American icons

There's a little shop at the bottom of Ladbroke Grove that sells American imports to homesick expats. 

Ahead of the US elections tomorrow I popped in to take a look at what people from the US consider to be comfort food and what's in them.

A1 is mainly fruit and sugar. It doesn't contain anything remotely exotic like tamarind in our HP (never mind fermented anchovies in Worcestershire). 

What can you say about Jello™ apart from gelatine, some strange acids and artificial flavour.

The cake mix however is worth a whole thesis on its own.

I did a bit of research and this is what I came up with:

The original dry baking mix was invented in the 1930's by the Pittsburg Company P.Duff and Sons. They had a surplus of molasses and wanted an inventive way of getting rid of it. Together with other dried ingredients they came up with a gingerbread recipe.

Pillsbury (founded in 1869) was a grain company and developed their own dried mixes to use up flour. In the 1940's and '50's cake mixes were sold under the banner 'convenience food'.

As a student in the eighties it was a common myth that focus groups had insisted on the addition of fresh eggs and oil because 'The Housewife' felt she could pass the cake off as her own, being "more involved" in the baking process. This seems not to be true. More recent, less sexist research tends to suggest that focus groups hated the cakes made from powdered egg and preferred to add their own.

Either way... when I make a basic Victoria sponge I cream together butter and sugar, add eggs, flour, baking powder then put it in the oven. Five ingredients and that's it. The Pillsbury white cake mix includes 26 ingredients even before you add water, eggs and oil.

I am tempted to make it and find out what it tastes like but I feel queasy.

Good luck to all my US friends going out to vote today X