Terms Which Have Disappeared

[BlueTrain]

We all eat our weight in something.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When I go to public places for food, I have two choices:

1. Bright lights, loud music, bird chattering atmosphere where a glass of water
is available upon request. Food is ok & prices are $$.


2. Dim lights, no loud speakers or music, a glass of water is brought to the table
and the waiter "waits" until you ready to order. Food is very good but takes longer.
Prices are usually $$$$$.


One is for "eating" the other for "dining".
I know what to expect from each and enjoy them for what they are.

So, get the Döner Kebab and settle down at a relaxed park-bench, which you like.

 

[skydog757]

My father didn't care for rice or noodles so nearly every meal contained some variation on potatoes (I could do a Forest Gump listing of potato dishes). After I left home and joined the Air Force I don't remember eating any type of potato other than fries for 2-3 years if given a choice.

 

[2jakes]

So, get the Döner Kebab and settle down at a relaxed park-bench, which you like.

If you can deliver the Döner Kebab to a Entspannte Parkbank would be great!

 

[Fading Fast]

Veal cutlets -- breaded and fried in a skillet -- are a staple food of the Era that seem to have completely dropped out of sight. Any diner or lunchroom menu you look at from 1920 into the 1960s will feature a breaded veal cutlet served with tomato sauce for 50 cents to a dollar twenty five. It was never, ever called "veal parmigiana," it was just a breaded veal cutlet served with tomato sauce that obviously came out of a Number 10 can.

I must've eaten my weight in those things each year up until the late '90s, when suddenly I couldn't find the premade frozen ones in the store anymore. These came four to a pack, were thin meat encrusted with a yellow-orange breadcrumb batter, and were exactly like the kind I remember from "Mary's Restaurant," our little nondescript downtown lunch place when I was a kid. Heat up one of those, pour some Prince's tomato sauce over it, and there's your dinnah. But you can't get them anywhere now, and if you want veal in a restaurant it's a high priced speciality item served with an accent and an attitude.

I remember veal cutlets and, exactly as you said, it was in the '90s when they seemed to fade. That was also the time that the animal rights groups started promoting the anti-veal / anti-killing calves (or, more evocative, "baby cows") story. I am not opining on that at all, but am (I believe) factually tying that campaign to the fade of veal cutlets as a staple. I have no evidence of that as all this is based on my twenty-plus year old memory. But I do remember my friends who were sensitive to these issues all of a sudden talking about veal and "baby cows" in the '90s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always sort of assumed the ones I was eating had very little actual veal in them -- probably more elderly bulls all ground up with extenders and then given just a whisper of genuine veal for the sake of the name. They certainly didn't look like the actual veal meat you find now in the premium section of the butcher's case.

 

[2jakes]

I remember veal cutlets and, exactly as you said, it was in the '90s when they seemed to fade. That was also the time that the animal rights groups started promoting the anti-veal / anti-killing calves (or, more evocative, "baby cows") story. I am not opining on that at all, but am (I believe) factually tying that campaign to the fade of veal cutlets as a staple. I have no evidence of that as all this is based on my twenty-plus year old memory. But I do remember my friends who were sensitive to these issues all of a sudden talking about veal and "baby cows" in the '90s.

Baby ribs in the butcher shop.
Scared the "beegeebees" out of me as a kid.

 

[Fading Fast]

Baby ribs in the butcher shop.
Scared the "beegeebees" out of me as a kid.

Organ meats of any kind did it for me - don't care about any story about them, won't eat them - but I get your point: ribs are visually graphic when thought about.

 

[2jakes]

I ate "menudo" as a kid.
Spicy...but I liked it.

Later years I found out what it was and where it came from.

I'll just leave it at that!

Btw:
Shut your eyes Fading Fast

You don't want to read what LizzieMaine has eaten with
regards to these types of foods!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Knorr instant bone marrow dumplings-packet soup from supermarket, in the 90s. But disappeared, since many years.
Don't tell the kids, today.

 

[Fading Fast]

I always sort of assumed the ones I was eating had very little actual veal in them -- probably more elderly bulls all ground up with extenders and then given just a whisper of genuine veal for the sake of the name. They certainly didn't look like the actual veal meat you find now in the premium section of the butcher's case.

Once anything is "ground" only God and the person feeding the grinder knows what's really in them.

 

[Fading Fast]

I ate "menudo" as a kid.
Spicy...but I liked it.

Later years I found out what it was and where it came from.

I'll just leave it at that!

Btw:
Shut your eyes Fading Fast

You don't want to read what LizzieMaine has eaten with
regards to these types of foods!

I hear ya - I've told my mother she can't talk to me about that stuff when she tries to reminisce. I'll listen to her other reminiscing (for the hundredth or thousandth or ten-thousandth time) about other things if it makes her happy, but not about that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Baby ribs in the butcher shop.
Scared the "beegeebees" out of me as a kid.

We didn't have such a thing in any of our local stores when I was little, but if we had, my mother certainly would have told me that they came from actual babies, and used that as a threat to keep me in line. (She did used to threaten to sell us to the baby oil factory...)

 

[vitanola]

When I get in the mood.
I'll make a big deal preparing meatballs, spaghetti and garlic bread.
Sipping wine in-between while fixing it.
I don't drink alcohol on a regular basis and sometimes I burn the
garlic bread.
Nevertheless, I enjoy it.
Although at times, I feel a little down in that it took longer to prepare it
then eating it.
Usually don't eat three meals a day. I eat in small amounts all the time.
Facebook videos of food being prepared makes me hungry.
Also movies where the actors are eating.

Watching the "Godfather" I think of Fading Fast and New York..
and those small Italian diners.

"Jaws" = LizzieMaine!
With regards to seafood.

I always sort of assumed the ones I was eating had very little actual veal in them -- probably more elderly bulls all ground up with extenders and then given just a whisper of genuine veal for the sake of the name. They certainly didn't look like the actual veal meat you find now in the premium section of the butcher's case.

Most of the cheap "veal" cutlets had more than a little chicken and pork (by products) mixed in. The mock veal cutlets which I make from pork loin are the same thing which were sold as premium (solid rather than ground and reconstituted) cutlets thirty years past.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mmmmm. Pork by-products.

 

[2jakes]

Some folks like to reminisce with t

We didn't have such a thing in any of our local stores when I was little, but if we had, my mother certainly would have told me that they came from actual babies, and used that as a threat to keep me in line. (She did used to threaten to sell us to the baby oil factory...)

Threats to send for the doctor by my mother did it for me!
(Back in the days when doctors actually made house calls)

To this day I am not comfortable with doctors or hospitals.

The only way I will go to the dentist is when the tooth is
badly swollen that I can't eat!


The doctor told me I was in great shape for not having a
physical check-up ever since I was in the military years ago.

But added.
"Look Clark Kent/Superman...as you get older...there might be Kryptonite
developing in your system.
And if you love playing tennis or cycling, you'd be wise to come in on a regular basis!"

 

[Trenchfriend]

Is US-gastronomy offering old-fashion brew/broth with "royale"/Eierstich, today?
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...=QBIR&pq=brühe mit eierstich&sc=0-9&sp=-1&sk=

 

[2jakes]

Is US-gastronomy offering old-fashion brew/broth with "royale"/Eierstich, today?
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=brühe mit eierstich&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=brühe mit eierstich&sc=0-9&sp=-1&sk=

Ja! Although meistens in den umliegenden deutschen Dörfen in der Nähe,
wo ich wohne.

 

[Zombie_61]

Baby ribs in the butcher shop.
Scared the "beegeebees" out of me as a kid.

There is a nationwide chain of hamburger restaurants called Fuddruckers, and one of their selling points is that their beef is fresh and never frozen. When they opened their first restaurant here in southern California in 1979, to reinforce this point they placed their in-house butcher shop right by the front entrance so the customers could watch the beef being prepared for their meal(s) while they waited in line to place their order. Now, when I say "butcher shop", I mean they had actual sides of beef hanging in plain view and employees in blood-smeared white smocks carving them up. My friends and I joked about it as if we were choosing a lobster--"I'll have that one in the back with the big, brown, sad eyes..."--but the butchers and their shop were gone after a couple of months because so many potential customers complained about it before leaving to eat elsewhere. Good burgers, but their nearest location is now a 10-mile/30-45 minute drive away so we only eat there if we happen to be in the neighborhood.

 

[vitanola]

A larding needle is a hollow skewer with a substantial handle and a very sharp angled tip which is used to thread strips of seasoned suet or smoked and heavily seasoned pork belly (bacon) through lean roasts or lean fowl (such as pheasant). The "Lardoons" so inserted into the meat tenderize, moisten, and season it. While pheasant is commonly hunted in our county I find these small, dry birds to be more trouble than they are worth. Besides, I do not care to clean the b*gg*rs. A loca Amish chicken is more flavorful, and they come already cleaned (and never contain shot!)

A properly larded roast of venison is a bit of trouble, but is tasty, moist, and tender when aged and larded (or larded THEN aged, as I do it). The only problem is the space occupied in the ice box for the aging roast, but in Michigan hunting season is late enough in the year that a roast may usually be aged in a closed container out of doors. Of course when a roast may be had free of charge one is not concerned about a little extra effort.




With whole pork loins selling for $1.39/lb this week who needs "expensive" meatballs? I made mock Veal Parmagana over spaghetti last night. It is a nice thirty five minute dinner;

After lunch (or the evening before) take four small boneless pork loin chops (cut 1" thick from the small end of the pork loin) and pound them out as thin as possible. They will at this point be the size of dinner plates. cut into halves, dip in flour, then egg, and then seasoned crumbs. Put on a plate, cover, and refrigerate until dinner time.

When preparing dinner, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, fill a large pot with salted water for the spaghetti in the usual manner, and heat a large frying pan or saute with a lump of lard in it nearly to the smoking point. Very hot lard is not absorbed to any extent by the breading and so the cutlets are lower in fat when cooked in this traditional fat than when cooked in, say, Crisco. While the spaghetti is boiling (and your favorite prepared sauce is heating) fry the cutlets till nicely browned (about 2 minutes a side) and set them when done on a plate in the oven with paper towels between the cutlets to absorb any last bits of excess fat.

When the spaghetti is done, plate, cover with sauce, place a cutlet on top of the sauce, put a couple of tablespoons of additional sauce on the cutlet and place a slice of cheese (mozzarella, provolone, or muenster work best) on top. Place the finished plates under the broiler to brown and bubble the cheese. A propane torch with a flame spreader works just as well and does not heat up the plates.

Prep time for the pounded and breaded cutlets is about 12 minutes. Cooking time including prep for the spaghetti is less than 25 minutes.

A meal for six or seven which uses about 1 1/4 pounds of $1.39/lb meat.

The same cutlets, when not cut into pieces, make excellent Schnitzel. For Schintzel a al Holstein prepare spaetzel with nutmeg, fried in butter, a little red cabbage (rotkohl) and an egg broken atop the schnitzel, just set under a medium broiler, makes another lovely quick meal.

Tonight we are having another meal made from that $1.39/lb lean pork loin. A slightly simplified version of my grandmother's Paprikasz:

Finely chop two medium sized Spanish onions and one or two green or red bell peppers. Reserve and set aside in a bowl. (should take but two or three minutes)

Place your dutch oven on the range with a lump of lard the size of an egg yolk in it. Heat the dutch oven over a high flame until it shimmers. (should take four to six minutes depending upon your range and the weight of the pot. HEAVIER IS BETTER!)

While heating, take a pound or a pound-and-a-quarter of your pork loin and cut it into small cubes, about 1 1/4" to the side. Salt and pepper the meat, then coat with sweet paprika.

Add two slices of bacon to the hot dutch oven and then stir until they are rendered and brown but not crisp. At this point add the prepared meat to the hot fat. Stir until lightly browned. Add another tablespoon or two of Paprika to the pot. Cook in the fat with the meat until slightly browned. Cooking the bacon, pork, and the paprika should take no longer than six or seven minutes.

Deglaze the pot with a hefty splash of beer or white wine. Add three whole cloves of garlic, two or three bay leaves and a couple of whole Allspice. Add a cup or cup and a half or strong chicken, pork, or vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then turn the burned down to a simmer. Cover and cook at a low simmer until meat is tender (fifteen or twenty minutes.) If you like, note that a teaspoon of Thai fish sauce added at this point intensifies all of the flavors.

Add a cup or cup-and-a-half of sour cream, blend in, and stir until heated through. Serve over buttered noodles.


From beginning to end this recipe takes no more than thirty or thirty-five minutes. It will comfortably serve six with the addition of a vegetable or a nice salad. Seven in a pinch with the further addition of soup.