I just went grocery shopping this morning, and as often happens, I got to wondering about ‘loafs’.
There are always a few varieties of ‘loaf’ at the deli; Mac and Cheese, Olive, Pimento and Pickle were the three on display this morning. For those who don’t know, this is basically a processed meat product (I imagine like a cheap bologna?) with pieces of whatever in it.
Do you buy this? My assumption is that 95% of the people who purchase Olive Loaf at the deli are over the age of 60, thus were around in the 50s when I also imagine this stuff started to come into being.
Am I right? Or, are there scores of 20-somethings eating Mac and Cheese Loaf sandwiches on the down low?
If you do buy these, what are they like? Is it like, as I said above, bologna with stuff in it? More like ham? What?
They still make that stuff? My dad would buy olive loaf all the time when I was a kid (say 40 years ago.) I assume it was cheaper than the roast beef or ham. Tasted like bologna with an occasional bite of olive if memory serves.
I loved olive loaf as a kid (throughout the 80s). Haven’t had it in forever, but I’m not really tempted, either. Don’t think it would taste bad … I just like to assemble my sandwiches in a different way these days. If I go with olives on a sandwich these days, it will normally be in the form of Italian olive salad.
My first thought upon seeing the title was “people with kids”.
When I was a kid, I loved me some olive loaf and mac and cheese loaf, which is indeed, just like it sounds, the same thing as olive loaf, but with little bits of macaroni and cheese instead of olives. We were usually given a choice of bologna or peanut butter and jelly, so to me, “fancy” loaves were a special treat.
As far as I recall, we didn’t have mac’n’cheese loaf when I was a kid. But I used to like olive loaf. It gave me the sense I was getting something extra with my cold cut.
My dad used to buy mixed cold cuts on occasion (for his lunchtime sandwiches) and macaroni loaf was usually mixed in there. It wasn’t any more offensive than store-brand bologna to me, but I don’t like bologna.
I buy mac and cheese loaf for my husband’s lunches sometimes at his request. I think he’d like olive or pimento loaf better, but I haven’t been able to find any yet.
Why do I get the creepy feeling that olive loaf is the next great hipster thing? That they’re going to be drinking their PBR to wash down olive loaf and Miracle Whip on Wonder Break sandwiches.
My grandparents like head cheese, but they’re Hungarian.
We had a discussion with the old ladies from my church choir about this a few years back, and they fondly recalled when they were “all the rage at dinner parties” back in the day. But I’ll be damned if I’ll ever eat any.