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A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

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Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#131

Post by martyvis »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #121
postexitus wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impact of modern packaging on the taste itself has been proven to be neglible in double blind studies. However, the taste of milk varies wildly based on the animal (food, location, roaming, season etc.) and also of course the process applied to sterilize the milk (pasteurization/UHT, skimming, filtering). Same milk from from same cow will taste very different when raw vs UHT. I am very much a UHT person, but for some…

> modern packaging But the packaging itself matters, eg soda in a Al can and a glass bottle is perceived quite differently. If the milk came in a plastic bottle I have no problem drinking directly from the bottle, if it came in TetraPak... If I bothered to cut it with scissors I would probably be fine drinking milk directly, but if I just ripped the corner by the perforation then I would definitely drink from the mug…

Just an FYI, but aluminium cans are lined with a plastic lacquer - so what you are tasting isn't from metal.

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#132

Post by namdnay »

bprieto wrote: post #124
namdnay wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

now you've got me wondering what is the subset of countries that both grow dates and eat bacon :)

European mediterranian countries. Bacon wrapped dates were pretty common at parties in Spain. Then they were considered bad for your health because of the fat, and now they are considered bad for your health because of the sugar.

ah ok a bit like the french used to do prunes wrapped in bacon. do the spanish grow dates? never seen a spanish date

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#133

Post by mucholove »

I’ve seem 2 or 3 comments citing “no perceptible difference” in double blind studies on the topic of taste.

For such flavorful a subject, I find that there are so many N=1 cases such that you often need to give the speaker the benefit of the doubt.

Furthermore, processed and packaged food providers are not exactly good faith actors. If they happened to the be the ones funding the study, thrn sure—there would be no perceptiple difference because that is what they want to find. Citing the actual study and the background of the scientisits / reviewer is also important because to me, these entities need to prove trustworthiness.

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#134

Post by stephencanon »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #121
postexitus wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impact of modern packaging on the taste itself has been proven to be neglible in double blind studies. However, the taste of milk varies wildly based on the animal (food, location, roaming, season etc.) and also of course the process applied to sterilize the milk (pasteurization/UHT, skimming, filtering). Same milk from from same cow will taste very different when raw vs UHT. I am very much a UHT person, but for some…

> modern packaging But the packaging itself matters, eg soda in a Al can and a glass bottle is perceived quite differently. If the milk came in a plastic bottle I have no problem drinking directly from the bottle, if it came in TetraPak... If I bothered to cut it with scissors I would probably be fine drinking milk directly, but if I just ripped the corner by the perforation then I would definitely drink from the mug…

> Also there is a thing with Americans, they just buy milk. I can't buy "just" milk. I can buy 1%, 1.5%, 3.5% and (my preferred) ~3.5-4% fat milk.

Huh? A pretty typical US grocery store has skim, 1%, 2%, and whole (3.5%), each conventional or organic, and in a fancier grocery there’s generally a higher-fat organic option as well.

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#136

Post by throwaway427 »

jotm wrote: post #47
lettergram wrote: post #22

For those curious, I wanted to start making my own salt pork — https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdmPIpQZPRg Effectively it’s pickled pork and can last for a few months. To eat it, you soak it to get as much of the salt out as you can. Good for stews, gravy, etc. It’s what was done pre-refrigeration for meat.

My grandmother made something like this without salt: cooked meat (usually duck or pork) and lots of fat, poured hot in jars. It kept for a year at least. The meat was edible straight from the jar, the fat was used for cooking or as spread (but tasted quite disgusting to me heh). I reckon salted it would last even longer.

This is basic potted meat. You can even do it with fish: https://youtu.be/tXh_VT5ygOY

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#137

Post by camhart »

jml7c5 wrote: post #64
camhart wrote: post #46

I can't stand "normal" milk from the US... the stuff you buy in the plastic cartons. It taste horrid. Milk from Germany? I love it. Milk from Darigold in the paper cartons? I love it. Milk from Darigold in the plastic? Tastes like garbage. Organic milk in a paper carton? Some is good, some taste like garbage. I didn't realize how different milk tastes until I spent some time in Germany. Prior to that I just thought I…

Just a note: the taste difference you're picking up on is not due to the simple presence or absence of plastic. Paper cartons are lined with LDPE film and milk jugs are usually composed of HDPE. Both options are, in effect, polyethylene plastic containers.

In Germany the milk in plastic tastes fine, although the plastic is more like a ziplock bag with some rigidity to it so it stands up straight and pours well.

I wasn't trying to say the plastic is the cause of the taste difference. I emphasized the plastic in the US because thats been my observation. However if you check the expiration dates in the US, milk in plastic tends to expire much more quickly than the milk in paper cartons. So there is more going on than it simply being different containers.

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#138

Post by alistairSH »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #121
postexitus wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impact of modern packaging on the taste itself has been proven to be neglible in double blind studies. However, the taste of milk varies wildly based on the animal (food, location, roaming, season etc.) and also of course the process applied to sterilize the milk (pasteurization/UHT, skimming, filtering). Same milk from from same cow will taste very different when raw vs UHT. I am very much a UHT person, but for some…

> modern packaging But the packaging itself matters, eg soda in a Al can and a glass bottle is perceived quite differently. If the milk came in a plastic bottle I have no problem drinking directly from the bottle, if it came in TetraPak... If I bothered to cut it with scissors I would probably be fine drinking milk directly, but if I just ripped the corner by the perforation then I would definitely drink from the mug…

Have you been to Iceland? When I visited a few years back, the grocer had a massive wall of “milk”. All the usually skim, low-fat, whole, etc. And also a massive selection of sour milks and milk-yogurt-cream things.

As I don’t speak Icelandic, I grabbed a sour milk by mistake. It was horrific. Into the trash it went. And back to the store I went.

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#139

Post by VoodooJuJu »

camhart wrote: post #46

I can't stand "normal" milk from the US... the stuff you buy in the plastic cartons. It taste horrid. Milk from Germany? I love it. Milk from Darigold in the paper cartons? I love it. Milk from Darigold in the plastic? Tastes like garbage. Organic milk in a paper carton? Some is good, some taste like garbage. I didn't realize how different milk tastes until I spent some time in Germany. Prior to that I just thought I…

There are a lot of factors that go into milk and its taste. There's: pasteurized (most American milk), homogenized, ultra-pasteurized or UHT (which most German milk probably is), raw milk, how quickly it was cooled-down, cream content, and then there's the variance between dairies based on things such as breed, feed, time of year, quality of life, etc. We can't accurately make blanket statements about one country's milk one way or the other.

There are two dairies near me that I purchase from, but the characteristics of each's milk varies quite noticeably. Dairy A tastes just okay and goes bad after about 5 days. Dairy B tastes excellent and keeps well for at least 8 days. They're both pasteurized, unhomogenized, and packaged in glass jugs. Dairy A milks holsteins (less cream). Dairy B milks jerseys (more cream). Dairy A's is whiter in appearance (less silage/forage, more grain). Dairy B's is yellower (more silage/forage, less grain). No two dairies are alike.

And better than both of them, there's a raw milk dairy that I sometimes buy from whose milk tastes best to me. Plus, it doesn't spoil like pasteurized milk. Rather, it goes sour, and when it sours, I can still use it for cooking and baking.

Re: A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s

#140

Post by rndgermandude »

Symbiote wrote: post #99
idontwantthis wrote: post #9

I remember reading an account by a German soldier in WWI who had just taken an American trench and in it he found a fresh Apple Pie from Boston, and he immediately knew the war was hopeless.

I found that difficult to believe. There were refrigerated ships [2] but I don't think flash freezing methods had been invented. The pie would be mushy, and how would it be transported from the port to the front line? The New York Tribune (18 May 1918, page 3 [1]) has an article describing a much more likely process: send the ingredients to the front line, and send cooks. Apples, flour, butter and sugar transport ver…

>Eggs are fragile, but maybe they used dried egg, or maybe that wasn't a problem.

Or they used chickens.

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