister-in-law's secret ingredient for hot chocolate and he even admitted, "she uses sugar on everything."

Now he's drinking hot chocolate with sugar free whipped cream.