Mayonnaise or Sour cream?

First of all I didn't put this into Food and Cooking because what I want to ask may include food but the question is not about food or cooking but about a certain perception that just happen to be about a food but could be about anything else [like the colour of dresses etc].

That said, lets get to the point.

Husband and I have noticed that here in the UK, sometimes people get mayonnaise and sour cream mixed up. Often in food serving restaurants.
We have been served Nachos with mayo [blurk] and had to give it back and the girl said that's how they have always served it and she thought that's how it was.

In another pub I asked for mayonnaise with my fries and got sour cream. I told the owner lady and asked her to taste it and she was adamant that it was mayonnaise, when it was 100% sour cream [I am a Mayo beast and my husband also tasted it and said 'urgh it's sour cream'].

Both the consistency and the taste are completely different. The only thing both have in common is the colour.

Now the reason could be that some people just have never tried either and don't know what either tastes like or they have learned them wrong.
However in both cases it was pub/restaurants and they were adamant about their choices.

Or...

...or is it one of these things were people CAN'T tell the difference and just use them interchangeably because it makes no difference to them?

We have also had private people mix them up, giving us the wrong one when asked.

Is it one of those 'blue dress/white dress' perception thing or are people ignorant, and how often does this happen?

What I would really like to hear is if anyone else has had a similar situation, to gauge how common this really is. Maybe some people can't tell the difference [which there certainly is].

We have always talked about this but when it happened again recently and she almost had a 'go' at me for saying that her sour cream wasn't mayonnaise, it hit the 'third molecule' [where something happens often enough for you to start noticing].

Is this a thing? Are there people who really can't taste the difference? Or who learn form their families that one thing is actually the other?

It's really not anything big but it is interesting to us. Anything anyone else can add would be very interesting.

Maybe it should be in Food & Drink really bit I don't want to talk about food, just the perception of taste.

Mods feel free to stick this wherever it needs to be to keep the Earth turning.

a reply to: Hecate666

Well over here in the Netherlands we rely heavily on mayonaise because we use it to mask our terrible cuisine.

I would guess nowhere in Holland or Belgium you will get a mix up between mayonaise and sour cream. We use mayonaise mainly for our fries and sour cream goes really well with a roasted jacket potatoe...

Nachos and mayonaise?....ughh

Peace

a reply to: Hecate666

I would be more concerned with the food being served if they don't know the difference....

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Hecate666

I would be more concerned with the food being served if they don't know the difference....

Hahaha absolutely! It just happened often enough and in different places that we suddenly became aware of this.

Mayonnaise or Sour cream?

Neither
Catsup (ketchup) all the way

a reply to: Gothmog

That's not what I'm asking. It's all about people not knowing the difference between those two. Maybe I should change the title?
Will try.
ETA: Can't. How do you do it?

It is called humor.
If one cannot tell the difference between sour cream and mayonnaise......(fill the rest in)
Color , texture , flavor.

I do love ketchup though.

a reply to: Hecate666

I use both. I use them separately and together.
My recipe for ranch dressing.

1/2 C mayo ( Hellman's only also called Best Foods Mayo in Cali)
1/2 C sour cream
1T lemon juice
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried dill weed
S & P
Mix with a whisk and serve over your fav greens.
add blue cheese and omit the garlic and add a pinch of suagar for a good blue cheese dressing.

They are not interchangable because mayo is made with egg and sour cream is made with milk.
However if you are short an egg in a recipe that also requires oil you can substitute a 1/4 cup of mayo for the egg and oil just adjust the amount of oil the recipe needs.

I have used mayo in cakes when I am short an egg. I have used it as the glue to bread and fry chicken breasts when I do not have a egg to dip them in.

We go through mayo and eggs like we own a restaurant. I keep saying we should raise chickens.

a reply to: operation mindcrime

Now to be honest in mexican restaurants here they serve the nachos with salsa and a white dip that is mayo based.
Its made with miracle whip this time because plain mayo doesnt work and sour cream and has cilantro and lime juice and red pepper flakes and is very very good also.
Here is a recipe for that dip. Try it next time you have nachos.
www.sarahhalstead.com...

a reply to: Gothmog

On a taco?

or even a baked potato?

I'd understand if you said just butter on the potato but ketchup???, not unless the potato is a french fry.

But to each his own.

I love ketchup too. On fries or a burger or as an ingredient for barbeque sauce.

a reply to: Hecate666

if the time is not up just use the edit button on your opening post and it will let you go back to the title and change it.

I have never had these items confused by a restaurant to my knowledge.

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Hecate666

I would be more concerned with the food being served if they don't know the difference....

Heck yeah thats a major issue no chef should make.
Where is Gordon Ramsay when you need someone to take the chef down a peg or two?

a reply to: Hecate666

The taste is so vastly different between the two that it's hard for me to believe it's like the dress phenomenon. More likely just ignorance and appalling apathy towards food in general. Yes, I am a foodie, and no. Not sorry for stepping on this. It's beyond gross to interchange the two.

a reply to: Hecate666

Mayonnaise is warm, even if left in a vat of liquid nitrogen in deep space. This mistake should not be made. I can't explain their culinary inadequacies.

a reply to: Hecate666

Here you get fries with mayo.
All other potato snacks like wedges, country potatoes, curly fries, they come with sour-cream normally.


Personally I prefer sour-cream.

a reply to: Hecate666

That's never happened to me. It's actually a dangerous mistake since some people are allergic to eggs. My sister is. She can't eat mayo anymore.

originally posted by: Hecate666
...or is it one of these things were people CAN'T tell the difference and just use them interchangeably because it makes no difference to them?

We have also had private people mix them up, giving us the wrong one when asked.

Is it one of those 'blue dress/white dress' perception thing or are people ignorant, and how often does this happen?

You sparked my interest with this thread. Mostly due if this really is "one of those blue dress / white dress" perception thing" It doesn't mean that much in the end, but it is interesting to me.

Sour cream or mayo? I thought everyone knew the difference, at least if they are working in a restaurant... I mean to me they are almost like night and day and i could know the difference 100 out of 100 times of blind testing. I thought this was obvious to everyone.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: Gothmog

On a taco?

or even a baked potato?

I'd understand if you said just butter on the potato but ketchup???, not unless the potato is a french fry.

But to each his own.

I love ketchup too. On fries or a burger or as an ingredient for barbeque sauce.

Chocolate cake ,too.
Well , maybe not.
But I may try it one day

Sour cream is for Brexiters...

Here is ze real recipie for Mayo : www.google.com...

The secret is in how you whip it “Marquis de Sade”

Best regards

France

Ps. For real Mayo don’t forget the Lemon... fresh and not in a bottle.

ALSO... put the bowl (with preference stainless steel) in the fridge half an hour before to keep it well cold before whipping.

mayo
or
miracle whip?