Liver used to be so common. My mom was always trying to push it when we were very young and I know she ate it “and liked it!” when she was young. Elderly people in my family were always touting it. Now you find one beef liver, fresh, one beef liver, frozen and some chicken livers in the grocery store. Hardly enough to go around if people were really eating it regularly like it was a chicken cutlet or something. What I do know about liver is that the bad things they’ve discovered about it outweigh the good. It’s full of cholesterol and not as full of iron as people once thought.
I have a leg of lamb in my freezer–just not sure what I want to do with it, yet.
I read the books before, but I don’t know how to do
It just isn’t “trendy” like Italian or Mexican or Thai or Japanese. Nothing too spicy, minimal sandwiches and fried finger-foods, nothing to drizzle ranch dressing or melted cheese or chipotle salsa or balsamic reduction over. There are two German restaurants around here I’d really like to try (for all the classics, of course), but I can’t interest anyone I know in going. The food isn’t considered very romantic for dates or kid-accessible for families, and isn’t advertised heavily or available in quick, cheap versions for easy meals people can whip up at home.
We have quite a bit of German food available.
Of course, I live in Amish country, and most everyone else is also of German heritage, so it’s not surprising.
I just turned 50 today, and I’ve quit eating deviled ham. It seems a lot greasier today than when I was growing up, though that might just be my taste buds maturing. However, it seems to be more than half TVP, and I don’t like paying that much for TVP.
I will gladly eat GOOD fruitcake. A lot of stuff that’s sold as fruitcake is not actually meant to be eaten, I believe, but simply passed around. A good fruitcake is heaven. A bad fruitcake is so much chemical waste.
I used to love to make beans with hamhocks, but the price of hamhocks is simply outrageous. They want as much per pound for hamhocks as they do for steak…and there’s simply not much meat in the hocks, just skin, fat, and bone. No way I’m gonna pay that much. So I chop up a ham center cut instead, and use that. Not as much gelatin, because there’s not that much bone, but at least I didn’t pay an arm and a leg for a bone.
Well, it’s kind of funny but i know a lot of food you guys are talking about here. This dried beef? I know about that stuff! My mom and sister used to use it to cut them up and patch up the outside of some kind of dip. I never ate it though, so I don’t remember what it was.
I regularly ate chicken livers as a kid, and we ate liver a few times. I was born in 82 so I wouldn’t normally be connected with that but the truth is that my mom would cook a lot of old-fashioned stuff. I also ate deviled ham as a kid too. I thought it was pretty good. In fact, I think I might go back to it but still.
What I’m afraid of is that people my age won’t know how to cook, thereby reducing our opportunities to find good food to cook.
I make tripe quite frequently. It isn’t difficult to buy- or cook. But, you are right. Not too many like it.
I ate a rat yogie treat once. I wanted to see if it tasted like vanilla yogurt (it tasted like sawdust). Embarassing part: I was in my early twenties.
A very, very slow cook in the oven - yummm!
What’s this about fruitcake? Does nobody eat it in the States or is it something different to what I think of as a fruitcake? Fruitcake is absolutely essential (and traditional) at Christmas and weddings. 
Woo-hoo! Hooray for **devilsknew **and mutton! I’m SO ordering some of that barbeque.
…uh, anyone know the Weight Watchers Points on mutton? 
That looks vaguely similar to what we’re talking about. Except here, we get unappetizing, mass-produced fruitcake. Which nobody actually eats. But they must have at one time, because for many years, fruitcake was a common gift item at Christmas. (Usually from an ancient relative.) There must have been a time when it was a joy to receive such a fruitcake, since so many old-timers persisted in giving it long after everyone on this side of the pond had ceased to eat it.
ooh–leg o lamb in the crockpot…And it just got cool here and I’m thinking of crockpot stuff–thanks!
Fruitcake-how to explain. I’m sure there are places in the US where fruitcake is enjoyed and even looked forward to. But it has become something of a joke here, mostly because they are heavy (many jokes about knocking someone out by throwing fc) and they are um…not always in line with what we consider sweet treats. Also, if fc was forced upon you when you were a kid (when you’d rather have been chowing down on chocolate Santas, xmas cookies, and candy canes), you enjoy mocking it. The joke usually goes that the fc is passed from house to house year after year (the same fc)–no one notices because it’s so drenched in liquor and also because old and stale tastes the same as fresh. Our fc usually is made in a ring shape, with pineapples and candied cherries on top. That icing I see in your link I remember from plum pudding–the icing was the only part I would eat as a child. (this may be mixed up on my part-I haven’t seen either dessert in over 20 years).
I hope this helps. My mother loves fc-the rest of us think she’s crazy.
Butter was out of favor in the 60s and 70s in the US as almost everyone switched to margarine (touted at the time as the “healthier” alternative). Then in the 80s, butter made a comeback.
Speaking of waxing and waning food popularity, nobody used to want brown eggs. Chickens were bred to produce white eggs, which somehow seemed more pristine and desireable than brown eggs. Brown eggs were cheaper to buy because everyone wanted the white ones.
Now, hilariously, brown eggs are sold as a “natural” product, and are more expensive than white eggs.
When it’s homemade, fruitcake is delicious. When it’s bought at a store, it’s sickly. I prefer to eat the candied fruit by itself, though, so I don’t get caught up in fruitcake debates.
My grandpa refused to buy or eat margarine because he used to be the one who’d have to mash up the yellow dye pellet in the oleo. Yes, you used to have to add your own dye. This was well before my time, but I’ve heard stories…
When I was a kid, it was a big thrill to visit my grandparents in Boston, and have brown eggs. We only got white eggs back home. When I moved to Arizona, I started a flock of Arucana chickens that lay greenish-blue eggs.
Ah! Now I understand and, true enough, some bought fruitcake is awful :eek: The reluctance to eat it on Christmas Day is common across the pond - the Christmas Cake is brought out within hours of eating a gargantuan meal of turkey followed by plum pudding to an accompaniment of groans, but ask me the next day (and the next, and the next …) and its a different story. 
Your comment about the icing and plum pudding confuses me! We would never have icing on plum pudding. Plum pudding is a steamed pudding, served with brandy butter and custard and brought to the table smothered in flaming brandy! Icing would definitely not work! (Note that the one ingredient you won’t find in plum pudding is plums :smack: )
Actually thinking of plum pudding at Christmas reminds me of one food tradition that seems to be going. When I was a boy my Mum would mix coins (sixpences - shows how long ago it was!) in with the pudding mix to be found by the children on Christmas Day. I don’t think this happens so much now. I suppose finding the odd coin would not be so exciting these days.
Those icky gelatine fruit ‘salads’-that grandma made! Thank Gawd for that! I usually would eat a few spoonfulls to be polite, but the thought of eating canned fruit cocktail in lime jello makes me ill.
You should’ve tried my grandma’s jell-o mold; she made hers with pretzels in it! (Where’s the barfing smiley when you need it?!)
It’s a little pricey to make if you don’t have access to an apiary, and even then it takes 12-15 pounds of money to make a good 5 gallon batch of mead. IMO, after having tried some of the store varieties and brewed myself a couple of batches, it’s better to either DIY or know someone who homebrews and buy from them.
Re: tongue/tripe/gizzards, etc.
In the area that I’m in, it’s pretty easy to find all of that in Publix. A large portion of the local population is Hispanic (so much so that the Hispanic “ethnic foods” section is on another aisle from the other “ethnic foods” and easily dwarfs the selections available for kosher/British/Asian foods in the store), and there is a heavier selection toward that demographic with a larger amount of pork and “leftover” parts available.
To my dismay, this means that the already small section that Publix has for lamb is dwindled further into puny “gourmet” lamb chops, sheep’s liver, and a big ol’ honking leg of lamb. :rolleyes: Strangely enough, it’s still cheaper to buy most of the cuts of lamb than it is for me to buy a cheap steak. I just want a “normal” lamb chop that does not look reminiscent of a chicken drumstick.