SORTED eats America (part 1)

It’s no longer all burgers and fries in the US, but instead there’s a fresh, vibrant and evolving food culture they can be proud of.

Much like the UK, the USA culinary scene has blossomed into something huge and wonderful in recent years. It’s no longer all burgers and fries, but instead there’s a fresh, vibrant and evolving food culture that the US can proudly associate itself with.

We love to talk food with the Sorted community, and one of the best ways to get people involved and chatting is to cook things that we actually have no idea about! We came up with six recipes that we thought were stereotypically American and cooked our own versions before nervously awaiting feedback.

The first recipe was American Pie and of course we weren't let down! There were loads of comments, some complimentary, some not so much! For the most part, though, the comments were incredibly insightful. We always say that we learn as much from our community as they learn from us!

BLUEBERRIES? Some people could live with that but no way were we getting away with it unscathed! The classic American Pie would never include blueberries, and the apples should be sliced and delicately placed in the crust, not chopped and thrown in! Americans are proud of their food culture and not afraid to show it!

We also got some really interesting and amazing ideas, one of which was adding cheddar cheese to our pie (?!). It sounds crazy, but loads of people gave us this idea, and we had to try it. Just as they promised, the sharpness of the cheddar perfectly compliments the sweet apples and pastry. Next time you have apple pie, switch up the ice cream for a slice of cheese and you’ll see what we mean!

Ones of the savoury recipes that we tried our hand at was a Jack Daniels Chicken Sub.

Can’t really fail at this one… aside from the small matter of JD not actually being bourbon (BEN!), as we were reminded of many times by many knowledgeable community members. Interestingly, we were told that Jack Daniels is made in a ‘dry’ county in which you can’t buy or sell alcohol of any sort!

We also got some great suggestions on how to improve the recipe. Celery seed in the coleslaw was mentioned a few times and sounds like an amazing idea. Apparently we’ll never go back after trying it. Have you tried it?

We’re always looking for new challenges and cultures to try when it comes to food. What should we do next?