Americans invented apple pie, and also saved it from being bad British food

[u/TeacupUmbrella]

Context: a post about how the earliest apple pie recipe we have from England had no sugar in it (since it's from the 1300s) and so they sweetened it with other fruits and such.

Yep, America invented apple pie like 400 years before America even existed, and also save it from being bad British food.

[u/AnnoyedOwlbear]

Salt, smoking, and drying. With low tech, your goal is to reduce H20 to make an inhospitable environment for bacteria. Many spices were originally medicinal additives that were slowly adopted. Black pepper was in England since Roman times, chilli peppers come from other areas.

Spices were too expensive to use for preserving meats - they were luxuries and frequently medicines. Herbs were in heavy use in England and Europe - herbs make beer, heal wounds, some set cheese etc. Herbs were in heavy use everywhere!

The thing a lot of US food has in my experience is sugar. A LOT of sugar, fat, and salt.

[u/WoderwickSpillsPaint → u/AnnoyedOwlbear]

Pickling is the other traditional preservation method.

I really don't understand where the yanks get the idea that we don't use spices and seasonings in England. I go through loads of the stuff, and spices are much cheaper here than in the US as well.

[u/letsgetawayfromhere → u/AnnoyedOwlbear]

Chili peppers are a plant from the new world, so they only came to the old world after Columbus (and then it took a long time before people started to use them in the kitchen, same as potatoes, tomatoes and bell peppers).