Think ‘American food’ and your mind quickly turns to fast, junk or processed foods. After all, that’s what most of the world thinks American food is. It might better be described by words like greasy, generally unhealthy, industrial output. When I first arrived in Switzerland I remember a few people wondering out loud if Americans ate anything other than hamburgers. I won’t dispute it, some Americans eat badly, but not all do.
To celebrate its sheer endless culinary creativity, good or bad, here’s the next in my list of the 24 most popular American foods or dishes. Of course, remember, I’m from the east coast (with a bit of Chicago thrown in for good measure). There will be inevitably missed regional specialties of foods I’ve never tried from places I’ve never been. If you missed my previous posts you can find the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th ones here.
So let me just ‘dig in’ as it were, and begin. They’re not in any special order though.
S’mores
The remembrance of things past: s’mores. S’mores are a gooey, melted, warm, sweet, graham cracker sandwich loaded with sugar and carbs. So easy and so good. They bring back memories of girl scout camps when everyone was sitting around the fire singing and eating s’mores.
It’s easy to make s’mores. Take two graham crackers, one or two pieces of chocolate and one or two marshmallows. Skewer the marshmallows on a sharpened stick and warm it over an open fire until it is anywhere from melted to burnt. Slip the warm marshmallow between the two pieces of chocolate set on two graham crackers. Let the warm marshmallow melt the chocolate a bit before eating.
There seems to be a day or festival for everything, so why not for s’mores? Celebrate National S’mores Day on August 10th. Now go get those marshmallows, and sharpen your sticks because August will be here before you know it.
Barbecue ribs
Barbecue can be one of three things. It can be a cooking method, a style of food or a gathering at which this style of food is served. You could easily say; I barbecued the barbecue at the barbecue! Barbecue ribs narrows the definition down a bit. Now it’s a cooking method and, depending on the region, we only have to define if we are talking about pork or beef. And, if it is slathered in a spicy sauce or smoked cooked.
It is believed that barbecue originated in the south prior to the Civil War. In Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. The meat used to barbecue was predominately pork. Beef ribs is associated more with Texas, I guess everything is just bigger in Texas. As to what kind of barbecue sauce is used, there are four types of sauces: mustard-based, vinegar-based, and light and heavy tomato-based sauces.
Barbecue ribs are known all over the world. You can even buy barbecue pork ribs, ready to put on the grill, here in Switzerland. To my surprise I have also seen pulled pork* on the shelves here. I’m not 100% sure that most Swiss even know what ‘pulled’ pork is.
Still, I don’t know why, but as good as barbecue ribs are in Switzerland, it just isn’t the same as in America.
*’Pulled pork’ is shredded barbecued pork shoulder. It is called ‘pulled’ because the meat is pulled and shredded from the bone using a fork.
BLT
How many sandwiches get to go by their initials? Okay, not counting pb&j. But for me, BLT is in a class of its own.
When tomatoes come into season, there’s no better way to celebrate the harvest than with a juicy and crispy bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
As with other dishes there are variations depending on your likes. The bread can be toasted or not. The bacon can be fried crispy or limp. Iceberg lettuce is the go-to lettuce because of its crunch and neutral flavor. And as to mayonnaise, it can be made with or without.
I enjoy my BLT with thinly sliced cooked poultry which I believe technically makes is a club sandwich, but it is just so, so good. You can’t really say more than a BLT just tastes like summer, and who can’t resist summer?
Apple pie
I’ve written about apples before in the post ‘Apples are Everywhere’.
According to a real pie chart, okay, it’s from the makers of Mrs. Smith’s brand pies so it might be a bit bias, apple pie really is North America’s favorite. Followed by pumpkin, chocolate crème, cherry, apple crumb, pecan, lemon meringue, blueberry , Key lime and peach.
As American as apple pie is, it originated in England, not in the States. The earliest recipes go back to England and the time of Chaucer. The only apple that is indigenous to America is the crabapple and you certainly can’t make an apple pie with those. Luckily the Pilgrims brought seeds with them. All they needed to do was plant them and wait for the trees to grow big enough to bear fruit. Which eventually happened.
If apples aren’t in fact American, how did apple pie turn so American? The pie council’s (yes, there really is a pie council, that didn’t surprise you did it?) former executive director John Lehndorff explained it this way. “When you say that something is ‘as American as apple pie,’ what you’re really saying is that the item came to this country from elsewhere and was transformed into a distinctly American experience.” Yes, Americans can recognize something good enough to be iconic when they eat it.
Remember, the American pie is much different than the Swiss apple pie. American apple pie usually has a bottom and a top crust with lots of apples, sugar and cinnamon in between quite often served with vanilla ice cream. The Swiss is just a bottom crust with maybe some crushed nuts on the bottom, slices of apples lined up with or without a sweet egg and milk mixture on top.
Who would have guessed, there is a national pie day. It is held annually on January 23rd and is not to be confused with Pi day. Pi day is held on March 14 since 3,1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of .
Hope you enjoyed my list so far, there’s more on the way soon! Oh, and just because they are on my list doesn’t mean you have to go out and try everything, some things are better left untried.
Stay safe and healthy everyone.
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