It’s not a joke though Minnesota really does have the blandest trough slop in north america it’s awful.
They have this thing they call “hot dish” which is they dump green beans and cream of mushroom soup in a casserole dish and put tater tots on it. This is the height of Minnesotan cultural cuisine. I am not joking. It is not seasoned.
It shouldn’t be completely bland if you saute some onion and garlic, that’s the taste base of meals for like a thousand years
Would be better with literally any spice
They have this thing they call “hot dish” which is they dump green beans and cream of mushroom soup in a casserole dish and put tater tots on it.
I’ve made this! Well, a vegan equivalent with mushroom gravy I made myself. And I used frozen mixed veggies, not just green beans. Oh, and I seasoned it. And put some (vegan) cheese on it. But it was really good! Sure, it’s not something I’d serve to anyone or even admit I enjoy (except anonymously on the internet, I guess), but like, it’s almost a shepherd’s pie situation, except with tots instead of mashed potatoes. Surprisingly good for a lazy meal, and lots of leftovers!
Gravy is one of the laziest foods ever! I’ve made gravies while blackout drunk. I’ve made gravies while too high to function. It takes a little time (like 10 minutes, maximum) and some pretty constant stirring, but for the amount of tasty it adds to a dish, it’s well worth it. It often feels like the gravy makes itself while I just stand there waiting for it to come together.
yo, what’s your mushroom gravy recipe? I’m always looking to try and improve mine. Next time though, try fried onions. That’s the original and the crunchiness does wonders for the texture.
Oh, it’s a pretty straightforward, very lazy gravy! I make a roux with flour and oil, then add in broth while whisking vigorously to get rid of any clumps. Then I add a can or two of canned mushrooms and I season it with salt, pepper, soy sauce, maybe some msg, and herbs. Lots of herbs. Rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, usually dried because that’s what we have sitting around, but I bet fresh would be even better. We also have some, like, mushroom stir fry sauce (I don’t exactly know what it is) that we found in an asian market, so I usually add some of that to get it more mushroomy.
And yeah, I’ve done fried onions on a green bean casserole. In my mind that’s different than a tater tot hot dish. I do love green bean casserole though!
Forgive me for being prejudiced eurotrash but isn’t a lot of “traditional” white American foods just branded processed foods hastily mixed together? Are fresh ingredients that hard to get your hands on? Has the knowledge of how to cook them been lost?
A lot of “traditional” white American food rises from traditions of using government issued foodstuffs. Government cheese, spam, various concoctions devised from military rations. But quite a lot also comes from what immigrant communities were able to afford, which was generally the worse stuff. There’s also a not-insignificant number of white households that possessed no generational cooking knowledge because it was done by slaves, and thus had no culinary culture they could continue without the requisite skills.
A lot of the Americanization process encouraged immigrants to give to their customs and replace them with American substitutes. Shitty food is a result of generations of urban working class proles fed on cheap “American approved” slop and losing their customs and knowledge
Upstate NY beats out Minnesota in the bland food category, all they have is buffalo sauce w/ bleu cheese. Most of the restaurants I go to don’t even salt the food, at least Campbell’s cream of mushroom is packed full of sodium. Sponge candy is bland, they used to produce brown beans that everyone acknowledged needed to have ingredients added to give them flavor, and even the hotdogs have a weird texture because they’re ground so fine and not smoked. Don’t even get me started on salt potatoes or garbage plates.
Depends on what you mean by upstate, anything between NYC and Albany tends to still be good but go north or west of Albany and it’s gonna get as bad as you said
I don’t spend much time in the Hudson valley, but I can assume proximity to the coast would improve the quality. I think it’s overall an issue with restaurants not using much butter or salt due to folks being more health conscious. Food like chicken riggies and spiedies are generally something I enjoy but only if I make it myself and add those rich ingredients.
Made “hot dish” with refried beans, fried onions and queso and topping it with crushed tortilla chips instead of cream of mushroom soup and green beans makes a pretty good half-assed taco casserole kinda thing tbh, tater tots are a nice base to add assorted slop to in a baking pan and just chuck it in the oven for awhile.
Cream of mushroom soup is nasty though, so are any kind of pasta/potato salads where the main ingredient is mayo, and “Waldorf salad” is an affront to apples
It’s sad because homemade mushroom soup with cream is actually really nice, the canned stuff is kinda horrifying and it’s basically white person umami for casseroles
I’ll die on the hill that the only issue with green bean casserole is that it isn’t vegan. Its’ meant to be communal, if made properly the contrast between the softness and the crunch create an inviting texture, it is quite possibly the only way to sneak both soy sauce and black pepper into a dish that middle America won’t question, it was designed to be cheap and therefore accessible, no authentic version has tater tots, no authentic version is unseasoned, for the less unadventurous it benefits greatly from adding even more spice (paprika, garlic powder, and sprinkle some herbs on top of the onion. if making a vegan version use a but less cashews than you would normally use for a vegan cream of mushroom. I don’t know why, it just works better.). Also, if you like the taste of hot peppers but not the heat, its a great vehicle for cutting the heat so much you can still dump some capsicum bomb on there.
I am channeling Lenin and screaming “utopianism! Utopianism!”
There might be some theory of edible green bean casserole or edible hot dish. It might work on paper. You might look at the recipe and think “mmm, yes, i can see the appeal.”
But on earth? Where people live and die? No such thing exists, nor could it.
