Sweet potato casserole is just mashed sweet potatoes with a marshmallow topping, sometimes with crumbled oats and/or brown sugar on top. Personally I think it a bit grotesque as a main course (its nearly pie) but it’s popularity is highly regional. So that you’ll find some places where it is nearly universal, and others where it’s generally unknown except as something seen on TV. (Something which is always a problem in discussing “American” foodways)
I don’t even know why they call it casserole, it doesn’t have a mixture of ingredients like casseroles usually do (I guess some recipes have egg beaten into the mashed sweet potato… but still). Don’t worry, marshmallow fluff is NOT a topping for lasagna or tuna casserole or anything that isn’t already sweet.
That’s the thing about New England, people here have squash instead. The few who are even aware of sweet potato casserole think that the idea is revolting. But I’ve made a few converts.
Just another WAG: most UK jams are made from fruit that a. grows here and b. goes off quickly and so has to be used up. Commercially grown grapes are rare here and are generally intended for wine. The few grapes people manage to get from conservatory and greenhouse vines get eaten as soon as they are ripe. However we have apricot jam. And marmalade. And in the parts of Europe where they both make jam and grow grapes they don’t make grape jam either. I want to try some now
You can get those, IMHO but a lot of the stuff even at the deli counter just doesn’t have much taste. I don’t know if it loses something in travel, but the taste isn’t as good as locally-made or artisanal cheese. Maybe I’m a cheese snob or something, I don’t know…
I’ve found that lots of other places have other things in grape flavour variations, like grape sweets, grape soft drinks, grape bubble gum. All not common here. Whenever I’ve had them it’s always been ridiculously sweet, but also nice. In Romania I always get grape Fanta, but it’s so sweet I can only have a few sips.
So I think not having grape jelly/jam is part of a general grape thing, and partially related to grapes not growing here as Springtime for Spacers said.
Pretty much this - we don’t have a significant grape harvest - and what Jennyrosity said - purple=blackcurrant, or maybe blackberry.
I tried grape soda for the first time recently (someone gave me a can for Christmas). Terrible - tasted like something I’d use to clean the bathroom - soapy, floral chemicals.
Concord grapes are used for most grape-flavored things, but they are unsuitable for winemaking.
Grape soda isn’t intended to taste like natural grape, but yeah, I know the metallic taste of it. Some people love it, most don’t care for it too much.
Blackberry jelly … nothing better than. My mother was a remarkably mediocre cook when I was a young kid, but she was very good at making jams and jellies. I grew up in an area where wild blackberries grew abundantly (they were everywhere - walk out your back door and pick all you want - big, fat, sweet, juicy blackberries everywhere). We’d gather those and Mom would make the most wonderful blackberry jam and jelly. And blackberry pie!
Blackberries are one of the things I miss most about living in that area (Southwestern Washington). We moved to the east, “dry” side of the state when I was a teenager, and blackberries are scarce here. Last summer my mom and stepdad were in town for a visit and we went to the local Shari’s restaurant, a chain based out of Oregon. Shari’s was doing a big promotion with various blackberry desserts, and so we jumped all over that. And then were horribly disappointed to discover that they were using marionberries instead of proper blackberries
I live on the west “wet” side of the moutains, and last year was so mild in summertime I didn’t bother picking any blackberries (I live walking distance from 3-4 large parks packed full of blackberry bushes) because all the blackberries looked mild and sickly.
