You say that like the two are mutually exclusive.

I'll enjoy mixing the meat of the rich into my artificially-cheesed hamburger helper, thank you very much.

Sounds like a perfect comparison.

Might be that it's because Lemmy is such a small place. We had the hamburger helper meme in all yesterday and now people are posting about the general concept.

It's a couple of different factors at play:

• Sales of this particular product are up and Fox News, the largest and most influential conservative media source, ran a story about it as if it's a sign of the nostalgic return of something today's old people remember from their youth.
• Most younger people correctly recognize that this trash is actually a bad sign for the economy, because it reflects a shift down market where people are opting to make this stuff instead of the more expensive option of restaurants or takeout.
• Consistent with worsening economic conditions, the price of beef in the United States is skyrocketing, so that the product itself is changing the label to recommend replacing the beef (which customers would ordinarily buy separately) with something else, like cheaper hot dogs.

The political and economic discussion is happening in the United States, and that generally means that it spills out onto the internet where national borders are less significant for where conversations might end up.

Try with acorn shells!

That is more expensive then beef! And an abomination so foul that even god would look away.

It jumped 30% in three months in my area.

you technically don't need the hamburger to have the helper. 🤷‍♂️

It…. Doesn’t help make hamburgers.

Hamburger helper is a boxed spice mix, you also need ground meat, then you brown the meat and add the seasoning mix. You end up with sorta a taco meat (different flavor of course) that you can then eat, mix with pasta.

It’s…. Fine? But it’s pretty depressing in this context.

Hamburger Helper is a boxed pasta mix you add to ground beef to increase the volume and "make it go farther".

TBH, it's not awful.

It is a shelf, stable pasta and cheese mix that you are supposed to mix with a pound of ground beef to make an easy stove top meal. Tldr it's kind of like Kraft dinner but different cheese.

It's because Americans on the whole think "ground beef" is "hamburger". Like the lettuce is "salad" thing.

They need an anthropomorphic glove to sell them on the idea of adding a protein to a carbohydrate so they can manage to feed their families.

It’s basically mac and cheese with cut up hotdogs in it. Or like carbonara, with beef instead of ham. You brown some ground beef (hamburger meat, if you have never cooked anything fancy before and only know it as “that stuff you use to make hamburgers”). Then once it’s browned, you add some water, maybe milk or butter if the particular box calls for it, and the pasta+seasoning mix from the box. It basically turns into some variation of macaroni and cheese, with ground beef added.

TBH, it’s actually not awful in terms of taste. It’s as “peasant food” as peasant food can get; cheap, filling, easy to make, absolutely loaded with calories, and hopefully not awful tasting. It’s awful for you, and you’ll probably feel awful after eating it. But it checks most of the boxes that a broke and overworked parent needs to be able to feed their kids a hot meal 15 minutes after they get home from work. Just swing by the store on your way home, grab a box of Hamburger Helper and a pound of ground beef. Now you’ve fed the whole family for like $8 total.

It probably helps to understand 'hamburger' in this sense is very low quality minced/ground beef*

*might be 'beef'

Must be with they started putting “try it with hot dogs” on the package.

You can just order a hamburger via uber eats™ for only 30 dollars. Youtubers told me that's really smart actually

Try it with hot dogs!

I mean that was the case back then too

The good tuna isn't cheap either. I don't want the quasi cat food from a can.

in my experience the cost of fish in general depends a lot on how closely you live to the sea. i lived close to the sea for a few months during a job, and fish was really cheap there. can't say whether it's the same for the US.

Luigi just gave them some help.

Poverty.

It tastes like being poor.

It's like taco meat mixed with Mac and cheese but with less flavor to both. Honestly anyone's just better off making taco Mac

Well what you do is take some hamburger mean and fry it up. Not as patty form but more like taco meat. There is a season pack that is pretty much taco seasoning and there is elbow mac in the box. After you put eh season in and stir it around dump the mac in and stir it around then add some water and let it simmer for a while. I was poor as a child and ate a lot of this shit. It was cheap and was designed to stretch hamburger meat out. There are different flavors but it all taste the same. When I was in the military we called it chilli-mac. Same shit. If I am hungry I will eat it if offered but I will not go looking for it.

How long before we see that in the States?

We're about 5 days away from federal food assistance being canceled for the month of November, so less than a week, maybe?

I dont think thats a thing anymore, but there are tons of edible plants growing all around most people in the states. Sometimes youll hear about a recipe involving some random ground weed looking thing or dandelions or something.

But yeah foods sort of fucked right now, I'm lucky I live near an aldis.

Can you clarify if you mean hamburger is fine by itself or if the sodium packed box mix is fine without the hamburger.

One answer will probably have The Hague asking for your location.