Nobody cares about food.

[Free]

Yus I'm anticipating that most will agree that the dish in that video is inexcusable

I dunno, I'm sort of with you that that's the way a Shepherd's Pie is typically built.

 

[Essence Lumin]

for instance, Cajun dishes like jambalaya or gumbo if you want to make them today would seem to have like a specific list of ingredients, but when these dishes were invented by poor settlers they were, effectively, a big stew made of up everything they had access to.

There is a lot of great food around here but finding any cajun food or anything like it is surely much easier to find in Louisiana that it is here in NJ unfortunately.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Unfortunately, many Americans are all about convenience, particularly with our food. And while being able to whip together a fast one-pot meal does have merit, it should be the exception, not the norm.

And, by God, I'd use fresher ingredients.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I'm going to break with the crowd here: I'm not saying that her one-pot shepherd's pie is gourmet or anything; but I think what she's doing - i.e., throwing a bunch of not-the-best ingredients into a pot and cooking them until they're done and eating the result - is probably closer to the original spirit of shepherd's pie or cottage pie than sticking to a particular kind of recipe or prep method. And while those are a European thing, a lot of authentically American dishes are based around a similar concept; for instance, Cajun dishes like jambalaya or gumbo if you want to make them today would seem to have like a specific list of ingredients, but when these dishes were invented by poor settlers they were, effectively, a big stew made of up everything they had access too, including scraps of cooked meat from previously made dishes. There's no other situation where you'll get sausage, chicken, shrimp, and ham all in the same pot.

I'm actually fine with some of her dish, but Shepherd's Pie traditionally contains lamb. Not that I haven't made it with ground beef, but I had enough couth to not brag about it on YouTube!

The real crime is those awful instant mashed potatoes. Why even bother? Why not just eat wallpaper paste straight out of the jar and skip the "cooking"? How hard is it to make mashed potatoes? (Hint: Not hard. You can do most of it with a glass of wine in your free hand.)

sausage, chicken, shrimp, and ham all in the same pot

You forgot them crawdad.

 

[Free]

You forgot them crawdad.

That's Fisherman's Pie!

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Thanks for all your answers, so my main take away is that a good chunked size of Americans will agree that what's being shown in the video by Mistie is a form of cooking. Maybe not fancy cooking, but cooking nonetheless. Yeah and regarding the beef what she cooked would be called a cottage pie in the UK because of that.

Casey Pelous: do you know in which trendy product wall paper paste actually is in? Vegan meat replacement products. Almost every product in this category contains Methyl cellulose, which has the property to actually glue more together the hotter it gets. Otherwise the vegan meat would not stick together, but fall apart.

 

[Isabeau]

Our version of shepherd’s / cottage pie here is Pâté Chinois. Made with a creamed corn layer between ground beef and mashed potatoes.

I think most communities have traditional homemade dishes using ”real” ingredients. This type of mish-mash isn’t representative of how all North Americans are cooking (not to mention the percentage of immigrants who have influenced how we all eat).

With the cost of living getting higher, and the amount of time people have left after both parents (or 1) have to work, with less people getting help from grand-mothers and aunts like in the past, no wonder people are looking for quick easy recipes on Tik Tok or whatever.

This has been happening in Europe and elsewhere, too. You can’t compare the best traditional foods from one place, with the worst examples from another.

And really, Germany has never been known for its food, so probably not who should be poopooing other countries’ food.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

I would have asked the same question and made the same remarks if coming from Italy or France. So, this is really a non-issue, because nobody is able to choose his place of birth.

 

[Khamon]

Thanks for all your answers, so my main take away is that a good chunked size of Americans will agree that what's being shown in the video by Mistie is a form of cooking. Maybe not fancy cooking, but cooking nonetheless.

It is true. I know people that eat packaged food or take away, some of it actual restaurant food, nearly every meal. A good number also regularly cook with canned and boxed products in the manner of the video. Few Americans, that I know, shop, prep, and cook raw food.

With the cost of living getting higher, and the amount of time people have left after both parents (or 1) have to work, with less people getting help from grand-mothers and aunts like in the past, no wonder people are looking for quick easy recipes on Tik Tok or whatever.

This is also true. We only cook real food because our parents, grandparents, and others taught us to prepare meals from scratch. Summers and holidays involved harvesting items from the fields, smokehouse, and canning shed; snapping, peeling, cutting, and smashing; and stoking the coals. The other Khamon dies when I peel and dice items in my hand rather than using a bloody (in my case) cutting board. The upside is that we consume very little salt, avoid the high content in restaurant and processed food, and enjoy various other spices.

This also brings to mind the fact that many American eating establishments simply heat packaged food that was processed in a centralized facility that sometimes supplies multiple chains. What could be healthy meals, if the kitchen prepared them by hand, are loaded with salt and other preservatives. Some places [Olive Garden is the worst] charge money to functionally walk through the pasture and lick the salt block with the cows. Khamon never did this as a child

 

[Rose Karuna]

When I was growing up my great grandmother had a little farm with goats, chickens, a large garden and rabbits. Most of the food we ate was fresh, generally from the garden and from the livestock, with the exception of flour, dried beans, rice and occasional pasta. She used to trade eggs, chickens, produce and rabbits for other types of meat that neighbors in the area raised or had or hunted. Venison, trout and sage hens were common in our diet. We grew up cooking from raw ingredients because we could not afford the "fancy boxed stuff" and because my mother despised the taste of canned vegetables (as do I).

I still have a large garden and try, at the very least, to have fresh vegetables and fruit but I buy my eggs, chicken and fish and very occasionally, beef or lamb at the supermarket. Most people I know though eat pre-prepared food pretty much every night, either frozen or canned.

 

[Khamon]

There's something to be said for living in a rural community with co-ops and farmer's markets and local honey and fresh catfish, eggs, venison, various foul, and the fresh list is really long...but we do enjoy the benefit, some of it necessarily seasonal, especially when national grocery prices spike i.e. the price of perfectly sized bleached eggs in a carton a year ago.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

How to kill a steak in a crock pot: just add stuff to it, and let it cook at high for 2-3 hours. Yummy!

TikTok - Make Your Day

 

[Free]

Thppt! I don't need a crock pot to kill a steak.

 

[Free]

It might be the best rule.

 

[Essence Lumin]

I discovered a deli today that has all sorts of interesting things on their menu. Pepper Lover's Dream - Hot pepper cheese, pepper turkey, pepper ham, pepper shooters and long hots. Oh god so good. Obviously you need to be a pepper fan which I am.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

I'm a Pepper,
You're a Pepper,
He's a Pepper,
She's a Pepper,
Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?
Be a Pepper, drink Dr. Pepper

 

[Essence Lumin]

I was reading a reddit thread that including a discussion about losing weight and beans. Someone asked what the difference was between a chickpea and a garbanzo bean. The answer was

Spoiler

I never had a garbanzo bean on my face. Groan.

 

[Free]

Be a Pepper, drink Dr. Pepper

Can I be a Barq's Root Beer instead?

 

[Soen Eber]

https://www.youtube.com/@EssenRecipes

I've been enjoying her channel for quite a while, even if it is in German (it comes with English subtitles). The food is good - not fancy, just very heartwarming and basic, and for the most part she goes through the same basic staples so it's pretty easy to shop for and build a good basic supply of essentials - nothing will go to waste or sit on the shelf for a long time.

She does use metric measurements, but aside from baking almost everything is measured in tablespoons, teaspoons, cans, or amounts of this or that produce such as one red onion or five apples.

The music is very relaxing (there's no spoken component), and if you're a fan of comfort food this is your channel, even if a lot of her recipes include some kind of meat or eggs, potatoes, onions, and either carrots and/or bell peppers they're used very well and are very flavorful and filling.

A typical video:

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Pâté Chinois