Debate user 'Null' if America has Cheese, Meat, and Bread.

[Apati]

I long for the day I can eat microplastic-free sourdough.

You should make a sourdough starter. I’ve been looking into making one after a friend showed me their set up and I tried some of their bread. Well worth the effort I’d say but a bit annoying

 

[Archeops]

Eh, I don’t really have a soapbox to stand on here since there are some processed foods I personally couldn’t live without but I’ll dissect Dear Feeder’s words as best I can.

Americans eat fifty kinds of cheddar and shredded processed cheese. If they're lucky they have mozzarella still in a brine, whatever the fuck "swiss" means, bleu cheese (generally in a bottle of premade dressing), and one soft cheese: brie. If they're really fancy, they will have Muenster.

This is technically true but the only thing I will defend is that having processed cheese isn’t bad nor is it unique to the US (Hell, the Wikipedia article for processed cheese has a picture of a Dutch brand of processed cheese spread on it). It’s only gets disgusting when you get into the complex world of cheese labeling.

Spoiler: Cheese labeling and all of the FDA-related autism that comes with it

Cheese is pretty self-explanatory, it’s 100% real cheese.

Pasteurized process cheese has to consist of 1 or more cheeses (in addition to emulsifiers and preservatives), the product’s moisture can’t account for 41% of the its weight, and the product’s fat content can’t exceed 49%.

Pasteurized process cheese food is made from the same cheeses Pasteurized processed cheese is made from but said cheese only makes up no less than 51% of the product's final weight, the other 49% can consist of one or more other ingredients (fluid milk, whey, non-dairy ingredients, etc.).

"Pasteurized prepared cheese product" and "pasteurized process cheese product" are where things can get dicey since the FDA has no clear definition of either products. The main thing that separates these two products from the previous three is that companies can use milk protein concentrate (which is basically a dairy product that contains anywhere between 40%-to-90% milk protein) in pasteurized prepared cheese products and pasteurized process cheese products.

For those of you wondering where shit like Kraft Singles, Velveeta, and Easy Cheese are in this line up they belong to the last group in the above list. Kraft even got into trouble with the FDA over those products being mislabeled back in 2002 (Kraft Singles going from "pasteurized process cheese food" to "pasteurized prepared cheese product", Velveeta going from "pasteurized process cheese spread" to "pasteurized prepared cheese product", and Easy Cheee went from "pasteurized process cheese spread" to "pasteurized cheese snack").

As long as you avoid the last two product labels (and the third to a lesser extent) you're generally fine with the cheeses you can get in stores.

As far as variety goes it'll vary depending on your grocery stores. My local grocery stores all have some form of cheese section and I can find all of the cheeses Null listed (the brined mozzas come in dfferent sizes and even one that has herbs in the brine, different varieties of blue cheese that don't come in a bottle of dressing and can either be wedged or crumbled). I can even find varieties like Mimolette and Caciocavallo.

Their bread aisle is a bunch of bags of shelf stable bread that can survive thermonuclear war. Sometimes the 'artisan' bread bags are literally painted to look like they have beads of steam clouding them, as if they came off a bakery line. They will have access to maybe two types of fresh baked breads at Walmart.

This is something I can agree with because I have bread in my pantry that still looks edible and feels soft despite buying it more than a week or two ago. But like the cheese thing it has its reasons for being done.

Your average American household doesn’t have the time or resources to bake a fresh loaf of bread and, in a sad state of affairs that I can only equate to the loss of general cooking knowledge among the younger generations, households no longer knowing how to make homemade bread. Combine that with the difficulty of keeping a basic sourdough starter alive (and usable, it’s possible to taint it with mold that causes brightly-colored patches of fuzz to grow in ’em)

And as far as bakeries go my local super markets have those as well (although I will yield on one since its in-house bakery specializes in sweets), the breads they make typically have a week-long shelf life.

My knowledge of meat processing is a bit lackluster but I’ll try to cover those as well.

Most Amerimutts don't even know all their meat is processed in USDA approved slaughterhouses owned by the same four companies. You would assume if you live in a big cow state, you'd be eating local meat. You might be wrong. It's impossible to tell. USDA inspection labels don't tell you where the cow came from, what company raised it, where it was slaughtered. You don't know shit.

This is something that I agree needs to change, especially if “ethical” farming (I despise factory farming on a personal level after seeing the quality of homegrown beef and comparing it to factory-farmed beef) becomes that much more popular among the population.

As far as all US slaughterhouses being owned by the same for companies is concerned that largely boils down to laziness within the USDA, cost, and allocating resources. It’s probably “easier” for the USDA to check the nation’s slaughterhouses and give them a safety check when you can easily give a few locations a run-through, tell the upper management what needs to be fixed at that location and others owned by them, and technically give all of their locations a rubber stamp of approval.

In the end, if you want Amerilards to get better food you’ll have to restructure the USDA from the ground up.

And you might think if you walk down to your local deli you can buy a cut right off a local cow. WRONG!!!! WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! It is FEDERALLY ILLEGAL to sell meat you butchered yourself. The only way you buy local meat butchered by a guy you know is to buy half of an entire cow to get what is called 'custom meat', which CANNOT be sold as individual cuts. ALL meat in the US is from slaughterhouses.

As far as selling meat you personally butchered I can understand why it’s illegal, just ask a hunter how easy it is to taint a carcass and render the entire animal unsafe to eat.

Oh, and the “you have to buy half of a cow in order to get custom meat” thing isn’t that big of an issue, especially when a group of families can buy one (or, as other users have pointed out, sponsor a beef cow at a local 4H fair) and have it processed and get all the cuts they need/want. Remember that your typical beef cow’s “hot carcass” weighs around 750 pounds, its cold carcass weighs about 730 pounds, and will yield around 500 pounds of usable meat after trimming and de-boning.

EDIT: I accidentally hit send too early but I felt that it’s better to just edit the rest in.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Pinconning is a really good aged cheddar, but it's impossible to find outside the far, frozen north; same with the Amish farmer's cheese.

When I first moved to Germany many years ago, I was spoiled by the local fresh bread & cheese, and it was rather sad that I knew many other Americans who only bought their groceries from the commissaries on US Army posts. They would stock up once a month on processed shit imported from the States & many absolutely refused to even try anything else when I offered.

 

[Tour of Italy]

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[Cascade]

Dumb question from a non-American, but what's the problem with buying a bread machine? All you need to do is throw the ingredients inside and press the button. The best investment you can make if you love fresh baked goods.
Soft cheese and yoghurts can also be made at home.

 

[Stan]

You don’t need to spend $1000 a month on decent food. If you buy in season, that already saves money. I view Whole Foods as generally overpriced compared to places like Sprouts, that sell similar items. Some things also aren’t worth buying organic, at least to me. I don’t really see much difference in buying organic versus non organic herbs. For just two people, $1000 a month on food is a bit much, at least to me. If you got everything off of DoorDash, then I could see that being the average monthly cost, but most people I know don’t DoorDash everything.

I probably spend like $700 per month to feed a family of three and we eat like kangz

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

Your average American household doesn’t have the time or resources to bake a fresh loaf of bread and, in a sad state of affairs that I can only equate to the loss of general cooking knowledge among the younger generations, households no longer knowing how to make homemade bread. Combine that with the difficulty of keeping a basic sourdough starter alive (and usable, it’s possible to taint it with mold that causes brightly-colored patches of fuzz to grow in ’em)

I think it's more a cultural shift that occurred during the first half of the 20th century. Processed and industrialized food production was considered modern and more sanitary and a symbol of immigrants' assimilation into American culture. In general there was the belief these technologies would save people (especially women) the burden of homemaking duties allowing more time for leisure.

It's not a coincidence a lot of the processed foods that exist today were developed in this period.

 

[Adamska]

are the constant cheese puns really necessary? can't you idiots get back on topic before this thread becomes too cheesy?

Nah, we bleu past it aged asiago. For cheddar or worse, we're just going to have to take it like a manchego.

I think it's more a cultural shift that occurred during the first half of the 20th century. Processed and industrialized food production was considered modern and more sanitary and a symbol of immigrants' assimilation into American culture. In general there was the belief these technologies would save people (especially women) the burden of homemaking duties allowing more time for leisure.

It's not a coincidence a lot of the processed foods that exist today were developed in this period.

Also helped it lowered costs since the processing and industrialization made more slop for cheap.

 

[Red flaming panda]

[Sound of bamboo being consumed]
Not my problem

 

[DumbDude43]

Also helped it lowered costs since the processing and industrialization made more slop for cheap.

i can buy ingredients to make burgers at home for a lot cheaper than buying burgers at mcdonalds. cheaper than hungry man ready to eat burger meals too.

 

[CHARizard]

Dumb question from a non-American, but what's the problem with buying a bread machine? All you need to do is throw the ingredients inside and press the button. The best investment you can make if you love fresh baked goods.
Soft cheese and yoghurts can also be made at home.

Im considering one myself. I posted about it on the first page of this thread but I make my bread in a dutch oven and its a fairly easy process since I do everything in 1 mixing bowl. A bread machine would make things easier in general but I also dont like to really eat a ton of extra carbs so I am worried it would just lead to more bread in my house. At least when I hand make it I have to put some effort in so I feel like its worth it at the end.

For other Americans its probably a cost and laziness thing. Most are retards that see a $2 loaf of bread and buy that twice a week for a year instead of a $100 machine that makes a better product and pays for itself after a while.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

The bombing of Dresden must happen again.

 

[SBG]

Since 2000, Americans have had a steady decline in their sugar consumption. Obviously compared to 1820 where shipping sugar was out your nose expensive, Americans still eat more. But currently Americans are similar to their 1980s consumption, at which point obesity was much lower. Yet, obesity shows no signs of decreasing. This is just something I find interesting. Either something is super sloppish in our goyslop, we don't move, or there's another mechanism going on which could take a couple generations to fix.

Obesity rates aren't decreasing because there is an aging population plus a younger immigrant/minority population who are prone to obesity due to their dietary choices. Blacks for instance built up this idea of junk food like fried chicken or doused in Lowry's seasoning salt as being the pinnacle of black cuisine, resulting in a ton of fat black people or those that just have high blood pressure.

Whereas with non-immigrant/black populations you see things trending towards trying to be thinner (partially due to high food costs) so even a bit of that 90's heroin chic has regained some popularity as we saw in recent years with the buccal fat removal procedure many in Hollywood were trying. I one trend I've noticed too is this popularity of charcuterie boards, relatively hip younger people wanting to just setup a nice board with meats, cheese, and crackers for everyone to snack on. Relatively healthier way of eating than I'd seen just a few years ago.

Dumb question from a non-American, but what's the problem with buying a bread machine? All you need to do is throw the ingredients inside and press the button. The best investment you can make if you love fresh baked goods.
Soft cheese and yoghurts can also be made at home.

Bread machines make pretty mediocre bread that's really on par with the awful stuff you'd find in most low range grocery store bakeries.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

No. Just, no. There are good food trucks. Some of the best pad thai in my town is from a food truck. Some are scams, some are worth the money, your mileage will vary.

Also every single fucking post you make is the whiniest most annoying shit I've ever read in my life.

I hope you don’t go to A&N then. Any thread there that’s even tangentially connected to abortion has her immediately in there screeching about it so much that I’m sure it’s her fetish.

 

[OffRecord]

Null, I know you had to grow up near a Publix. There’s your fresh bread. Lots of butchers in Florida panhandle. Register, Bradley’s etc. Pretty much all sausage though. Agree about the cheese.

 

[PeggieBigCock]

I’m gonna make baked feta today what should I wrap it with? Fresh tomatoes, jalapeños, red peppers?

 

[Swamp_Donkey]

so all we’re left arguing is whether or not the absolutely minuscule minority of people in the most arid of food deserts have access to beef and dairy? because apparently null has already capitulated that the entirety of both coastlines (extending hundreds of miles inland), every state bordering wisconsin, and every town over 30k does indeed have access to more than just vienna sausages and kraft singles. what does that leave, like 1% of the population?

 

[Null]

"bRo YoU sHoUlD nOt NeEd To BuRn ThAt MuCh GaS tO gEt FuCkInG bReAd" --Josh Thunberg, telling people to not live in the countryside

I'm just appending on that on top of paying more for less and worse food, you also pay the gas tax to get there.

The inspection labels say where the meat is slaughtered (Est. #) you just have to check the USDA directory on thier website.

where cow from

 

[Time 4 Guillotines]

Dumb question from a non-American, but what's the problem with buying a bread machine? All you need to do is throw the ingredients inside and press the button. The best investment you can make if you love fresh baked goods.
Soft cheese and yoghurts can also be made at home.

Plenty of people here do use those. Most of my female friends have at least gone through a fresh baked goods phase, primarily because it's auto-pilot for feeling trad I think.
The average American should probably invest in a gym membership instead of a bread machine though.

 

[KingCoelacanth]

Null has become radicalized by old KotH episodes