this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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While this meme is suburb, I assume you're aware that the legacy of bland British food is heavily influenced by WW2 and post-war rationing. It had an impact even here in the US, but a much stronger one in the UK where they were rationing well into the 50s if I remember right.
Culinary history is a fun branch.
Is that why the Midwest was addicted to canned vegetables, "casseroles", and why they're allergic to anything more flavorful than salt and pepper?
Partly.
I'd say that impacted the entire US. The SNL skit Coneheads was all about this with "mass quantities".
Keep in mind the impact of the Depression on people too. Quality isn't a concern when you're not even getting enough to eat (my parents, but especially grandparents can/could speak to this). My father was always hungry until he was drafted.
Studs Terkel's Hard Times should be required reading today.
Twentieth century food production was a godsend to anyone born before the 1950's.
Plus the Midwest was heavily settled by Nordic folks and Eastern European, bringing their food traditions with them.
Yeah my family is from the Midwest. On my mom's side we're 4th gen Norwegians who founded a town in Kansas (pretty sure it's Kansas). They arrived just before the depression and I'm pretty sure my family's legacy of bland cooking is partly a result from that and our Norwegian heritage. We still make kumla every year. Good stuff (minus the canned veggies. Seriously Midwest, it's ok to use fresh vegetables)
Kumla looks pretty good. Now I really wish I had picked up lingonberries when I was at IKEA last weekend. Unfortunately I decided I didn’t know what I’d do with them. Now I know
Oh boy, kumla looks good!
So funny Midwestern farmers of all used canned veggies. But I can understand. Put yourself into Mom's shoes at the time, 10 seconds to open a can, VS an hour to clean/chop/cook a veggie.
I highly recommend giving kumla a try! It's very filling and will probably leave you a couple pounds heavier (don't be shy with the butter). On the vegetable note, I can see it as a practical measure but some things are worth the extra effort imo
I'm no expert on Midwestern cuisine, there could be other factors like some central European culinary traditions, maybe religious conservatism and a general distrust of new things more common to inland cultures.
So, a factor for sure, but it's probably complicated.
You're probably right, I just wanted to take a cheap shot at the Midwest haha
Hot Dish!
(what most people call casserole)
Ope!
By and large, yeah. Although it got it's start with world war one rationing, proved handy during the depression and then through the second world war.
Once you're at 30-40 years a recipe can become a "family recipe" pretty easily and then it lasts even longer.
The spice thing is because in the 1800s a lot of the religions that were most prevalent in the area condemned "pleasures of the flesh" as sins only fit for "dirty, sensual Catholics enthralled to the Pope". Looking at you, Italians. 🤨. You can see it in things like corn flakes, the cereal designed to be nutritional and the worst, or graham crackers, the least masturbatory cracker.
It's why so many of the biggest cereal manufacturers are from the Midwest and have insane history.
Don't be too hard on the hot dish though, a lot of them have evolved towards a sorta reinvention of Shepard's pie or scalloped potatoes.
"Minced meat with vegetables topped with potatoes" and "potatoes mixed with a thickened cream topped with cheese".
Green bean and tuna noodle casserole are not for me though.
Dang, ppl are putting suburbs everywhere these days. First they put them in cities, then rural areas, and now they're putting suburbs in memes too? How does that even work?
Sometimes I can't believe it...
This is absolutely right.
Unfortunately England chose to carry on like we were rationed into the 1970s.
Stuff like that leaves a mark. It took the US beer industry 60 years to recover from prohibition and start making actually good beer again. We still have depression era dishes, like Anything Chili. We just were lucky to have peppers that grew natively.
Oh, I've always assumed that the bland British food jokes are because a few of the less exciting offerings are just so easy to make fun of, like beans on toast, not an actual paucity of culinary culture.
Don’t jump the gun common British food not great before either, but it was eaten by peasants that had no access to spices besides salt. The taste of their food and the beauty of their women made the British the best sailors in the world.
It's a funny joke but that last line taken seriously indicates that for all their pillaging they did a surprisingly small amount of raping. After all, that's why women in Scandinavia are mostly attractive, the Vikings enjoyed both in equal amounts.
Alternate take: this meme is expired, because all of the foods on that plate are only bland if prepared by a bad cook.
Toast with butter is a delight. It's not gonna knock your socks off with complexity, but good bread with good butter shouldn't be bland. Heck, good bread by itself shouldn't be bland. Same with fried fish - a nice juicy piece of flaky white fish fried in a properly-seasoned batter is an absolute delight, not bland at all unless you're using bottom of the barrel ingredients and don't know what you're doing. And canned beans are absolutely loaded with spices, salt, and acidity, they're probably the most complex thing on that plate.