What is uniquely American food?

McDonalds

Chili mac

Aren’t hamburgers German?

Nachos

Turkey

Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice, pumpkin-freaking-everything!

Corncakes

Frito Pie

Fluffernutter

r4 nachos originate from Tex Mex cuisine. Mexican influence.

Jello Salad

Bacon chocolate chip cookies apparently!

Corn dogs

Buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy

Avocado toast

Cronuts

Pumpkin pie

Fried chicken

BBQ

Fried chicken and BBQ are not American inventions.

Fried chicken = not originally American

Milk chocolate

Russian dick.

Caesar salad

Ambrosia salad

Reese’s Pieces

Pecan pie

Most food that we think of as american -- soul/comfort food -- has its roots in African cooking: the slaves modified their ancestral recipes to suit the vegetables that grew on the plantation.

Ice Cream Sodas.

Breakfast Pancakes.

Bubble gum.

Carrot Cake.

Blueberry Muffins.

Cheese Burgers.

Chowder.

Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and cream gravy and corn on the cob.

German chocolate cake! No German has seen anything like it.

Crab cakes.

Blueberry muffins.

Squash. Beans. Turkey. Corn. Tomatoes. Peppers.

Fortune cookies

Chop suey

Corn on the cob, lobster

Green Tea Ice cream which was invented by 2 Jewish guys in Brooklyn.

Corn on the cob = Mexican.

Dilly Bars!

SPAM

Fritos and peanut butter.

Chocolate chip cookies and Parker House rolls.

Peanuts + chocolate.

Milk shakes.

Low Country Boil

Popcorn

Baked Potatoes

Steaks

Sausage egg Mcmuffin

Breakfast Sausage Lasagna

Hobo stew

Thanksgiving dinner has remained surprisingly true to it's New England roots. Clam chowder,turkey,cranberries,pumpkin, apple, and pecan pie.

Baked Potato with sour cream and chives.

Cinnabon.

Cream from a can.

Cream from a redneck young man

Fruit cobblers

Hamburger Helper

Turducken.

Potato chips

Burgoo

Mac 'n cheese

Whoopie pies

Buckeyes(candy)

Shake n Bake

Collards.

Pimento Cheese

Watermelon

Turkey, venison, buffalo, squash, pumpkin, green beans, sweet peppers, lobster, trout, salmon, tomatoes, blueberries, corn (grits and popcorn), dried beans, native American foods we don't eat (like pemmican and camas roots), jerky. Almost everything else we eat is adapted from European, African, or Asian origins. I love it all. Gross foods like twinkies are uniquely American, but I disavow them.

Spam

Sorghum syrup

Moonshine

Watermelon is from Africa and not unique to the US.

[quote] Watermelon

Watermelon is originally from Africa.

apple pie?

Popcorn. Tater tots.

R55 - Trout and salmon??

candy corn skittles corn fritters

Lucky Charms, although it might be Irish.

Brunswick Stew

Chicken pot pie Swanson TV Dinner

Shoo-Fly pie

And apple pandowdy..

Macaroni and cheese

Frybread and bison stew.

Meat and potatoes. Ham, potato salad, mashed potatoes, roasted chicken, duck, turkey, geese, grilled meats (steaks, pork chops, lamp chops), baked potatoes, corn on the cob, etc. Side dishes evolved from seasonal foods. Salad greens, beans, corn, asparagus, etc..

Basically bland, but nutritious. Unvaried.

Pop tarts

Santorum

r71 apparently doesn't understand what "uniquely" means.

Moon Pies

Spray cheese.

Cheese curds, s’mores.

Grilled cheese

Tater tots

Cheez whiz. extra American points if you eat it straight from the can like in 80s/90s sitcoms

Chicken fried steak.

The Baconator.

Cheesy goodness.

frito pie.

Scrapple.

Tater tot casserole

Peanut butter

Foods that are indigenous to the Americas: peanuts, tomatoes, bell peppers, chocolate

Chunky Monkey. Pop tarts. Corned beef and cabbage.

Free refills

What is the special flavor of seltzer water nyc is supposed to have?

Juicy Lucy

SPAM

Kale chips.

Underwood deviled ham on wonder bread with French's mustard. Yum

Deep fried glazed donuts with bacon.

Cheese Doodles

Corned beef hash

"veggies"

19 ummm, no. Was supposedly invented in Mexico, and is not similar to the shit being peddled in the US for the past several decades.

cauliflower "pizza"

Jambalaya

Goetta is very similar to R84's scrapple. We have GoettaFest where I live: the goetta egg rolls aren't bad.

[R19] ummm, no. Was supposedly invented in Mexico, and is not similar to the shit being peddled in the US for the past several decades.

Bourbon balls!

R100:

The original was made by a Mexican-American to serve his Hollywood clientele’s palate in Tijuana.

It’s border food at most and definitely American.

Same with nachos which was invented at a baseball game in Arlington using corn chips and melted velveeta. True, Nacho was born in Mexico, but he was living in the USA, considered himself American, and served it on US soil...

Anything from New Orleans

The only uniquely American food is going to be derived from uniquely American ingredients.

Probably Pecan Pie is one of the few, the rest will have European and South American influences.

The same is true for most western nations (and Australia)

High fructose corn syrup

[quote]Fried chicken and BBQ are not American inventions.

Actually BBQ is a Native American invention. Not with the sauce stuff but with the slow cooking method over a low heat fire and smoke. It was later adapted and modified into what we think of as BBQ once the white man arrived.

R106 Pretty sure we had been slow cooking food over fire since The Stone Age in Europe.

But were you smoking it?

R74, I totally get what uniquely means you smug pompous jerk.

I listed foods that are stereotypically American, and have been developed into American traditions, usually in rural areas.. NONE of which things like cheese whiz and SPAM are. You define your terms your way, I'll define mine.

American food as compared to cuisines from anywhere else in the world, are bland. But I don't think we have to characterize American foods as consisting, exclusively, of total shit like pop-tarts and cheese doodles.

-- R71

That’s not how any of this works...

Mexico IS part of the Americas, OP.

R108 I've seen smoked food mentioned in a Roman cookery book from about the 2nd century AD.

Pretty sure that most coastal areas were smoking fish a couple of thousand years before that.

The English word "barbecue" and its cognates in other languages come from the Spanish word barbacoa.

Etymologists believe this to be derived from barabicu found in the language of the Arawak people of the Caribbean and the Timucua people of Florida.

It has entered some European languages in the form of barbacoa. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) traces the word to La Hispaniola and translates it as a "framework of sticks set upon posts".[2] Gonzalo Fernández De Oviedo y Valdés, a Spanish explorer, was the first to use the word "barbecoa" in print in Spain in 1526 in the Diccionario de la Lengua Española (2nd Edition) of the Real Academia Española.

After Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, the Spaniards apparently found Tainos roasting meat over a grill consisting of a wooden framework resting on sticks above a fire. The flames and smoke rose and enveloped the meat, giving it a certain flavor.

I’m sure that Neanderthals invented BBQs, but this is the official verdict. Not uniquely American

Freedom Fries!

FRIED BUTTER

Bagels and what about lox. I know other countries have smoked salmon but isn't lox, plain old lox, a NY thing?

Isn't almost all Chinese food in America American food cooked Chinese style? I've always heard that the Chinese food we get here is nothing like the food they eat in China.

Coke, Pepsi, 7up, what about those? American?

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes

R111 - oh please. go away.

R117 Srsly?

Yes, why? Are they not American?

fajitas were invented in Texas by Mexican farm workers.

Chow Mein is an American take on a Chinese dish, but has little resemblance to the original

This is a fascinating thread that is a case study in miscommunication

Clearly ‘American’ means multiple things to multiple people and that isn’t even getting to the heart of what makes something ‘American’

Anus

[quote][R106] Pretty sure we had been slow cooking food over fire since The Stone Age in Europe.

Actually not. Cooked over fire yes, but NOT BBQ. Totally different. Native Americans had a special wrack out of wood high above the flames and smoked it. BBQ is a cooking method, not just cooking with fire.

German Chocolate Cake.

Germany is not where the recipe came from. Sam German is the name of the inventor of the recipe in 1852. USA

Buffalo Wings - and to be authentic they must be made with Franks Hot Sauce

Corn Bread

Chinese Fortune Cookie - Invented in San Francisco

The Cobb Salad -The Brown Derby Hollywood

The Mai Tai Cocktail - San Francisco

The classic Martini

French Dip Sandwich - Los Angeles

General Tao’s Chicken

Long Island ice tea

Chimichangas - A fried burrito

Swiss Steak

Cuban Sandwich - Florida

Love the drunk poofs putting all the booze, I know a Long island Ice Tea is lunch

Fettucine alfredo

The BLT and the Club Sandwhich

[quote]Fettucine alfredo

WRONG. The heavy cream version we think is Alfredo was American but the original was invented by Alfredo di Lelio in Rome. It was fettuccine al burro. Basically pasta with butter and Parmigiano Reggiano. The original restaurant is still there.

Reuben Sandwich – Omaha, Nebraska

r129 see r30

I recall reading that the fortune cookie was developed in Japan, but never went anywhere until being brought to California

Is it possible to have fried butter on a bun?

Kwanzaa cake!

Hot dogs? Maybe German sausage influence?

[quote] The classic Martini

Tell that to James Bond.

r146 - if you knew what fried butter is you wouldn't ask. The butter is coated in flour, eggs and for additional flavor spices/seasoning.. Think of it this. You might put butter on your cinnamon muffin. In the case of friend butter, it's already on the muffin. Just on the inside.

Is the raw bar American fair? Can't think of where else I've seen restaurants/bars like this.

How does one invent pasta with butter and cheese. I mean that is just a natural combination. I can't believe thousands, maybe millions of people didn't combine these three things together until this guy says he "invented" it. Did the first person who thought of putting mustard on a hot dog invent it. Now I do imagine someone invented mustard and ketchup and things like that. Mustard seeds didn't just magically form into mustard not tomatoes and sugar and vinegar into ketchup but no one had to invent putting either on food, nor grated cheese and butter on pasta. My grandmother never served egg noodles without butter and salt. Hey, she should have become famous.

Omg.

R60 Apple Pie is not American.

R153 - originally Dutch? French? English?

R153

Thanks, R154. i was not far off!

[quote] “In fact, the first recorded recipe for apple pie was written in 1381 in England, and called for figs, raisins, pears, and saffron in addition to apples,” she writes. There were other differences, too: early apple pie recipes generally didn’t include sugar, and their pastry crust was “coffin” pastry, which was intended as an inedible container, not a part of the pie. There are also recipes for Dutch apple pies as far back as 1514, she writes.

^ should be American fare

[quote][R146] - if you knew what fried butter is you wouldn't ask. The butter is coated in flour, eggs and for additional flavor spices/seasoning.. Think of it this. You might put butter on your cinnamon muffin. In the case of friend butter, it's already on the muffin. Just on the inside.

Ok. Can you put it on a bun?

Do they walk in back of the people who eat the fried butter with a defibrillator?

I ate fried butter ...

R157 - sure. Why not? I'd think you could figure that out on yourself..

Ice cream cone

The Piña Colada was invented in Puerto Rico, which is in fact, an American territory.

Tuna noodle hot dish

Funeral potatoes

Jell-O "Salads"

Everything with sugar is more appropriate to America than Europe. Granted sugar came from Africa, but it is more at home here. Nothing chocolate ever grew in Europe. Everything with potatoes and tomatoes. Maize is as much North American as Mexican and the kind of maize we eat in the North was never seen in Mexico until quite recently.

I'm looking forward to an explosion of Russian restaurants, since we're now part of that country. Pelmini, borscht and cabbage rolls should be easy to find and will supplant tacos and enchiladas as US favorites as we kick Mexico further into the gutter.

Fairy toast

Tang Pie.

The addition of unnecessary cheesecake-like dairy ingredients makes it extra gross.

Trust me.

Ranch dressing

Oleomargarine

Pez

Key lime pie!!!!

R169 Real Hidden Valley Ranch is more delicious and addictive than meth-coated Skittles.

All other Ranch Dressings are pretenders to the throne.

Good bacon

Have you tried the stuff they pass off as bacon in Britain and Ireland?

It may be pork, but it ain’t bacon.

R170, Margarine is a French invention. And Pez is from Austria.

Italian food is American food...or potatoes.

It has to be the BUTTERMILK version of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. I know, I did the research.

Slurpees!

Fried Chicken?

[quote]How does one invent pasta with butter and cheese. I mean that is just a natural combination. I can't believe thousands, maybe millions of people didn't combine these three things together until this guy says he "invented" it.

Wow dont blow a nut R150. Yes one man in Italy invented Fettuccine Alfredo. Quantity of ingredients is irreverent, if no one did it before than he was the inventor. Just like a hard boiled egg is totally different from an omelet. One ingredient, totally different outcome and cooking method.

Cookie dough, and cookie dough-flavored stuff.

Deep fried twinkies

Schweddy Balls! Ice cream based off an SNL skit.

Vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and is loaded with fudge-covered rum balls and milk-chocolate malt balls.

[quote]Schweddy Balls! Ice cream based on an SNL skit.

Fixed.

That lasagne made with mozzarella and ricotta, and those thick noodles? That's American.

Coca-Cola spiked with a handful of boiled peanuts.

R176 YES . It's the only correct way. And never bottled from off the store shelf .

[quote]That lasagne made with mozzarella and ricotta, and those thick noodles? That's American.

No -- the American version would have cottage cheese in lieu of ricotta.

r187 And Parks breakfast sausage.

Even ricotta.isn't uniquely Italian there are versions of it all around the world, most of which have been produced for at least as long as ricotta. (Urda, Manouri, requesón) some probably longer.

[quote]I mean [bold]without[/bold] Italian, Mexican

hahaha...good one, for a moment I thought you were serious.

Cleanup in the cheez dept:

Longhorn and pepper jack.

Processed 'cheese food'.

Cheetos.

john marzetti and it's permutations

cheeseburgers

pecan pie

peanut butter (and almost anything involving peanut butter)

SPAM

Weren't Hall & Gamble making canned ham (SPAM) type products in the UK from about 1830 onwards about 100 years before the US started making SPAM. They later became Cross & Blackwell.

That doesn’t mean the product inside was the same as SPAM

R186 - I agree. I remember when it first came out and the only version available required buttermilk. You know what else I remember. Throwing out the leftover buttermilk. I was a college student at the time. Friends would get together for dinner. Spaghetti, garlic bread , salad with Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing and a few bottles of cheap Chianti in those bottles with the straw covers was standard fare. I don't think any of us had a clue what to do with buttermilk.

On the flip side my mother made it all the time. My father loved buttermilk. So it worked out.

Tasteless, fattening food.

I win!

Uniquely American? What is meant by "American?" Food of the America today? That's easy. Cheeseburgers, ribs, fried chicken, Ceasar Salad, pop, hot dogs, bottled water, tacos, Chinese takeout food

That's the thing, R193, most food worldwide is derivative in some manner. SPAM is a type of potted meat. Chicken fried steak is schnitzel. Stuff smeared on bread and baked is pizza, lahma b'ajin or any of a number of other names. Ranch dressing is a type of remoulade.

American food is probably most in its own in its modern technological forms, such as fast food, snack foods and junk foods.

A few on here that are truly American are tater tots, modern casseroles (aka hot dish), key lime pie, pecan pie (still a distant cousin of chess pie which is English), peanut butter, corn dogs, ice cream cones, sundaes, Twinkies, Jell-O, Reuben sandwiches, Buffalo wings, German chocolate cake, etc.

I want deep fried Twinkles.

Cincinnati chili was developed by Greek-speaking immigrants.

I consider American food to be burgers and fries.

Fries are of Belgian origin.

[quote] The original was made by a Mexican-American to serve his Hollywood clientele’s palate in Tijuana.It’s border food at most and definitely American.Same with nachos which was invented at a baseball game in Arlington using corn chips and melted velveeta. True, Nacho was born in Mexico, but he was living in the USA, considered himself American, and served it on US soil...

R102 , Cesar Salada is indeed border food from Mexico.

Nachos is definitely Mexican and was a version of Chilaquiles and totopos. That BS that was invented in a baseball stand is ludicrous. It was taken from totopos de carne asada.

Caesar *

Fried Twinky

R198 - good list but I'd drop the bottled water. Bottled water has been common in Europe for a very long time. My family lived in Western Europe in the 1970s and had a home delivery service of bottled water. I thnk they got water and orange soda delivered.

I agree with R204 about nachos. The original Mexican version has chips (totopos) individually covered with refried beans, and/or meat and cheese and jalapeno slices, prepared as if hors d'oeuvres (aka botanas in Mexican). I expect the pile of chips covered with Cheez Whiz is American though.

That’s the point, R208

Putting processed cheese on corn chips has nothing to do with Mexican food that isn’t called ‘Nachos’

[quote]based off of

Oh, dear.

Jell-O Pudding Pops!

Little Debbie Snack cakes. That bitch knows her way around a kitchen.