As I grow older, I keep noticing how certain recipes have become degraded over time as restaurants start substituting ingredients.
This came to mind when I ordered some sweet and sour pork. When I first started, the sauce contained a few cherries and pineapple. Also, it didn’t congeal the next day into a red blob.
Another example is croissants. I first encountered the real ones in Montreal. They are made so they’re filled with flaky layers and crunch slightly throughout. I used to be able to get them here. Now, they have a flaky exterior but a more doughy center. Still good, but missing a lot, and far better than crescent rolls.
It’s been hotly debated for a decade now but I’m a firm believer in the idea that the Big Mac has gotten smaller, either because they are deliberately making them physically smaller to save money or if they cheaped out on ingredients so much the burger itself just looks smaller because there’s not that much on it anymore.
The restaurant business is very hard. Margins are usually very thin, and making excellent meals is not enough - they need to be profitable. This means either cheaper ingredients or being able to sell decent quantities at an average or higher price. However, it is not that hard to make great meals out of cheaper ingredients. And smaller quantities of better ingredients can go a long way.
Good croissants use butter. Period. Cheaper oils just are not as good, and there better be cheese or chocolate in there or I wouldn’t buy it. Homemade croissants are finicky but not hard (especially with a bread machine) and if you use creative stuffings like cut up Reese’s or Skor/Heath - or Nutella, they are over the moon good.
The restaurants I eat in have tended to raise prices rather than make the food much worse - even if they understandably use milk or vegetable oil where in some cases I might use cream, butter, peanut oil, etc. If I thought the food was inferior I’d go elsewhere.
I worked at McDonald’s for three years in the mid ‘80s. I made and sold thousands of Big Macs. I also ate there every day. (I still like McD’s, but now only eat there every few weeks or so.)
Anyway, to my eye, the Big Macs sold today are indistinguishable from the ones I made 35 years ago.
You’d be surprised at how much stuff you get at a restaurant comes in frozen so all they have to do is let it thaw or throw it in the microwave/oven for a few minutes to prepare it.
It’s very possible that’s what’s happening with the things you note are going down in quality. They were originally hand made, in house, and now they’re buying them frozen or they were coming in frozen the whole time and over the years they’ve switched brands to keep the price in check.
I used to see sweet & sour dishes include some pineapple chunks and 1 or 2 halves of a maraschino cherry floating around in it. It was common enough that I never thought it was particularly noteworthy at the time, butt it’s been years since I’ve seen a sweet & sour dish come with either. But then I don’t order sweet & sour dishes most of the time.
I am reminded of the time I stayed at a hotel in Halifax. The breakfast menu included croissants and bagels. The first morning I ordered croissants. Just a crescent-shaped breakfast roll. Second morning I tried a bagel. Same roll only shaped like a donut.
Yes, Montreal croissants are wonderful, especially from the Duc de Lorraine. Montreal bagels are sui generis, but they are sweet and I don’t like them at all.
