# Beloved Childhood Foods You Would Never Eat Today **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [July 16, 2021, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643 "2021-07-16T15:08:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/81 "2021-07-19T18:14:24Z")
> [@Tarataratara](#): > > They show up at Target and likely other places, if you get nostalgic for a taste. Except that they don’t taste the same as they did when I was a kid. Somewhere along the way they changed the formula. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/82 "2021-07-19T18:16:00Z")
I guess I’m the only one who will gladly eat Chef Boyardee. Well, just the Beefaroni, and that with a good deal of extra cheese melted in. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/83 "2021-07-19T18:53:31Z")
Obligatory Seinfeld reference (Beef-a-reeno): [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ugazcvzOM0Q/hqdefault.jpg "Seinfeld - Beef-a-reeno") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugazcvzOM0Q) ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/84 "2021-07-19T19:26:25Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I like this part: > _In February 1972, Franken Berry cereal included an indigestible pigment that turned some children’s feces pink, a symptom sometimes referred to as “Franken Berry Stool”._ Heh-heh I hadn’t heard that, but there’s a similar effect from the blue coloring used in a lot of blue or purple colored foods, like pretty much anything “grape” flavored. Apparently it turns green when it reacts with the enzymes in your digestive system, resulting in bright green poop. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/85 "2021-07-19T19:33:24Z")
Spaghettios. Used to love 'em. Far too sweet now. I don’t know if they changed or I did. > [@WildaBeast](#): > > I hadn’t heard that, but there’s a similar effect from the blue coloring used in a lot of blue or purple colored foods, like pretty much anything “grape” flavored. Apparently it turns green when it reacts with the enzymes in your digestive system, resulting in bright green poop. Well. That explains the grape Kool-aid after-effects. Thanks for clearing that little mystery up for me, lo these many years later. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/86 "2021-07-19T20:32:39Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Commercial (sugar-laden) peanut butter on white bread. Long since switched to the “natural” kind that doesn’t have freaking sugar added, or that weird emulsified oil treatment to keep them blended. [startled] I wonder if that treatment is why I can’t stand peanut butter? I love peanuts, but the mouth feel of peanut butter, and some of the taste, has always turned my stomach. I can’t even eat cookies made with it. I’ll have to find someone has non-commercial PB and see if it makes a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/87 "2021-07-19T20:37:40Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > > [@panache45](#): > > > > Rock candy. Who thought it was a good idea to give kids huge sugar crystals? > > I had forgotten about candy pebbles. Hard candy that looks like rocks. [Link](https://www.treasureislandsweets.co.uk/rock/riverstones-small-candy-pebbles-1kg.html) to something that looks similar, but I would buy it at gift shops. I don’t remember any flavoring except sweet. These brought back shocking memories. In Britain, typically at seaside resorts, you could (and presumably still can) get a stick of “Rock”. > **[Rock (confectionery)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_(confectionery))** > > Rock (often known by its place of origin, for instance Blackpool rock or Brighton rock) is a type of hard stick-shaped boiled sugar confectionery most usually flavoured with peppermint or spearmint. It is commonly sold at tourist (usually seaside) resorts in the United Kingdom (such as Brighton, Southend-on-Sea, Scarborough, Llandudno or Blackpool) and Ireland (e.g. Bray and Strandhill); in Gibraltar; in Denmark in towns such as Løkken and Ebeltoft; and in Sydney and Tasmania, Australia. > It usua... We’re talking about a stick of processed, mint flavored sugar approximately the size of a regular candle - up to a foot long, say. Jesus, my teeth hurt even thinking about it. Synthetic, dangerously hard (to teeth), incredibly sticky, somehow always managing to get stuck in your hair. We loved them, of course. Sheesh. And that reminds me of Edinburgh Castle Rock: > **[Edinburgh rock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_rock)** > > Edinburgh rock or Edinburgh Castle rock is a traditional Scottish confection, and is quite distinct from conventional rock. It consists of sugar, water, cream of tartar, colourings and flavourings. It is formed into sticks, and has a soft and crumbly texture. > Edinburgh rock was first made in the 19th Century by a man named Alexander Ferguson, who became known as 'Sweetie Sandy'. Ferguson was born in Doune, Perthshire in 1798. He learned the confectionery trade in Glasgow, and then moved to Edinb... Hmm - they’re failing to mention “gritty” and “weirdly perfume flavored”. These things I have not eaten for many decades. And rightly so. j ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/88 "2021-07-19T20:53:11Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Tarataratara](#): > > > > They show up at Target and likely other places, if you get nostalgic for a taste. > > Except that they don’t taste the same as they did when I was a kid. Somewhere along the way they changed the formula. I’ve gotten all three Monster cereals for my kids throughout the 2010s. I think still they taste all right, especially as kids’ cereals go. But: their flavor seems very muted from the way they tasted in the 1970s and 1980s. Today’s Franken Berry and Boo Berry kind of taste alike … kind of a vague hint of berry-ish flavor. Maybe? Count Chocula doesn’t really taste chocolatey anymore – it’s not bad, just not much chocolate going on. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/89 "2021-07-19T22:20:13Z")
To all folks who say the food tastes different to them now, and they attribute that to a change in the recipe: That’s NOT always the case. The sense of taste does change with age. Fortunately, or such delicious foods as aged cheeses, dark stouts, cocoa, coffee, pesto, asparagus, eggplant, olives, mushrooms, and cranberries would never appeal. And we’d still be eating mostly stuff like chicken fingers, plain burgers, mac & cheese, fries, pizza, white bread, and corn. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/90 "2021-07-20T05:48:50Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > [startled] I wonder if that treatment is why I can’t stand peanut butter? I love peanuts, but the mouth feel of peanut butter, and some of the taste, has always turned my stomach. I can’t even eat cookies made with it. I’ll have to find someone has non-commercial PB and see if it makes a difference. Seriously, if you find most commercial peanut butters too sweet/weird feeling, find yourself a jar of Smuckers. It’s available in most large grocery stores, and has the right ingredients list: Peanuts, Salt. For the easiest stirring with minimal spilling of the oil, stir with a chopstick. But to keep it the same consistency, keep stirring every time you serve yourself some. Otherwise it’ll get weird and dry toward the end of the jar. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/91 "2021-08-02T17:58:21Z")
Interestingly, in his new book, Moss describes an experiment. Children and adults were given a standardized glass of water (volume not specified) and allowed to add as much sugar as they wished to make it maximally delicious. Children added an average of eleven teaspoons of sugar which was sweeter than most soda. This was more than twice as much as the average adult addition. Older people crave less sweetness, an observation both interesting and startlingly obvious. Seinfeld has a great bit on remembering when you first learned about trick or treating. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/92 "2021-08-03T15:10:36Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Interestingly, in his new book, Moss describes an experiment. Children and adults were given a standardized glass of water (volume not specified) and allowed to add as much sugar as they wished to make it maximally delicious. > > Children added an average of eleven teaspoons of sugar which was sweeter than most soda. This was more than twice as much as the average adult addition. I vividly recall enjoying the taste of pure table sugar. I’d scoop some onto a teaspoon and get a pair of decent mouthfuls out of it. Kind of like unflavored Pixie Sticks, or Lik-M-Aid ([Remember this?](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Ao0YfMPVHWPqm6NuqqF3eZZGc6kfb2qzGPPFIl9_3RcwtG5Uoyin-pb_MLpgmPHfnFIpEMR6aZVS_Go0ow24PSJHd2SvFXuZPGivd3I8W0KoyBalzDFEQCvdFb8MIPmfmjcPq03IF3Q5_byqbmllIGURgowlTsq33csXNGClTwaamVo0ful4HOLx7wQGiUlR69zXXeR-7wzNwrgnmJjx9g) [Same candy, older packaging](http://www.saltandserenity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Lik-m-aid-packages.jpg)). As noted above, I’d also spread sugar right on top of white bread, no butter or nothing. These days, fast-forwarding 40-something years? Very occasionally, I will shove down a quick spoonful of sugar as a hiccup remedy ([it works because of the granular texture](https://www.insider.com/hiccup-remedies-that-work-2019-2)). It’s not exactly unpleasant, but it’s certainly not something I’d ever otherwise do for the taste of it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/93 "2021-08-03T18:47:15Z")
Has anyone mentioned cotton candy? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/94 "2021-08-03T19:26:04Z")
Not yet, I don’t think. But this gives me the opportunity to talk about the time I sweetened my coffee with cotton candy when the office was out of sugar. It did not go well. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/95 "2021-08-03T20:11:22Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I vividly recall enjoying the taste of pure table sugar. For a while when I was a kid, whenever we went out to a restaurant I’d steal a bunch of sugar packets from the table, and dump the sugar into my mouth during the drive home as “dessert”. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/96 "2021-08-03T20:19:15Z")
My brother and I used to eat the sugar which had always spilled out of torn bags on the supermarket shelf. 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/97 "2021-08-03T23:13:15Z")
I can’t recall a single childhood favorite I would turn my nose up at now. I was a pasta fiend early on, and nothing has changed. The reverse is certainly true - I like spicy foods that I would’ve been loath to eat then. > [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > I don’t know if I’d call it “beloved” but I certainly willingly often ate gefilte fish when I was a kid. I can remember my friends being absolutely repulsed just seeing it in our refrigerator I recall watching in stupefied horror as my grandfather ate gefilte fish. There is no way even as an adult that I would consume a product that resembles turds of a severely anemic person. As a child, I suspect you made Wednesday Addams look perfectly normal. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/99 "2021-08-04T05:38:39Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > I guess I’m the only one who will gladly eat Chef Boyardee. Well, just the Beefaroni, and that with a good deal of extra cheese melted in. Yeah, cheese makes a big difference. I keep some cans of Spaghettios on the shelf just in case I’m running low on time and/or money and need a quick meal. I’ve found they’re more than palatable if I put in several little wedges of XO white cheddar cheese and nuke the dish for 4–5 minutes. Then I give it a quick stir to make sure the cheese is well incorporated. Eaten with some Italian garlic bread to mop up the sauce, it’s pretty good! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/100 "2021-08-04T05:47:03Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I also used to eat Cheez Whiz and Miracle Whip sandwiches as a kid, but I don’t generally buy those items as an adult. When I was 8 or 9, I went through a phase in which I loved hot dogs slathered with Cheez-Whiz and Kraft sandwich spread, usually in combination with a bowl of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. I don’t remember how long I did this, but it came to an abrupt end one day when I was eating lunch with my dad at a diner. I barely made it to the parking lot before having a royal heave. 🤮 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643/101 "2021-08-04T05:57:36Z")
Yeah, I used to eat them with relish, no, not pickle relish. No more, but if a buddy breaks out a box, I might try one. > [@bordelond](#): > > **Table sugar over white bread** – see above Yeah, once in a while I’d eat that, but not since I was a small child. > [@bordelond](#): > > **Jeno’s “party” pizza** – Still a good cheap meal. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I seem to remember that at some point, Chuck E. Cheese’s changed their pizza recipe, to try to make it more palatable for adults, but I can’t verify this. They did, and it became just that-_palatable_ . > [@kitap](#): > > Hormel chili. I I still love the bean-free version. > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I also remember liking mincemeat pie but I tried some of it later in life and it was terrible. I think recipes vary quite a bit for that, however. They do. I like a good one, hot _ala mode._ They have to be made with real beef fat. > [@panache45](#): > > And I used to open a box of Jello granules and eat it right out of the box. Sadly, me too. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > Now Chef Boyardee ravioli? Overly sweet, but edible. Yeah. Could be worse. > [@panache45](#): > > Rock candy. Who thought it was a good idea to give kids huge sugar crystals? So pretty though… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beloved-childhood-foods-you-would-never-eat-today/946643.md?page=6)