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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

#181

Post by giantg2 »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #139
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 m…

I believe some locales allow for water to be added to the milk, typically a very small percentage upto the volume of the lost cream. Not sure if that's true or not.

Believe it or not, the best major milk I've had is Walmart's great value brand organic. It's not as good as many of the independent dairies, but definitely the best major I've had. It comes in plastic and I believe it's UHT. I don't like to buy stuff in the paper cartons because it's usually not actual wax but PTFE/PFOA based coatings.

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

#183

Post by causi »

all of these sweet confections were considered perfectly acceptable as a main course for lunch

The part that's going unsaid here is that these things were acceptable main courses because Americans at the time were not obsessed with putting things in their mouth every hour of every day. It wasn't nearly as common to eat breakfast, lunch, and then shove a thousand-calorie snack in between lunch and supper.

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

#184

Post by showerst »

Dracophoenix wrote: post #157
dismantlethesun wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

The US is, as usual, large and diverse enough that you can find data for either point.

I think many "people" (aka the ones comparing food cultures and rating restaurants) would say that big US grocery stores are incredible, and our best restaurants are as interesting as any on earth.

It's also fair to say that our average person is extremely out of shape, and eats a comparatively huge amount of processed garbage. Food culture in a lot of suburban places is a mix of fantastic (fresh affordable food available year round) and dismal (32oz Monsters and Applebees).

My diet (a city dweller who pays some attention to food, but likes some junk), my neighbor the vegan (who is great cook are rarely eats out), my buddy's from our small city back in Missouri, and a poor child in southeast DC are all totally different.

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

#185

Post by justsomehnguy »

stephencanon wrote: post #134
justsomehnguy wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Of course it has a wide selection, but my point is what some part of Americans (who as beforementioned "didn't like milk", not every one, of course) don't even understand what milk comes in a different fat content selection.

If that was a just a random encounter on my own I wouldn't even bother with making any conclusions, but I've seen it many times, incidentally some of them was after tasting milk in some other country, like in th GP comment.

It is interesting thing on its own, why there is a such phenomen and as I understand part of it is attributed to the plain old povetry (hence skimmed milk diluted with water) but tgere was an overall change in the mindset about how and how many milk should be consumed somewere around the middle of 20 th c. in the USA.

I could made the part about "some Americans" clearer, as evident by downvotes, but ehat is done...

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

#187

Post by justsomehnguy »

alistairSH wrote: post #138
justsomehnguy wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Well, my native cuisine has a lot of milk products of... different sourness. I couldn't make such mistake because I know the difference of the viscosity and how the bottle handles by the guts. *smile*

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

#190

Post by melissalobos »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #186

Sorry but I'm not reading an article that has a "food" content warning at the top, get the fuck out of here

Is it possible that was meant as satire? I wouldn't believe that food would be a valid content warning. The author may have been trying to humorous, or maybe there are people that have issues with food that cause them problems when they read about it. I think it may be worth it to try to think about why they put that there instead of just reacting.
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