Check your local Mexican restaurants or ethnic markets (assuming you live in the US). Coca-Cola and other soft drinks are still made with sucrose south of the border. I’ve seen Mexican Coke (yes, the beverage) for sale in California and the Midwest, albeit at extortionate prices. The taste is noticably different, though I personally don’t find it to be that much better than the corn syrup version.
In 19th Century America, pigeon was a common dish; fried, baked, boiled, stewed or in a pie.
They’d be wild or cooped raised.
Fondue…
My grandmother used to lay a slice of American cheese on her apple pie. Now THAT’s gross!
For all my 41 years, my Mom has had a fondue set. I have NEVER seen it used.
Which is all right as a regular use of that would probably have resulted in my being even fatter L
Growing up, I remember putting Marshmellow creme on top of ice cream…
I still eat liver and tongue regularly. Tongue simmered with pickling spices, then chilled and sliced makes fantastic sandwiches that go especially well with beer. (mmmmm Beer).
A lot of dishes that were common in the area where I grew up are all but unknown now. The older generations that ate them were either Eastern European immigrants or 1st/2nd generation Americans. I couldn’t even begin to spell the ethnic names, but they included things like jellied hamhocks, sausages and soups made from blood, various types of flatbreads, bread with pork cracklings in the dough, crock pickles that were salty rather than sour, and on an on. My grandmother used to make a lot of these things, but since she never used a recipe, she took the secret of them to her grave. One of my cousins is still trying to recreate a flatbread made from stale bread crusts, grated potato and bacon w/ the grease. The lower Russian name for it sounded like “goo-gale” when my grandmother would say it.
Taco John’s - a fast food joint that I’m pretty sure has disappeared - used to do a desert that was basically a fried tortilla covered with apple pie filling and topped with cheddar cheese. It was really good.
As far as other food goes, me and Mr. Athena are the only people around who make Tom & Jerrys anymore it seems. I found the recipe in a cocktail book and it’s been one of our favorite holiday drinks ever since.
I made blackened chicken breasts last night. Blackened foods should not be overcooked; mine came out beautifully - wonderfully moist interior with a very spice exterior. But it takes a fair bit of attention and preparation to do it right, and doing it wrong is awful. I suspect that’s why it disappeared so quickly - most restaurants aren’t willing to take the time or pay skilled enough help.
Yes, Wallace, we know. And cheddar - good cheddar, which is rare in the U.S. - is lovely with pie. I’m not sure if I’d like it melted, much better just at room temperature.
I love liver, and have even ordered it on menus in diners and at places like Old Country Buffet. MMMMMM.
There’s also Liederkrantz cheese. Not only is it no longer made, but it is now impossible to ever make it again, since it was ripened with a certain bacteria strain that only existed in the factory. When Borden stopped making it, they lost the bacteria strain, so it’s lost forever.
I have a cookbook from the 30s filled with recipes no one nowadays has ever heard of, like Turkish eggs – eggs scrambled with honey.
Let’s see… things I haven’s seen eaten since I was a kid… I think a lot of this stuff could just be reflecting my roots in the Deep South:
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Black pepper on cantaloupe… my Mom loved it… I thought it was a travesty.
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Cream of Chicken soup thickened with Cream of Wheat. More yucky than it sounds, even.
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Electric Perk coffee. Everyone does auto drip now…
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Breaded veal cutlets. That used to be as common as pork chops on Thursdays when I was living in Chelsea, Mass… but no one in SoCal appears to eat veal.
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Green bean salad with Durkee fried onions. (This could just be a west coast aversion.)
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Fatback. This is like very thick bacon, without the lean. My grandparents would eat this like bacon, and call it bacon, but the resemblance stops there. The fried fat is as hard as a dog chew, and it has a strip of skin on one edge of it… When I hear “pork bellies” this is what I imagine. It’s not food in my opinion, althogh the rendered fat may be used for cooking…
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Pimiento Cheese sandwiches. I used to love me some P’menta Cheese Sammiches… on white toast…
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Fried bologna. Fry up some b’lony like bacon. Eat it with eggs, or make up a sammich. On white toast.
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Grits and cheese. Melt cheddar cheese in hot grits. Serve as a side dish with dinner or supper.
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Refried grits. Refrigerate leftover grits. Slice the resulting loaf and fry in a pan. Serve hot with butter and syrup.
Mmmm… grits… I miss grits.
My mom makes oyster stuffing. One year she had to make 4 different kinds of stuffing (or if you prefer, dressing) to satisfy all the demanding and picky eaters in my family. Oyster because my dad wanted it, regular with giblets because it’s tradition, cranberry and walnut because she wanted it, and vegetarian so I wouldn’t throw a fit. Why the cranberry and walnut wasn’t also vegetarian I don’t know.
I also salt my salads. Heck, I’d even salt my shoe. I love salt.
My dad’s old college roomie has an old Tom & Jerry set. I can’t say that I enjoyed it that much last year (he only breaks it out on New Year’s Eve).
For all of you craving apple pie with cheddar cheese, Johnny Rockets always had the option to add cheddar to your pie. It was fairly popular, though I never tried it. (They also have awesome chili-cheese fries and the best shakes ever!)
From The Service Book Cookbook (copyright 1933):
Chicken Fricassee – Chicken parts simmered in water. Bugs Bunny mentioned it from time to time.
Jellied Veal Loaf – cold veal, minced and molded in gelatin.
Salmon Balls – not what you’re thinking, you pervert, you.
Tomato Rabbit – Butter, flour, American cheese & tomato soup cooked together and served over toast (like Welsh Rabbit with tomato soup.)
Beets a la Hollywood – beets boiled and covered wiht butter and orange juice.
French Fried Tomatos – not a typo. Deep fried tomatoes, basically.
Fruit Cocktail Pie
Steamed Prunes – a dessert. “No sugar needed if the prunes are fairly sweet.”
It is a drink orpunch of some kind…it is mentioned in Dicken’s “A CHRISTMAS CAROL”, ca 1840-anybody know how to prepare it? Does it contain alcohol?
Um, what is “country ham” exactly?
You know, reading this, I just thought that a lot of this stuff probably belongs in The Gallery of Regrettable Foods!
Dammit, I was just thinking that too! I love that site, and I have some great old recipe cards (complete with oddly-tinted vintage food photos) to submit to the guy.
Guinastasia, “country” ham is cured with salt rather than sugar.
The most famous country ham is a Smithfield ham, which by law only comes from Smithfield, Virginia. They’re cured for approximately forever, becoming very salty, intensely flavored - and an acquired taste. Cooking a Smithfield is a huge production, requiring days of soaking, trimming mold (yes, they’re cured for so long the exteriors will tend to get a bit moldy, but that’s normal), boiling and then baking. Serve it paper-thin.