diz cooks an all american meal

D

dizietsma

Banned
Today I decided to cook and all amercian meal in the comfort of my home in rainy old England.

I've always been interested in why you guys over on the west of the big pond always ate biscuits with gravy ..all the time.

In England biscuits are taken with tea, not this concoction from the very bowels of the Island of Dr Moreau

http://www.aocb77.dsl.pipex.com/bb1.jpg

Digging further it seems you are actually talking about scones in a pork sausage meat roux sauce. Maybe. So I thought I'd cook it and further cement the special relationship between the USA and the UK whilst cocking a snoot at the smelly old French to boot. Hurragh ! Mind you, if my roux sauce does not come off I will be concreting our relationship rather than cementing it I fear.

I've just finished frying my sausage meat.

http://www.aocb77.dsl.pipex.com/bb2.jpg


Mmmm crispy ( but not very appealing at all it must be said :( . You can probably tell I did not have real sausage meat and simply skinned the sausages alive and rolled the 4 together before cooking them in the frying pan. Now the recipe stipulated butter to fry them in but I have gone for beef dripping to make it even more meaty. Perhaps lard would have been even better though.

Next I am going to have another beer and then attempt the scon-sorry, biscuits. I fear I might be meeting my match here as dough and pastry are not my best buddies, the last time I made real pasta it was about 1/2 inch thick and was like eating soggy cardboard.

More photo's to come as I resort to flour power.
 
Well I have hit my first snag with the biscuits, recipe calls for 2 cups of flour. How scientific is that ?

http://www.aocb77.dsl.pipex.com/bb5.jpg

Hmmmm .. I'll have to look for some conversion tables to turn that into good old British cubits or French milliamps. Bugger.

Got all my ingredients together though

http://www.aocb77.dsl.pipex.com/bb4.jpg

My internet recipe further down says " Place them on parchment paper on a sheet tray and then into a preheated oven .." Parchment paper, sorry I am all out of Dead Sea Scrolls hanging around the place, how about some tin foil ?
 
Hotdogs, turkeys, and anything involving corn come to mind as being fairly American.

Hamburgers are definitely up there however.

If you want a serious meal cooking up a turkey and all of the sides Thanksgiving style would be hard to beat. It would also be hard to cook unless you really knew what you were doing. As for the biscuits, they're a good start towards the turkey dinner. Add in some mashed potatoes and you're getting close.
 
I've always been interested in why you guys over on the west of the big pond always ate biscuits with gravy ..all the time.

In England biscuits are taken with tea, not this concoction from the very bowels of the Island of Dr Moreau
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Well, the word "biscuit" tends to be ill-defined. The biscuit to which you refer might in the US be referred to as cookies or crackers (I believe cracker is the more appropriate word because it is layered and folded, IIRC). The American biscuit is a chemically leavened quick bread (you can make things easy by using self-rising flour or you can use AP flour and baking powder + additional baking soda to balance any other acidic additions you might use like buttermilk), so they're closer to unsweetened unseasoned (except for salt, of course) scones. They're generally just as much likable with butter and/or jam as they are in the middle of a savory meal.

I tend to be preferential to the additions of butter and honey, myself.

Well I have hit my first snag with the biscuits, recipe calls for 2 cups of flour. How scientific is that ?
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Cups is a pretty standard measure in the US for all cooking (i.e. 16 tbsp or 236.5 mL, whatever). It's by no means a very good unit for measuring dry ingredients for more precise baking because you're more concerned with absolute quantities, and therefore want to measure masses rather than volumes (airier or finer flours may use up different volumes for the same mass, after all). Biscuits are meant to be an easy quick fix for home-made meals, so you tend to do things until it "feels about right."

http://www.aocb77.dsl.pipex.com/bb6.jpg

I have no idea how thick to make them so made them of varying thicknesses.
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Looks about right.
 
Biscuits and Gravy is one of my favorite breakfasts and my wife makes them very well. Actually so does my uncle in Tennessee. Your sausage looks not so swell... :)

You don't need a patty, just use it like it was ground beef and then make the white gravy with the drippings. Then when you pour gravy on biscuits it has the sausage mixed in.

What about chicken fried steak is that an American meal?

And booo! to whomever said anything about McDonalds, it is disgusting.
 
KBeee said:
A Cup (as a volume measurement) is the equivalent of 8 fl.oz in the UK
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As if Imperial units are any better...

I mean, you were originally supposed to rid yourselves of that abomination in 1978, and I bet you'll delay again before the currently projected completion in 2009...

Power of ten rocks, now get with the program already! :LOL:
 
OW... the pain ;_; why oh why must you torture american food on your first time in the kitchen ever!? XD

bah, i suppose it's only fair, after all, i believe we owe the british, at least, for the french fry...
 
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