Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

slimemoldtimemold.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 234 posts

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

#151

Post by jrootabega »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #114
tomjakubowski wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plastic jugs let in lots of light, while paper cartons are opaque, which could have an effect. FWIW, I do have a preference, I think milk is best drunk straight from a paper carton (in single servings, milk from the plastic "milk chugs" has always tasted worse to me).

True, but stores generally don't get any natural light in their fridge sections. Over here (NL), most milk is only on shelves for a day, they cart in new batches daily. We err, go through a lot of milk.

Even visible wavelengths, especially from fluorescent/LED lighting, can skunk beer. So it's not impossible that this could happen to milk, for whatever that's worth.

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

#152

Post by dukeofdoom »

selimthegrim wrote: post #25
dukeofdoom wrote: post #16

I recently discovered that flickr has book illustrations gong back to the early 1500s. Turns out walking skeletons were pretty common back then. This feisty one likes to tug on peoples clothes for some reason. https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/tags... Not sure if diet, or constant presence of death. I've considered how well people ate back then. On the one hand there were far fewer people and mo…

You might like Public Domain Review, then.

Thanks, I checked it out. Awesome! So many mind disturbing images.

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

#154

Post by wahnfrieden »

thematrixturtle wrote: post #54

> This is sort of like how squid ice cream seems normal in Japan. I regret to inform you that squid ice cream is actually pretty darn weird even in Japan. Red bean (azuki), sweet corn or roasted tea ice cream, on the other hand, would be quite normal.

squid ink soft serve is common and not weird

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

#156

Post by ziml77 »

fosk wrote: post #76
egypturnash wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s fascinating how much this can change if you find a good source for local stuff. Tomatoes go from uniformly-sized red food pellets to a huge variety of sizes and colors with a lot more flavor to them. I miss having a farmer’s market two blocks from my place with a heirloom tomato specialist showing up regularly.

As a European, food at the farmer’s market is usually cheaper in Europe because we cut the middleman and go straight to the producer. Somehow in the US, it’s more expensive instead because “artisanal”, “organic” and so on. As such, in the US, farmer markets always feel like a scam to me.

More of a scam than you think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYwB63YslbA

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

#157

Post by Dracophoenix »

dismantlethesun wrote: post #91
asguy wrote: post #2

Reading this, I feel like I’m seeing the past through the eyes of a US-based zoomer. This person should spend 6 months living with the locals in any 3rd-world country.

But why? Speaking as someone from a '3rd world country' [1], the traditional food preparation has been unchanged since the 1920s. The last great change in diet occurred when tomatoes and corn arrived from the America's to W. Africa, then later again when rice became a staple. The US has a fantastical food culture because it's a large country that can natively produce almost every crop, and was historically agrarian.…

>> The US has a fantastical food culture because it's a large country that can natively produce almost every crop, and was historically agrarian. Adding to that, the US food culture always changes to wars, new immigrants, boycott, and government subsidies. Most countries aren't like that, and are significantly more conservative with dietary changes.

With all these advantages in the US's favor, why is it that Europe is held as a standard of food done right? Discourse on the American diet is almost always concerned with obesity and diet-related diseases and induced by a villain-of-the-year ingredient (e.g. transfats, sodium, cholesterol, oxidants, monosodium-glutamate, corn syrup, etc). Where as, say, the Dutch breakfast and Italian wine culture are respectively associated with growing heights and increased longevity.

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

#158

Post by astura »

exfascist wrote: post #147
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…

I live and the US and have noticed the milk from the "nicer" grocers like Whole Foods and Farm Fresh tastes absolutely awful but the stuff from Food Lion etc in the HDPE jugs with the minimal labeling tastes way better. I don't know why that is.

This is because for some reason the organic milks are almost always UHT (ultra-high-temperature processing) where the milk is heated to a higher temperature for a shorter time.

Some people notice a significant taste difference between UHT milk and non-UHT milk.

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

#159

Post by ValentineC »

camhart wrote: post #137
jml7c5 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

Without further details, I'm guessing that "milk in paper cartons" has been UHT-treated, which means it could last even longer than the published expiry date.

It'll still go bad in a few days or weeks once it has been opened, depending on how it has been stored.

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

#160

Post by micromacrofoot »

asguy wrote: post #2

Reading this, I feel like I’m seeing the past through the eyes of a US-based zoomer. This person should spend 6 months living with the locals in any 3rd-world country.

oh yeah just take off and leave your job and family behind for 6 months so you can write a better article about food, this is definitely something normal people can do
Post reply on HN