# Okay, why is it "Kraft Dinner" in Canada? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2015, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111 "2015-01-06T09:53:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/41 "2015-01-07T04:36:17Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Cause it is. Next question! Ok, could Best Buy have come up with a more vague name that tells us absolutely nothing about to what they sell? ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/42 "2015-01-07T04:45:14Z")
All I can add is that it’s always been Macaroni & Cheese for me, and the first time I ever heard the term ‘Kraft Dinner’ was [in a Terrence & Philip episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyW-0_QHY8k) of _South Park_ (and I still had to look it up to find out what it was). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/43 "2015-01-07T05:02:43Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > It’s like I’m invisible. > > Perhaps there were not enough lines in my second post in this thread. > > If I spread the information out over more lines. > > Kraft Dinner was the original name for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in both the US and in Canada. I remember when it was called Kraft Dinner here waaaay back in the dim mists of time. It is not our Canadian continental neighbors who need to explain themselves but we here in the US. You’re not invisible; your post just didn’t really answer the question. In fact, it’s never been directly answered in the thread, just in the link given earlier. Sure, you explained it was originally called Kraft Dinner everywhere, but not why it was actually called that, or why it stuck in Canada but not elsewhere. The answer is only indirectly given in the link, so I will spell it out. It was called “Kraft Dinner” because, at the time, the idea of an instant dinner was novel, and Kraft was amongst the first to market such an idea. The exact makeup of the dinner was not as important as the idea of an instant one. The food is more popular than poutine in Canada, so it stands to reason it was too popular to bother changing the name to better differentiate it from other products, like happened elsewhere. People felt a strong devotion to the current name and label, so they kept it. What’s interesting to me is that Kraft’s Macaroni and Cheese is pretty big in America, too. So it must have been monumental in Canada. Or, at least, it must’ve only caught on after the name change. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/44 "2015-01-07T07:08:08Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Nobody is any more confused by it than by Twinkies not being called Hostess Cream Filled Sponge Cake Logs. I don’t think Twinkies have cream in them. Some kind of mix of suet and sugar, maybe. 😛 I think “Macaroni and Cheese” works fine in the USA, where there’s no national-level commitment to mandating bilingual packaging. And it probably “fits” better in the mind of USA consumers and retailers. What kind of “dinner” has neither meat nor vegetables? But in Canada, repackaging it as “Macaroni et Fromage (Macaroni and Cheese)” was, apparently, pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/45 "2015-01-07T09:22:13Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You’re not invisible; your post just didn’t really answer the question. In fact, it’s never been directly answered in the thread, just in the link given earlier. Yes, it has. It has been repeatedly answered. The OP’s question was NOT ‘what is the origin of the name Kraft Dinner’. The OP’s question was ‘Kraft Dinner is a confusing name, why don’t they just call it Macaroni and Cheese?’ Notice that Leaper never once asks ‘where did the name come from’, all he does is complain that it’s a bad name. And that was answered repeatedly. It’s not confusing, and it was the original name. The question is why the American branch of the company decided to rebrand it. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/46 "2015-01-07T14:08:45Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The food is more popular than poutine in Canada Which is not surprising considering that Kraft Dinner is much older than poutine (the first greasy spoon that served poutine in my home town opened in the 80s and some folks my parents were like, poutine? what’s poutine?). Also, Kraft Dinner is popular not because it’s particularly delicious but because it’s dirt cheap and so easy to make even an incompetent toddler can prepare it. Poutine, on the other hand, is almost impossible to properly prepare at home. It’s strictly restaurant food. Finally, Kraft Dinner is eaten throughout Canada, but until very recently, you could only get poutine in Québec, and even there is more readily available in some regions than in others. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/47 "2015-01-07T15:48:37Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Did you know you can buy the powder all by [itself](http://www.amazon.com/Kraft-Macaroni-Cheese-Topping-12CT/dp/B000I60JUW)? > [@scabpicker](#): > > Hmm, I could totally over cheese my next box with that. I just noticed that link says Kraft has discontinued it. I’ll have to see if the local store still has it. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/48 "2015-01-07T16:17:57Z")
Sorry **jovan** , but I have to disagree with you on poutine being a restaurant only thing. I make better poutine at home than anywhere else in town. Like any dish, if you use sub standard ingredients and techniques it will suck, and a lot of restaurants aren’t willing to pony up for the effort to make a good gravy or take the time to do scratch fries. Now having said that, the best poutine I’ve ever eaten was from a chip truck in Chilliwack, BC that knew their work, and I have yet to make them anywhere as well as them. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/49 "2015-01-07T17:15:50Z")
But shouldn’t it be called Kraft **Cheese** & Macaroni? /USian ad campaign from my mid-childhood ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/50 "2015-01-08T02:33:16Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Sorry **jovan** , but I have to disagree with you on poutine being a restaurant only thing. I make better poutine at home than anywhere else in town. Like any dish, if you use sub standard ingredients and techniques it will suck, and a lot of restaurants aren’t willing to pony up for the effort to make a good gravy or take the time to do scratch fries. > Now having said that, the best poutine I’ve ever eaten was from a chip truck in Chilliwack, BC that knew their work, and I have yet to make them anywhere as well as them. Well, in my true HO, I think poutine sucks no matter how it’s prepared, so there’s that. That being said, if I make an effort to be a tad objective, it’s absolutely true that most restaurant poutine does suck. The point, though, is that it’s not something people regularly (i.e. often) prepare at home, and the preparation needed is far more complicated than making a Kraft Dinner. To make good poutine, you need to be able to make good french fries, which sounds easy but is not, you need cheese curds that are _hours_ old, and lastly you need to make a great gravy, which I definitely do not consider in any way to be easy cooking. So you have not one but two PITA preparations, and one exotic ingredient. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/51 "2015-01-08T03:45:51Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Ok, could Best Buy have come up with a more vague name that tells us absolutely nothing about to what they sell? Yes, they could just be called Best. Then you wouldn’t even know that they sell anything. Next! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/52 "2015-01-08T06:07:11Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Yes, they could just be called Best. Then you wouldn’t even know that they sell anything. Next! Well, someone [already went and did that](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Products), so they had to add something new. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/53 "2015-01-09T09:49:51Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > But shouldn’t it be called Kraft **Cheese** & Macaroni? /USian ad campaign from my mid-childhood I want to know if they started calling it “Kraft Cheese and Macaroni” south of the border around the same time they started pushing the “KD” abbreviation north of the border. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/54 "2015-01-09T10:05:37Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The answer is only indirectly given in the link, so I will spell it out. It was called “Kraft Dinner” because, at the time, the idea of an instant dinner was novel, and Kraft was amongst the first to market such an idea. The exact makeup of the dinner was not as important as the idea of an instant one. Huh, and I see it was introduced in 1937, before the TV dinner. I wouldn’t have thought it. But still, I can think of better ways to market a new concept than calling it “dinner.” I mean, like I said, “Kraft Dinner” could be literally ANYTHING that’s vaguely food-like. It could’ve been peanut butter sandwiches or roast turkey with stuffing, gravy, and broccoli carved into the shape of pheasants. For a new product, why would one want to evoke “well, it’s food, but we won’t tell you what it is”? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/55 "2015-01-09T11:19:18Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I mean, like I said, “Kraft Dinner” could be literally ANYTHING that’s vaguely food-like. It could’ve been peanut butter sandwiches or roast turkey with stuffing, gravy, and broccoli carved into the shape of pheasants. But the Kraft brand meant it probably involved cheese, or _maybe_some other dairy product (but probably cheese). “Kraft Dinner” doesn’t say what the cheese is doing, but it does say that cheese probably plays a prominent part. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/56 "2015-01-09T12:00:55Z")
What I get out of this thread is that despite their stereotypical love of maple syrup (and poutine in Quebec), Canadians are better characterized as a bunch of macaroni eaters. Yes? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/57 "2015-01-09T15:01:48Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Did you know you can buy the powder all by [itself](http://www.amazon.com/Kraft-Macaroni-Cheese-Topping-12CT/dp/B000I60JUW)? Erm, no you can’t, TPTB have discontinued selling it that way. Others make similar orange stuff, but it is hit and miss as to taste. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/58 "2015-01-09T15:16:58Z")
I’ve always known it as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. But I grew up eating the superior [Golden Grain Macaroni and Cheddar](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNCUEslvovY&t=0m13s). ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/59 "2015-01-09T15:30:34Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > What I get out of this thread is that despite their stereotypical love of maple syrup (and poutine in Quebec), Canadians are better characterized as a bunch of macaroni eaters. Yes? Betcha. You forgot the beer swilling, hockey watching part , though.🙂 Now pass me another bowl of Yellow Death! ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111/60 "2015-01-09T15:56:54Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Did you know you can buy the powder all by [itself](http://www.amazon.com/Kraft-Macaroni-Cheese-Topping-12CT/dp/B000I60JUW)? > [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > Erm, no you can’t, TPTB have discontinued selling it that way. Others make similar orange stuff, but it is hit and miss as to taste. Which I already acknowledged in post 47. Do try to keep up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-why-is-it-kraft-dinner-in-canada/709111.md?page=4)