What Food Products did you grow up with and still use?

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Ultramatic

Ultramatic

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We all remember what food products we grew up with, but how many of us still use them today?

 

I still use Red Cross iodized salt, Adobo Goya, Maizena, Cream of Wheat, McCormick spices, Del Monte canned goods, Philadelphia cream cheese, Betis extra virgin olive oil, Stouffer's frozen foods, Birds Eye frozen foods, Hellmanns mayonnaise, Cream-O-Land butter, Pepsi, Tropicana, Hunt's tomato paste, Hunt's ketchup, Gold Medal flour, Bordon's cheeses, Nabisco saltines, Nilla Wafers, Malomars...OMG...a never ending list.
 
Processed Foods

generally don't engender loyalty for me. Most of the products listed are certainly not what they were in my childhood.

However, I have always loved Community Coffee and Luzianne tea, and though I usually make my own mayonnaise fresh, if I have to buy it then it's Blue Plate. I grew up with a mama who used Adams Extract instead of plain vanilla, and I still prefer it for my own baking. As a little kid 50+ years ago, Ritz crackers were a treat at my granny's home. But today, with the lard replaced by veggie shortening, they aren't crisp any more than Oreos are now.

In junk processed foods, there still appears to be no substitute for the original crunchy Cheetos, or Baken-ettes. Fritos bean dip is a very poor substitute for the original.
 
Hunt's had a processing plant here in Bridgeton years ago....you could smell tomato sauce all over town....re-opened as Four-Star foods, processing chicken, most of which went to Camden for Campbell's Soup...or locally to Vineland for Progresso Soups

7UP bottling was here also......re-opened for a while around 2000 as USA Detergents...

and of course, long gone is Owens-Illinois glass factory....

Birdseye was linked with Seabrook Foods, still is I believe.....Clarence started his Cryogenics freezing at this plant....

next time your down, I will take you to the locations of all these plants...

wow Louie, there would be one heck of a list to start.....Mom was always set on certain name brand goods, still is....
 
Eugene,

my family used to get Del Monte Catsup once in a while. It was OK, better than Hunts, but nothing is better than Heinz Ketchup, IMHO. Heinz just has a deeper, richer, sweeter and more tangy flavor. I always thought that Hunts had an anemic taste.

And likewise, Mom always bought Heinz Tomato Soup, instead of Campbell’s, and it was always prepared with whole milk, not water. And I still make my canned Tomato Soup with whole milk too, in fact we had it last night with BLT Club Sandwiches and homemade Oven Fries. But alas, it was Campbell’s, can’t buy Heinz around here.

We also used all the other products on your list, except Cascade Dishwasher detergent, as we didn’t have a dishwasher, that was me, and I used Ivory liquid or Lemon Freshened Joy.
Eddie
 
Community whole bean

is really hard to find in my local Houston-area grocery stores. I order the beans from the website, have been for years. It costs no more than in the stores, shipping is free, and never takes more than a couple of days. I buy 10 bags at a time from Louisiana.

When I traveled on I-10 East from Houston to NOLA I used to stop at the LA/TX line at the LA tourist welcome station 'cause they had free Community coffee, I could fill up my travel mug.

Is anyone else here familiar with Mello-Joy coffee?
 
When I moved to Florida, one of the first things I did was check local grocery stores to see if they carried it, or if I would need to "import" it from La. It's easy to find in stores now, but sometimes it is cheaper to buy online, especially when they have a sale. The La. Welcome Center at the MS line serves Community there, so we fill up our mugs when we pass through on my way to visit home (I'm a La. native).
I have tried Mello-Joy before and it's pretty good.
 
French Roast

They just quit selling their Community French Roast, at least in whole bean, so I've defaulted back to dark roast, which is also very good. I'm no coffee snob or freak or anything like that, though. I do at times use a 1970's Proctor-Silex percolator, one of those with glass carafe, just for the distinctive flavor. It's slow as percolators go, but I really like being able to take it apart to clean it. I usually do a cup at a time, though, grinding as I go and filtering through a #2 Melitta cone.

Strangely enough, I've also always loved Taster's Choice since it was first introduced. I used to travel routinely with some rather than drink the muck that was usually kept in the rooms.

It's the only Kitchen Aid appliance I'll have in my kitchen, the little coffee grinder I use, 'cause I like having the removable bowl and it was what was at Wal-Mart a few years ago when I bought it.

johnrk-2017111221221704970_1.jpg
 
Short answer: probably nothing...

 

Longer answer: I can't say for sure, but I suspect that my mother had poor brand loyalty with many products. She'd probably have bought whatever was cheapest. And even if she bought something regularly, it was probably not loyalty forever.

 

Then, too, certain products are ones that I don't typically buy. At one point, Campbell's Soup was a regular item. I have a strong memory of that for lunch many days when I was young. These days, I seldom buy the stuff.

 

I also don't regularly buy product types that my mother did. For example, she buy spaghetti and chilli spice packages. I almost always use plain spices for chilli, and the only time or times I've bought spaghetti spice packets is for "old time's sake."

 

For that matter, I seldom buy any of the "big name" products that were around when I was young, whether or not they ever made an appearance in our pantry. I figure there are healthier food choices...
 
In this state, its all about seafood and I detest anything that comes out of the water. EVERY Friday there was some kind of horrid fish dish growing up. There is very little, if any, things my mother used I do now, as most of the few are NLA that I liked. I should have been born in cattle country, give me a steak and shove your lobster away.
 
Donalds Mother

Still uses Delmonte catsup, The one thing I wont skimp on is mayonnaise, Dukes or NOTHING!!I only use Adluh or Virginias best flour for most things, Gold Medal is fine for yeast breads.
 
Mayonnaise

is so very easy to make, delicious and fresh. Why do people buy it? Here's a recipe for making a pint that I've been making for decades; you can easily double it to make a quart:

1 egg, must be at room temperature
3/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry mustard
cayenne, pinch (optional)
black pepper, pinch (optional)
1 tablespoon vinegar, preferably white
1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh or bottled
1 1/2 cups oil of choice (using olive oil will definitely flavor the mayo)

Combine all ingredients in a jar (I use a Mason jar wide mouth)

Place hand blender in the bottom of jar, turn it on. Slowly raise the blender up in the container over about 15-30 seconds. It'll turn into mayonnaise as you go up. Don't pull the running blender out of the mayo or you'll make a mess! If there's a tiny amount of oil left on top, simply stir it down in and give the mayo a quick run up and down with the hand blender. That's it!

It'll keep for at least 3 wks in the icebox. Feel free to add flavoring to the mayo; I routinely add minced garlic to make aioli for sandwiches.

Fresh mayo costs a fraction of what the chemical-laden crap costs. And you KNOW what's in it, and the quality of the ingredients. Furthermore, if you prefer Miracle Whip--some people actually do--you can simply double the sugar at the beginning and it'll be very, very similar. I'll often double the lemon juice just to make it more tangy.

PS--if you don't have a hand/stick blender, you can do it in a conventional blender, but it's pickier. I've used exactly this same recipe, though, using the twin whisks in my Bosch Universal, and I'll bet that any Kitchen Aid could do this perfectly using the whisk attachment on high speed also. In fact, a few times I've tripled this recipe and made it using the Bosch with the whisks, when I've needed a lot for church stuff. You just put everything in the bowl and slowly drizzle the oil in while the mixer is going at top speed.
 
Mello Joy Coffee, Robin Hood Flour

Grew up drinking Mello Joy and was so glad it is being produced again! Dark Roast is my favorite and have ordered online the roasted whole beans to grind my own. I treat guests to that coffee along with one of my from scratch cakes.

The all-purpose flour I miss is Robin Hood, my mother used it and I really liked their advertised recipes. It disappeared before I could use it in my own kitchen. I learned of the cool-rise and rapid-mix methods from their advertisements too.
 
 

 

 

When my husband gets the cooking bug, which is extremely seldom, he whips up a delicious mayonnaise recipe from his native Catalonia (Spain). For everything else, it's Hellmann's or Duke's (yes I found it here!).
 
Community Coffee and Mello Joy

Mello Joy was no longer available when I was growing up, but I remember it being talked about. My father was thrilled when they brought it back, but he still drinks Community instead. I don't think it's available at the store he shops, and he doesn't have the internet. I may have to go online and order some.

As for Community, I was thrilled when I found they made the little pods and 4 cup packs that you could use in a hotel coffee pot so I wouldn't have to drink their stuff.

Other La. brands that I still use are DuBon peas and Savoie's dressing mix. And of course, Tony's and Zatarain's to season literally everything with.
 
Camellia dried beans

are another superb Louisiana brand. I just bought 4 bags of Camellia blackeyed peas. True, they cost more than store brand, as do their others. But the extra cost isn't totally money spent. I find that they are much cleaner, so less rinsing required before cooking, and far, far fewer bad beans (and no stones) mean less time picking also. I buy their brand for all the beans I buy that are available.

I also like 'Crystal' hot sauce from Louisiana. It's noticeably more tame and quite reasonably priced. My Louisiana family, which is huge, has always preferred Louisiana Hot Sauce brand, with the red dot on the front, and I keep that also.
 

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