Someome exlpain thanks giving food to me, please

I just watched a tiktok of a girl mixing boiled green beans, condensed mushroom soup & crispy onions together & calling that a side dish.

& I'm starting to wonder if it's actually a bit that you've all kept going for a couple of hundred years because this can't be reality, I refuse to believe it!

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OogieBoogie · F

This is pretty much how american cooking is.
My mum was an avid cookbook collector. (She had hundreds, if not nearly a thousand).

And the most iconic thing about American cookery is - they use premade food stuffs:
-Cans of...
- packets of....
- tubs of...
- jars of...etc .

And they do wierd shit like jello salads, deepfried....ANYTHING, and putting unrestricted combinations of food together and calling it a 'dish' (usually served with chips and covered in some sorta cheese..... or shaped into something patriotic 😅

I remember the first time i looked through a collectors series of american cookbooks that covered everything from appetisers to mains, salads to sweets.....and it was the most alien type of cooking id ever come across!
Most of the ingredients id never seen, let alone heard of, and many were an amazement of discovery: canned potatoes!😳, cookie dough in a tube!😯, crisco🤢, jarred fish😱 ?!

I decided way back then that American cooking isnt so much a tradition, as it is a social science project of personal evolution of gastronomic potion making and intesinal endurance
(admittedly with some amazing results🤗 ....and some seeming abominations of culinary abuse😫)

Ultimately American cooking grew up in a booming commerical imdustry, and evolved using soups, packets and premade sauces and stuffs like the rest of the world uses fresh herbs and spices.

Which makes it kinda unique....and a bit of a shock to the rest of us.

And this seems one of those dishes.
Mushtooms and beans?!...and some are saying its a side dish and others are saying this is a casserole..
.eh what!?
It sounds more like desperation to me 😂
Personally....this , this would be a HUGE no for me🤢
But then......i think cans of mushroom soup are an evil conspiracy of satan🤮

MethDozer · M

@OogieBoogie casseroles are oftej side dishes.

OogieBoogie · F

@MethDozer Hahahaha. To you maybe. 😏
To the rest of the world, not so much

American caseroles are served differently than how other cultures do it . Like lasagne, its basically a type of pasta casserole, and its a main
Cassoulet, Lancashire hot pot etc... are also examples of main dishes .
Many casseroles are dishes that contain meat, vegetables and some sort of starch like pasta or potatoes - they are a whole meal.

This is just one example of how american cookery is different.
Ive never used a casserole as a side dish in my whole life. In fact, this is the first time ive learnt that its used as one . It seems a bizarre concept to me . Its like saying a stew is a side dish .🤷‍♀️

You guys take ideas from everywhere and add your own bent to it. But then, that's what makes it american cooking.

MethDozer · M

@OogieBoogie Casserole is technically a type of dish. A food being called a casserole just means it is baked in a casserole dish. It doesn't imply a course or ingredients. It's strictly referencing the dish it is cooked in.

OogieBoogie · F

@MethDozer and that's a possible definiton yes.
But its also a type of cuisine .

I could cook a quiche in a casserole dish , and technically youde see it as a casserole, and i see it as a quiche.
If i make lasagne in a pie dish, is it lasagne ....or is it a type of cheesy meat pie?

This is my point . Maybe to americans anything cooked in a casserole dish is a casserole.

But the majority of rest of the world has developed traditional dishes that are classified as 'casseroles' no matter what dish they are cooked in.
(Ideally you use a casserole dish, or if you dont have one , a covered pie dish)
Casserole dishes are a very old way of cooking, like stews. They go back to farmers wifes who were busy, and had to cook with what was in season.

MethDozer · M

@OogieBoogie Look up ay dictionary definiton.

MethDozer · M

@OogieBoogie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casserole

OogieBoogie · F

@MethDozer yes, i know.
And if you look at that article , it has a specific subcategory of 'american style casserole'😏

And then it says "other cusines"....

And this is my point.

Americans see it one way, and other traditional interantional cooking sees it a different way.
And that's the way it is.

Your way isn't the only way. Your way isn't how other countries see it. And thats ok.

MethDozer · M

@OogieBoogie Yeah, it's just noting that they are popular. However the it also states that a casserole is purely any dish made in casserole pan.