# Help me cook some authentic American food? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2008, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971 "2008-01-10T11:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/81 "2008-01-11T01:07:12Z")
I’ve even eaten food out of the trash. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/82 "2008-01-11T01:22:33Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] And it better have a healthy quantity of American cheese to go with the cheddar, or I’m loading my shotgun. [/QUOTE] It could be California or Wisconsin cheddar… ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/83 "2008-01-11T01:23:33Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] You seem to have some hostility issues with rich folk and hollandaise. 😉 I’ve been eating egg and cheese sandwiches for 40 years, **long before McD ever thought of it**. And eggs Benedict have been around for a very long time. Fancy, shmancy, it’s just good eats; if you’re going to turn up your nose at things just because people in cities eat it, you’ll miss out on a lot of good meals.[emphasis added by current poster] [/QUOTE] Given that the Egg McMuffin is turning 36 this year, that’s not quite possible. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/84 "2008-01-11T01:25:10Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] It could be California or Wisconsin cheddar… [/QUOTE] Not if it’s truly American Mac ‘n’ Cheese! Cheddar is just added for a little taste. If you are REALLy gonna make it American, you use Velveeta, the cheese that never dies… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/85 "2008-01-11T01:33:31Z")
[QUOTE=devilsknew] Are you kidding? You act like you’ve never read one of my posts. I eat and have eaten just about anything- Countryfood, Cityfood, Fancyfood, Foreignfood, Richfood, Poorfood, Good Food, Bad Food…I’ve had an egg mcmuffin, I’ve had hollandaise, I’ve had Oscar, I’ve had Bernaise. I’m not turning my nose up at it, I just don’t think it’s truly America’s best, or most culinarily descriptive breakfast dish.. [/QUOTE] If eggs benedict is quintessentially American, it must be highly regional: in my parts, you only see it on the menu at fancier breakfast joints. But then, the suggested alternative–poached eggs–is similarly rare in the South. Around here, the quintessential breakfast is fried eggs, bacon and/or sausage and/or country ham, grits and/or hash browns, and biscuits and/or toast. Virtually every breakfast place will have this exact meal available (i.e., eggs scrambled or fried, with choices for each of the and/ors above). Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/86 "2008-01-11T01:35:19Z")
[QUOTE=devilsknew] if I remember correctly the invention of the egg mcmuffin was to make a generally unheard of and unaffordable favorite breakfast of the rich (Ray Kroc) available to the masses. [/QUOTE] MCDONALD’S: BEHIND THE ARCHES (John F. Love; Bantam Books, 1986, 1995) says McMuffin creator Herb Peterson was simply looking for something that one could eat without utensils and had been inspired by the Eggs Benedict being served by Jack in the Box. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/87 "2008-01-11T01:35:37Z")
Want an authentic American breakfast? Study [the menu at my favorite restaurant, IHOP](http://ihop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=2) (International House of Pancakes) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/88 "2008-01-11T01:39:02Z")
As much as I absolutely love the suggestions of fried chicken, chicken fried steak, potato salad and all that — the problem is that there are a thousand different ways to make and season that kind of stuff. Plus, nothing is worse than a tough cube steak, and tenderizing it is an art. Therefore, I recommend you go the burger and fries route. It’s as American as apple pie (which could be your desert) and is easy to fix. Make the first course a tossed salad (your favorite greens with optional grape tomatoes, grated chedar, radishes, bell peppers, or pretty much any veggie) and you’re good to go. (Use Ranch or Thousand Island dressing.) If the ice-tea is too daunting, just serve Pepsi. (Or if you simply must, Coke.) Every American from Seattle to Miami will have eaten something similar. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/89 "2008-01-11T01:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] It could be California or Wisconsin cheddar… [/QUOTE] California?! Front of the line, you. Maybe Vermont, but no way California (says the gal raised in Wisconsin.) (And **Chefguy** , Cap’n Crunch? Seriously? Ick.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/90 "2008-01-11T02:18:48Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Plus, nothing is worse than a tough cube steak, and tenderizing it is an art. [/QUOTE] Art? If the butcher won’t run it through the tenderizer for you, you just pound the crap out of it with one of [these](http://www.organize.com/oxomete.html?mr:trackingCode=C68BEFDC-CFBE-DC11-AC6C-000423C27502&mr:referralID=NA). Hardly an art. And California cheese beats Wisconsin cheese hands down, every time. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/91 "2008-01-11T02:23:55Z")
I’ve still got to agree with **Michael Q Reilly**. The traditional American dinner is turkey with all the fixin’s. Around here, deep fried turkey is quite popular for the holidays. It’s gotta be turkey, dressing (or stuffing), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (yams), some other vegetable, turkey gravy, and pumpkin pie for desert. Other good deserts are apple pie and pecan pie. IIRC, turkey and fixin’s was the first meal (after communion) on the moon. To me, it is THE American meal. ---
**Author:** ![Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crocodiles_And_Boulevards)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/92 "2008-01-11T02:40:47Z")
Oh come on, guys! All this talk of authentic Southern food (the most American food there is!) and no one’s mentioned an authentic CATFISH FRY? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/93 "2008-01-11T02:56:00Z")
[QUOTE=Crocodiles And Boulevards] no one’s mentioned an authentic CATFISH FRY? [/QUOTE] Post #32. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/94 "2008-01-11T02:56:33Z")
Where I grew up, hotdish (casserole) is the classic American food. You’ll find a lot of jokes if you google “hotdish” and “lutheran” but, like most “traditional” foods, the purpose is to stretch a small amount of meat into a tasty family meal, and tatertot hotdish is a regional comfort food. In my neck of the woods a standard meal is meat, starch, and veg, generally running to beef, mashed potatoes, and something green - followed by a cake from a Betty Crocker mix. In fact, I don’t think ANY normal Midwest homecooked (as opposed to restaurant or “special”) meal that doesn’t have cake-from-a-box-mix at the end is missing the point of “traditional”. In fall my family’s meals ran to game. Throw a pheasant, rabbit, or squirrel into a Crock Pot; season with Lawry’s; add a can of Campbell’s condensed cream of chicken/mushroom/celery soup; cook until falling apart; serve with mashed potatoes and something veg. Cut up some venison into bite-size pieces, dredge in flour, and brown with diced onions. Serve that with fried potatoes: heat Crisco (lard) over medium heat; peel a baking potato; cut into lengthwise quarters, then slice the other way into 1/4" slices; season generously with pepper and a little salt; sautee with very little stirring until very brown (although I’ve discovered that my family is weird about that - we like our fried potatoes crispy while the rest of the world likes them nearly raw). I was raised on a dairy farm and every year we’d slaughter a steer, so beef (mostly ground or steak) figured largely into our meals. Boil up some macaroni while you brown some ground beef. Throw it together and cook over low heat with diced onions, S&P, a jar of home-canned tomatoes from the garden, and cheap yellow mustard. Dredge walleye or sunfish fillets in egg and powdered Saltines and fry in oil. Serve with tartar sauce made from finely chopped pickles and mayo; crinkle-cut french fries; and ketchup (gotta have the veg, y’know…). Weekday breakfast was usually cold cereal or Jiff peanut butter on toast, but on weekends we’d have Bisquick pancakes or waffles with maple-flavored syrup and bacon and/or sausage. My favorite “special” breakfast consisted of browned pork sausages from the local meat locker; farmers cheese (similar to mozarella but without the bite); and apples from gramma and grampa’s farm that had been sauteed in butter, sugar, and cinnamon until it almost resembled pie filling. As everything finished at a different time the whole mess was thrown into a crockpot and fed us all day. EVERY meal was served with raw milk from the bulk tank in the barn, although during summers we’d often have Kool-Aid as well - usually the red stuff, but often CountryTime lemonade. White bread, Miracle Whip (similar to your Salad Cream but not as liquidy), iceberg lettuce, tomato slices, American cheese, and some kind of sliced meat - often ham culled from a pig we had bought from a neighbor - may have been our most common sandwich after PB&J, but it wasn’t nearly as tasty as white bread buttered on the outside with American cheese on the inside, cooked in a frying pan until browned, served with Campbell’s tomato soup (made with milk, never with water) and Ritz crackers. My family wasn’t much into alcohol, but for an authentic midwest American wine you can’t go wrong with a fruit wine made from chokecherries or crabapples. I don’t think either are readily available at any liquor store but the homemade versions I’ve had aren’t that dissimilar from hard cider. I’ll readily admit most of this hasn’t the cachet of, say, TexMex chili (and, for the record, the chili I grew up with closely resembles what you’ll find if you google "clone recipe Wendy’s chili). Despite these deficiencies I grew up in a family that has adventurous palates and, for the wives of Minnesota farmers, my mother and dead gramma made a lot of food that their contemporaries considered “too fancy” - squid in its own ink being a notable example. In the 1970s, no less! It must have cost them a fortune. But everything I’ve posted about is “authentic American food”. The milk and beef came from our farm; the cheese and butter came from the creamery to which we sold our milk; the game came from my family’s shotguns on our own land; much of the vegetables came from our own garden. The fact that it’s not marketable or exportable or Southern or nouvelle doesn’t bother me at all; it’s still authentic. Either that or I’m a typing skeleton… ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/95 "2008-01-11T03:05:15Z")
D’oh! I missed the edit window…Iforgot one of our staples! Throw a beef roast into the Crock Pot with a mess of thinly sliced onions, a bunch of cut-up carrots, some thickly-chunked potatoes, a little water, and some S&P. That’s it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/96 "2008-01-11T03:21:05Z")
[QUOTE=chique] but it wasn’t nearly as tasty as white bread buttered on the outside with American cheese on the inside, cooked in a frying pan until browned, served with Campbell’s tomato soup (made with milk, never with water) and Ritz crackers… [/QUOTE] You just tapped into my Ultimate Comfort Food. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/97 "2008-01-11T03:39:29Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] And California cheese beats Wisconsin cheese hands down, every time. 😛 [/QUOTE] And [Cabot Vermont](http://www.cabotcheese.com/) dairy collective cheese is the most real and delicious true American Cheese. It is the Art of American Dairy. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/98 "2008-01-11T03:43:06Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] Given that the Egg McMuffin is turning 36 this year, that’s not quite possible. 😉 [/QUOTE] I’m 60 years old. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/99 "2008-01-11T03:44:03Z")
**[Delores Reborn]** Waffle House breakfast - hash browns: scattered (on the grill), smothered (w/onions) and covered (w/ american cheese); grits w/ salt and pepper and butter; 2 eggs over easy; three strips of bacon; and toast with grape jelly. \ Milk and coffee to wash it all down with. I love diner breakfast and Waffle House is my favorite place for it! I think the classic diner breakfast is the most American breakfast in general. And I think its been mostly nailed in the descriptions. (Plus I love to make my b/f take me to Waffle House and then quote the movie \*\ ***The Ladykillers** “You brought your BITCH to the Waffle House?” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971/100 "2008-01-11T03:44:16Z")
[QUOTE=Snickers] (And **Chefguy** , Cap’n Crunch? Seriously? Ick.) [/QUOTE] Hey! That wasn’t me making that disgusting suggestion! How DARE you!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-cook-some-authentic-american-food/432971.md?page=6)