worth1 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 3:34 pm Some of the sponges I've made for bread had some serious lovely alcohol smells to them.
I read an article years ago about elephants getting trashed on year old oranges that converted to alcohol.
I've had them myself in orange groves in Arizona years ago.
Yes you can get a buzz on old oranges left on the tree that turned to alcohol.

worth1 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 8:51 am

bower wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2024 8:28 pm Just spinning back to dumplings and whatever did they use before baking powder: grandmother had cream of tartar and baking soda, no baking powder in their house before 1949.

Almost every household brewd some sort of weak beer to drink and I've read they used the natural yeast to bake with.
This beer wouldn't be anything like we know of today.

Seven Bends wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2024 12:03 pm

Shule wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2024 11:28 am I know it's not as long ago as you were thinking, but here are some things I remember from the 1980s and 1990s that seem rare these days:

- Cherry pie made with home-canned sour cherries (it's a lot different than anything from a store mix, and one of my favorite foods ever); FYI, they're supposed to be brown (not bright red)
- Homemade cookies that aren't super fancy
- Homemade cookies that aren't approaching gooey
- Any pizza besides pepperoni (sure, they kind of still exist, in small numbers, but they're very conservative by comparison)
- Miracle Whip (I imagine it's still out there, but I haven't witnessed anybody eat it in since possibly something like 2003; maybe once or twice since then)
- Caramel apples
- Anyone who makes pie crust with shortening (while it's probably unhealthy, it is super easy, and the crust tastes good); nowadays, everyone seems to use butter or lard (which make a totally different crust; there are better alternatives that are closer, though, but I forgot what they were)
- Cantaloupe that looked and tasted pretty great (although garden-fresh was still better)

Cherry pie: even better made from fresh-picked sour cherries! We did this one time and the pies were delicious, but it was an insane amount of work (picking and pitting the cherries, then making the filling), so I'll probably never have one again in my life.

Cookies: The Nestle "Toll House" chocolate chip cookies. Grandma's ice box oatmeal cookies. Chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips.

Pizza: I don't think we have this pepperoni-only problem here in the East. Do you mean at restaurants or in the grocery stores?

Miracle Whip: My mom, who is in her late eighties, is their most loyal customer. It doesn't have much grocery store shelf space any more and is down on the bottom where it's hard for her to reach.

Caramel apples: Oh, how I love these, but I haven't had one in probably fifteen years at least. The grocery stores used to put the bags of Kraft caramels next to the apple display in the produce department in the fall. We would make them once a year, and my mom would say "now don't pull your fillings out!" every time we ate them. I made them myself a few times as an adult and probably still would if they prompted me with the bags of caramels by the apple display. (None of my fillings ever came out.)

Pie crust: Crisco pie crust was the absolute best, before they changed the Crisco formula to eliminate (almost) trans fats. It still makes pretty good pie crust, better than the alternatives I've tried. Unfortunately, it's getting hard to find at a reasonable price.

Cantaloupes: The normal-looking round cantaloupes in the grocery store year-round now are pretty terrible around here. Luckily, for about a month in early summer, we get "Athena" cantaloupes from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and they're fantastic.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2024 8:23 pm Trying to clear out the pantry, I just opened a can of
Comfort Creek Foods
Dumplings and Chicken

and the picture looks more like what I would chicken pot pie noodles. but a thin clear broth with diced chicken breast.
made by crider inc, stillmore GA

Tormato wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 6:38 pm Last winter, I finally decided to make a mince meat pie (partially canned, partially from scratch filling). Last winter, the one US producer decided to discontinue the canned filling.

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 7:49 pm

Tormato wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 6:38 pm Last winter, I finally decided to make a mince meat pie (partially canned, partially from scratch filling). Last winter, the one US producer decided to discontinue the canned filling.

My dad loves minced meat pie. I never quite got the attraction.

worth1 wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 8:22 pm

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 7:49 pm

Tormato wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 6:38 pm Last winter, I finally decided to make a mince meat pie (partially canned, partially from scratch filling). Last winter, the one US producer decided to discontinue the canned filling.

My dad loves minced meat pie. I never quite got the attraction.

My Mom made real mince meat pie with meat and suet in it.
I love the stuff.

Tormato wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 9:28 pm...

Like almost everything I cook for the first time, it's getting three or more recipes, seeing what ingredients are common in all recipes, and absolutely using those. Then it's deciding on what ingredients, that are not in all recipes, to use. And finally, it's what amounts of each ingredients to use. ...

JRinPA wrote: ↑Wed May 22, 2024 12:04 am

Tormato wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 9:28 pm...

Like almost everything I cook for the first time, it's getting three or more recipes, seeing what ingredients are common in all recipes, and absolutely using those. Then it's deciding on what ingredients, that are not in all recipes, to use. And finally, it's what amounts of each ingredients to use. ...

That's what I did for my pizza sauce recipe. It is flat out awesome.

Same thing with venison summer sausage. Such a great flavor and consistency even with just 10% pork in that. I didn't do that, someone else did the legwork on the common ingredients. It was good work.