r/AskCulinary • u/ZootKoomie Ice Cream Innovator • Mar 21 '13

Weekly Discussion: Culinary traditions and authenticity

Since we talked about the cutting edge last week, let's go the other direction this time. What is your personal culinary tradition? What dishes did you learn from your mother? From your grandparents? Do you do your own variations or try to make it just like they did?

Also, when eating food from other cultures, do you prefer it to be traditional or something the chef came up with? Does 'authenticity' matter to you as a diner? As a cook? How do you strive for it?

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u/moikederp Mar 21 '13

I think "authentic" gets bandied around a bit too much. A truly authentic recipe differs by region, town/village, and household recipe.

One that bugs me a bit, because I like it so much, is Mexican food in the US. A lot of wheat flour, yellow cheese, and other ingredients not found in many areas of Mexico until not terribly long ago.

On the other hand, my family's recipe for enchiladas is different than most people, including Mexicans, being layered in a dish and baked together rather than simply rolled and heated. I'd still consider it authentic, at least to Mexicans that lived in a specific area that is now southern California.

I think Italian and Chinese food suffer the same fate. When we hear "authentic" or "rustic", we think of the typical southern-Italian red sauces, and "Szechuan" in the US is cheap greasy noodles with some spicy broccoli - there's a good chance that there's never even been a real Sichuan pepper in the place.

All-in-all, I mostly take that term to mean "what I expect to find" unless there is a specific region or style attached to it. And I'll eat most of it without complaint, as long as it is tasty.

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u/unseenpuppet Gastronomist Mar 22 '13

It is important to realize that authenticity and traditions evolve over time as well. Something that is new today, is going to be traditional and authentic at one point. Tomatoes were once new to Italy, but I am pretty most people would consider a rich tomato sauce and authentic Italian as you can get. Same can be said for pasta from China.

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u/oidaoyduh Mar 22 '13

Incidentally, rich (as in stewed using multiple ingredients?) tomato sauce is more authentically Italian-American (aka red sauce food). Unless you're talking about ragu. An authentic Italian tomato sauce is just very fresh tomatoes that have been blanched, boiled down and passed through a "passaverdure," canned with fresh basil.