"Vintage" foods that are still with us today.

[ValleyBoy]

For all you SPAM fans out there, I wanted to mention that SPAM has put out a special 70th anniversary can with a brief history of the product on the back. It says:

1937...The first cans of SPAM roll off the assembly line. Originally called HORMEL Spiced Ham, the company holds a contest to create a name. Kenneth Daigneau wins naming contest by coming up with SPAM.

My mom tells me that during WWII, they often ate SPAM when other meats were unavailable. She served it frequently when I was a child, and I still enjoy it immensely. I think it brings back happy childhood memories. Sometimes there's just nothing better than baked SPAM with mustard, or SPAM 'n eggs.

I could never get into SPAM. I just can't. Now Vienna Sausages........

 

[Pink Dahlia]

What a great thread!

 

[Pink Dahlia]

More

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I thought this thread died a long time ago.

But it seems that a lot of products have been around forever too. More than I imagined.
Here's a couple more from The Saturday Evening Post of November 1932.
Everyone recognizes these.

 

[BellyTank]

Even Vegetarians like the smell of Bacon- lucky there's the Soy alternative-

I like Bacon but not so crispy- large rashers, grilled.

The Bacon Buttie is unbeatable, especially with the addition
of cheese and onion and toasted.

A good dose of Fish and Chips will see me right but I pine for the New Zealand
variety- thin, crispy batter, on a nice piece of Schnapper, or Gurnard, with golden chips.

London seems to serve up a puddle of grease, containing a lump of thick-battered something,
with an accompaniment of pasty pieces of potato, resembling month-old severed fingers,
washed up just this side of Wapping.

Hmmm... tasty.

Hungry now.

B
T

 

[PADDY]

Oink-Oink old sport!! Little Pork Pies are devoured

Mission Accomplished!! Just demolished a plate of little Pork Pies from the village shop and covered them in jolly old fashioned HP (Houses of Parliament) brown sauce. Just YUM!! and just so British.

Both are rather classic (British) vintage dishes, and best savoured slowly chompity-chomp!!

Don't you just love the old fashioned HP sauce bottle that probably hasn't changed in half a century!!

As for the 'cooked bacon,' again, devoured with pure relish and pleasure. As soon you could smell those little rashers, well...they didn't stand a chance my friend

I still like the vintage idea of making and taking lunch, wrapped up in heavy brown paper or the old tin box, with you to work (rather than the modern fad for spending your wages on eating out at a sandwich bar).

 

[Edward]

On the subject of vintage packed lunches.... I'm familiar with the US concept of a 'lunch pail,' but I always wodnered about its origin. Was it simply the case that a bucket was cheap and to hand, or was there a considered reason - was a tin bucket considered to offer better food preservation than brown paper or a box of somekind, for example?

 

[olive bleu]

Two things:

1.) bacon is the food of the gods.There is nothing that will make me fall off any diet faster than the smell of bacon frying.My dad got up every morning when i was little and fried bacon and eggs for breakfast.Not the thin stuff we get in grocery stores nowadays, but thick hearty stuff with a really thick rind.
I would get up every morning and go for his empty plate to nibble on the bits of fat he always left on the rind

2.)I love packing my own lunch for work..usually in a brown paper bag.I normally bring a "ploughman's" lunch..a wedge of cheese, a piece of fruit, a heel of bread,and some cold leftover meat.I am thinking about getting a small thermos to bring my own tea as well.

 

[duggap]

Bacon

Well if it has to be with bacon, my favorite is the ole American standby of a BLT. Kind of hard to beat a good ole BLT. Or how about a wilted spinach salad, cooked with bacon grease and crisp bacon.

 

[LizzieMaine]

On the subject of vintage packed lunches.... I'm familiar with the US concept of a 'lunch pail,' but I always wodnered about its origin. Was it simply the case that a bucket was cheap and to hand, or was there a considered reason - was a tin bucket considered to offer better food preservation than brown paper or a box of somekind, for example?

It actually did start out as a pail, but had a fitted top with a second compartment where you could store soup or some other liquid item. They were usually carried by blue-collar workers -- laborers, factory hands and the like, and offered good protection for the food on rough worksites.

As a figure of speech, "The Full Dinner Pail" was considered the ultimate expression of the Good Life for working-class Americans at the turn of the century, and was even a factor in the 1900 presidential election, with William McKinley making it the centerpiece of his campaign slogan -- you can still find old McKinley campaign buttons with a tiny dinner-pail charm attatched to the ribbon.

And as for bacon, I'll have mine cooked crisp but not burned -- and then cook the eggs in the drippings. Heaven on a plate!

 

[Josephine]

So ladies and gentlemen, what cooks 'your bacon' and what's your vintage inspired classic dish of the day?

Regarding bacon, yes, please! Love a good bacon sarnie, but hold the tomato.

Regarding vintage inspired classic dish of the day, I have to admit I like Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast. I may have to pick up some Chipped Beef next time I'm at the store....

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I constantly felt sorry for US residents who'd never encountered a real bacon rasher. Only "streaky" bacon is regularly available, and is invariably too fatty for the British taste- not nearly enough meat on it.

here's what bacon should look like:

IMO there is nothing better than a sunday morning bacon sandwich with fried eggs an freshly brewed coffee.

bk

 

[galopede]

Just demolished a plate of little Pork Pies from the village shop and covered them in jolly old fashioned HP (Houses of Parliament) brown sauce. Just YUM!! and just so British.

Both are rather classic (British) vintage dishes, and best savoured slowly chompity-chomp!!

Don't you just love the old fashioned HP sauce bottle that probably hasn't changed in half a century!!

Sadly La Sauce HP is no longer British. Ignoring all the petitions, they closed down the sauce factory in Birmingham and moved production to the Netherlands.

It's not been the same since they took the French description off the bottle in 1984 = Cette sauce est une melange...

Gareth

Gareth

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I constantly felt sorry for US residents who'd never encountered a real bacon rasher. Only "streaky" bacon is regularly available, and is invariably too fatty for the British taste- not nearly enough meat on it.

here's what bacon should look like:

IMO there is nothing better than a sunday morning bacon sandwich with fried eggs an freshly brewed coffee.

bk

Have I mention that I hate you lately BK?

So now, not only do I have to read all this, knowing you mean -real- bacon..which I would have to pay a fortune and a half for here.....now I have picture reminders of it.

Darn you!

D....sobbing in a corner

 

[Baron Kurtz]

We actually looked into getting it shipped from a British import company when we were in the states … $30 shipped in dry ice for 6 rashers. $5 a little too much for half a bacon sandwich, no?

bk

 

[Miss Neecerie]

We actually looked into getting it shipped from a British import company when we were in the states … $30 shipped in dry ice for 6 rashers. $5 a little too much for half a bacon sandwich, no?

bk

yes...although I can get Irish bacon down the local pub (its also an import store)....again..its the pricing.

*sighs*

Seriously thought, I have probably stopped 99% of my breakfast type bacon consumption since moving back....somehow, I just now order those breakfasts with sausage so as to avoid the whole issue.

BLT is fine with streaky, but breakfast...uggg...

D..who is now quite hungry for food she cannot have

 

[Josephine]

I just recalled we have this Vintage Recipe thread already, do you want to merge yours and it, Paddy, to consolidate the subjects?

 

[olive bleu]

Gotta be careful of indigestion, though - it has a way of coming back up on you.

That's what those TUMS ads are for

 

[miss_elise]

what is streaky bacon? sounds like it's diseased...

 

[KittyT]

Bacon is pretty much the only reason I'm not vegetarian.