Feeling cheated as an American when it comes to food, specifically sweets

I feel like most sweets and even some foods have far too much sugar to enjoy in America.

A vast majority of candy has gone right past accentuating certain flavors and going straight to different colors and forms of sugar. Chocolate is often an abomination to where you can’t distinguish the complex tones and nice bitters of the bean that offers so much.

Foreigners note that much of the bread is glorified cake. Some become masters of smoking high quality meats only to make a high fructose corn syrup based “sauce” to slather it in. Drinks are so loaded with sugars they flirt with being a small meal.

There’s plenty of reasons we’ve got here, some (or most) even being nefarious for profit purposes.

And I suppose it’s not all doom and gloom. At the end of the day I can find boutique spots that use natural foods to achieve flavor profiles that seem more practical and exciting. I can go to all kinds of different ethnic grocers to cook hard to find things myself.

But I have this sadness that people allow themselves to be cheated out of such an intimate part of our lives, nourishment. It’s not just the fact food provides sustenance, but it’s a source of pleasure and sometimes ecstasy. Like going into a part of nature on a perfect day, a big life event, or intimacy with a new love.

It’s become commercialized and broken down to the lowest common denominators just to cheat the receptors into finding it acceptable. It’s only imaginative in that it takes the concept of Soylent green and attempts a facade of variety.

The next series of my gripes will be grains, fats, dairy, and proteins.

Fish soaked in a solution of salt and a small amount of honey before smoking tastes great...maple syrup can be used too.

I like smoked meats, but I do not like them too sugary, just a tad is fine. Some hams are way too sweet, if you want to make a glaze for it that is fine for the last twenty minutes because it does not penetrate the ham too deep and some people like that pineapple slices and brown sugar on them but I prefer the inside slices with not much sugar.

Brown sugar glaze on grilled salmon is not bad as long as it is not too sweet, I like fish with salt and pepper best, maybe a tad bit of garlic some times. We presently have in our freezer enough fish to have a fish fry or baked fish for twenty two weeks at once a week.

A little bit of sugar in bread...like a half teaspoon for a loaf plus six rolls...adds a good flavor to it without sweetening it, I put it into the yeast and water and it alters the way the yeast works, learned that from taking some online classes on breadmaking from some french restaurant in France, I learned a lot from those classes about microbes in the environment effecting taste, the owner said he sniffs the prospective workers to see what microbes they live symbiotically with because they effect the bread flavor...interesting...so I checked it out in science and there are articles about the flavor connection and the person making the breads.

The new generation makes more fuss about the looks of a cake than in how it tastes, the frostings look good, but they taste tough...like sweet rubber some times. I like good homemade frostings, real stuff in them...no food coloring...if you want to color frosting throw some real food colors in them, like dehydrated strawberry powder to pink up a frosting. I tend to use natural sour cream in frostings and glazes to counter the powder sugar and dampen the sweetness.

Yeah, candies and cakes and all sweets have way too much sugar in them here in America....we tend to make our own stuff which is not so sweet, we hardly make any cake mixes or browny mixes. we do tend to stock maybe two in case the world is going to end.

Back forty years ago things were not so sickening sweet like they are now. We use cane sugar, it is not so tangy sweet.

a reply to: rickymouse

Yea, I’m not opposed to sweets when it comes to smoked meats, or meat in general. Reduced apple juice and some apple cider vinegar can go a long way at the end of a smoke to make a light glaze. The natural flavor goes a long way with the right wood, cut, and spice profile.

Balsamic on duck can be divine, and a local honey on practically anything can make something decadent.

I like my chocolate with enough sweetness to take the edge off so the bitterness doesn’t drown out the subtle flavor. Though some course sea salt is definitely a welcomed contrast.

It’s just sad to see that we made a supply chain to offer a good variety from so many cultures at an accessible price only to bastardize most iterations by synthesizing the forums.

I’m worried about what happens when people don’t find it advantageous to keep bees near local farms, make artisan bread from said farms, or raise heritage agriculture from traditional sources.

Only mass amounts of Frankenstein “food” is ripping people off from the joy of life.

I know this isnt a state your favorite dessert/candy thread but...

Creme brulee all day.

a reply to: SuicideKing33

That’s fair, a good crème brûlée is rich and savory with a sweet crunchy top to give contrast.

If done right, you’re close to umami. Salt from a high grade butter, savory when mixed with the egg and high grade cream, bitter from a nice fresh shaved cinnamon (even a bit of spice) , and finished with a complex caramelized crisp topping.

That’s a true dessert.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Belgian chocolate.

Cheers

Look out any window over a busy street with pedestrians walking at all the unhealthy fat people trying to walk from their car to a store front...They are living proof that American food is not good for you which was a consequence of the commercial blitz of eat more pasta several years ago..IMO

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Cheated, maybe. Addicted, most likely.

Many forms of sugar are addictive and satisfy no nutritional requirements leaving the consumer hungry for more, leading to further demand and increased sales.

From the comments here, the need for 'sweet', (on smoked fish? Yuk, yuk, yuk!) indicates something entrenched, an altered palate maybe?

Recallibrate the palate with lemon juice diluted in warm water every day until sweet is distasteful. Worked for me and 40years later, sweet is, for my tastes, the least desirable and unamic element.

One day I walked through the candy aisle at the grocery store and saw some Hershey's Zero Sugar Special Dark Chocolate Candy, and I wanted to try it so I got a bag.
Turns out the main ingredient in it isn't even chocolate, it's maltitol, which is a sugar substitute. There's also a warning on the back that excess consumption can cause gas and bloating.

a reply to: CriticalStinker
When ebay US food importers became a thing here around 15 years ago, friends and me would dial up to the internet and browse the shops and marvel in awe about American candy. Because somehow we got the impression US candy is better, bigger, more colorful.

In basic terms, what you described hits the nail on the head about my own impression. As teens we were fascinated and curious about the stuff we saw in US movies and series, probably a lot to do with glorification.

Turned out time after time that, for me, most treats were too sweet. Reese's peanut butter cakes is about the only US candy I had that I like, love and tolerate the absolute over the top sweetness. Talking about flavor profile... Personally I prefer a sheet-dough treat over a candy bar as the world of flavors is truly wide and unique. You cut into a point that made me love my confectioner job, playing with flavors and the joy, pleasure and overwhelming tongue-exctasy. Still proud about my sheet dough croissants filled with walnut-honey-cherry schnaps and the food chemistry activated with a can of coke (phosphoric acid, the coka nut flavor, walnut flavor and alcohol gassing out in trace amount gives a punch of "nut" taste coming from the back of the throat.

Funny I thought about a recipe yesterday and wanted to ask if that recipe is known in the US, then discarded the whole thought because of the different type of bun dough that is mainly used in the US. For the recipe one needs non sweetened buns (salt, water, flour, baking agent), it would not work with yeast or similar sweetened dough.

I would venture to guess that this thread will not get much response because most people are addicted to sugary foods, my wife and daughters love treats with sugar. One daughter and the wife are trying to lower consumption but will slip once in a while and go wild. If I mention refraining a little, it seems they double down. I guess that is the way it is in America, some things we are not allowed to do when you are a guy.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

The same can be said about a lot of food stuffs!

When I was a kid…

Jalepenos used to be hot (and not all drab green, kind of like canned peas).

Granola didn’t taste like Honey Puffs.

Even granulated garlic had taste!!

But you add the pallet of everybody into the math equation and you get sirracha that is neither hot or garlicy (seriously. I use it as ketchup instead of regular catchup!)

And which greedy bastid shrunk candy bars while raising prices??

One would think that Helloween is a multi billion dollar industry or something!

#sarcasm

And yeah, you can satisfy the craving with something containing a bit of sweet but you can’t put kippered cod with marshmallows between graham crackers and call it a “S’more”!!!

Over processed food with sugar (uh, ever read a frozen dinner ingredient list? It is all salt, sugar, and fat) seems to be the Merican Way!

God Bless Merica!!

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