American Food
Cooking in the USA is not just hamburgers, pizza and fast food! Our fast food restaurant chains have been very successful at introducing American style fast food around the world, now people from many lands believe it is what we all eat in the USA. As the melting pot of many different cultures, the US has also become the mixing pot for many different cuisines, and we have a rich variety of foods to choose from.
American Hamburger
Fast Food is certainly available all over the USA and is very popular. You will find a wide variety of fast food restaurants serving all sorts of delicacies from American style hamburgers, hot dogs and fried chicken to Italian pizza, Mexican tacos, Greek Gyros and Chinese egg rolls. Some of the fast food can be quite delicious and it is almost always inexpensive. The restaurant chains may lack interesting variety, but you will usually be assured of good service, consistent quality and clean facilities.
American cooking (US cooking) is usually considered to consist of the traditional dishes long popular in the USA. Most were introduced by the early European immigrants but modified to take advantage of the locally available ingredients and to conform to local tastes. Fried chicken, meatloaf, baked potato, corn, baked beans and apple pie would be considered traditional American dishes.
Regional Cooking varies from state to state and is highly influenced by the types of ingredients locally available, as well as the cultural background of the people that settled in the area. New England cooking, native to the northeastern states; was heavily influenced by the cuisine of the original English settlers. Southern cooking has definite African influences. Cajun cooking, from the New Orleans area, is a spicy mixture of Spanish, French and African styles. California cooking is known for the use of fresh fruits and vegetables in interesting combinations with Asian, Mexican and Spanish flavorings.
Roast Turkey
Ethnic Foods of all sorts are popular everywhere in the US and readily available in most areas. Italian cuisine is popular everywhere, from fast food pizza to gourmet Italian regional cuisine. The same is true of Chinese cuisine. Mexican restaurants are extremely popular in the southwestern and western states and can be found throughout the rest of the states as well. In most cities you will also find restaurants serving Eastern European, Greek, Middle Eastern, Indian, African, South American, Caribbean and numerous other cultural foods.
Healthy Food is very popular in the USA. Everyone seems to be dieting and trying to lose a few pounds. If you prefer low fat, low calorie or vegetarian food, you will have no trouble finding it in the US. Salad bars are very common and many restaurants offer low calorie or low fat items on their menus.
Cheap Eats are readily available. If you are touring the USA on a very tight budget, you can easily feed yourself quite well on less than $10 a day, and if you are willing to do a bit of your own cooking you can get by on even less.
Written by: Mike Leco
The basis of a hamburger is, of course, the ground beef from which you make the “patties.”
In preparing the patties, I have tried all sorts of “add-ins” to mix with the beef - everything from dried onion soup mix, to eggs, to bacon fat, to grated cheese . The absolute best to add is…nothing at all! Why dilute that pure beefy taste?
When making your own hamburgers, start with 1 ¼ pounds of ground beef with 20% fat content. This will be enough for four patties.
Normally I buy a lesser fat content, but for really tasty burgers, get the 20%.
Divide the beef into four sections. Gently form each section into a round “patty” shape. It’s not necessary to tightly pack the beef into shape. In fact, you should try to handle the beef as little as possible.
Each patty should measure approximately ¾ inches thick and 4 ½ inches across.
Wrap the extra patties in plastic wrap and freeze them for next week’s dinner.
Before you start cooking the hamburgers, toast the cut side of the rolls. (Untoasted rolls get soggy very quickly.) Lay the rolls out on a baking sheet with sides and put them under the broiler.
It will only take a minute or two, so don’t do anything but stand there with pot holder in your hand, ready to remove the rolls from the oven. (They go from beautifully toasted to burnt in the blink of an eye. Then the smoke alarm goes off and ….you know the rest!)
Preheat your fry pan by putting a few drops of water in the pan. By the time they have evaporated, your pan will be hot.
Make sure the fry pan you are using is large enough to hold your hamburgers without squishing them together.
Cook the hamburgers on one side then flip them once, and then cook them on the other side.
Cooking times on each side:
- 3 minutes for RARE
- 4 minutes for MEDIUM
- 5 minutes for WELL DONE
If you want to make a cheeseburger, place a slice of cheese on the flip side about 1 minute before the burgers are done cooking. The heat from the hamburgers will melt the cheese.
Serve your hamburgers with sliced tomatoes, lettuce, a dollop of mayonnaise and some salt and pepper.
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- (Makes 4 Patties)
- 1 ¼ pounds of ground beef (80/20 Fat Ratio)
- 4 Hamburger Buns
Optional Ingredients:
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