Poor people using spices to cover rotting food is a complete myth falsely attributed to the Middle Ages. Spices were incredibly expensive and a luxury limited to the upper class - anyone rich enough to afford spices did not have to worry about rotting food.
The actual reason for the perceived blandness of White American food is basically the converse of this. Stereotypical white suburban food is probably closest to mid western cuisine.
The mid west was uniquely isolated from Spanish, French, or Italian influence (which were heavier in tastes), lacked international trade to get any spices, and as the nation’s bread bowl specialised in and received lots of subsidies for growing staple crops, like corn.
Ethnically, its white populace is overrepresented by more Anglo ethnicities, like the British, German, and Nordic, which also had more, shall we say, limited palates.
Firstly, the word your looking for is Germanic not Anglo, Anglo basically means English since it’s one of the founding tribal groups that became the English alongside the Saxons and Jutes, calling the Germans Anglo is like calling the French Aragonese sure they both speak a Latin descended language but that’s cause they are linguistic cousins.
Secondly, as someone descended from both inland Southern and Northern stock Southerners fucken love spices compared to my kin who take more after our Great lakes or Northwestern Appalachian ancestors. So yeah that part checks out.
Anglo-Saxon is not just Germanic it is very specific to medieval England since the Anglo-Saxons were just the proto-English. The Angles were never particularly relevant until their migration into Britain and their mainland counterparts were almost entirely absorbed by the ancestors to the Danes by the 700s. The term you are looking for is WASP, which stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant which does have more of a pan white meaning here in the US and does cross over into the assimilated Germans, Celts, and Latins since it’s a term for a specific cultural grouping rather than an ethnic one.
If it seems like I’m getting weirdly annoyed about this that’s cause I am. I like anthropology and history, clumping together people descended from every damned Germanic nation and calling them fucking Anglo-Saxons is absurd. By that logic Romanians, French, and Italians are all Castilian. Words have meaning and while that meaning may shift let’s not misuse specific anthropologic and historical terms.
I respect the pedantry, but I was trying say that I was using the “Anglo” - which in casual speech is short for the casual “Anglo-Saxon”, itself short for White Anglo Saxon Protestant.
I remember I had this exact same conversation IRL, and we determined that the confusion and somewhat jargony nature of the latter two terms (especially since WASP isn’t well understood outside the US) was why people in casual speech just use the ambiguous “Anglo”.
Fair enough. Don’t have much if any experience with folks from outside of North America (getting taught new slurs by Slavs on CSGO aside) but I feel like the term Saxon would ironically be more applicable since the Saxons were instrumental in the formation of damned near every modern Germanic nation. Mostly because they were trader but they were spread out everywhere from Britain to Wallachia to at least one enclave in Uppsala in Sweden. Doesn’t quite work well for the Nordic nations but it’s probably the best term.
Like I said the term Anglo is just kinda weird since the continental Angles were more or less wiped out of assimilated before even Charlemagne was born. The Saxons on the other hand still arguably exist in both Germany, Britain, and in their expat cultures such as the Volga Germans or the Amero-Deutsch populations.
Poor people using spices to cover rotting food is a complete myth falsely attributed to the Middle Ages. Spices were incredibly expensive and a luxury limited to the upper class - anyone rich enough to afford spices did not have to worry about rotting food.
The actual reason for the perceived blandness of White American food is basically the converse of this. Stereotypical white suburban food is probably closest to mid western cuisine.
The mid west was uniquely isolated from Spanish, French, or Italian influence (which were heavier in tastes), lacked international trade to get any spices, and as the nation’s bread bowl specialised in and received lots of subsidies for growing staple crops, like corn.
Ethnically, its white populace is overrepresented by more Anglo ethnicities, like the British, German, and Nordic, which also had more, shall we say, limited palates.
Spices Were Used to Mask the Taste of Bad Meat in the Middle Ages? - https://culinarylore.com/food-history:spices-used-to-cover-taste-bad-meat/
Honestly, that checks out — thank you for the info!
Hey just two things.
Firstly, the word your looking for is Germanic not Anglo, Anglo basically means English since it’s one of the founding tribal groups that became the English alongside the Saxons and Jutes, calling the Germans Anglo is like calling the French Aragonese sure they both speak a Latin descended language but that’s cause they are linguistic cousins.
Secondly, as someone descended from both inland Southern and Northern stock Southerners fucken love spices compared to my kin who take more after our Great lakes or Northwestern Appalachian ancestors. So yeah that part checks out.
Oop, I meant Anglo, as in the the shortened version of Anglo Saxon (basically Germanic).
Anglo-Saxon is not just Germanic it is very specific to medieval England since the Anglo-Saxons were just the proto-English. The Angles were never particularly relevant until their migration into Britain and their mainland counterparts were almost entirely absorbed by the ancestors to the Danes by the 700s. The term you are looking for is WASP, which stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant which does have more of a pan white meaning here in the US and does cross over into the assimilated Germans, Celts, and Latins since it’s a term for a specific cultural grouping rather than an ethnic one.
If it seems like I’m getting weirdly annoyed about this that’s cause I am. I like anthropology and history, clumping together people descended from every damned Germanic nation and calling them fucking Anglo-Saxons is absurd. By that logic Romanians, French, and Italians are all Castilian. Words have meaning and while that meaning may shift let’s not misuse specific anthropologic and historical terms.
I respect the pedantry, but I was trying say that I was using the “Anglo” - which in casual speech is short for the casual “Anglo-Saxon”, itself short for White Anglo Saxon Protestant.
I remember I had this exact same conversation IRL, and we determined that the confusion and somewhat jargony nature of the latter two terms (especially since WASP isn’t well understood outside the US) was why people in casual speech just use the ambiguous “Anglo”.
Semantics 🤷♂️
Fair enough. Don’t have much if any experience with folks from outside of North America (getting taught new slurs by Slavs on CSGO aside) but I feel like the term Saxon would ironically be more applicable since the Saxons were instrumental in the formation of damned near every modern Germanic nation. Mostly because they were trader but they were spread out everywhere from Britain to Wallachia to at least one enclave in Uppsala in Sweden. Doesn’t quite work well for the Nordic nations but it’s probably the best term.
Like I said the term Anglo is just kinda weird since the continental Angles were more or less wiped out of assimilated before even Charlemagne was born. The Saxons on the other hand still arguably exist in both Germany, Britain, and in their expat cultures such as the Volga Germans or the Amero-Deutsch populations.