In the kingdom of excess, fried butter is king. Across the Atlantic, the Americans never cease to surprise us with their recipes guaranteed 100% cholesterol. On social networks, entire TikTok accounts have fun mocking the gastronomy of the United States and especially its inhabitants, who are multiplying their attempts… Sometimes surprising.
On the occasion of the end-of-year celebrations, when the French make it a principle to gorge themselves on oysters, foie gras and smoked salmon, 20 minutes had fun looking at the top five American specialties which, seen from the land of gastronomy, turn our stomachs. An obviously humorous recipe competition, because we envy our friends of freedom of expression and excess some of their culinary innovations like the poke bowl, born in Hawaii, and today a star of lunches .
Fried butter
Fried butter is THE unmissable star of blue-white-red disgust in the face of the American passion for everything fried. “In France, we have this image of the American who eats too much, too fatty, too sweet. Their way of eating is very different from France, but it is not just about frying food,” recalls Claire Pichon, author and editor-in-chief of the magazines. Crazy about baking And Crazy about cooking. “Fried butter is particularly outrageous and seems unnatural to us in France. We don’t have at all the same gastronomic culture or the same references,” she adds. The excess did not stop at butter, there is also a recipe for fried Coca-Cola balls.
Invented during the Texas State Fairs in 2006, it now has its own Wikipedia page. Abel Gonzales Junior is the brain behind these two recipes, imagined for the Big Tex Choice Awards, a competition which crowns the best fried recipe. “There is almost something of a challenge: “I can always go further than my neighbor”. And these are dishes served at fairs: once in a while, we hurt ourselves a little to have fun, it’s festive,” smiles Claire Pichon who still slips away that fried butter is, obviously, “bad for the heart”.
Ambrosia salad
In France, the word salad immediately brings to mind lettuce, possibly garnished with small hot goat cheese croutons. But no vegetables for the ambrosia salad.
If in legend, ambrosia, food of the gods, assured them immortality, with its canned tangerines and mini marshmallows, ambrosia salad nevertheless holds less promise. “We must not forget that originally, the word salad meant mixture. It is this origin that is highlighted with the ambrosia salad,” says Claire Pichon.
Jello salad
If you want to stock up on antioxidants, this is probably not the right recipe. Sometimes Jello salad contains carrots or even other vegetables, depending on the cook’s imagination, but these are not essential. To taste this specialty, considered retro because very popular in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, you must bring fresh cheese, marshmallow (yes, again), nuts and above all a large quantity of gelatin. The variations exist endlessly: with tuna, with chicken or even with celery.
“The cuisine and particularly the desserts resonate with the pleasures of childhood. However, Americans do not have the same frame of reference as us: it is rather the colors and candies that remind them of childhood,” explains the editor-in-chief of the magazines. Crazy about baking And Crazy about cooking. So it’s normal that with our memories of croissants and buttered toast sprinkled with cocoa (no, it was just me?), the gelatin crown makes us wrinkle our noses.
Sweet snow
Let’s go to Vermont now. In this small American state, near New York, one of the specialties consists of pouring maple syrup on fresh snow. “It’s similar to a traditional Japanese dessert called kakigori,” emphasizes Claire Pichon, who adds that it’s “delicious” and that “with ice cream, there’s a lot going on in terms of texture.”
“In the kitchen, before being able to travel like today, we invented things based on what we had at home. All the children who played in the snow put some in their mouths, it’s almost logical that it ends up on the plate,” she emphasizes. A classic recipe, therefore. Especially since Vermont is the leading producer of maple syrup in the country.
Sweet potato and marshmallow gratin
It’s a Thanksgiving staple. The sweet potatoes are macerated with butter, sugar and milk then covered with marshmallow and put in the oven. The gratin is then served as an accompaniment to the turkey, as a gratin dauphinois would be in France. “The French have sweet tooths but work with sweets as a culinary domain in its own right, very separate,” recalls Claire Pichon.
Still, the amount of sugar that Americans can ingest without feeling nauseous generally leaves us speechless. “Their relationship with sugar is very different from ours. Recently we published a recipe for brownies from an American chef and I thought there was an error on the quantity of sugar, it was so crazy. For us, it’s barely edible because it’s so sweet. But for them, it’s normal,” she illustrates.