Vintage Food

[Fifty150]

What is "vintage"? Can food be vintage? How old does it have to be? If a product has been around for 50 years, or 100 years, considered vintage?

I'm old. Old enough that young people point their fingers at me and laugh. I've been eating tri-tip since I was a kid. Probably because my Dad was frugal. Well, he still is frugal. So am I. It is still a regular on my grocery list. Tri-tip may be the last affordable piece of meat.

 

[Fifty150]

Top Sirloin is also featured in this week's advertising circular. I wonder if Albertsons and The Bearded Butchers are working together to put out the videos and advertise the meat on sale.

The USDA NAMP/IMPS codes related to this subprimal cut are 181A and 184. 181A is obtained from 181 after removing the bottom sirloin and the butt tender (the part of the tenderloin which is in the sirloin). 184 is obtained from 182 after removing the bottom sirloin. The food service cuts from 184 are 184A through 184F, its portion cut is 1184 and, the "subportion" cuts from 1184 are 1184A through 1184F. 181A is not further divided into food service cuts.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Most vintage food products are simply in brand name only which is licensed to manufacturers overseas. They aren't the same tried and true brands of yesteryear.

 

[Frunobulax]

Spam is still made in Minnesota and Nebraska by the Hormel Corporation, still headquartered in Austin MN. .

Skippy, another Hormel product, is made in Little Rock.

Both dietary staples.

 

[Turnip]

Independently from any brands there’s still some „vintage“ food around here. Headcheese is something you’ll literally find at any butcher’s here, from very North to South and East to West, as well as blood sausages and liver sausages.
Local vintage food could still be bought in shopp or ordered in restaurants, such as brain soup, liver, kidneys, hashed lungs or udders, horse meats and sausages, Labskaus…

 

[Adam-Five-Five]

Ramen. Noodles have been around for centuries. Very little change except for the MSG package.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Offal meats" are a very vintage thing. I grew up eating tripe and heart, the former of which I hated and the latter of which I loved.

Brisket you don't hear much about anymore outside of barbecue-pit circles, but in my youth it was eaten boiled, with potatoes.

Smoked whitefish isn't turning up much on the Food Network these days, but I used to eat a ton of finnan haddie.

 

[Turnip]

Peas stew is something that only goes the vintage way for my taste.
Stewing dried peas on pig feet, the tendons and the connective tissue of the skin don’t only give taste but also the necessary texture by their gelatine.
That’s also how and why head cheese has been made, in olde tymes when only very few people could afford wasting any calorie once the only pig of the year or any other animal got slaughtered.
At this end of the pond just about 60 years ago.

 

[Turnip]

By the way, just had a nice piece of Mediterranean style stewed oxtail for dinner, excellent piece for stewing and as base for beef stock, oxtail soup…

 

[Fifty150]

I guess it's cultural. Offal is found on Latin American and Asian restaurant menus. Tripe, intestines, heart, liver, tongue, kidneys. Brisket is very common in Asian food. Jewish delis still have brisket. Corned beef was brisket, but now I also see round, as in top round and bottom round. Oxtail can still be found in some restaurants. Costco sells oxtail.

Costco also sells beef cheek. Excellent for braising and making stew. Beef cheek tacos are fairly common in my area.

What I see now, in supermarkets, is pork sirloin. It's the piece of pork that has the last few inches of the backbone and "H-bone" of the hip area, just before the hams. The bones run through at odd angles, so it's difficult to debone and have a nice piece of meat. Pretty easy to cook bone in. If you slow cook it, you can pull the bones out after cooking. I use the bones for stock. Pork stock is very unique. Very rich umami flavor.

 

[Turnip]

Certainly it’s also cultural, in my understanding pork is second or third class meat in US-WASP culture or groups counting themselves to this circle for example.
But it’s also a question of industrialization of food production in my opinion. The more folks living in cities and the less in the country the more food production needs to be industrialized, causing a reduction of local varieties, specialties…=> a „harmonization“ in taste.

 

[Fifty150]

In some cultures, they don't eat pork.

In other areas of the world, goat and lamb give milk and meat. Not so much here in The USA. In The USA, we don't sell horsemeat. There are specialty sellers who sell "exotic" meat. But "exotic" means everything which isn't beef, chicken, and pork, from a very large company like Tyson, Smithfield, and such.

 

[Turnip]

 

[Turnip]

 

[Fifty150]

$0.88 per pound. The price is vintage. That's probably what pork chops sold for 50 years ago.

It makes a pretty good pork sandwich. Ham and cheese?

 

[LizzieMaine]

We always have pork loin for Christmas dinner. It's cheap and it's good. What more do you want?

 

[Adam-Five-Five]

I spend more on fresh produce than I spend on meat. It may be time to buy canned vegetables.

 

[Edward Reed]

My mom often made “Shit on a Shingle” or “S.O.S.”
(cream chipped beef on toast) a common “wartime dish” she learned from her mother. My grandfather served during WWII and liked it so my grandmother made it…so my mom grew up on it. This was a traditional army recipe that was easy to make, cheap, and filling and featured in Army cookbooks for over 100 years.
It’s said the first appearance of a Shit on a Shingle recipe may be in the 1910 Manual for Army Cooks, which listed it as “stewed, chipped beef” and called for 15 pounds of beef to feed 60 men. Cream chipped beef has been a breakfast staple in the Northeastern United States since the turn of the 19th century though and was probably a cheap easy meal to make especially during the depression era.
Its been some time since I’ve had it and now that I’m writing about it I’m craving S.O.S.!!! Lol!
1 pound chipped beef (or corned beef)
1/8 pound butter
3 tablespoons flour
1-1/2 cups half & half
1 egg
Black Pepper

Melt the butter in a skillet, and cook until the butter browns. Then add the chipped beef and stir it well until all bits are coated with the butter and lightly sauteed.

Next, sprinkle the flour over the beef with a sifter and stir well. Then add the cream and milk mixture, stir and cook until a rich, thick sauce is formed. Thickness may be controlled by adding more flour or more cream as desired. Season only with pepper, unless a taste indicates that a little more salt is needed.
Just before removing from the heat, break a raw egg into the mixture, stir it in thoroughly and cook just a bit more. Serve creamed chipped beef on toast.

 

[Bushman]

Half of me hopes these ads aren't based on real life kids. The other half is too frightened to seek out the answer.

 

[Adam-Five-Five]

My mom often made “Shit on a Shingle” or “S.O.S.”
(cream chipped beef on toast) a common “wartime dish” she learned from her mother. My grandfather served during WWII and liked it so my grandmother made it…so my mom grew up on it. This was a traditional army recipe that was easy to make, cheap, and filling and featured in Army cookbooks for over 100 years.
It’s said the first appearance of a Shit on a Shingle recipe may be in the 1910 Manual for Army Cooks, which listed it as “stewed, chipped beef” and called for 15 pounds of beef to feed 60 men. Cream chipped beef has been a breakfast staple in the Northeastern United States since the turn of the 19th century though and was probably a cheap easy meal to make especially during the depression era.
Its been some time since I’ve had it and now that I’m writing about it I’m craving S.O.S.!!! Lol!
1 pound chipped beef (or corned beef)
1/8 pound butter
3 tablespoons flour
1-1/2 cups half & half
1 egg
Black Pepper

Melt the butter in a skillet, and cook until the butter browns. Then add the chipped beef and stir it well until all bits are coated with the butter and lightly sauteed.

Next, sprinkle the flour over the beef with a sifter and stir well. Then add the cream and milk mixture, stir and cook until a rich, thick sauce is formed. Thickness may be controlled by adding more flour or more cream as desired. Season only with pepper, unless a taste indicates that a little more salt is needed.
Just before removing from the heat, break a raw egg into the mixture, stir it in thoroughly and cook just a bit more. Serve creamed chipped beef on toast.


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I guess it skipped a generation. I never had it. To this day, I haven't had it. I don't even know what "chipped" beef is.