# Food tastes from the past - have they changed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314 "2009-01-08T01:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/21 "2009-01-08T18:01:55Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > That’s exactly how they did it in the 19th century and were able to sell the milk without few people noticing (without testing) – and those people were used to drinking whole milk so presumable could tell the difference. Well, they also added chalk and other adulterants. And, it was for milk sold in the cities to the poor. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/22 "2009-01-08T18:18:35Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Remember when McDonald’s fries actually tasted good? You mean, back when they fried them in beef tallow? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/23 "2009-01-08T18:21:10Z")
Exactly! Nothing like frying stuff in lard to make it taste good. Bad for you, to be sure…but quite tasty. 🙂 -XT ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/24 "2009-01-08T18:28:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Most can’t tell the difference. Dunno about most, but for me it was pretty noticeable. During my visit in US I bought bottle of coke, take a sip and then take double-check on the label - I thought that I bought Coke Zero or some other variant by mistake, because it tasted remarkably different. But no, it was just regular Coke. Later, studying codes on label I learned that it was due to HFCS. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/25 "2009-01-08T18:32:42Z")
> [@Turble](#): > > You can find kosher Coke in the USA during during the time around Passover … look for the yellow cap on the bottle. It has sugar, not HFCS. At least you can if you live in some areas with a substantial Jewish population. I could never find it in the SF Bay Area, but starting about a month before Passover there’s lots of Passover Coke in the grocery store in Squirrel Hill. We buy sugared sodas only for treating nausea (we drink diet), so I can’t say how it tastes compared to regular Coke with HFCS. Sugared (or HFCS) Coke or ginger ale really does work for nausea, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/26 "2009-01-08T18:33:36Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > You mean, back when they fried them in beef tallow? 🙂 Yes. And, beef fat may have been better than some of the other crap they were frying them in, not too long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/27 "2009-01-08T18:45:52Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > At least you can if you live in some areas with a substantial Jewish population. I could never find it in the SF Bay Area, but starting about a month before Passover there’s lots of Passover Coke in the grocery store in Squirrel Hill. We buy sugared sodas only for treating nausea (we drink diet), so I can’t say how it tastes compared to regular Coke with HFCS. Sugared (or HFCS) Coke or ginger ale really does work for nausea, by the way. Find a Mexican grocery store and look for it in glass bottles, imported from Mexico. err, for purposes of seeing what it tastes like, now that I see that you drink diet. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/28 "2009-01-08T20:36:46Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Modern fruits and veggies are grown more for looks and shelf-life than flavor. We only had fresh tomatoes or strawberries for a short time, but man they tasted good. The strwaberries were smaller, and could get smushed easily, but they were sweeter and tastier by a large margin. You can still get very good and flavorful fruits and vegetables today. The key is to know when they’re _actually_ in season. You say “we only had fresh tomatoes… for a short time”. That’s the time they’re in season. Many people want whatever kind of fruit/vegetable whenever possible, and then say that they don’t taste good. Well, yeah! You really think a tomato grown in January is gonna be great? IME, most people don’t even know when fruits/vegetables are naturally in season (beyond a vague, “summer?” guess), so they just figure that fruits and veggies don’t taste as great anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/29 "2009-01-08T20:42:11Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > IME, most people don’t even know when fruits/vegetables are naturally in season (beyond a vague, “summer?” guess) It’s when they’re cheap. Fresh vegetables and fruits are a glaring exception to the “you get what you pay for” rule. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/30 "2009-01-09T01:03:46Z")
Going bac to medieval times, recipes used a lot of spices that we hardly use today (like cardamom, coriander, galingale, saffron, etc.). I have tasted ome medieval recipes, and many of the dishes are very stronly flavored-in a manner similar to presnt-day Indian cuisine. In America (Colonial times), spices were widely used-I wonder why teir use declined so much, over the years. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/31 "2009-01-09T01:16:37Z")
The decline in the use of spices in America is, I believe, tied to the rise in methods of preserving meat. If the meat isn’t a little off there is no pressing need to drown it in spices. ---
**Author:** ![ivn1188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/32 "2009-01-09T01:23:11Z")
> [@puppygod](#): > > Dunno about most, but for me it was pretty noticeable. During my visit in US I bought bottle of coke, take a sip and then take double-check on the label - I thought that I bought Coke Zero or some other variant by mistake, because it tasted remarkably different. But no, it was just regular Coke. Later, studying codes on label I learned that it was due to HFCS. Bogus. Bottling plants use different water sources, and the syrup/water ratio is often off by a little bit. Cane sugar is 5 nines pure sucrose, a lot/most of which breaks down to glucose and fructose in the can due to the acidic nature of the pop. There aren’t any other chemicals besides the sugars, which differ in sweetness but not in “flavor”. That’s precisely why people can’t tell the difference between cane and beet sugar and why HFCS works so well as an alternative to sugar, but non-caloric sweeteners don’t. It’s the same thing as new coke/old coke or the pepsi challenge, etc. People are notoriously unreliable, there’s a lot of confirmation bias, and they are not as good at picking out differences as they think they are. That’s why double blind studies with a good number of people are the only way to get accurate data on this. Anecdotal accounts of taste differences are nearly worthless. Also, there is no conspiracy to use corn syrup in order to make people drink more pop. HCFS is cheaper and easier to transport and store. The cheaper part is because of our tariffs on sugar, so if you want a conspiracy, that’s where to start. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/33 "2009-01-09T02:00:42Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Bogus. Bottling plants use different water sources, and the syrup/water ratio is often off by a little bit. Cane sugar is 5 nines pure sucrose, a lot/most of which breaks down to glucose and fructose in the can due to the acidic nature of the pop. There aren’t any other chemicals besides the sugars, which differ in sweetness but not in “flavor”. That’s precisely why people can’t tell the difference between cane and beet sugar and why HFCS works so well as an alternative to sugar, but non-caloric sweeteners don’t. > > It’s the same thing as new coke/old coke or the pepsi challenge, etc. People are notoriously unreliable, there’s a lot of confirmation bias, and they are not as good at picking out differences as they think they are. That’s why double blind studies with a good number of people are the only way to get accurate data on this. Anecdotal accounts of taste differences are nearly worthless. > > Also, there is no conspiracy to use corn syrup in order to make people drink more pop. HCFS is cheaper and easier to transport and store. The cheaper part is because of our tariffs on sugar, so if you want a conspiracy, that’s where to start. Well, single-blind studies I have seen have shown that areound 40% can tell Old from New Coke. Of course HFCS wasn’t the only difference. It is cheaper, but not by much. And there’s no tariffs on sugar from America, and we still produce some. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/34 "2009-01-09T07:10:58Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > The decline in the use of spices in America is, I believe, tied to the rise in methods of preserving meat. If the meat isn’t a little off there is no pressing need to drown it in spices. [Nope.](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&q=spice+medieval+meat&btnG=Search) Take a look at any of the hits on the first page and they’ll refute the myth that medieval people had to eat rotten meat. They bathed too. Look at the section “Attitudes toward cleanliness and washing” on [this page](http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/baths.html) for a two-fer against the myths about rotten meat and bathing habits. You can see from recipes how tastes in combinations of ingredients or spicing have changed, but we all like pretty much the same things. All humans have a “sweet tooth.” All of us like fat and salt. What we use to satisfy those tastes depends greatly on culture and resources, but we all _want_ basically the same things from our food. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/35 "2009-01-09T13:11:22Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > [R]ecipes used a lot of spices that we hardly use today (like cardamom, coriander, galingale, saffron, etc.). I’ve used 50% of that list in the last two weeks. The cardamom I used in conjunction with a spice that’s even less common, I would think: sumac. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/36 "2009-01-09T15:09:20Z")
Isn’t it a fact that the older you get, the more taste buds you lose? (and if you smoke, you lose some of your sense of smell?) I’m often amazed at how, after slaving away preparing some dish we used to eat when we were very young, how TASTELESS it turns out to be. Processed foods are full of salt and sugar and who knows what, anyway, compared to a home-made version of, say, chicken soup, often the home-made suffers in comparison. As far as actually tasting of anything, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/37 "2009-01-09T15:39:38Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Going bac to medieval times, recipes used a lot of spices that we hardly use today (like cardamom, coriander, galingale, saffron, etc.). I have tasted ome medieval recipes, and many of the dishes are very stronly flavored-in a manner similar to presnt-day Indian cuisine. In America (Colonial times), spices were widely used-I wonder why teir use declined so much, over the years. ISTR reading somewhere that the use of sugar and spices in medieval cooking was a prestige thing. You show how wealthy you are by using all these expensive ingredients in your cooking. As spices got cheaper, they wouldn’t be used as much for showing wealth. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/38 "2009-01-09T16:57:48Z")
Way back in 1976 I read an article about an Army fort in Kansas that was pondering about what to do for the bicentennial 4th of July celebration. The fort had been there in **18** 76 and somebody came across a journal that detailed what it had done for the centennial celebration. It was–basically–a big cookout, and the recipies were included. So they replicated the first cookout as closely as they could, but experementing beforehand, decided to use a lighter hand on the spices. The gaminess of the meat was most likely a factor, but even the vegetable dishes had to be toned down some. One item specifically mentioned was a corn pudding, involving kernal corn and molasses, that was served up as a dessert rather than a side dish as in the original. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314/39 "2009-01-09T17:08:41Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Isn’t it a fact that the older you get, the more taste buds you lose?.. I don’t know that you lose them, but many people’s tastes evolve as they go though life, obviously. What appealed to you as a kid might not as an adult. There may be neurochemical changes in old age that change how you taste food. Or you could be like my brother-in-law, who lurves spicy hot food. Too much, as a matter of fact. He wrote a letter to the company which makes Tabasco sauce, complaining that they’d changed their recipe; it didn’t have nearly the same punch as it used to, he thought. They wrote back to say that they were using the same recipe as always, but maybe he’d burned off a few too many taste buds! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-tastes-from-the-past-have-they-changed/480314.md?page=1)