Cooking thread

Background Pony #6CE3
@DarkObsidian  
That looks very nice. Here in the US, split pea soup is frequently made with ham or bacon, plus onion, sometimes canned tomatoes, and perhaps sliced carrots and rice or cooked egg noodles. American “egg noodles” are wide curly pasta and similar to spaetzle or kluski noodles, in texture and common use, if not in shape.
 
@kleptomage  
That also seems very good. What spices do you use in sweet potato pie?
DarkObsidian
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Economist -

Smiling Panzerfuchs 2.0
@Background Pony #6CE3
 
Hm, it all sounds very interesting and delicious. But I would have thought that bacon, onions, canned tomatoes, and sliced carrots are more likely to be served together with baked beans in the American kitchen as a pan dish. But I probably just watched too many western movies. ;-D
 
At the same time, I am well aware that American cuisine is so incredibly large and creative, especially due to the many influences of the most diverse immigrant nationalities, that it is difficult to keep track of it. In Europe, people tend to be a little more traditional and reserved. But basically very open-minded towards everything else.
 
The only thing I can’t stand in the kitchen is frozen convenience food. You can eat it once, but it is actually so lovelessly made that after every frozen pizza I ask myself WHY I do this to myself. Unfortunately, you don’t always have the time and desire to cook fresh food. ;-)
Background Pony #6CE3
@DarkObsidian  
You aren’t wrong. America is a big place, with numerous regional cuisines, and innumerable family traditions. “How do Americans eat?” is a question with an answer that fills books.
 
As for frozen “convenience food,” I think it exists for the same reason as “fast food” restaurants, and it is no coincidence that both appeared in the US just after the war, for the needs of a heavy-industry work force that commonly worked sixty hour weeks. People eat it not because they like it, but because they work long hours and lack time to prepare food. I will admit that when my work hours increase the number of cheap (in all senses of the word) Little Caesar’s brand pizzas I eat increases likewise–not because it is especially good pizza, but because it is $5 and available for immediate takeout when I pass a Little Caesar’s on the way home from work.
DarkObsidian
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Economist -

Smiling Panzerfuchs 2.0
@Background Pony #6CE3
 
Yeah, that sounds familiar. In the years after the war and after the “economic miracle” (Wirtschaftswunder) in Germany, convenience and fast food enjoyed great popularity here too. Especially during the 1970s, when the sexual revolution led to more and more single households. My late father was a child of that generation and loved convenience food all his life.
 
Well, I myself had phases in my life in which I hardly had any money and also had to feed myself mainly through cheap convenience food. I have also tried to refine these meals a little bit, but if the basis of a meal is not very good, you should not expect miracles. That is why I try as best I can to limit myself to fresh ingredients.
 
But of course I still often use frozen meat and canned side dishes. That’s just the downside of being single. ;-)
Background Pony #6CE3
I’ve just made a batch of oatmeal cookies, and they came out well. The recipe was based on one printed on the side of the oat carton but I made a few small changes. I substituted butter for the vegetable shortening listed. I used oats that had been ground to coarse flour that I have on hand–I do this so that they will cook more quickly for porridge in the morning. I substituted brown sugar for the granulated white sugar, and I added just a small amount of cinnamon, because I felt it would go well with the oatmeal flavor. I substituted chocolate chips for the raisns.
 
At the stage of adding the oat flour the dough became very dense and stiff, and if I make a habit of this a stand mixer with a dough hook would be more suited to mixing it than a hand-held electric mixer.
 
I am very pleased with how they came out.
Background Pony #A3D0
stumbled across a recipe for Hardtack, remembered how … interesting the stuff was.
 
but then that’s the stuff made by a pro.. and with this sort of thing it comes down to the right equipment and experience.
Background Pony #5045
Today I made an apple pie of sorts, using canned applesauce as filling. To a 24 ounce can of applesauce I added two tablespoons sugar and one teaspoon cinammon. This was just the right amount of filling for a 9” pie shell. I am pleased with how it came out. My mother made pies with applesauce filling frequently when I was a child.
Background Pony #A3D0
caught part of a Slice of Life Drama where the chick tries to get the Family to ‘eat heart healthy’
 
by servering them veggie burgers made from mung beans.
 
reminded me of some of the real ones ive tried.
 
yes, most of them tasted like crap, but there were some that were decent and at least one I found was really good.
 
Morning Star brand Grillers Prime. Tastes pretty much like the average fast food patty.
Background Pony #5085
I just made a pie with frozen mixed berries and stevia sweetener for the filling. For a 9” pie I normally add two tablespoons each cornstarch, all purpose flour, and white cornmeal to the filling as a thickener, and bake for about an hour and ten minutes at 375 (190 C.) I’ll see how it comes out after it cools off.
 
My crust recipe: one 6 2/3 ounce stick butter-flavored vegetable shortening (this is about one cup by volume, or 240cc, or about 190g) plus 2 2/3 cups (640cc by volume, or about 340g by weight) sifted all purpose flour, plus one teaspoon (10 cc) each salt, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. I sift together the dry ingredients and cut the shortening and the flour mixture together to form a crumbly mass, then add the vinegar, then just enough cold water to form a pliable dough that can be rolled easily. This makes enough for a top and bottom pie crust, or two individual crusts for 9” (22.5cm) pies.
 
I normally use about 20-24 ounces by weight of fresh fruit for a pie. This is 570-680g of fruit. Usually I add a little lemon juice and lemon zest, regardless of what kind of pie I am making, because I like the way the flavors combine. Previously I usually added one cup granulated sugar, or seven ounces, 240cc, or 200g, plus the starches. Today’s pie is an experiment with non-sugar sweetener.
 
Also with soft fruits like berries, I take between one fourth and one third of them and blend them smooth in a food processor, then slowly add to them the sugar and starches. I stir the rest of the fruit into this mixture and use this as filling.
 
I have a slice of the pie now. It’s not bad. It’s not as sweet as it would have been with one cup of sugar. The label on the stevia sweetener said it was equivalent volume for volume and it doesn’t really seem to be, though I also suppose the berries could have been more acidic than usual. I think it came out well. My doctor says I need to reduce the amount of processed sugar in my diet, and maybe this is a step in that direction.
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