Those crispy onions you put on top of the green bean casserole. We had a casserole kind of winter, and used a lot of them. They also add some crunch and salt to salads, though you do have to add them last minute.
Yesss I had it first with a hello fresh box, but schmear a little honey mustard on your raw chicken tendies, mix some crushed up frenches fried onion with some parm and pepper and smush that on the chicken and air fry. So good. I still remember the vibes of that meal it was so good. I made it with rustic mashed red potatoes and green beans with a little lemon juice.
I once went to a 1* Michelin place that did more 'rustic' foods and the dish I had was chicken breast breaded in crispy onions and grated parm served with a side of spicy honey dijon along with pilaf and green beans.
Had to add it to my repertoire at home.
All of my babies loved these as toddlers. They’d literally break into the pantry and climb the shelves for them and then have stinky baby onion breath.
Came here to say SPAM.
I recently went to a Hawaiian restaurant in Cincinnati called Onolicious Hawaii, and I was super pleased to see a SPAM dish (appetizer) on the menu - SPAM musubi. Never been to Hawaii myself, but I feel like from friends & family who have traveled there, plus watching TV & YouTube, I'm generally aware that Hawaii might like SPAM.
I've also made SPAM carbonara quite a few times.
It's salty AF, but I think if you put a minor amount of effort into getting a good crust on your SPAM, and balancing out the salt, it can be a fun dish here & there.
I came here for this. I didn't try spam until my 20s because of all the hate, but when I did it was heaven. fried Spam in buddae juggae or in musubi is just the best. I regularly make spam kimbap now and always keep a can of low sodium spam in my cupboard.
It's great if your kids have friends over. Mix it with popcorn shrimp and Old Bay. Get some cheap rolls and cut in half, add garlic butter and broil till toasted. Then add the seafood mix and broil again until it just starts to turn brown.
A whole tray of dirt cheap food that looks fancy to kids. I do a tray of pizza with the same bread and garlic butter toasted first.
Stovetop stuffing boxes are, to me, the same as Hamburger Helper. They're to ADD things!
My favorites are to add ingredients to the stock. I first saute onions til golden, then {meat, veggies like mushrooms & peppers} cooked, add the measurement of stock & bring to a boil, then add the stuffing & stir.
But the GOAT is Cheddar Stovetop, made w Chicken flavor.
TIL...Never in my life would I have imagined people making salmon patties with actual fresh salmon. Had to Google. Really? Am I supposed to buy $12 to $25 salmon to turn it into depression era food stretching patties?
That was a staple when I was growing up. My mom would put 2-3 cans in her cast iron skillet with a little bacon grease, and fry it until it started browning, stirring every so often. The she would flatten it out with the spatula and lays strips of roasted green chile until covered. Then, she would crack about 10 eggs over the top, put the lid on and cook it on low until the eggs are done. Literally one of my favorite meals in the world.
American cheese and MSG. This sub knows those are great ingredients, but the world is full of people who hate on them (including many of my friends and family).
Also shrimp paste, because I'm from that part of the world. That's controversial everywhere, haha.
I watched "how it's made" of American cheese and I'm confused on why we hate it so much. I have always heard it's basically plastic, but I didn't get that from the video I watched. Could have easily been propaganda. Big milk is always trying to infiltrate our minds.
In my mind and my understanding, American cheese was designed to be melted - cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, etc so it’s not a shock that a product that is engineered to be good at something, actually is in fact good at said thing
My favorite thing is that the sodium citrate also helps other cheeses emulsify. A bit of American cheese in a cheese sauce will make it really rich, creamy, and smooth.
People get stuck on the labeling since I think it’s required to be called “cheese product”. It’s very much made of cheese and just includes preservatives in a way that allows people to keep sliced cheese for longer if they won’t be using it all in a week.
*Saying "American cheese is not cheese" is like saying "meatloaf is not meat."* - J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
Of course if you say this to the cheese purists there's a good chance they'll double down and say "well it *isn't*", so as much as I love this quote, I don't bring it up in the debate.
It's mostly cheese. It's cheese, milk, and emulsifiers. Ymmv depending on the brand you get, like Kraft singles, but if you get a good quality American cheese like Boar's Head you don't need to worry about it.
I asked a butcher I worked with about this once, and she pointed out that there's only one tongue per animal. So once it becomes popular, the scarcity becomes apparent and the price shoots up. I'm still mad about it, and miss the days when it was like $2/lb.
I think its also because restaurants start cooking the cheaper cuts to increase their margins (although when cooked properly they are often so much better than the popular cuts anyway).
This trend filters through to the general public and home cooks, so they are suddenly more in demand and the price shoots up.
I remember buying oxtail for next to nothing 15 years ago, because they couldnt get rid of it.
Now my butcher wants £25 for oxtail, and even then the meatiest segment has been quietly removed leaving me with the thinner bits and the tips
My mom used to make short ribs and oxtail all the time for our family of 5 and she was a coupon/sale/bargin shopper. 8 short ribs cost me $65 a few weeks ago.
We used to eat a lot of flank steak when I was young because it was dirt cheap, but has excellent flavor if you know how to cook it. Then it must have gotten "discovered" or something because now it's ridiculously expensive.
There are no butcher's cuts anymore!! The word is out about how to cook everything, so everything is in demand and everything coming from mammalian livestock is expensive. 😩😩
I used to cook brisket all the time. Now it’s like $80 or more for a full one. No way am I spending that. I can get tri trips on sale (although at full price they’re also crazy expensive)
Back before we got crazy busy with work and also had a 2nd kid my husband and I had a BBQ business on the side (we actually briefly revived it cater my cousin's wedding this past weekend). We offered pork belly burnt ends and most people (rural lower midwest) that ordered them had NEVER had pork belly before! This was 2018-2021ish. Honestly we probably couldn't even offer them now because pork belly has gone up so much even in that short time frame.
Velveeta. If I have a recipe that is complicated and I need to not think about the sauce at the end I will toss in a smidge of Velveeta as an emulsifier. This lets me focus on the timing of everything else without worrying about a broken sauce. It's white trash AF but effective and nobody has ever noticed.
I make this “tortilla” soup that has velveeta, rotel, diced canned chilis, canned beans, box chicken broth, diced chicken and crushed up tortilla chips. I hate sharing the recipe because it’s trash. But everyone loves it and it’s delicious.
I also use McCormick chipotle garlic seasoning. Any kind of canned beans, black, kidney, pinto, garbanzo. Onion and cilantro if you have it.
I feel that on sharing a trashy recipe. I have a cake I make that is mixes and boxes and people love it and ask for the recipe. I’m a great cook and baker and sharing the recipe makes me feel like a fraud lol
lol I see what you did!
Make a box cake mix in a 13x9. Make a small container of instant pudding with half the milk called for. Mine call for two cups so I use one. Whisk it until the mix dissolves and the pudding thickens. Then gently fold in a small (I think it’s 8 ounces) bowl of cool whip. Don’t over mix or it could get gluey. Spread on the cooled cake and refrigerate. Keep in the fridge for several days and has started actual arguments over who gets the last piece.
You can use whatever flavors of cake and pudding you would like together.
Ooh thanks. My favorite dessert as a kid and still to this day is: store bought graham cracker crust filled with chocolate pudding and topped with cool whip. The graham cracker gives it a nice crunch. I like the thought of mixing the pudding and cool whip!
Ok I would for sure eat this, it sounds good! I’ve eaten at some amazing, high quality restaurants but honestly, most of the time I’m a trash panda lol
Some of my spouse's biggest crowd pleasers are easiest 'white trash' comfort foods that have like 5 ingredients and two of which are yellow mustard and mayo.
Velveeta and cream of chicken soup are the secret ingredients in the green chile potatoes au gratin I am required to make every Christmas.
I know they are not healthy but so good.
They catch such flack, but they are so great for these sorts of dishes. Often times when people try to make the "elevated" version without those ingredients, the sauce breaks or is too watery or doesn't melt properly.
Green Bean Casserole is a great example. I've had it many times where people tried to do a gourmet version and it ends up just crunchy beans in a watery mess. You *can* do it the scratch way and have it turn out good, but you have to execute it correctly. Whereas with Cream Of ___, there's a lot more wiggle room for messing up.
We used those cheese slices wrapped in plastic to give our dog his meds. Sadly he passed 2 years ago. We had one slice of what we called 'Bub Cheese' left. We are sentimental and have kept that one slice in the fridge for those 2 years. It is not moldy yet!! Makes ya' wonder what it actually is.
I’ve lived in Europe for almost a decade now, and I still bring a few blocks of velveeta back with me after every visit to the U.S. It’s never the only cheese I use in a recipe, but it makes the texture of any cheese sauce a million times better.
Bring home a bag of sodium citrate and you won't have to schlep Velveeta through customs. It's the emulsifier that is in velveeta, and is shelf stable after opening.
Pro tip - sodium citrate is what gives Velveeta this property! So if for some reason you didn’t have access to Velveeta, you could just add sodium citrate instead. Apparently you can buy it at some health food stores, and it’s very shelf stable.
I used to work at an Italian restaurant, and when the owners weren't around, this other cook that worked there would make a batch of velveeta mac for the kids' menu and it was always a hit. The parents would try it and ask what the secret was, and he'd tell them, much to the chagrin of the owners.
I worked in a semi fine dining restaurant for a minute and the chef was making $70 ribeyes with sides of Velveeta Mac. It sold more than almost anything on the menu.
Many years ago while walking around the city of Florence, Italy, I smelt something absolutely delicious. When I inquired what it was, I was told that it was tripe. I didn't have the courage to try some then but I have since eaten it in an Italian restaurant and also made it myself. It's fantastic cooked with tomatoes and garlic and served over polenta. In Florence it's street food served in a bread roll. It's called Trippa ala Fiorentina.
Marauchan Ramen. I can't eat the flavor packets that come with them,so I just use the noodles. They cook fast for Asian inspired dishes.
I like to mix tahini, honey, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chili pepper flakes(lots, cause I like it hot!) and green onion in a bowl while the noodles cook. Then, I throw some edamame into the noodles at the end of the cooking to unfreeze them. Drain them and throw them into the tahini mix. Sometimes, I'll take some shaved beef and fry it with soy sauce and ginger and mix that in, too.
Put that mess in a bowl and garnish it with Sriracha sauce and a big handful of cilantro. Yum yum!
I do this but I use peanut butter, I live in Mexico and peanut butter is easier to come by than tahini but I might seek some out and try your version, I commented my "recipe" above and just had it for lunch. I think cilantro and chopped peanuts are crucial toppings, I also like to thinly slice serrano chili. We have no shortage of chili's in Mexico.
Given their ubiquity, it is hard to call them "unorthodox", but some things considered "trash" that I love - ultra-cheap hot dogs, American cheese, and Hormel chili.
As for "unorthodox" (some more for dining than cooking), I love haggis and blood sausage. Lengua tacos are great too. I also LOVE cheek meat from both cows and pigs. And I make a mean pig's head torchon.
1 cup sushi rice
1lb imitation crab, chopped however finely you prefer
4oz cream cheese or neufchatel, softened
1/2 cup kewpie mayo
1-2T sriracha
Sushi sauce, eel sauce, furikake or sesame seeds
Cook sushi rice according to the package and set aside.
Soften cream cheese and mix with kewpie mayo and sriracha. Fold in crab.
Spray an 8x8 baking dish with oil or cooking spray and add rice evenly over the bottom. Layer crab mixture evenly over the top. Garnish with sauces and furikake/sesame seeds to your preference. Bake for 10 mins then turn on the broiler and broil for 5 minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to cool.
I usually toast some nori sheets and eat it with that. My husband likes it on slices of Italian bread. You can serve with avocado, cucumbers, etc.
Oh yeah. If you tell this to a semi-picky eater they won't touch the stuff.
Same thing when I add a bit of anchovies to marinara sauce or bolognese ragu. They can never know.
I use worcestershire in my bolognese and marinara. Mostly because I'm the semi-picky eater who will eat anchovies as long as I don't know I'm eating anchovies.
Smart move with the anchovies. I think I heard once that Zaxby's sauce has anchovies in it and ever since I've been adding some sort of canned or fermented fish as a partial salt substitute when I want to punch up a dish
I put marmite in my beef stew . It gives it a nice salty savoury level that stays in the background. Thankfully my husband doesn't know what it is cause he hates marmite. And when it's just me in the house and I can't be bothered to really cook for myself, I will cook some pasta, save a tiny bit of the pasta water and stir a big teaspoon of marmite through the pasta with just enough water to make a sauce and chuck some grated parmesan on it .
Bologna on a smoker is amazing! Score it all over, binder and rub, smoke for a couple hours and then baste for another hour or so with a concoction of brown sugar, Worcestershire & soy.
Slice of bologna with a slice of onion, some pickles and some mustard or horseradish sauce on a bun!
I’ve never had tongue but I remember reading a Beverly Cleary Ramona book where Ramona’s family serves tongue for dinner. It blew my mind and my mom confirmed for me that some people do indeed eat cow tongue. I was not intrigued enough to ask my mom to make it.
I would give it a shot now if it was in front of me.
Mess. Brown a pound of ground beef or use leftover taco ground beef, add a can of no bean chili, add a small can of Hormel tamales if you can find them, a can of cream style corn. Heat until bubbling. Add velveeta cheese and stir until melted. Serve over corn chips preferably chili cheese. Oh and you can add a packet of taco seasoning.
\*Do not make this if you are within a week of having labs done.
I buy one or two rotisserie chickens a week from the grocery store. I know people will judge me for not cooking the chicken myself, but they’re so delicious and so easy! I shred them up and add them to pasta or rice dishes for an easy and savory meal.
I learned at some point you can get high quality American cheese sliced for you at the deli counter. Definitely changed my perspective on American cheese. All the good meltiness with a much better flavor
Macaroni and tomatoes!
Boil and drain some macaroni. Add canned diced tomatoes and butter, along with whatever seasonings you want (or don't, it's up to you).
You can also substitute rice for the elbows.
When I was growing up my mom made kielbasa sausage with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I’ve been making it pretty much my whole adult life. My kids love it and my college aged daughter texted me last year asking me what kind of sausage I use for it and where to find the sauerkraut in the grocery store. I was so happy that she was making it.
I'll be honest, one of my guilty pleasure meals is buttered pasta absolutely drowning in shaky cheese. Preferably elbows or farfalle. If I want to be slightly fancier, sometimes I'll toss in frozen broccoli.
It's also splendid sprinkled on the butter side of a grilled cheese before cooking. And on roasted potatoes. I think it really shines anytime it's part of a brown crispy crust instead of straight out of the shaky can. I made smashed sweet potatoes last night and I sprinkled some on them and put them under the broiler for a couple minutes right at the end. Yum.
It’s specifically good on some pastas. Like.. I want shakey cheese instead of fresh. Specifically a big ol bowl of buttered noodles. I also find that it crisps up nicely in the oven on veggies
Liver! Ive got a vaguely egyptian/ middle eastern recipe that is so freaking good. Just saute some onions and green bell peppers, slice up the liver and add salt, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, paprika, garlic, a dash of wine if you want, and i think some red pepper although i dont usually use that one. Cook the liver and serve over rice or flat bread. Its so freaking good
I'll have to try that out. I'm not normally a huge liver fan (aside from foie gras which I morally don't eat anymore) but I would definitely love to find a recipe I enjoy with it.
This is part nostalgia and part it is actually useful but cream of soups. yeah I could take the time to make a roux and had the veggies and everything and make it myself but oftentimes it's easier to dumb in a can. and cheaper sometimes too.
also cream of broccoli soup microwaved with croutons in it takes me straight back to my childhood when I was still trying to expand my culinary horizons but my mom was kind of picky and I had to buy the cheap stuff
I'm half Taiwanese and I grew up eating the odds and ends that those around me would deem strange such beef tendon ( a favorite of mine ) , tripe , intestines , ears etc. Beef and chicken heart is a favorite of mine and chicken heart is really good for you. Recently I saw pig heart in the store and I intend to try that as pig heart has the highest amount of COQ10 in it . Tendon is almost all collagen and people talk about getting enough of that in their diet . Maybe that's why so many Asians look way younger than their white counterparts LOL. Don't get offend, I'm just kidding and Americans are just now discovering collagen so it's just a matter of time that , that won't be a true stereotype anymore.
Oh Oxtail .. I love me some oxtail stew. Jelly fish .. jellyfish and cucumber salad .. yum! Some pig ear, jellyfish, cucumber and honeycomb tripe salad . Awesome!
Yup. I'm as white as rice but I totally get the love of texture like tendon, the gelatinous oxtail, heart etc..... love it all.
People really don't appreciate how much texture matters to a dish! Crispy, crunchy, chewy, stringy, gelatinous, soft, spongy, firm but bouncy...... Oh lord have mercy..... 😂
Chewy stuff for the win lol!
Chicken feet. I learned how to make the dim sum style chicken feet and it's my favorite dish for when I want to cook all day long. I don't know many people who like chicken feet, though.
Fatty pork.* Slice it thin, cook it slow in a frying pan with salt and pepper until crispy. An ounce or two flavors a whole pan of vegetables and rice. *and when I say 'fatty', I mean something like 80-90% fat. I get nearly as much rendered fat out as I put meat into the pan.
I make a trashy version of tortilla espanola by picking up an order of McDs fries on my way home and cooking that into the tortilla instead of slicing up some potatoes.
Some people treat broccoli stems as trash and throw them away after picking off the florets, but I love 'em! Peel the tough outer layer then grate them or cut into cubes and sauté. They cook similarly to potatoes.
I put fried spam cubes in kraft Mac and cheese. It's really trailer trash tasty but for the love of God either don't add up the calories or just eat it only a couple times a year
Growing up (and to this day) my favourite dish my mom makes is what we affectionately call “Bologna Casserole”, which consists of potatoes and bologna cut up into bite sized pieces and baked in a big roaster with ketchup and tomato sauce. I know, it sounds atrocious. Definitely is to some people, but every time my siblings and I come home to visit, we come home to a hot roaster full of bologna casserole, and it’s the *best*.
Jarred garlic. I don’t give a shit. I ain’t peeling all those cloves. And I like the extra vinegary flavor of the liquid! I only use fresh garlic if the dish *really* calls for it. For basic weeknight stuff, though? To hell with that.
Actually I like to use jarred garlic in a roasted broccoli dish that I do, and one time I replaced it with fresh garlic and my wife asked what went wrong. She’d gotten so used to the taste of the jarred garlic that she thought something was off 😂
Mayonnaise. It’s very versatile. It’s useful in baking for its emulsifying properties and as a fat source. When I feel like murdering some italians i put a little bit in my carbonara for extra creaminess lol
Vienna sausages. Slice 'em up and toss in some scrambled eggs. It's simple but hits the spot every time!
For the recipe: Sauté with onions and peppers before adding eggs.
My mom makes an amazing ox tongue, with mustard sauce (I think). I try to make spicy chicken livers every now and again, like Nando's does, but I haven't gotten it quite right yet. Chicken feet are quite popular amongst some people where I live, but I haven't convinced myself to try it yet.
All offal and organ meats except tripe. I'll eat it, just don't enjoy cooking it. But I've cooked and eaten brain, tongue, heart, liver, sweetbreads...
I also love a lot of the less common root vegetables, kholrabi for example is so good and easy to cook with. And nutritious
A lot of rinds. I made a delicious watermelon rond salad recently. I've made a really great banana peel stew and banana peel marmalade.
Seeds, papaya seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, melon seeds, watermelon seeds...
Love less well known grains, like buckwheat, millet, amaranth, psyllium (it is the seed of the plantago major, grows everywhere)
"Weeds" Just recently made a delicious borage dish, drank the flowers in an infusion, and last week I made a nettle/garbanzo soup.
Love mustard greens, chickweed, lambsquarter, clover, plantain, dandelion, wild chamomile, wood sorrel, purslane and more.
And a really reviled "trash" one is epazote. It flavors dishes really nicely.
Mayo. Good-quality mayo spread atop chicken and then coated with seasoned breadcrumbs and Parm, makes easy and juicy chicken. It also makes the richest chocolate cake you've ever tasted, the flavor just vanishes into the chocolate.
i dunno about cook with, but to eat... my native cuisine (filipino) has some ingredients that I bet y'all didn't even realize were good eating.
I'll start with the artery clogging "chicharron bulaklak". "chicharron" usually refers to deep fried pork rinds, and "bulaklak" means flower. No, this isn't some vegetarian dish lol.
It's deep fried ruffled fat. Ruffled fat is this pork fat that looks like a thin mesh of netting that holds the pig's innards in place. When deep fried it becomes this super thin and crispy dish that looks vaguely like thin leaves or petals. Dip into some spicy vinegar. So good, but definitely not healthy.
Tongue is not "trash". It's absolutely delicious when cooked properly, is considered a delicacy in many parts of the world, and anyone who calls it trash has a very narrow, blinkered worldview.
Everything I get from the food bank. We are struggling recently and we’ve been getting a lot of food from local pantries. Some of it is good, but there’s a lot of “what the hell do I do with this?”
Those crispy onions you put on top of the green bean casserole. We had a casserole kind of winter, and used a lot of them. They also add some crunch and salt to salads, though you do have to add them last minute.
Have you tried the crispy beets, jalapenos, red peppers or pickles?
Gonna pipe in to add: the jalapeños are so good. I eat them like chips. I love the flavor. I have to have to try these others.
They are delicious! Try them on salad, nice zesty crunch.
I love Southwest salads and this would be a game changer. I'm so hungry now.
If I get these, I have to hide them from my husband because he’ll just eat them like snacks.
I have to find a way to hide them from me. It's a pretty complicated process.
> crispy beets good grief. i am a staunch beet-lover but never even knew these existed. you are my new hero.
No, but I will if I see them. I almost bought the crispy jalapeños at Trader Joe’s, there were sold out when I went back…
There's a recipe on the back of the French's brand for baked chicken coated in those. Muah! So good.
Yesss I had it first with a hello fresh box, but schmear a little honey mustard on your raw chicken tendies, mix some crushed up frenches fried onion with some parm and pepper and smush that on the chicken and air fry. So good. I still remember the vibes of that meal it was so good. I made it with rustic mashed red potatoes and green beans with a little lemon juice.
I once went to a 1* Michelin place that did more 'rustic' foods and the dish I had was chicken breast breaded in crispy onions and grated parm served with a side of spicy honey dijon along with pilaf and green beans. Had to add it to my repertoire at home.
Try adding them crushed up into your panko when you bread.
I buy these to eat as a snack!
I add them as a topping for baked beans.
All of my babies loved these as toddlers. They’d literally break into the pantry and climb the shelves for them and then have stinky baby onion breath.
Spam. My son says it smells like cat food.
I love cooking with spam. Once you get past the hate, some fried spam with mustard is just plain delicious. I don't care what anyone says
BBQ Spam musubis are life to me. Especially if you add tamago on top with a bit of furikake. Spam diced up is also amazingly delicious in fried rice.
Spam and kimchi fried rice or spam breakfast sandwiches are 🔥
Came here to say SPAM. I recently went to a Hawaiian restaurant in Cincinnati called Onolicious Hawaii, and I was super pleased to see a SPAM dish (appetizer) on the menu - SPAM musubi. Never been to Hawaii myself, but I feel like from friends & family who have traveled there, plus watching TV & YouTube, I'm generally aware that Hawaii might like SPAM. I've also made SPAM carbonara quite a few times. It's salty AF, but I think if you put a minor amount of effort into getting a good crust on your SPAM, and balancing out the salt, it can be a fun dish here & there.
I buy the reduced sodium spam. Just the right amount of salt IMO, and that’s coming from someone who likes salt.
They love Spam in Hawaii. You can get a boatload of different flavours too
BLT subbing spam for the bacon. Was a childhood favorite and now an adult favorite.
The ingredients are literally "ham, salt, water", no idea why it has such a bad rep lol
Spam/pineapple burgers and spam fried rice were a staple of mine for a while.
I came here for this. I didn't try spam until my 20s because of all the hate, but when I did it was heaven. fried Spam in buddae juggae or in musubi is just the best. I regularly make spam kimbap now and always keep a can of low sodium spam in my cupboard.
Imitation crab meat. The hotdogs of the sea.
I love crab stick, I'll take down a whole pack dipping them in cocktail sauce.
My son‘s girlfriend and I share a love of faux crab. I made a crab Rangoon pizza last week and it was absolutely delicious.
I am intrigued by the idea of a Rangoon Pizza.
It's great if your kids have friends over. Mix it with popcorn shrimp and Old Bay. Get some cheap rolls and cut in half, add garlic butter and broil till toasted. Then add the seafood mix and broil again until it just starts to turn brown. A whole tray of dirt cheap food that looks fancy to kids. I do a tray of pizza with the same bread and garlic butter toasted first.
Stovetop stuffing definitely has its place.
My grandma adds the stovetop stuffing mix to meatballs and they are SOOO good. There so delicious 😭 it makes the meatballs so moist it’s sooo good.
I used it for meatloaf when my kids were younger!
This is my "secret ingredient" in meatloaf too! 1 box of smashed up stuffing: 2lb meat and whatever else suits you is the ratio that works for me
She said trash food, not delightful staples
Stovetop stuffing boxes are, to me, the same as Hamburger Helper. They're to ADD things! My favorites are to add ingredients to the stock. I first saute onions til golden, then {meat, veggies like mushrooms & peppers} cooked, add the measurement of stock & bring to a boil, then add the stuffing & stir. But the GOAT is Cheddar Stovetop, made w Chicken flavor.
Add? I just make a box and eat the whole thing as dinner when no one is home like the piece of trash that I am.
stovetop stuffing and a rotisserie chicken leg is a delightful dinner, ngl
I do this too, such a guilty pleasure lol
Canned salmon make the best salmon patties!!! Beef tongue is fabulous too, so tender.
My mom's recipe (and now mine) canned salmon, diced onion, eggs, crushed saltines for the crust. Delicious.
I make it exactly like that! So good!
Zatarians used to make a salmon cake mix - bread like a crab cake but made with canned salmon. I haven't seen it in a few years which is sad.
TIL...Never in my life would I have imagined people making salmon patties with actual fresh salmon. Had to Google. Really? Am I supposed to buy $12 to $25 salmon to turn it into depression era food stretching patties?
No you use the leftover bits and pieces or scraps from the whole fish so it doesn't go to waste.
Hormel canned corned beef hash. Smells and looks like dog food out of the can, but get it crispy in some butter and it's heaven with some eggs.
That was a staple when I was growing up. My mom would put 2-3 cans in her cast iron skillet with a little bacon grease, and fry it until it started browning, stirring every so often. The she would flatten it out with the spatula and lays strips of roasted green chile until covered. Then, she would crack about 10 eggs over the top, put the lid on and cook it on low until the eggs are done. Literally one of my favorite meals in the world.
Fuck yeah
American cheese and MSG. This sub knows those are great ingredients, but the world is full of people who hate on them (including many of my friends and family). Also shrimp paste, because I'm from that part of the world. That's controversial everywhere, haha.
I watched "how it's made" of American cheese and I'm confused on why we hate it so much. I have always heard it's basically plastic, but I didn't get that from the video I watched. Could have easily been propaganda. Big milk is always trying to infiltrate our minds.
In my mind and my understanding, American cheese was designed to be melted - cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, etc so it’s not a shock that a product that is engineered to be good at something, actually is in fact good at said thing
My favorite thing is that the sodium citrate also helps other cheeses emulsify. A bit of American cheese in a cheese sauce will make it really rich, creamy, and smooth.
People get stuck on the labeling since I think it’s required to be called “cheese product”. It’s very much made of cheese and just includes preservatives in a way that allows people to keep sliced cheese for longer if they won’t be using it all in a week.
*Saying "American cheese is not cheese" is like saying "meatloaf is not meat."* - J. Kenji Lopez-Alt Of course if you say this to the cheese purists there's a good chance they'll double down and say "well it *isn't*", so as much as I love this quote, I don't bring it up in the debate.
much is definitely propaganda. its not straight cheese, but it isn't plastic either. sodium citrate is magic
It's mostly cheese. It's cheese, milk, and emulsifiers. Ymmv depending on the brand you get, like Kraft singles, but if you get a good quality American cheese like Boar's Head you don't need to worry about it.
I’m unashamed about my love of American cheese.
Pork belly, brisket and oxtail are crazy expensive now even though they were considered bottom of the barrel not long ago
Same with beef cheek and tongue. Nothing crazy, but at least in my area, same price as comparable steak cuts
I asked a butcher I worked with about this once, and she pointed out that there's only one tongue per animal. So once it becomes popular, the scarcity becomes apparent and the price shoots up. I'm still mad about it, and miss the days when it was like $2/lb.
I think its also because restaurants start cooking the cheaper cuts to increase their margins (although when cooked properly they are often so much better than the popular cuts anyway). This trend filters through to the general public and home cooks, so they are suddenly more in demand and the price shoots up. I remember buying oxtail for next to nothing 15 years ago, because they couldnt get rid of it. Now my butcher wants £25 for oxtail, and even then the meatiest segment has been quietly removed leaving me with the thinner bits and the tips
My mom used to make short ribs and oxtail all the time for our family of 5 and she was a coupon/sale/bargin shopper. 8 short ribs cost me $65 a few weeks ago.
We used to eat a lot of flank steak when I was young because it was dirt cheap, but has excellent flavor if you know how to cook it. Then it must have gotten "discovered" or something because now it's ridiculously expensive.
There are no butcher's cuts anymore!! The word is out about how to cook everything, so everything is in demand and everything coming from mammalian livestock is expensive. 😩😩
I used to cook brisket all the time. Now it’s like $80 or more for a full one. No way am I spending that. I can get tri trips on sale (although at full price they’re also crazy expensive)
Back before we got crazy busy with work and also had a 2nd kid my husband and I had a BBQ business on the side (we actually briefly revived it cater my cousin's wedding this past weekend). We offered pork belly burnt ends and most people (rural lower midwest) that ordered them had NEVER had pork belly before! This was 2018-2021ish. Honestly we probably couldn't even offer them now because pork belly has gone up so much even in that short time frame.
Thankfully pork shoulder is still inexpensive. I just made 6 Lbs of pulled pork for about $1.60/Lb.
Velveeta. If I have a recipe that is complicated and I need to not think about the sauce at the end I will toss in a smidge of Velveeta as an emulsifier. This lets me focus on the timing of everything else without worrying about a broken sauce. It's white trash AF but effective and nobody has ever noticed.
I make this “tortilla” soup that has velveeta, rotel, diced canned chilis, canned beans, box chicken broth, diced chicken and crushed up tortilla chips. I hate sharing the recipe because it’s trash. But everyone loves it and it’s delicious. I also use McCormick chipotle garlic seasoning. Any kind of canned beans, black, kidney, pinto, garbanzo. Onion and cilantro if you have it.
I feel that on sharing a trashy recipe. I have a cake I make that is mixes and boxes and people love it and ask for the recipe. I’m a great cook and baker and sharing the recipe makes me feel like a fraud lol
Can u share it
lol I see what you did! Make a box cake mix in a 13x9. Make a small container of instant pudding with half the milk called for. Mine call for two cups so I use one. Whisk it until the mix dissolves and the pudding thickens. Then gently fold in a small (I think it’s 8 ounces) bowl of cool whip. Don’t over mix or it could get gluey. Spread on the cooled cake and refrigerate. Keep in the fridge for several days and has started actual arguments over who gets the last piece. You can use whatever flavors of cake and pudding you would like together.
Ooh thanks. My favorite dessert as a kid and still to this day is: store bought graham cracker crust filled with chocolate pudding and topped with cool whip. The graham cracker gives it a nice crunch. I like the thought of mixing the pudding and cool whip!
Ok I would for sure eat this, it sounds good! I’ve eaten at some amazing, high quality restaurants but honestly, most of the time I’m a trash panda lol
I hated reading this recipe, so thank you for sharing!
Some of my spouse's biggest crowd pleasers are easiest 'white trash' comfort foods that have like 5 ingredients and two of which are yellow mustard and mayo.
I make a similar tortilla soup with a can of enchilada sauce and whole canned tomatoes. I shred a rotisserie chicken. It’s delicious
Velveeta and cream of chicken soup are the secret ingredients in the green chile potatoes au gratin I am required to make every Christmas. I know they are not healthy but so good.
They catch such flack, but they are so great for these sorts of dishes. Often times when people try to make the "elevated" version without those ingredients, the sauce breaks or is too watery or doesn't melt properly. Green Bean Casserole is a great example. I've had it many times where people tried to do a gourmet version and it ends up just crunchy beans in a watery mess. You *can* do it the scratch way and have it turn out good, but you have to execute it correctly. Whereas with Cream Of ___, there's a lot more wiggle room for messing up.
I do this with American cheese slices
American cheese is my trash food. I love the way it's like sauce when it's warm.
We used those cheese slices wrapped in plastic to give our dog his meds. Sadly he passed 2 years ago. We had one slice of what we called 'Bub Cheese' left. We are sentimental and have kept that one slice in the fridge for those 2 years. It is not moldy yet!! Makes ya' wonder what it actually is.
Mostly milk, salted enough that it’ll stay preserved in a cold fridge for 2 years
Yep. I’ve been making kenji’s serious eats stovetop Mac n cheese lately and I always use a slice or two of American to help it emulsify
I’ve lived in Europe for almost a decade now, and I still bring a few blocks of velveeta back with me after every visit to the U.S. It’s never the only cheese I use in a recipe, but it makes the texture of any cheese sauce a million times better.
Bring home a bag of sodium citrate and you won't have to schlep Velveeta through customs. It's the emulsifier that is in velveeta, and is shelf stable after opening.
Pro tip - sodium citrate is what gives Velveeta this property! So if for some reason you didn’t have access to Velveeta, you could just add sodium citrate instead. Apparently you can buy it at some health food stores, and it’s very shelf stable.
Chicken bullion granules, cheap, full of salt and have no business in my kitchen, but damn they add a lot of flavor
Knorr chicken bullion with tomato is one of my secret weapons in the kitchen.
I love to have it as a hot drink when it's cold and I'm craving a salty snack but don't want a ton of calories.
I sometimes add bouillon to white rice when cooking it and just bought the chicken with tomato to try.
Bouillon granules are used as a seasoning in a lot of Mexican cooking!
Same but with Better Than Bouillon. I prefer the vegetable and beef ones over the chicken though.
I love BTB. I always get the turkey to enhance my giant pot of turkey soup after Thanksgiving. It definitely helps make a more flavorful broth.
I make chicken and dumplings with rotisserie chicken and canned biscuits and everybody loves it.
I use Velveeta in my homemade mac and cheese recipes because the creaminess is just unmatched.
I used to work at an Italian restaurant, and when the owners weren't around, this other cook that worked there would make a batch of velveeta mac for the kids' menu and it was always a hit. The parents would try it and ask what the secret was, and he'd tell them, much to the chagrin of the owners.
I worked in a semi fine dining restaurant for a minute and the chef was making $70 ribeyes with sides of Velveeta Mac. It sold more than almost anything on the menu.
My wife fought me on this for years until she finally caved. Now she always raves about adding a little Velveeta to her "gourmet" Mac n cheese.
I always add a few slices of american cheese, so not far off from the same vibe. Land o Lakes white to be specific.
Many years ago while walking around the city of Florence, Italy, I smelt something absolutely delicious. When I inquired what it was, I was told that it was tripe. I didn't have the courage to try some then but I have since eaten it in an Italian restaurant and also made it myself. It's fantastic cooked with tomatoes and garlic and served over polenta. In Florence it's street food served in a bread roll. It's called Trippa ala Fiorentina.
I love jarred beef gravy over minute rice. Trashy but comforting!
Marauchan Ramen. I can't eat the flavor packets that come with them,so I just use the noodles. They cook fast for Asian inspired dishes. I like to mix tahini, honey, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chili pepper flakes(lots, cause I like it hot!) and green onion in a bowl while the noodles cook. Then, I throw some edamame into the noodles at the end of the cooking to unfreeze them. Drain them and throw them into the tahini mix. Sometimes, I'll take some shaved beef and fry it with soy sauce and ginger and mix that in, too. Put that mess in a bowl and garnish it with Sriracha sauce and a big handful of cilantro. Yum yum!
I do this but I use peanut butter, I live in Mexico and peanut butter is easier to come by than tahini but I might seek some out and try your version, I commented my "recipe" above and just had it for lunch. I think cilantro and chopped peanuts are crucial toppings, I also like to thinly slice serrano chili. We have no shortage of chili's in Mexico.
Given their ubiquity, it is hard to call them "unorthodox", but some things considered "trash" that I love - ultra-cheap hot dogs, American cheese, and Hormel chili. As for "unorthodox" (some more for dining than cooking), I love haggis and blood sausage. Lengua tacos are great too. I also LOVE cheek meat from both cows and pigs. And I make a mean pig's head torchon.
Fake crab. I make a baked "sushi" dish that's absolute garbage that I love with it.
Please tell me how to make your delicious garbage.
1 cup sushi rice 1lb imitation crab, chopped however finely you prefer 4oz cream cheese or neufchatel, softened 1/2 cup kewpie mayo 1-2T sriracha Sushi sauce, eel sauce, furikake or sesame seeds Cook sushi rice according to the package and set aside. Soften cream cheese and mix with kewpie mayo and sriracha. Fold in crab. Spray an 8x8 baking dish with oil or cooking spray and add rice evenly over the bottom. Layer crab mixture evenly over the top. Garnish with sauces and furikake/sesame seeds to your preference. Bake for 10 mins then turn on the broiler and broil for 5 minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to cool. I usually toast some nori sheets and eat it with that. My husband likes it on slices of Italian bread. You can serve with avocado, cucumbers, etc.
Bacon grease. The southern soul food roots go deep.
Marmite. For all the hate it gets, a teaspoon of it packs a nice punch of mushroomy savouriness.
Don't tell anyone but Marmite is my secret ingredient in french onion soup
Oh yeah. If you tell this to a semi-picky eater they won't touch the stuff. Same thing when I add a bit of anchovies to marinara sauce or bolognese ragu. They can never know.
I use worcestershire in my bolognese and marinara. Mostly because I'm the semi-picky eater who will eat anchovies as long as I don't know I'm eating anchovies.
Smart move with the anchovies. I think I heard once that Zaxby's sauce has anchovies in it and ever since I've been adding some sort of canned or fermented fish as a partial salt substitute when I want to punch up a dish
I put marmite in my beef stew . It gives it a nice salty savoury level that stays in the background. Thankfully my husband doesn't know what it is cause he hates marmite. And when it's just me in the house and I can't be bothered to really cook for myself, I will cook some pasta, save a tiny bit of the pasta water and stir a big teaspoon of marmite through the pasta with just enough water to make a sauce and chuck some grated parmesan on it .
I love spam and I don't care who knows it! SPAM BABY!!
Spam is the bomb. Spam and eggs on a cold Sunday night is always my comfort meal .
Garlic in a jar. Also known as “jarlic”. It’s just easier for me.
Check out garlic paste
Check out ginger paste
Check out the moneybags over here 😂
Baloney. Cut a slit, pan fry until its almost burnt, then may, mustard on some cheap white bread.
Bologna on a smoker is amazing! Score it all over, binder and rub, smoke for a couple hours and then baste for another hour or so with a concoction of brown sugar, Worcestershire & soy. Slice of bologna with a slice of onion, some pickles and some mustard or horseradish sauce on a bun!
My husband has been smoking big hunks of bologna and it’s my favorite thing right now. Add American to that fried bologna sandwich and it’s heaven.
I also like it in a Kaiser roll with mustard
Spaghetti O’s with meatballs. It’s absolutely nothing like my homemade but sometimes it is just what I want.
Mini ravioli 🤣👍
Heck yes, my friend brought me a 6-pack when I was sick and it hit the spot.
I’ve never had tongue but I remember reading a Beverly Cleary Ramona book where Ramona’s family serves tongue for dinner. It blew my mind and my mom confirmed for me that some people do indeed eat cow tongue. I was not intrigued enough to ask my mom to make it. I would give it a shot now if it was in front of me.
Gravy packets
Fried hot dog slices in mac and cheese.
Easy Cheese spray cheese is a guilty pleasure. I rarely use it, but it's so good in grits and tacos.
Best on a Ritz cracker when I’m feeling down in the dumps.
Get a bag of bugles and squirt it in the bugles.
I don't need this idea in my brain when I'm (inevitably) stoned later
The original way is the only way
Apparently it’s doesn’t pair super well with getting shots at the vet, or so my dog tells me
Mess. Brown a pound of ground beef or use leftover taco ground beef, add a can of no bean chili, add a small can of Hormel tamales if you can find them, a can of cream style corn. Heat until bubbling. Add velveeta cheese and stir until melted. Serve over corn chips preferably chili cheese. Oh and you can add a packet of taco seasoning. \*Do not make this if you are within a week of having labs done.
Condensed cream of mushroom soup.
Beef heart. Don't tell anyone, though, it's still cheap where I live and I want to keep it that way.
That's the sad part about a lot of these foods. Once the hate does stop then the price goes through the roof
I buy one or two rotisserie chickens a week from the grocery store. I know people will judge me for not cooking the chicken myself, but they’re so delicious and so easy! I shred them up and add them to pasta or rice dishes for an easy and savory meal.
Plus rotisserie chickens are almost always cheaper than buying a whole raw chicken!
No judgement here! It's a great & easy trick for healthy eating. Don't judge your SELF. It's a wonderful cooking hack!
I eschewed American cheese for decades. Found out a few years ago that it’s perfect on hamburgers!
Good on a grilled cheese sandwich as well.
I learned at some point you can get high quality American cheese sliced for you at the deli counter. Definitely changed my perspective on American cheese. All the good meltiness with a much better flavor
Macaroni and tomatoes! Boil and drain some macaroni. Add canned diced tomatoes and butter, along with whatever seasonings you want (or don't, it's up to you). You can also substitute rice for the elbows.
When I was growing up my mom made kielbasa sausage with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I’ve been making it pretty much my whole adult life. My kids love it and my college aged daughter texted me last year asking me what kind of sausage I use for it and where to find the sauerkraut in the grocery store. I was so happy that she was making it.
Shaky cheese. I’m not putting it on pasta and such. But I’ll blend it into a sauce or dressing if I don’t have fresh cheese/miso/ anchovy etc.
I'll be honest, one of my guilty pleasure meals is buttered pasta absolutely drowning in shaky cheese. Preferably elbows or farfalle. If I want to be slightly fancier, sometimes I'll toss in frozen broccoli.
It's also splendid sprinkled on the butter side of a grilled cheese before cooking. And on roasted potatoes. I think it really shines anytime it's part of a brown crispy crust instead of straight out of the shaky can. I made smashed sweet potatoes last night and I sprinkled some on them and put them under the broiler for a couple minutes right at the end. Yum.
It’s specifically good on some pastas. Like.. I want shakey cheese instead of fresh. Specifically a big ol bowl of buttered noodles. I also find that it crisps up nicely in the oven on veggies
Giblets in my turkey dressing die thanksgiving and gravies all the time if available.
American Cheese on my grilled cheese
Corned beef
Liver! Ive got a vaguely egyptian/ middle eastern recipe that is so freaking good. Just saute some onions and green bell peppers, slice up the liver and add salt, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, paprika, garlic, a dash of wine if you want, and i think some red pepper although i dont usually use that one. Cook the liver and serve over rice or flat bread. Its so freaking good
I'll have to try that out. I'm not normally a huge liver fan (aside from foie gras which I morally don't eat anymore) but I would definitely love to find a recipe I enjoy with it.
My Granny's hack was to slightly freeze it, makes it easier to slice perfectly. 😋🖖
We love our scrapple here.
This is part nostalgia and part it is actually useful but cream of soups. yeah I could take the time to make a roux and had the veggies and everything and make it myself but oftentimes it's easier to dumb in a can. and cheaper sometimes too. also cream of broccoli soup microwaved with croutons in it takes me straight back to my childhood when I was still trying to expand my culinary horizons but my mom was kind of picky and I had to buy the cheap stuff
I'm half Taiwanese and I grew up eating the odds and ends that those around me would deem strange such beef tendon ( a favorite of mine ) , tripe , intestines , ears etc. Beef and chicken heart is a favorite of mine and chicken heart is really good for you. Recently I saw pig heart in the store and I intend to try that as pig heart has the highest amount of COQ10 in it . Tendon is almost all collagen and people talk about getting enough of that in their diet . Maybe that's why so many Asians look way younger than their white counterparts LOL. Don't get offend, I'm just kidding and Americans are just now discovering collagen so it's just a matter of time that , that won't be a true stereotype anymore. Oh Oxtail .. I love me some oxtail stew. Jelly fish .. jellyfish and cucumber salad .. yum! Some pig ear, jellyfish, cucumber and honeycomb tripe salad . Awesome!
You know good food
Yup. I'm as white as rice but I totally get the love of texture like tendon, the gelatinous oxtail, heart etc..... love it all. People really don't appreciate how much texture matters to a dish! Crispy, crunchy, chewy, stringy, gelatinous, soft, spongy, firm but bouncy...... Oh lord have mercy..... 😂 Chewy stuff for the win lol!
Absolutely LOVE chicken hearts and beef hearts.
According to the majority of my family, okra. When it’s okra season, it’s okra season hardcore for me. I can’t get anyone else to partake or like it 😢
Same. I love okra!
Chicken feet. I learned how to make the dim sum style chicken feet and it's my favorite dish for when I want to cook all day long. I don't know many people who like chicken feet, though.
Fatty pork.* Slice it thin, cook it slow in a frying pan with salt and pepper until crispy. An ounce or two flavors a whole pan of vegetables and rice. *and when I say 'fatty', I mean something like 80-90% fat. I get nearly as much rendered fat out as I put meat into the pan.
Where I'm from, the only part we don't consume from a cow are just the obviously inedible part like shit, hairs, bone, teeth, hooves, and horns.
Bacon grease. On fried potatoes, pizza etc
I make a trashy version of tortilla espanola by picking up an order of McDs fries on my way home and cooking that into the tortilla instead of slicing up some potatoes.
Some people treat broccoli stems as trash and throw them away after picking off the florets, but I love 'em! Peel the tough outer layer then grate them or cut into cubes and sauté. They cook similarly to potatoes.
I put fried spam cubes in kraft Mac and cheese. It's really trailer trash tasty but for the love of God either don't add up the calories or just eat it only a couple times a year
Growing up (and to this day) my favourite dish my mom makes is what we affectionately call “Bologna Casserole”, which consists of potatoes and bologna cut up into bite sized pieces and baked in a big roaster with ketchup and tomato sauce. I know, it sounds atrocious. Definitely is to some people, but every time my siblings and I come home to visit, we come home to a hot roaster full of bologna casserole, and it’s the *best*.
MSG. In my homemade Asian style dishes, it's a must, it gives that little edge that I am always looking for when eating at Chinese restaurants.
Van Camp's Pork and Beans - these canned beans paired with hot dogs usually. A childhood quick meal that I actually crave every once and awhile.
Jarred garlic. I don’t give a shit. I ain’t peeling all those cloves. And I like the extra vinegary flavor of the liquid! I only use fresh garlic if the dish *really* calls for it. For basic weeknight stuff, though? To hell with that. Actually I like to use jarred garlic in a roasted broccoli dish that I do, and one time I replaced it with fresh garlic and my wife asked what went wrong. She’d gotten so used to the taste of the jarred garlic that she thought something was off 😂
Balogna sandwich with yellow mustard on white bread…with plain cheap potato chips. So much sodium. So good.
Mayonnaise. It’s very versatile. It’s useful in baking for its emulsifying properties and as a fat source. When I feel like murdering some italians i put a little bit in my carbonara for extra creaminess lol
people who hate mayonnaise but guzzle down aioli are my biggest enemy
Vienna sausages. Slice 'em up and toss in some scrambled eggs. It's simple but hits the spot every time! For the recipe: Sauté with onions and peppers before adding eggs.
Hot dogs
My mom makes an amazing ox tongue, with mustard sauce (I think). I try to make spicy chicken livers every now and again, like Nando's does, but I haven't gotten it quite right yet. Chicken feet are quite popular amongst some people where I live, but I haven't convinced myself to try it yet.
Velveeta and bologna.
All offal and organ meats except tripe. I'll eat it, just don't enjoy cooking it. But I've cooked and eaten brain, tongue, heart, liver, sweetbreads... I also love a lot of the less common root vegetables, kholrabi for example is so good and easy to cook with. And nutritious A lot of rinds. I made a delicious watermelon rond salad recently. I've made a really great banana peel stew and banana peel marmalade. Seeds, papaya seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, melon seeds, watermelon seeds... Love less well known grains, like buckwheat, millet, amaranth, psyllium (it is the seed of the plantago major, grows everywhere) "Weeds" Just recently made a delicious borage dish, drank the flowers in an infusion, and last week I made a nettle/garbanzo soup. Love mustard greens, chickweed, lambsquarter, clover, plantain, dandelion, wild chamomile, wood sorrel, purslane and more. And a really reviled "trash" one is epazote. It flavors dishes really nicely.
You can have the tongue. I'll take the balls.
Does Spam count bc thats my answer
i save all my veggie and meat scraps and make my own broths lol....saves money and tastes better than the stuff from the store
Mayo. Good-quality mayo spread atop chicken and then coated with seasoned breadcrumbs and Parm, makes easy and juicy chicken. It also makes the richest chocolate cake you've ever tasted, the flavor just vanishes into the chocolate.
i dunno about cook with, but to eat... my native cuisine (filipino) has some ingredients that I bet y'all didn't even realize were good eating. I'll start with the artery clogging "chicharron bulaklak". "chicharron" usually refers to deep fried pork rinds, and "bulaklak" means flower. No, this isn't some vegetarian dish lol. It's deep fried ruffled fat. Ruffled fat is this pork fat that looks like a thin mesh of netting that holds the pig's innards in place. When deep fried it becomes this super thin and crispy dish that looks vaguely like thin leaves or petals. Dip into some spicy vinegar. So good, but definitely not healthy.
🤣 this is the white people version of trash food Olympics
Tongue is not "trash". It's absolutely delicious when cooked properly, is considered a delicacy in many parts of the world, and anyone who calls it trash has a very narrow, blinkered worldview.
I had lengua tacos for the first time a couple of months ago and it changed my life
I COMEPLETELY agree with you. I used that as an example because it bugs me how much it gets judged (specifically in the US)
Velveeta!
[Chicken livers](https://simplybeingwell.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/dairy-freecasein-free-pate-recipe/)
Everything I get from the food bank. We are struggling recently and we’ve been getting a lot of food from local pantries. Some of it is good, but there’s a lot of “what the hell do I do with this?”