# Ugly American cuisine **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812 "2013-04-16T04:18:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/181 "2013-04-17T21:25:58Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > My family does not have a tradition of sweet potatoes with marshmallow at Thanksgiving, so the first time I encountered, at someone else’s house in college, I found it revolting. I might have felt differently about it if I’d grown up with it, but my family seemed to think sweet potatoes were sweet enough on their own. I love savory sweet potato preparations, but not sweetened ones. My favourite way to do sweet potatoes is to bake them, then add butter, salt and pepper, and maybe a little sour cream. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/182 "2013-04-17T21:50:21Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > My favourite way to do sweet potatoes is to bake them, then add butter, salt and pepper, and maybe a little sour cream. I bake them and add a little cinnamon sugar. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/183 "2013-04-17T21:51:51Z")
Sweet potatoes steamed and then baked with lots of butter and dark brown sugar and/or real maple syrup. To die for! 🆒 ---
**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:** [April 17, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/184 "2013-04-17T21:53:15Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Poor **scabpicker** is really getting raked over the coals over this casserole business 😃 and it’s partly my fault. :o > > Nothing personal, we all have our likes and dislikes. 🙂 Nah, it’s ok, I thought I might be the one who’s being mean. After all, I have the insulation of a religious zealot on the subject (and a long list of other matters of opinion). You are all crazy! I know the one true god! 😃 ---
**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:** [April 17, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/185 "2013-04-17T22:02:56Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I love home made Mac and Cheese (as long as they don’t use that cheese like product that comes in a box and isn’t refrigerated). Different strokes for different folks, I guess. It certainly is different strokes for different folks. My mac 'n cheese hierarchy is the inversion of yours, I think. Mine: Powdered, from a box, with Kraft on the label\* \> shelf stable cheese quickie \> hours of work to get a creamy center and a crust. \*My dad taught me to make it with only butter. It comes out kinda crunchy that way. Maybe he was yearning for a crispy top? Since then, I have read the side of the box. My favorite mac 'n cheese totally lacks crunch. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/186 "2013-04-17T22:11:42Z")
I definitely prefer the homemade mac and cheese. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/187 "2013-04-17T22:24:16Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > It certainly is different strokes for different folks. My mac 'n cheese hierarchy is the inversion of yours, I think. Mine: Powdered, from a box, with Kraft on the label\* \> shelf stable cheese quickie \> hours of work to get a creamy center and a crust. > \*My dad taught me to make it with only butter. It comes out kinda crunchy that way. Maybe he was yearning for a crispy top? Since then, I have read the side of the box. My favorite mac 'n cheese totally lacks crunch. For whatever reason, I’m actually with you on this one. I like the creamy, non-crunchy style of mac & cheese to the oven-baked one. Probably because that reminds me of the mac & cheese of my childhood. Anyhow, if you like that one, I recommend [this Alton Brown recipe](http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/stove-top-mac-n-cheese-recipe/index.html) for stovetop mac and cheese. Last time I made it for a potluck, thinking I’d have some leftovers to take back home with me, it was completely devoured. My only change to the recipe is that I use Velveeta for about half the cheddar called for. Yes. Velveeta. It gives me the creamy consistency that I desire. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/188 "2013-04-17T22:26:20Z")
What about the weird Midwestern category of “salads”? These dishes are always based on cream cheese, Cool Whip, and fruit. There’s the ubiquitous “strawberry pretzel salad” with crushed pretzels, cream cheese-cool whip, and strawberry jello. There’s “Snickers salad” with applies, cut-up Snickers bars, and cool whip. There’s “candy apple salad” with apples, grapes, peanuts, marshmallows and cool whip. This is just American, right? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/189 "2013-04-17T22:36:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes. Velveeta. It gives me the creamy consistency that I desire. Good gad. Upon learning that I like acorn squash baked with butter and brown sugar, Mama Plant made it with margerine and artificial sweetener. Upon learning that I liked her mother’s oyster stuffing with fowl, she used twelve cans of oysters instead of two. She forced me to take it home, and the cats wouldn’t eat it. I had a troubled childhood food wise, including tuna casserole with very soggy, oily potato chips. ---
**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:** [April 17, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/190 "2013-04-17T22:38:55Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > What about the weird Midwestern category of “salads”? These dishes are always based on cream cheese, Cool Whip, and fruit. There’s the ubiquitous “strawberry pretzel salad” with crushed pretzels, cream cheese-cool whip, and strawberry jello. There’s “Snickers salad” with applies, cut-up Snickers bars, and cool whip. There’s “candy apple salad” with apples, grapes, peanuts, marshmallows and cool whip. > > This is just American, right? Wow, I had never heard of any of these. They do look mighty strange. I’d be inclined to say they’re exclusively mid-western. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/191 "2013-04-17T22:40:27Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Good gad. It’s only for half the cheese. Really, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. And if you’ve tried it and don’t like it, that’s fine. I think of Velveeta as an inoffensive, cheese-like, material to melt other cheese into. Or you could go the molecular gastronomy route and make yourself some proper melty cheese from high quality cheese. I don’t have this kind of patience. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/192 "2013-04-17T22:49:49Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It’s only for half the cheese. Really, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. And if you’ve tried it and don’t like it, that’s fine. I think of Velveeta as an inoffensive, cheese-like, material to melt other cheese into. Or you could go the molecular gastronomy route and make yourself some proper melty cheese from high quality cheese. I don’t have this kind of patience. It’s really not that hard. Some butter, some flour and some heavy cream, seasonings and then just start adding in shredded cheese…I like aged cheddar and queso blanco/queso fresco. At the same time you are making the mac part (I usually strain it while it’s slightly undercooked, then add more grated cheese into the calender with the pasta), you can whip it up, then when the mac is ready you just mix it with the cheese sauce, pour the whole thing into a casserole dish, put more grated cheese on top (yellow medium cheddar is what I like) and bake at 450 until the cheese on top is golden brown. Getting hungry just thinking about it. If my hotel room had a kitchen I’d make some right now…damn, can’t wait to get home now! ETA: And just to further gross out non-Americans, especially those with a religious bent, I’ve had some good results with adding cooked, thick cut bacon, cubed up and mixed in as well…though usually I just make my Mac and Cheese with just the necessary basics. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/193 "2013-04-17T22:52:53Z")
“Turnip” is a modern English expansion of the Middle English “neep,” rather than “neep” being a contraction of “turnip.” “Neep” and “navet” (in French) both derive from the Latin term: > **[turnip | Search Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=turnip)** > > The online etymology dictionary (etymonline) is the internet's go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms. It is professional enough to satisfy academic standards, but accessible... ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/194 "2013-04-17T22:55:55Z")
> [@XT](#): > > It’s really not that hard. Some butter, some flour and some heavy cream, seasonings and then just start adding in shredded cheese Yes. I know how to make a basic cheese sauce. It’s not the same texture. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/195 "2013-04-17T22:56:57Z")
> [@XT](#): > > (I usually strain it while it’s slightly undercooked, then add more grated cheese into the calender with the pasta) Nitpick: You mean colander. A calendar (two "a"s, one “e”) is that thing with twelve pages of numbers in little boxes and pictures of naked women. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/196 "2013-04-17T23:02:18Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I don’t have this kind of patience. Do you have children? ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/197 "2013-04-17T23:04:24Z")
Go have a look at Listphoria’s Uniquely American Foods. You may be surprised. Can’t say I agree with all of the list but there are some good suggestions. Iced Tea Soul Food Poor Boy Sandwiches Ketchup Creole and Cajun Who said housewives in the fifties didn’t have access to good cookbooks? There was _The Joy of Cooking_ published first in 1931, LaRousse’s _Gastronomique,_ the classic _Fanny Farmer’s,_ to name a few off the top of my head. My grandmother ran a successful boarding house and town bakery from the turn of the last century until the fifties and her repretoire was astounding even by today’s standards. She must have been self-educated. That green or yellow jello ring mold full of shredded carrots, cabbage and celery was the bane of childhood existence in the fifties. Anything with the name _mold_ in it is downright shuddersome. But you need to understand the times to understand it’s origin. It was the Postwar generation of new working women. They were glad to have all these modern conveniences. Jello, not gelatin, was a new idea. Perhaps with less time to watch that their little charges ate enough vegetables someone came up with the idea of sugarcoating that coleslaw. Usually there was a little dish of mayonnaise thinned with cream in the middle of the ring and it was ubiquitous. Gagging just thinking about it! But I’m sure to them it looked like they had put a little time and thought into something special. And it was the beginning of adults starting to cater to children’s wants. Before the war if you didn’t like what was set in front of you, too bad, you starved. There was a lot of guilt projected on women about working outside of the home, I think. And, remember this was also Dr. Spock and Freud’s decade telling moms how much damage they could do to their children. (I’m still traumatized by the lime jello." And a lot of those sticky sweet Midwestern “salads” came about because getting fresh fruit and veggies was sometimes difficult before interstate highways and truckers. Couldn’t grow your own for the larger part of the year. Puts it in a little perspective. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/198 "2013-04-17T23:21:06Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Do you have children? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/199 "2013-04-17T23:49:45Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > What about the weird Midwestern category of “salads”? These dishes are always based on cream cheese, Cool Whip, and fruit. There’s the ubiquitous “strawberry pretzel salad” with crushed pretzels, cream cheese-cool whip, and strawberry jello. There’s “Snickers salad” with applies, cut-up Snickers bars, and cool whip. There’s “candy apple salad” with apples, grapes, peanuts, marshmallows and cool whip. > > This is just American, right? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812/200 "2013-04-17T23:55:09Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Haggis is a lovely dish, once you put what you’re eating out of your mind. It tastes like spicy liverwurst and is very, very rich. > > Don’t know what country Gracer is in, but you can certainly get it in Toronto, Canada. You can? I’m booking a ticket! I can crash on your floor, right? 😉 Won’t take me long to polish off my haggis, neeps and tatties and I’ll be on my way! > [@silenus](#): > > I think **gracer** is in the Netherlands currently. > > Haggis isn’t a dish; it’s a dare. Yes. Stupid country. No haggis. Actually, no nothin’ here. These supermarkets are a joke. They don’t have anything. No real vanilla, no good sausage or black pudding, they don’t hang their meat properly, no parsnips, no cider, no lamb, teabags are a scam, peppers aren’t labelled for spiciness and how on earth do you get decent knickers with no M&S? I’m counting the days. > [@Acsenray](#): > > I agree, haggis is tasty. I wouldn’t eat a slab of it like meatloaf, but spread it on some bread with raw onions and mustard, and it’s great. Hush your tantalising cruelty! ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugly-american-cuisine/655812.md?page=11)