I'm Conservative When It Comes To _____

[Chris Amirault]

Making guacamole today using the very simple, set house recipe: avocado, onions, salt & pepper, cilantro, cumin. Maybe a bit of lime juice, maybe some chipotle powder. But that's it.

I considered briefly a variation on a theme. Mango? Pineapple? Jalapeños?

Nah.

I'm pretty adventurous with many dishes, but I don't fiddle with guacamole. What's the dish that brings out the conservative in you?

[Mjx]

Pizza is the first thing that comes to mind. I grew up with pizza that had a modest amount of sauce and cheese, and restrained amounts of traditional toppings. Pineapple, candied cherries, large chunks of vegetable, kebabs, marshmallows (mini or jet-puf) double layers of crust, excessive toppings of any sort... the list of things that I feel do not belong on a pizza is very, very long.

[Anna N]

French onion soup - it's Julia's or it is nothing.

[kitchensqueen]

For me, it's the bolognese I make. The recipe I work from is an adaptation of Lynn Rosetto Kasper's Country Style Ragu in The Splendid Table. I start with a mirepoix, add in some diced pancetta, ground beef, ground pork, tomato paste, red wine and beef stock. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. I omit the cream/milk that most bologneses call for since my husband and I are lactose-intolerant.

She has so many other great meat sauce recipes in her book that I always intend to make - game ragu, meat ragu with marsala - but I can never get past my stand-by version. When I crave pasta bolognese, it just hits the spot.

[gfweb]

Pizza is the first thing that comes to mind. I grew up with pizza that had a modest amount of sauce and cheese, and restrained amounts of traditional toppings. Pineapple, candied cherries, large chunks of vegetable, kebabs, marshmallows (mini or jet-puf) double layers of crust, excessive toppings of any sort... the list of things that I feel do not belong on a pizza is very, very long.

I agree. Interesting old thread here

[ChrisTaylor]

Vegan versions of things.

You know, vegan cheesecake. Vegan icecream. That sort of thing. No. Sorry. Cheesecake is made from cheese. Icecream contains dairy and probably eggs. Animal products are part of what cheesecake and icecream are. You can flavour them with chocolate or egg and bacon or strawberry or whatever you like and I'm okay with that -- just so long as you don't turn them into some sad animal product-free slop.

[David Ross]

Mashed Potatoes-

Russet Potatoes

Butter

Cream

Salt

Pepper

[qrn]

Our Pizza is very sparse compared to most others, Crust,moz,provolene, thin sliced romas from the garden.diced basil from the garden.with some Olive Oil

Bud

[Dakki]

Pretty much everything actually. I hadn't really though about it but I guess I'm a gastronomic reactionary.

[Genkinaonna]

Macaroni and cheese. Macaroni. Cheese. Not sausage, cauliflower, truffles, lobster, broccoli, kitchen sink, macaroni, and cheese. Some things just shouldn't be messed with. I'm fine with switching up the cheeses and messing with how they're thickened (I'm waiting for my iota carrageenan and sodium citrate as we speak) but the two primary ingredients are it, macaroni and cheese. If that makes me conservative, I can live with that. And don't get me started on all the crap they shovel onto cheesecake! Maybe I'm just a dairy traditionalist ...

[philadining]

I was recently in a pub outside of Philadelphia that serves the sandwich "Beef on Weck." In its place of origin, Buffalo,NY, it's always just thinly-sliced roast beef, plenty of jus, and horseradish on a kummelweck roll (a kaiser-like roll with caraway seed and coarse salt on the top.)

I ordered one at the place outside of Philly, and the waitress asked if I wanted cheese on it. I had an immediate, unconscious, reflexive reaction, and cried out "NO!"

The waitress laughed, and replied that lots of people around there like it that way. I'm not sure why, but it just sounded wrong to me. There's no reason that it should be bad, but I definitely did not want that. So, I guess I'm conservative about Beef on Weck.

Back when John Kerry was running for President, he made the obligatory stop at a famous Cheesesteak joint in Philly. When someone asked him what kind of cheese he wanted, he reportedly asked for Swiss. This was met with widespread derision. There's nothing logically wrong with that choice, in fact, it might be quite tasty, but it just isn't done. It's not like there isn't swiss cheese in Philadelphia, or that it's seen as an especially luxe ingredient, but for some reason, ordering a cheesesteak with swiss was seen as unforgivably elitist.

So, I think it's safe to say that Philadelphians are conservative about cheesesteaks.

[gfweb]

Aggressively conservative.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

[David A. Goldfarb]

Bagels. They have to have been boiled, and with the possible exception of cinnamon raisin, about which I have my doubts despite the history of that option, they should not be sweet or have fruit or be made with spelt or other non-wheat flours. Ideally they should be smaller, denser, and chewier than even most "good" bagels one can find today.

[rarerollingobject]

Fruit, strangely enough. As in, I love nearly all fruit but I CANNOT stand different fruits mixed together, i.e. in a fruit salad. As endlessly creative as I love to get with vegetable salad combinations, or vegetable AND fruit combinations, I really hate the taste of, say, a sweet orange bleeding into the tart crispness of an apple in a fruit salad bowl, and then suddenly happening upon a wayward grape or something..yech.

Monofruitarian all the way - will happily eat an orange or an apple on its own. Mixing lemon with lime is about as promiscuous as I get.

Edited May 1, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)

[Darienne]

All the replies to this topic have been interesting. And I have been thinking about what my own reply will be. OK. Macaroni and cheese for one. Grilled cheese sandwiches...only cheese...for another. Hot dogs in cheap buns with cheap relish and mustard. Probably there are a good dozen dishes if I really put my mind to it.

However, I wonder how many of the dishes about which we are conservative hearken back to our childhoods. Comfort or semi-comfort foods. Foods we ate growing up. Foods our Mothers or Grandmothers made. Foods we ate at the country fairs. Foods which were featured a number of years ago when most menus...here I am speaking of those born of Anglo origin or western European in the USA, Australia or Canada mainly...did not encompass the foods of the world, like Thai and Indian for examples. My Mother never made foods which were not strictly "North American" at the time: meat, potato and vegetable. Or at a time when we made foods which were from at most one or two other non-North American diets. Please, I am not encompassing all families, all diets, all menus here. Just skimming across the top of the subject...

[TeakettleSlim]

That strikes me as roughly right. I'm on board with the macaroni and cheese, mashed potato conservatives. To which I'll add grits-- I want 'em like my mom (from West PA, mind) made them: with water, then with cheddar added maybe. But nothing else. Pot roast is another. Give me beef seasoned with salt, pepper, maybe onion. Low and slow. The End.

On the other hand, there were lots of other things she made that I'm happy to elaborate on-- pies are a good example. Certainly a comfort food, and one which she did very well, but apart from requiring homemade crust, I'm not particularly conservative.

[nolnacs]

I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but one thing that I always make the same way is pie crust, using my mom's recipe. I love the end result of the recipe and the dough is easy to work with so I don't feel the need to try any other. No butter or shortening for me, only lard.

[Rico]

My 'rub' for smoking a brisket is salt and pepper.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Wow, you all made me consider my habits.....

For example, Lasagne. It isn't Lasagne unless it's got pieces of those finger-thin Sicilian pepperonis in the red sauce. Without those, it's a layered noodle casserole. Equally, using anything other than red sauce with those particular pepperonis in it is sacrilege. No "chicken lasagne in cream sauce" or "dessert lasagne." That's. just. WRONG.

I also won't serve (or eat) a fruit salad with an even number of fruits in it, or one that doesn't contain pineapple.

I am also a pie crust purist, using my great-gran's recipe. Lard all the way!

This said, I'll gleefully mess with pizzas, mac and cheese, and any number of other dishes. I regularly add mango to savoury things, for example, and I love the taste of little chunks of ripe plantain in my hamburgers.

[kitchensqueen]

Fruit, strangely enough. As in, I love nearly all fruit but I CANNOT stand different fruits mixed together, i.e. in a fruit salad. As endlessly creative as I love to get with vegetable salad combinations, or vegetable AND fruit combinations, I really hate the taste of, say, a sweet orange bleeding into the tart crispness of an apple in a fruit salad bowl, and then suddenly happening upon a wayward grape or something..yech.

Monofruitarian all the way - will happily eat an orange or an apple on its own. Mixing lemon with lime is about as promiscuous as I get.

I completely agree with this!

[kitchensqueen]

However, I wonder how many of the dishes about which we are conservative hearken back to our childhoods. Comfort or semi-comfort foods. Foods we ate growing up. Foods our Mothers or Grandmothers made. Foods we ate at the country fairs. Foods which were featured a number of years ago when most menus...here I am speaking of those born of Anglo origin or western European in the USA, Australia or Canada mainly...did not encompass the foods of the world, like Thai and Indian for examples. My Mother never made foods which were not strictly "North American" at the time: meat, potato and vegetable. Or at a time when we made foods which were from at most one or two other non-North American diets. Please, I am not encompassing all families, all diets, all menus here. Just skimming across the top of the subject...

That's probably not too far off the mark. When I want ham and scalloped potatoes, I want the un-fancy version my mom made when I was a kid. Crumb coffee cake, pot roast - don't really get to adventurous on those either. Food is a pretty strong thread running through life, regardless of situation or background. It can take you to a place of comfort and joy just by recreating something you experienced positively as a kid.

[andiesenji]

Cornbread!

I have tried hundreds of variations, both regional and "flavor" additions, but I always return to the traditional southern type cornbread.

Nothing else really can compare - to me personally.

[gfweb]

Fruit, strangely enough. As in, I love nearly all fruit but I CANNOT stand different fruits mixed together, i.e. in a fruit salad. As endlessly creative as I love to get with vegetable salad combinations, or vegetable AND fruit combinations, I really hate the taste of, say, a sweet orange bleeding into the tart crispness of an apple in a fruit salad bowl, and then suddenly happening upon a wayward grape or something..yech.

Monofruitarian all the way - will happily eat an orange or an apple on its own. Mixing lemon with lime is about as promiscuous as I get.

I completely agree with this!

Me too.

[jsmeeker]

A martini. It's gotta be made with gin. And there must really be some vermouth in there. Not vapors of vermouth. Not a minute amount that clings to the side of the glass. But an actual measurable amount.

[Mark Muller]

Making guacamole today using the very simple, set house recipe: avocado, onions, salt & pepper, cilantro, cumin. Maybe a bit of lime juice, maybe some chipotle powder. But that's it.

Onions? Cilantro? Cumin? Chipoltle Powder? In guacamole? You sir are a decadent liberal of the first order . My guacomole is avocado, lime juice and salt, and maybe a dash of hot sauce. I only put the lime juice in to slow it turning brown. I don't dislike the other additions, but they get in the way of enjoying the avocado.

I am most conservative with regular (ie, drip or press, not espresso) coffee, which I prefer black. If I add dairy to regular coffee, it is because I do not like the coffee much. I also prefer my iced tea unsweetened without any lemon or fruit juice. Just plain iced black tea.