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[Greyman50]

Wow, what memories. Mother cooked liver and onions with home made mashed potatoes once a month. Along with her thin home made biscuits and fresh green beans or peas( green or black eyed). Late wife never ate or cooked liver so only time I had it was when she was not home. I have it every few months when I see some decent looking calf liver at Whole foods or Publix.
K, who likes Shepards pie? Mother used to make it too and wife also made killer shepherds pie. Lo and behold a small bar in town has some of the best shepherds pie I've had and on Wednesdays Veterans get 25% off! You all can figure where I eat just about every Wednesday. Other days eat at the Thai restaurant that is the best one around and I'm talking 60 mile radius.

 

[ACORN]

When I was a Ute my cousins and I would spend weekends at my Nana's(Dad's mother). 2 things she'd buy that I'd love to have today.
First was canned mac. & cheese, I think it was made by Franco American. It had long thick round noodles in a nearly white super cheesy sauce.
The other is"mock chicken". Not to be confused with "city chicken". It tasted like pork sausage. It was mystery meat, ground like sausage, but formed around a wood skewer, shaped like a chicken leg, and coated it some type of breading. She'd buy it ready made at the local "Clover Farms" store. Wrap it in aluminum foil and cook over her charcoal grill in the summer.
We loved it.
Just thought of another.
How about the "old" chocolate milk of our youth? Thick creamy and delicious. Almost like a milkshake in a bottle.

 

[SMSgt]

"Google" them. You can buy them on-line, although for the life of me I don't know why you would want to!

I want the little packs of candy cigarettes so when I see someone at the bar "vape," I can say, "Here, have a real cigarette," and hand them a pack of candy cigs.

As for pot pies, I loved the frozen ones in all flavors, but only the ones with crust on top and bottom, not the cheap ones with crust on the top only.

 

[tinkerer]

"Choc-Ola" - Chocolate drink in a soft drink size bottle...

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

It is all relative, I did not grow up poor, but by no means rich. Grilled SPAM was a treat after a day of work or backpacking. Liver and onions was only served once in all my time at home. Did not care for it. Space Food sticks were a staple when they were available. Mostly hamburgers, meat loaf, potatoes, apples, home made pizza, tacos, and vegetables from grandpa's farm. Nowadays it is mostly salads and Metamucil.

 

[lihpster]

In the mid '70s, the family got into the backpacking craze. I say family, but it was really my parents. The rest of us were happy with car camping. Car camping allowed us to bring more stuff, especially extras like treats for 3 growing boys. Backpacking on the other hand means you have to carry everything. A Snickers bar takes up space and will also melt at a fairly low temp. Solution? Replace candy bars with Space Food sticks. Being snotty little kids we bitched about it, but we never refused a stick.
Sodas are heavy and take up space. Solution? She found some little tablets that were like a flavored Alka Seltzer. Drop them in water, they dissolve, releasing CO2 and the flavoring. For approximately 3.5 minutes you had a mildly carbonated drink. After that it was just a flat drink.
After about 2 years, we went back to car camping.

 

[mrchick]

Have eaten brains, heart, liver and stomach.
Rice bug and baby squid in Thailand.
Lingua Taco in San Antonio. You would think that a guy who knows 30 words of Spanish and 29 words of Latin would know what Lingua is!
As a kid, probably the worse, Head Cheese.
Almost forgot. Sweet Breads in San Francisco.
They have to call then Sweet Breads! Called by their real names makes them hard to eat!
Sweetbreads are a culinary term for the thymus and pancreas glands of young animals, such as calves, lambs.

Love sweet breads and lengua tacos. People shouldn't knock it until they try it.

 

[robvious]

Food should not be based on a dare... betting whether or not you can keep it down is also a good sign it shouldn't be eaten..

 

[Rule3]

In college I ate a lot of pot pies. I was not aware there was a Tuna Version??


Now its' easy to make them or Tuna noodle casserole.

 

[AZ Buckshot Bill]

Have eaten brains, heart, liver and stomach.
Rice bug and baby squid in Thailand.
Lingua Taco in San Antonio. You would think that a guy who knows 30 words of Spanish and 29 words of Latin would know what Lingua is!
As a kid, probably the worse, Head Cheese.
Almost forgot. Sweet Breads in San Francisco.
They have to call then Sweet Breads! Called by their real names makes them hard to eat!
Sweetbreads are a culinary term for the thymus and pancreas glands of young animals, such as calves, lambs.

Pilgrim, when I was growing up, my dad operated a locker plant all by himself in eastern Iowa in the early to late 1950's, butchering local cattle, hogs and chickens. And we ate a LOT of meat products that his customers didn't want. Lots of liver, beef tongue-[deelishious boiled, then sliced for a sandwich] but the best were those sweetbreads that were breaded then fried in a cast iron skillet. Boy, the wonderful memories of eating all that unusual stuff that you can't find today, and the sweetbreads were a real delicacy- BUT in hindsight, I am glad he never told us which part of the beef those sweetbreads came from!
This is a great thread to make me think of foods I'd forgotten all about and now really miss, and I also agree about Miracle whip dressing. My wife and I are extremely disappointed about what it has turned into.We thought maybe it was just us, but turns out it's because they're cutting corners to save a buck. No more miracle whip in our house!

Buckshot Bill

 

[SMSgt]

In the mid '70s, the family got into the backpacking craze. I say family, but it was really my parents. The rest of us were happy with car camping. Car camping allowed us to bring more stuff, especially extras like treats for 3 growing boys. Backpacking on the other hand means you have to carry everything. A Snickers bar takes up space and will also melt at a fairly low temp. Solution? Replace candy bars with Space Food sticks. Being snotty little kids we bitched about it, but we never refused a stick.
Sodas are heavy and take up space. Solution? She found some little tablets that were like a flavored Alka Seltzer. Drop them in water, they dissolve, releasing CO2 and the flavoring. For approximately 3.5 minutes you had a mildly carbonated drink. After that it was just a flat drink.
After about 2 years, we went back to car camping.

Fizzies. Popular at the time.

 

[robvious]

I believe they still make Fizzies occasionally... and candy cigarettes are out there... saw them at a candy shop recently..

 

[Dave_n]

Well if I never see Spam, "American cheese" (suitable for soling shoes!!) and Hersey's Chocolate again, I will die happy!! Must admit that these were the staples fed to me by the US Army Jeep Driver who used to take me to elementary school in the UK in 1944 (Pre D-Day), due to my father being responsible for their movement from troop ship to a bivouac in a dance hall about half a mile from our home in the Liverpool suburbs (UK not Canada). However, when a convoy came into Liverpool I would come down from my bedroom to find a lot of "sleeping Merchant Navy captains," in the lounge and dining room with their US/Canadian rations feeding both them and us, but the three "staples" above were not part of the "goodies"!! Even though I now live in the SE PA area, none of the three "unmentionals above" are in the house, even with a US born wife. Dave_n

 

[Doug M.]

I did not realize for many years how much effort my mom put into stretching the family's money. All I knew was how much I loathed pot pies, Spam, and tuna casserole. And for goodness sake, she liked Brussel sprouts, squash, broccoli, and cauliflower, all of which would have to improve to be vile.

 

[VaTom]

Love liver and onions. Can find it frozen at Walmart. I can't find fresh veal in the meat department any longer. Been that way for a couple of years.

 

[grover99]

In college I ate a lot of pot pies. I was not aware there was a Tuna Version??


Now it's' easy to make them or Tuna noodle casserole.

This was back in the 1950s. Not sure when they were dropped. Sure I can make a tuna casserole or even a pot pie from scratch but it just not the same as those pies from my childhood.

 

[UncleEd]

Beef liver for instance can be tenderized by soaking it in milk for an hour or so.

Fry it with bacon and onions.

Smother with ketchup.

Healthy?

Who cares.

 

[K-22]

Fizzies

In the mid '70s, the family got into the backpacking craze. I say family, but it was really my parents. The rest of us were happy with car camping. Car camping allowed us to bring more stuff, especially extras like treats for 3 growing boys. Backpacking on the other hand means you have to carry everything. A Snickers bar takes up space and will also melt at a fairly low temp. Solution? Replace candy bars with Space Food sticks. Being snotty little kids we bitched about it, but we never refused a stick.
Sodas are heavy and take up space. Solution? She found some little tablets that were like a flavored Alka Seltzer. Drop them in water, they dissolve, releasing CO2 and the flavoring. For approximately 3.5 minutes you had a mildly carbonated drink. After that it was just a flat drink.
After about 2 years, we went back to car camping.

Those little drink tablets were called Fizzies.
Methinks I drank way too many of them.

 

[grover99]

best way to tenderize beef liver is to feed it to the cat. When she throws it up then clean of the mess and put in file 13

 

[K-22]

Pot Pies

This was back in the 1950s. Not sure when they were dropped. Sure I can make a tuna casserole or even a pot pie from scratch but it just not the same as those pies from my childhood.

Back in the 50's my family went through some challenging times.
My mother had an aunt, that worked at a place that made pot pies.
Employees got them by the case for 5 cents each. I ate a bunch, of those pot pies
Much to my surprise, I still like pot pies.

 

[glenwolde]

I looked for the reason and couldn't find anything. I did see a lot of recipes, so you'll just have to make your own! That's usually my solution.

I wonder what happened to Golden Delicious apples. Haven't seen any in a couple of years.

 

[DWalt]

Love sweet breads and lengua tacos. People shouldn't knock it until they try it.

Ever had Tacos Ojos and Tacos Sesos? Also Tacos Lenguas. When I lived in Laredo over 35 years ago, all were popular and found at every Mexican restaurant. In Laredo at that time there weren't many other kinds of restaurants. No organ meats were ever wasted. I knew a guy who ran a large slaughterhouse and he could not keep up with the local demand for cattle heads. They were even sold in supermarkets there.

 

[ACORN]

I still eat pot pies regularly.
Marie Callenders large size for about $4. A cheap lunch.

 

[soFlaNative]

Fizzies. Popular at the time.

Not that great dry.

 

[lihpster]

Not that great dry.

It's all in the seasoning, of course.

 

[mrchick]

Ever had Tacos Ojos and Tacos Sesos? Also Tacos Lenguas. When I lived in Laredo over 35 years ago, all were popular and found at every Mexican restaurant. In Laredo at that time there weren't many other kinds of restaurants. No organ meats were ever wasted. I knew a guy who ran a large slaughterhouse and he could not keep up with the local demand for cattle heads. They were even sold in supermarkets there.

I've had the tongue and brains. I've never had eyes. How are they?

 

[Greyman50]

I remember when just out of school living with 2 buddies in an apartment going to the grocery store and buying the small pot pies for$0.25 EACH. Shoot, $5 would buy a weeks worth of groceries for working guys including some beer. We all ate lunch at several small local fast food joints.

 

[lihpster]

Me and my roommate once lived for 2 weeks on nothing but venison sausage, mustard and coffee. The results were both predictable and unpleasant.

 

[lkabug]

My mom made delicious liver with onion gravy and mashed potatoes.

My sister wouldn't eat it. She said it tasted offal.

As a kid, Liver and onions with mashed potatoes with gravy made with the pan dripings, was a staple in our house.

 

[Greyman50]

K who likes " red eye" gravy?????