American butter is shit tbf

  • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    There are excellent American-made butters done traditionally. I hate that they’re making me defend the US but they have no monopoly on shitty food. It’s kinda just another form of exceptionalism.

    There’s no secret to good butter. Grass fed cows, fermented milk, and high fat content. It’s just expensive.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      In average American food is terrible.

      That doesn’t mean there isn’t great American food, it just means that the stuff that’s sold the most is horridly heavily processed, thoroughly artificial and/or intensively farmed/raised crap.

      It’s not a lack of knowledge or capable people in that domain, it’s that the system pushes cheap crap that whilst it own’t kill you outright it will shorten your Life Expectation by almost two decades compared to most Europeans.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Yeah, I too think it’s a mix.

            You see some kinds of shit food also being pushed in Europe, and then you see different outcomes per country, depending on local food culture and also legislation - people expect some thing and won’t settle for less plus certain things are simply not allowed by Law to be sold as food or be branded in some ways (for example, there UK has very strict demands of what can go into what can be called a “sausage”, which is why the shit stuff is called “bangers”).

            Also in Europe vs the US you see a major difference in where farming subsidies go to - if more traditional farming is subsidized instead of corn raising and hormone-filled cattle breeding, the better quality stuff is what’s cheaper not the crap stuff.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          The CAP in Europe subsidizes more traditional farming and farming produce, not corn + hormone beef.

          Also there are all sorts of local legislation that limit the extent to which crap food can be passed as real food: a lot of what can be sold as “cheese” in America can’t be sold as “fromage” in France and similarly a “sausage” in Britain has a very strict definition of what can go into it (the crap stuff is called a “banger” since BY LAW it can’t be called a “sausage”).

          A lot of the bad practices would be just as cost-saving to do in Europe as in the US, it’s just that the legislation is way tighter and to some level (depending on the country) consumers are much more demanding (plus also due to the legislation, producers can’t just name the fake stuff the same as the real stuff).

          The impression I have from talking to Americans is that to eat good food in the US you need to really make an effort, whilst in Europe for most things comparativelly higher quality ingredients are widespread (often the default), easy to find it and there are quite a lot of restrictions on what producers can put in it (or how it’s farmed or raised).

        • LotrOrc@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          No it’s not it’s specifically that companies can sell Americans the same food they sell in other countries but in those countries, the same food is made with much better ingredients.

          Look at the difference between the ingredient list in a Heinz ketchup bottle in the EU vs in America.

      • Junkhead@slrpnk.net
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        4 months ago

        i will skullfuck you, american food is literally the only thing we do well because our cuisine is so fucking diverse holy shit are you completely and totally wrong. You just generalized an entire country full of diverse palates and tastes.

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, when people discuss american food they automatically think of off-the-shelf walmart stuff, mcdonalds, etc. When there are tons of artisanal food producers here, like a lot of them.

      • scbasteve7@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        “American cheese isn’t even cheese”. I mean ‘american cheese’ is very processed. But go to Wisconsin and tell me we don’t have good cheese.

        There’s plenty of good quality stuff in America. We just can’t fucking afford it.