Ethnic was American Diet was [Sca-cooks] Re: Anchovette

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 7, 2005, at 10:40 PM, Radei Drchevich wrote:

> The mid-west is not all Chicken fried steak with cream gravy, mashed
> potatoes, and corn.

No, some of it is lasagne made with cottage cheese, Velveeta, and  
ketchup. And also a lot of other stuff. It's hugely varied, but I do  
think the stereotypes exist for a reason, and that their applications  
almost certainly do outnumber the exceptions, which are what you're  
citing, as well as some examples of foods which, while eaten in the  
US, by Americans, aren't necessarily primary examples of "American  
Food". The bottom line is that, if we had honest numbers on the  
number of the total 260 million or so Americans, who ate anchovies in  
the past 24 hours, I don't think we'd come across as a big anchovy- 
eating nation. Compared to, say, Italy or the south of France.  
Telling me that some people did eat anchovies in the past 24 hours  
(myself included, by the way), doesn't really change that.

>   Lot of the Church supper recipes from
> Great-grandma's Church's cookbook<fund rasier> dated 1888 have  
> anchovies
> in one form or another.

Okay, I'm not denying that. Given a sampling of my older cookbooks,  
and the different types of Little Salted Fish specified therein, I  
was just wondering if some of your family recipes had been recopied  
with some more modern substitutions made.

BTW, in case anyone is interested, I did a little digging, and  
determined that sardellen are, for practical purposes,  
interchangeable with anchovies. They're the same fish, just processed  
a little differently, and generally sold in whole, dry, salted form,  
so you have to soak them, split and behead them before use. Which,  
admittedly, is a common approach to anchovies in Europe, too.

> ok, flame off....

What flame?

> sorry I ramble a lot.

Wow. I never do that ;-) .

>   "I am Osimandius, King of Kings,
>
>   look upon my visage, Ye Mighty and tremble.
>
>   only this remained....."
>
>   Browning<I think, can't remember>

Shelley ;-)


Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
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