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smoking brisket is a prime example

Gen Z meets real world. I mean, LIKE real world. LIKE.


One young American TikTok user recently took to the social site to showcase her stress and despair over not having time "to do anything" after working her 9-to-5 job.


"I want to shower, eat my dinner and go to sleep. I don't have time or energy to cook my dinner either. Like, I don't have energy to work out, like that's out the window. Like I'm so upset," the young woman says in the now-viral TikTok. "Nothing to do with my job at all, but just like the 9-to-5 schedule in general is crazy."

Well it's a weird thing.

As you've discussed previously, one of the things the less well off have less of is free time--the schedules of work/etc to make ends meet, potentially of more difficult commuting scenarios (public transit rather than a car), etc can lead to having less time for this kind of stuff. For many on the poorer end of the spectrum, just getting a healthful meal on the table for a family, in a rush, is a big deal.

Whereas those of means can often devote this kind of time. I'm not in a job where I am working weekends, so if I choose to smoke a brisket or do some slabs of ribs for a weekend meal I can absolutely do it. My wife and I both work, but for many in our demographic they are a one-income household where as soon as the kids are home from school the stay-at-home parent can get to cooking.

I don't generally try to, well, generalize. Some poor people have lots of time, and some richer people have none. For some it's the opposite.

But my point was more about the cuisine pressures that come from the lower-income groups who are forced into trying to make cheap ingredients into something delicious.

Again, it goes to my theory that poorer cultures produce some damn delicious food because of working around their limited means.

Rich people can just buy good ingredients and let them shine. Poor people can't afford good ingredients so they have to doctor it up to make it taste good.

The end result is that poorer cultures make more use of spice and flavoring and cooking methods to get the most out of it, and end up with some gems.

The ingredients needed to make red beans and rice are cheap. If you look at this recipe, it looks like they quote it as making 6 servings for about 10 bucks. Even to the extent they add sausage, you can see the recipe is designed to stretch that sausage to feed many. But it's packed full of flavor and hearty enough to coat your insides.

It may not win any Michelin stars, but if you're trying to meet a tight budget and feed a family, you at least want to make something that tastes good.