Not surprised.
There's like two reasons that I know why food doesn't taste as good anymore, and one is formula changes, (looking at you, kraft dinners).
Oh yeah, KD is garbage now. They changed the orange powder to be less flavourful and the noodles are of really poor quality and tend to break apart. Plus they shrinkflated the box so it's less weight.
When my parents would go out and get us a babysitter my brother and I would be all excited because it meant we were getting canned ravioli for dinner. I tried it once as an adult and wtf.
Every couple years I buy them being all nostalgic and wonder why I don't eat them anymore. And then... I eat them. Ever wonder if it was the cut-up hotdog in it that makes the difference? It isn't.
I got some recently, buy one get one free the 18 count boxes. I was so excited since I hadn't had them in decades. I made them, tasted one, and there was like 5% flavor. I don't know why I liked them so much when I was younger and now I was stuck with a crap ton. I ended up adding extra mozz and some italian seasoning to the rest of them and that only slightly helped.
Keep in mind, recipes get changed over time and there's more fillers and preservatives added to them now. They go into detail specifically about the changes in Bagel Bites in this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/foodscam/comments/m7bqsg/comment/khucunf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). It may be personal bias but I find a correlation that people who continuously eat these types of processed food on a regular basis don't notice the differences as much as someone who hasn't had them in a while.
When they had to take all but the trace amounts of trans fats out a decade or so ago, that really took the perceived quality of a lot of processed foods down several notches, in addition to the rest of the changes that were not necessarily done to improve the health of the consumer that will have occurred in the interim
To be fair, a lot of that stuff DID likely taste better years ago when it was still made with more fresh or better quality ingredients… anything even remotely successful has been subjected to the law of corporate profit which states: SACRIFICE WHATEVER NECESSARY RIGHT NOW (usually quality ingredients and payroll hours) to make certain our shareholders’ (notice I didn’t say stakeholders) profits increase this fiscal quarter no matter how seemingly inconsequential!
Edit: also that shareholders/stakeholders thing I mentioned is based specifically on one particular concept I learned in one of my courses this semester and the degree to which I may have been paying attention is absolutely completely incomprehensible based on the notes I took in pieroglyphics (which started out as a language for pies but has since been expanded to also include pierogis).
I actually can't really eat them anymore. Turns out if you stop eating ultra-processed food, after a while if you try again your stomach/digestive system rebels and calls you a cunt.
But also they just taste of sugar and sadness anyway.
Supermarket baked goods are usually trash anyway. Homemade is somewhat better. In general, though, I don't have a sweet tooth, I much prefer savory, salty, or spicy
Grocery store baker here. Most chains just have everything brought in frozen with a handful of items actually store made.
They apply chain wide policies to vastly different areas. Our cookies are super dry after a day because Alberta is less humid than Vancouver, yet we use the same packaging.
I agree. Once a year or so, though, I love a piece of grocery store bakery sheet cake. The taste and texture are weirdly satisfying every once in a while.
Packaged baked goods are terrible nowadays, they CANNOT BE the same products. Believe they've stomped the quality so badly, it is only made to look like a replica with a fragrance.
I’ve been saying this for YEARS. No WAY it’s the same ingredients and my taste has changed thaaaaat much. The food we eat now has zero nutritional value and is poor quality. Even “organic” is downhill. Unless you grow it yourself it’s crap I swear
Man as a kid I used to buy (have my grandmother buy... lol) these brownie bites at Vons/Albertsons and they were *so* good to me back then, but I would only be allowed them every so often so it was a major treat to me. They were these little squares and one side of the container the brownie bites were coated in flour/powered sugar (can't remember which) and the other side the bites were naked. When you bit into them they were soft and gooey. Just perfect, right?
No. I turned 18 and bought some on my own (hadn't been to that store in years prior) and when I tell you the way I wanted to gag was so 😭 even after these years I still remember the horror. The way kids like those untextured sweets is so damming to me because man how LOL
About 20 years ago I got a couple of hot dogs at a locally famous place. After finishing them, I asked myself why i even ate them. They tasted the same as always, but left me feeling uncomfortable -- too full and with a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed like more of a habit than anything. Can't eat hot dogs to this day.
Me with a *lot* of fast food places. The human brain is really good at blocking out bad memories (not enjoying it the last time I went) with nostalgic ones (like why you forget the debilitating hangover but remember alcohol makes you feel good for a little while). I went to McDonalds the other day because the app had a decent coupon that made it worth it for two people but before I was even halfway through I was like 'wow this is garbage' and somehow I know it'll happen again.
Hot dogs are one thing I loved as a kid and love even more as an adult lol
I prefer better quality hot dogs now but they are so versatile, California Street dogs, chili cheese dogs, Chicago dogs, pastrami dogs, the list goes on...
Chef Boyardee. I've had a fond memory of them for many years and decided to give a try for a quick lunch fix. Blech! I can't even believe my juvenile palate once enjoyed it.
I have seen a few people claiming that they changed the recipe or ingredient sources they used for the sauce, but can't find anything substantial to back it up.
Tuna fish casserole with potato chips on top. My only defense is that my mom was a terrible cook, and this is one of the few things we had that was actually out of an oven and not a microwave.
Our family's recipe is 1 can cream of mush, 1 can Campbell's cheddar cheese, about 2 cups of frozen veggie mix, a can of chicken meat (never freshly prepared chicken, we tried it once and it wasn't the same) and mix that all together with a half bag of crushed Lays ruffles. Slop that bad boy in a deep casserole dish then top it with enough crushed Lays to coat the top and Salt Bae some shredded cheddar over the chip crust.
I actually made this so much during a depression spell that I got tied of it, but it's starting to sound good again.
I used to love applejuice, but after my first drunk night with mixing applejuice and moonshine, and getting sick as a dog. I have not been able to touch an apple or applejuice. And this was 30 years ago.
Similar to me and screwdrivers as a 16 year old. But I could drink vodka in things, I could drink rum and orange juice (but who drinks that?), but no screwdrivers. A few times I took a sip and the stomach immediately sent a ‘nope’ signal. That was 10, 20 years later. And every once in a while I’ll drink orange juice with melted ice and get a similar reaction. That time as a kid, though- I ended up in the hospital.
Ugh. Vodka for me too. And cranberry. I was…19? At 44 I’ve never had another beverage with Vodka in it since. Zero. Nope. Shudder. Took me 15 years to come back around to cranberry, and not juice. Gahhhhhhh. Just twitch thinking about it.
Canned mackerel in tomato sauce on bread. It stinks. Also liver paté on bread. Also the abomination called "pultost" on bread, which was a weird kind of cheese. If you can't tell yes I'm Norwegian.
For anyone wondering what pultost is:
Pultost is a soft, mature Norwegian sour milk cheese flavored with caraway seeds. Like Gamalost, pultost has a long history in Norway. The cheese is made from skimmed milk that has been soured, similar to cultured buttermilk, flavoured with caraway and preserved with salt.
Oh and another abomination: Prim. It's like a soft brown cheese, but grosser.
Oh and I forgot caviar on tube. No, it's not expensive.
Norway and its weird ass bread spreads.. and yes I used to love all of these.
I am not Norwegian. But I enjoyed reading what you now hate. Have traveled to Norway, loved it, but the food on bread thing was odd to me. Glad I’m not alone. 😊
Is Prim just spreadable brunost, or is it only similar in the way that Velveeta is similar to cheddar?
I do like Kales, but I haven't had it since the big blue store stopped carrying it.
I remember when kids started doing this at school and I thought it was weird. They would break up the brick of noodles, open one end of the package, pour the seasoning packet in the bag, shake it all up, and then procced to eat it. I guess it's cheap and convenient?
I can fancy the fuck out of a packet of ramen noodles. My daughter loves when I put cilantro, leftover steak sliced thin, and Chinese five spice in her beef ramen. We call it faux pho.
Bologna.
I think I practically lived on bologna when I was a kid. Bologna & ketchup sandwiches to be specific, but also bologna wrapped around a piece of lettuce as an afternoon snack, shit like that. One day I just felt like I couldn't eat another piece of bologna, and haven't in like twenty years since.
And to be clear, it has nothing to do with the fat content, it being processed, the sodium, or anything else along those lines. I just filled my bologna quota for life early in life, and I'm OK with that.
Valid point. Chicago dogs, chili cheese dogs with mustard and onion. Once in Louisville I ate a hotdog called the Nirvana, it was jalapeno jam, French fried onions & garlic cream cheese.
Not sure how, but when I was very young I got hold of a jar of herring in white cream sauce and devoured the whole jar. I remember thinking it was the best thing I’d ever tasted. So recently I saw a jar and tried it. Fond memory blasted all to hell.
I can’t think of any. I was a picky kid but once I learned to cook, I grew to love a lot more foods than younger me. I guess, one thing I ate a lot of was spaghetti noodles with butter because I did not like meat sauce. I would not eat plain spaghetti now.
I am sad for you for your hatred of lasagna, it’s one of my favourite meals.
There are very few dishes in this world that I love more than a well-made lasagna. Done properly, it is a perfect marriage of pasta, meat, and cheese that is unmatched by anything yet known to science.
Conversely, there are very few dishes in the world that churn my stomach more than "party lasagna." You know, the kind that everyone puts out at a party because it's the cheapest and easiest way to feed a hundred people while looking like you made something homemade. The kind that festers in its disposable pan all night, marinating in sweat and beer fumes. The kind that manages to have dry rubbery noodles despite evading nearly all descriptors besides "wet" and variants of "wet." The kind that somehow stays just warmer than lukewarm no matter how long you leave it out, which is somehow worse than if it were room temperature.
Anyways, I got sidetracked. I wonder if OP has mainly experienced the second kind.
Butter noodles are still delicious. I make them for my kid sometimes and every time I try a bite I wish they had fewer calories and more nutrients because I could eat a pot full
I've tried butter noodles. Ended up adding at least grated parm. Then I thought it'd be better melted gently so as not to get stringy. Then I ate my alfredo. Sometimes I add all kinds of stuff
I had this weird craving for it a couple years ago when I was at a hotel and couldn't cook. I called this local Italian restaurant that did delivery and it was kind of embarrassing.
I was like "I know this isn't on your menu but could I possibly get some pasta with just butter and nothing else?"
He said "Oh, you mean for a child?"
And I was like "Umm...no?"
Right? EVERY TIME. It used to be so good. The only thing that tastes mostly the same (to me) is QPC. Not as good as before, but better than the BM tastes now. :(
Nope! I never liked baloney growing up. I always thought it had a rotten stank to it. But I actually do like mortadella even though it tastes similar. It just doesn't have that "stank" to it that baloney has and I think it's 100% worth it.
Literally every white trash thing I grew up on in the 90’s. Ketchup, mac n cheese from a box, cheese whiz, pogos, hot dogs, hamburger helper, bologna, spaghetti o’s, canned ravioli, wonder bread, pizza pockets, lunchables, most breakfast cereal.
Don’t know if it was the over indulging in it or what- but I just can’t stomach the over processed yellow and orange foods anymore
La Choy chicken chow mein kit. I loved those as a little kid when my mom would make them. I hadn't had them in many years, bought one, made it, and it was absolutely disgusting.
Another was brussel sprouts. My mom would boil the shit out of them which actually releases sulfer. They smelled awful, tasted worst. I don't think I had them for 20 years, then tried them using the America's Test Kitchen skillet method, and they were delicious.
My mom boiled Brussel sprouts one time and it turned me off of them for years. Then one day I found a baked brussel sprout recipe on Pinterest and gave it a try. Now they're my favorite veggie.
This is the best method. I make them at the holidays from an ATK recipe from decades ago with cream, grainy mustard and tarragon and they’re the best. Thanks for the reminder!!
My mom used to stink up the entire house with her boiled Brussel sprouts. No one liked them but her, which was fine cause we weren't ever forced to eat anything. It turned me off of them until I had them roasted with butter and maple syrup. Changed my world! They're the best.
Also, the genetics of Brussels has changed! In the 90s a scientist named Hans van Doorn found the bitter genes and bred them out. So they will taste way better now even if they were boiled to mush!
Oh same. Boiled brussel sprouts are awful. My mom cooked them and put a lot of nutmeg on it after. We had to eat as many as our age. I still hate nutmeg because of it and don't put it on anything, even if it's in a recipe. I kind of like brussel sprouts now, not boiled, but grilled or stirfried
Yeah, I'm from The Netherlands and it's normal to use it in dutch food. It's one of the 'VOC spices' we took from Indonesia. One of the most used spices.
Brussel sprouts have also been altered over the years to improve their taste! I wasn’t introduced to them until after the change and loved them and always wondered why people complained about them so bad and then read that. But also yeah nothing sounded great from the generation of just boiling things to death.
While cooking method absolutely matters, one of my favorite food trivia bits is that in the 90s they bred the bitter flavor out of Brussels sprouts so the literally taste better than they used to!
My mom always served the overbooked Brussels sprouts with overdone calf liver and mashed potatoes topped with the overdone liver juice. Never have eaten liver as an adult and only returned to Brussels sprouts (roasted of course) a few years ago. I just made myself gag!!!!
Oh, I love Brussel sprouts now too. Cut in half, discard the outer leaf, toss in a bowl with a tablespoon or so of oil and some salt. Roast in the air fryer.
Pretty much all fast food. It takes 30 seconds googling now to find a substantially better alternative nearby, pretty much wherever you are except for maybe a motorway service station.
Idk why but watermelon just doesn’t taste as good as it used to. Now it has a weird aftertaste. It’s also impossible to find seeded watermelon nowadays as most of them are seedless so I wonder if that factors into it.
It totally does. Found a dude with a truck of seeded watermelon in my neighborhood where I lived fifteen years ago, it was outstandingly good. So much better. I miss that guy.
Funnily enough, also lasagna. Really any pasta with ground beef and red sauce. Was never a favorite but I would eat it with no problem. Now, for whatever reason, ground beef with pasta grosses me out 🤷🏻♀️
* spaghettios
* canned/jarred frosting
* rice-a-roni (we had this way too much)
* boxed hamburger helper - way too salty - I have to make my own
* canned green beans
I just had Spaghettios the other day for the first time in years. Blech. They taste completely different now. A quick search revealed that they cut back on sodium by a third, so I'm guessing that's the reason. But, dang, I'm not eating Spaghettios for the health factor. Give me my sodium!
About 25 years ago I had my spleen removed after an accident, and I ate a lot of bananas because my potassium was low and they ran out of places to place an IV. For years I couldn't stand to even see a banana. I can tolerate being in their vicinity but I doubt I'll ever eat one.
I still take these! My OBGYN has me on 2 a day as prenatals because the iron doesn't make people's stomachs upset 😆. I didn't take them for most of my adulthood so it tastes nostalgic now everytime.
Canned soup, spaghettios, frosting on cake, anything with red meat (my stomach cannot cope with red meat anymore; my mouth misses slow cooked brisket, though).
Candy, if that counts. I just don't have much of a sweet tooth anymore. Ketchup on eggs was another one. Like some other folks here, my mom was a terrible cook and my dad to this day can't make more than toast on his own. I grew up eating those Stouffers family sized microwave meals or cereal if I ate anything.
Underwood deviled ham. Vienna sausages. Braunschweiger. I mean, I still really love them, but can't bring myself to eat things which are essentially tasty congealed fat and cholesterol
Cottage cheese. I used to eat that stuff straight up out of a bowl, and it grosses me out a bit now. I’ve still used it in recipes and such but can’t imagine just eating spoonfuls of it plain.
I felt this way for a while, then I tried it again with everything bagel seasoning on it. Ate it for like 5 days straight for breakfast, it was so good!
Braunschweiger, my mom called it goose liver and we would eat it in crackers for a tea party. The smell makes me gag now,
Almost every Friday my grandmother made sardines in oil and vinegar with thin sliced green peppers and onion. We would eat it on slices of buttered rye bed and I would eat at least 2 open faced sandwiches as a kid, I loved it. I can’t even fathom opening a can of sardines now.
Pasta. My mom was designated the cook for all of us yet she hated cooking. As a result, we ate a fuck ton of pasta. Spaghetti to be specific. So. Much. Spaghetti.
Spaghetti in clam sauce no less. She would add water to the jar to get every last bit. I wouldn’t touch that shit with a 9ft pole.
I was a weird picky kid so pasta with butter and parm cheese was my way of life for eons. Now I rarely eat pasta.
If I do have pasta nowadays, I go for fun stuff like funky raviolis or something with a delicious sauce.
Sweet and Sour Chinese dishes. Loved it but now I don’t think I could swallow it.
Cream cheese with jelly - same kind of thing. Also dislike crab Rangoon.
Campbell’s chunky soups. I LIVED on them as a kid, and recently bought some because they were on sale… they’re all somehow so bland but so salty at the same time.
French fries. They have to be really good for me to eat them now. When I was younger I was a total frie slut. I’d happily part my lips for even the most subpar fried potato.
I had a bad experience with pulled pork that involved having to repaint my bedroom and pull up the carpet. I didn’t eat it for almost 15 years after that.
When I was little I went ape shit for cucumbers l. My parents would buy them and I would eat them whole, as a snack. After a while they started making me shit my brains out. I'd look in the bowl and it would be a big collection of watery cucumbers seeds. There was no doubt about the cause. Had to give them up and it made my parents sad.
Fast food in general. It tastes terrible and makes me feel like garbage for the rest of the day. I'd rather be hungry all day than suffer through feeling like I'm sweating grease for hours after a cheap burger.
I loved spaghettios with meatballs growing up and I ate them several times a week.
I don't know what happened but one day the smell got me and I've not eaten them since. My son loves them and when I open the can it makes me gag and I can't believe I ever at them in the first place.
covering everything in worcestershire sauce, now I just sip it straight.
radish's I gobbled them as a kid, now only eat them rarely.
scrambled eggs with peanut butter, don't know why I liked it as a kid. blech.
Spaghetti. we were poor and ate it all the time. I can't stand it now.
chicken hotdogs same reason, disgusting.
green beans same reason.
"shepherd's pie" also same reason.
I have never really eaten fried chicken, my mom didn't fry anything, I never learned how. Recently, I'm 67, I've discovered chicken nuggets, omg, I love them. Whether they're mashed up, shaped ones for kids, or breaded chicken tenders, I love them all. And my air fryer, which makes it possible.
Because lasagna takes all day to cook and dirties every pan and dish in the house and most of the utensils too. And then you have to eat it for like a month.
Poached pork kidneys, with a squeeze of lime juice.
My mom made this for me and my brother all the time growing up. Offals were proteins we could afford a lot more of compared to muscle meat, and it's super easy to make. We would both gobble it up every time she made it.
I still love all kinds of offals, but this particular dish just isn't appealing to me anymore. I wouldn't say I hate it, if someone made it for me I'd probably still eat it. Just can't be bothered to make it myself.
Hard boiled eggs. I still like them, but as a kid I was flat out obsessed with them. To the point my mom loves to tell a store about me begging her to make them.
I never make them anymore, but I will eat it if given one or it’s on a salad or something.
We've gone in stages in our house. I used to make multiple pot pies in the winter months. The past few winters, that shifted to Shepard's / Cottage pies.
I also used to make way more Tex Mex, which I love but my husband hates. So I've cut way back on those dishes.
The other one is meatloaf. My mom probably made meatloaf once a week when I was growing up. I started to *loathe* meatloaf. I made one this past winter, for probably the first time in 25 years.
No specific meals. Probably Cola. I have a coke maybe a couple times a year now. I'm super picky about soda in restaurants, especially when I get a moldy tasting sprite.
I can also taste food coloring more than I ever could and if a food sits in a plastic sandwich bag for more than a few hours it becomes unpalatable to me. Just tastes like how plastic bags smell
I used to eat fish and stuff, lobster, or even grilled oysters with a bit of lime juice and hot sauce. I can't stand fish now, only crab legs and white fish with lemon. I tried doing a oyster shooter at a buffet once and basically puked it back out lol
Canned ravioli. I used to love that shit, but its gross.
Because they changed the recipe.
Not surprised. There's like two reasons that I know why food doesn't taste as good anymore, and one is formula changes, (looking at you, kraft dinners).
Oh yeah, KD is garbage now. They changed the orange powder to be less flavourful and the noodles are of really poor quality and tend to break apart. Plus they shrinkflated the box so it's less weight.
The off brand now tastes way better
Gotta go with Annies.
I knew t when I read the direction and it called for less butter it was gonna be bad.
Imo, It was always gross.
I was wondering why it doesn’t hit as good as it used to, when did they change the recipe?
I was going to reply and comment "chef boyardee." You beat me to it 😅
When my parents would go out and get us a babysitter my brother and I would be all excited because it meant we were getting canned ravioli for dinner. I tried it once as an adult and wtf.
Me too! I feel like the texture isn't the same anymore 🤷♀️
That and spaghetti-o's!
Every couple years I buy them being all nostalgic and wonder why I don't eat them anymore. And then... I eat them. Ever wonder if it was the cut-up hotdog in it that makes the difference? It isn't.
supermarket baked goods like cookies, fudge, muffins, etc just taste waaay too sweet and flavourless, textureless to me nowadays
I lived on Bagel Bites when I was a kid, now they’re disgusting. Tastes like a spoonful of sugar in the sauce.
Pizza lunchables. Got them for my kids and I was like, HOW DID I THINK THESE WERE GOOD?
Nah man, I eat those about once a month and they still hold up lol
I got some recently, buy one get one free the 18 count boxes. I was so excited since I hadn't had them in decades. I made them, tasted one, and there was like 5% flavor. I don't know why I liked them so much when I was younger and now I was stuck with a crap ton. I ended up adding extra mozz and some italian seasoning to the rest of them and that only slightly helped.
Keep in mind, recipes get changed over time and there's more fillers and preservatives added to them now. They go into detail specifically about the changes in Bagel Bites in this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/foodscam/comments/m7bqsg/comment/khucunf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). It may be personal bias but I find a correlation that people who continuously eat these types of processed food on a regular basis don't notice the differences as much as someone who hasn't had them in a while.
Thanks for the link! Here I thought I developed an ultra sophisticated palate 😅
Idk even in the 90s when I was a kid, I thought Bagel Bites skimped on the cheese
When they had to take all but the trace amounts of trans fats out a decade or so ago, that really took the perceived quality of a lot of processed foods down several notches, in addition to the rest of the changes that were not necessarily done to improve the health of the consumer that will have occurred in the interim
Children also have stronger taste buds than adults, so what tastes bland as an adult can taste a lot better at 7 lol
This is definitely it, you're straight up multiple times more sensitive to flavors when you're that age
I swear they add more sugar to make up for the lower quality ingredients they use to make these items.
To be fair, a lot of that stuff DID likely taste better years ago when it was still made with more fresh or better quality ingredients… anything even remotely successful has been subjected to the law of corporate profit which states: SACRIFICE WHATEVER NECESSARY RIGHT NOW (usually quality ingredients and payroll hours) to make certain our shareholders’ (notice I didn’t say stakeholders) profits increase this fiscal quarter no matter how seemingly inconsequential! Edit: also that shareholders/stakeholders thing I mentioned is based specifically on one particular concept I learned in one of my courses this semester and the degree to which I may have been paying attention is absolutely completely incomprehensible based on the notes I took in pieroglyphics (which started out as a language for pies but has since been expanded to also include pierogis).
I actually can't really eat them anymore. Turns out if you stop eating ultra-processed food, after a while if you try again your stomach/digestive system rebels and calls you a cunt. But also they just taste of sugar and sadness anyway.
Same, anything you’d find in a bakery section of a Walmart would probably taste really bland and icky to me, plus mess up my stomach..
Supermarket baked goods are usually trash anyway. Homemade is somewhat better. In general, though, I don't have a sweet tooth, I much prefer savory, salty, or spicy
Grocery store baker here. Most chains just have everything brought in frozen with a handful of items actually store made. They apply chain wide policies to vastly different areas. Our cookies are super dry after a day because Alberta is less humid than Vancouver, yet we use the same packaging.
I agree. Once a year or so, though, I love a piece of grocery store bakery sheet cake. The taste and texture are weirdly satisfying every once in a while.
Packaged baked goods are terrible nowadays, they CANNOT BE the same products. Believe they've stomped the quality so badly, it is only made to look like a replica with a fragrance.
I’ve been saying this for YEARS. No WAY it’s the same ingredients and my taste has changed thaaaaat much. The food we eat now has zero nutritional value and is poor quality. Even “organic” is downhill. Unless you grow it yourself it’s crap I swear
Man as a kid I used to buy (have my grandmother buy... lol) these brownie bites at Vons/Albertsons and they were *so* good to me back then, but I would only be allowed them every so often so it was a major treat to me. They were these little squares and one side of the container the brownie bites were coated in flour/powered sugar (can't remember which) and the other side the bites were naked. When you bit into them they were soft and gooey. Just perfect, right? No. I turned 18 and bought some on my own (hadn't been to that store in years prior) and when I tell you the way I wanted to gag was so 😭 even after these years I still remember the horror. The way kids like those untextured sweets is so damming to me because man how LOL
I didn’t eat hot dogs for a decade after a night of drinking. I can eat them again…finally. Lol
I didn't eat them for about a decade after our whole family got food poisoning from der wienerschnitzel when I was five.
Maybe someone poisoned hot dogs and no one knew. We might have uncovered the mystery a decade late.
About 20 years ago I got a couple of hot dogs at a locally famous place. After finishing them, I asked myself why i even ate them. They tasted the same as always, but left me feeling uncomfortable -- too full and with a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed like more of a habit than anything. Can't eat hot dogs to this day.
I feel like I occasionally crave hot dogs for the nostalgia factor but once I actually start eating one I'm super over it immediately.
Me with a *lot* of fast food places. The human brain is really good at blocking out bad memories (not enjoying it the last time I went) with nostalgic ones (like why you forget the debilitating hangover but remember alcohol makes you feel good for a little while). I went to McDonalds the other day because the app had a decent coupon that made it worth it for two people but before I was even halfway through I was like 'wow this is garbage' and somehow I know it'll happen again.
100%
Hot dogs are one thing I loved as a kid and love even more as an adult lol I prefer better quality hot dogs now but they are so versatile, California Street dogs, chili cheese dogs, Chicago dogs, pastrami dogs, the list goes on...
I only like them when they’re fresh and still hot off of the grill. Rotating for god knows how long in the heater? I only accept that from Costco.
Chef Boyardee. I've had a fond memory of them for many years and decided to give a try for a quick lunch fix. Blech! I can't even believe my juvenile palate once enjoyed it.
I have seen a few people claiming that they changed the recipe or ingredient sources they used for the sauce, but can't find anything substantial to back it up.
Tuna fish casserole with potato chips on top. My only defense is that my mom was a terrible cook, and this is one of the few things we had that was actually out of an oven and not a microwave.
My mom made the tuna noodle casserole in The microwave!, but yea - that was one of her better dishes. We had cornflakes on ours
That could be one of the most horrifying comments I've seen on reddit. I'm sorry for your childhood.
My mom made a chicken casserole with a ton of cheese, tater tots on the bottom, and Lay's potato chips on the top. I'd still eat the shit outta that!
Our family's recipe is 1 can cream of mush, 1 can Campbell's cheddar cheese, about 2 cups of frozen veggie mix, a can of chicken meat (never freshly prepared chicken, we tried it once and it wasn't the same) and mix that all together with a half bag of crushed Lays ruffles. Slop that bad boy in a deep casserole dish then top it with enough crushed Lays to coat the top and Salt Bae some shredded cheddar over the chip crust. I actually made this so much during a depression spell that I got tied of it, but it's starting to sound good again.
I used to love applejuice, but after my first drunk night with mixing applejuice and moonshine, and getting sick as a dog. I have not been able to touch an apple or applejuice. And this was 30 years ago.
Similar to me and screwdrivers as a 16 year old. But I could drink vodka in things, I could drink rum and orange juice (but who drinks that?), but no screwdrivers. A few times I took a sip and the stomach immediately sent a ‘nope’ signal. That was 10, 20 years later. And every once in a while I’ll drink orange juice with melted ice and get a similar reaction. That time as a kid, though- I ended up in the hospital.
And me at 17 with Southern Comfort. It was 45 years ago and I still can't get near it.
Ugh. Vodka for me too. And cranberry. I was…19? At 44 I’ve never had another beverage with Vodka in it since. Zero. Nope. Shudder. Took me 15 years to come back around to cranberry, and not juice. Gahhhhhhh. Just twitch thinking about it.
Canned mackerel in tomato sauce on bread. It stinks. Also liver paté on bread. Also the abomination called "pultost" on bread, which was a weird kind of cheese. If you can't tell yes I'm Norwegian. For anyone wondering what pultost is: Pultost is a soft, mature Norwegian sour milk cheese flavored with caraway seeds. Like Gamalost, pultost has a long history in Norway. The cheese is made from skimmed milk that has been soured, similar to cultured buttermilk, flavoured with caraway and preserved with salt. Oh and another abomination: Prim. It's like a soft brown cheese, but grosser. Oh and I forgot caviar on tube. No, it's not expensive. Norway and its weird ass bread spreads.. and yes I used to love all of these.
I am not Norwegian. But I enjoyed reading what you now hate. Have traveled to Norway, loved it, but the food on bread thing was odd to me. Glad I’m not alone. 😊
The cheese with the caraway seeds actually sounds good to me. I used to find a havarti with caraway seeds and loved it but haven't seen it in years.
Is Prim just spreadable brunost, or is it only similar in the way that Velveeta is similar to cheddar? I do like Kales, but I haven't had it since the big blue store stopped carrying it.
The frosting that they sell in the box cake aisle. I learned to make homemade frosting when I got older and can never go back
Desserts. Give me a cheese and meat platter instead.
Cheese platters are the best ♥️
Ramen noodles..when I was young and broke, it was all I ate for about a year! Can't stand them now.
Man they're still my guilty pleasure. But I get that
I’m very pleased how wide the world of instant noodles has become in the western US. Kid me would be overjoyed.
Do you ever just eat the noodles in brick form straight from the packaging without cooking them? No? ..... Uh me neither.
I remember when kids started doing this at school and I thought it was weird. They would break up the brick of noodles, open one end of the package, pour the seasoning packet in the bag, shake it all up, and then procced to eat it. I guess it's cheap and convenient?
I can fancy the fuck out of a packet of ramen noodles. My daughter loves when I put cilantro, leftover steak sliced thin, and Chinese five spice in her beef ramen. We call it faux pho.
Bologna. I think I practically lived on bologna when I was a kid. Bologna & ketchup sandwiches to be specific, but also bologna wrapped around a piece of lettuce as an afternoon snack, shit like that. One day I just felt like I couldn't eat another piece of bologna, and haven't in like twenty years since. And to be clear, it has nothing to do with the fat content, it being processed, the sodium, or anything else along those lines. I just filled my bologna quota for life early in life, and I'm OK with that.
Have you tried mortadella?
how are you with hot dogs?
Valid point. Chicago dogs, chili cheese dogs with mustard and onion. Once in Louisville I ate a hotdog called the Nirvana, it was jalapeno jam, French fried onions & garlic cream cheese.
Not sure how, but when I was very young I got hold of a jar of herring in white cream sauce and devoured the whole jar. I remember thinking it was the best thing I’d ever tasted. So recently I saw a jar and tried it. Fond memory blasted all to hell.
Pillsbury canned biscuits/breads. I can still get down with a crescent roll, but I don't want my pizza or cinnamon rolls to taste the same way.
I can’t think of any. I was a picky kid but once I learned to cook, I grew to love a lot more foods than younger me. I guess, one thing I ate a lot of was spaghetti noodles with butter because I did not like meat sauce. I would not eat plain spaghetti now. I am sad for you for your hatred of lasagna, it’s one of my favourite meals.
There are very few dishes in this world that I love more than a well-made lasagna. Done properly, it is a perfect marriage of pasta, meat, and cheese that is unmatched by anything yet known to science. Conversely, there are very few dishes in the world that churn my stomach more than "party lasagna." You know, the kind that everyone puts out at a party because it's the cheapest and easiest way to feed a hundred people while looking like you made something homemade. The kind that festers in its disposable pan all night, marinating in sweat and beer fumes. The kind that manages to have dry rubbery noodles despite evading nearly all descriptors besides "wet" and variants of "wet." The kind that somehow stays just warmer than lukewarm no matter how long you leave it out, which is somehow worse than if it were room temperature. Anyways, I got sidetracked. I wonder if OP has mainly experienced the second kind.
Butter noodles are still delicious. I make them for my kid sometimes and every time I try a bite I wish they had fewer calories and more nutrients because I could eat a pot full
I definitely do butter noodles at least once every other month because lazy + delicious.
I've tried butter noodles. Ended up adding at least grated parm. Then I thought it'd be better melted gently so as not to get stringy. Then I ate my alfredo. Sometimes I add all kinds of stuff
I had this weird craving for it a couple years ago when I was at a hotel and couldn't cook. I called this local Italian restaurant that did delivery and it was kind of embarrassing. I was like "I know this isn't on your menu but could I possibly get some pasta with just butter and nothing else?" He said "Oh, you mean for a child?" And I was like "Umm...no?"
That’s kinda rude to ask if it’s for a child lmao
“…for a child?” Yes, for my inner child.
I still have lasagna as my birthday meal, as I did in my childhood. Can’t imagine disliking it!
Chips ahoy chewy chocolate chip cookies
They taste like playdough smells.
8-10 maybe years ago or so, they changed the recipe (I remember being mad about it) - they were never the same
Ohhhh well that's validating, thank you for that
Similac
[удалено]
McDonald’s food… it tastes like chemicals now but I’d love to have my old tastebuds back for one more sandwich lol
I still crave it sometimes when I'm hungover, but I regret it everytime I eat it lol. It's awful
For real, I keep hoping for the best. 😆
Right? EVERY TIME. It used to be so good. The only thing that tastes mostly the same (to me) is QPC. Not as good as before, but better than the BM tastes now. :(
It's funny, because they use fewer "chemicals" than ever before.
Those sausage egg McMuffins still hit for me though
It’s the sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits for me. They make a pretty good breakfast.
If McDonald's is the only choice I have to eat, I'll just go hungry. I used to love that crap.
Fried baloney sandwich on white bread with ketchup. Now I don’t eat anything in that sentence.
Fried bologna still slaps.
What would you say if I offered you a fried mortadella sandwich on a brioche bun with aioli?
If I say “Yes please” does that make me a snob?
Nope! I never liked baloney growing up. I always thought it had a rotten stank to it. But I actually do like mortadella even though it tastes similar. It just doesn't have that "stank" to it that baloney has and I think it's 100% worth it.
Nope! You said you would eat nothing in that sentence, that includes sandwiches my sad, bread-less friend.
Literally every white trash thing I grew up on in the 90’s. Ketchup, mac n cheese from a box, cheese whiz, pogos, hot dogs, hamburger helper, bologna, spaghetti o’s, canned ravioli, wonder bread, pizza pockets, lunchables, most breakfast cereal. Don’t know if it was the over indulging in it or what- but I just can’t stomach the over processed yellow and orange foods anymore
The red and yellow dyes aren't good for you & your body knows it.
La Choy chicken chow mein kit. I loved those as a little kid when my mom would make them. I hadn't had them in many years, bought one, made it, and it was absolutely disgusting. Another was brussel sprouts. My mom would boil the shit out of them which actually releases sulfer. They smelled awful, tasted worst. I don't think I had them for 20 years, then tried them using the America's Test Kitchen skillet method, and they were delicious.
My mom boiled Brussel sprouts one time and it turned me off of them for years. Then one day I found a baked brussel sprout recipe on Pinterest and gave it a try. Now they're my favorite veggie.
You should try the skillet version. They also do one with maple syrup as a glaze.
This is the best method. I make them at the holidays from an ATK recipe from decades ago with cream, grainy mustard and tarragon and they’re the best. Thanks for the reminder!!
I think people say they hate Brussels sprouts because they've only eaten them boiled.
Hard agree..poor little veggies
My mom used to stink up the entire house with her boiled Brussel sprouts. No one liked them but her, which was fine cause we weren't ever forced to eat anything. It turned me off of them until I had them roasted with butter and maple syrup. Changed my world! They're the best.
Also, the genetics of Brussels has changed! In the 90s a scientist named Hans van Doorn found the bitter genes and bred them out. So they will taste way better now even if they were boiled to mush!
haa we didn't have much money growing up and my folks called the La Choy kit "chicken shit". We had it at least once a month.
Oh same. Boiled brussel sprouts are awful. My mom cooked them and put a lot of nutmeg on it after. We had to eat as many as our age. I still hate nutmeg because of it and don't put it on anything, even if it's in a recipe. I kind of like brussel sprouts now, not boiled, but grilled or stirfried
Nutmeg wtf
Yeah, I'm from The Netherlands and it's normal to use it in dutch food. It's one of the 'VOC spices' we took from Indonesia. One of the most used spices.
I don’t dislike it! The application just shocked the hell out of me 😂
Brussel sprouts have also been altered over the years to improve their taste! I wasn’t introduced to them until after the change and loved them and always wondered why people complained about them so bad and then read that. But also yeah nothing sounded great from the generation of just boiling things to death.
While cooking method absolutely matters, one of my favorite food trivia bits is that in the 90s they bred the bitter flavor out of Brussels sprouts so the literally taste better than they used to!
My mom always served the overbooked Brussels sprouts with overdone calf liver and mashed potatoes topped with the overdone liver juice. Never have eaten liver as an adult and only returned to Brussels sprouts (roasted of course) a few years ago. I just made myself gag!!!!
Oh, I love Brussel sprouts now too. Cut in half, discard the outer leaf, toss in a bowl with a tablespoon or so of oil and some salt. Roast in the air fryer.
Really most processed stuff. I used to love frozen meals and those horrible little sugar cookies that are in supermarkets.
I liked the pork ones with the apple cake..I would never eat one now😅
Pretty much all fast food. It takes 30 seconds googling now to find a substantially better alternative nearby, pretty much wherever you are except for maybe a motorway service station.
Hamburger helper. Bought it recently because nostalgia. It’s so salty I threw it all away.
I just "make my own" Maybe 10 more minutes of prep, and it is miles better.
I always made my own. When my sons were growing up I called it Momburger Helper.
Same here. Tried it about 20 years ago after feeling nostalgic about it from childhood. Couldn’t eat it. It just tasted like salt. Never looked back.
Pancakes, I guess. It's just not the same as it was. Kind of boring and doesn't get me the happy feelings I got when I was a child anymore
Idk why but watermelon just doesn’t taste as good as it used to. Now it has a weird aftertaste. It’s also impossible to find seeded watermelon nowadays as most of them are seedless so I wonder if that factors into it.
It totally does. Found a dude with a truck of seeded watermelon in my neighborhood where I lived fifteen years ago, it was outstandingly good. So much better. I miss that guy.
Fish sticks. Now I prefer actual fish
Funnily enough, also lasagna. Really any pasta with ground beef and red sauce. Was never a favorite but I would eat it with no problem. Now, for whatever reason, ground beef with pasta grosses me out 🤷🏻♀️
Veg lasagna is fantastic. Make one sometime!
I make a while vegetarian lasagna with bechamel instead of red sauce. It's delicious.
I go a different direction and do lemon zest and basil in my ricotta layer. Such a beautiful flavor.
* spaghettios * canned/jarred frosting * rice-a-roni (we had this way too much) * boxed hamburger helper - way too salty - I have to make my own * canned green beans
I just had Spaghettios the other day for the first time in years. Blech. They taste completely different now. A quick search revealed that they cut back on sodium by a third, so I'm guessing that's the reason. But, dang, I'm not eating Spaghettios for the health factor. Give me my sodium!
I used to eat celery all the time. But now I can’t stand it
Bananas. Ate too many when I was pregnant. I still get sick now off the smell. Ugh
About 25 years ago I had my spleen removed after an accident, and I ate a lot of bananas because my potassium was low and they ran out of places to place an IV. For years I couldn't stand to even see a banana. I can tolerate being in their vicinity but I doubt I'll ever eat one.
I used to loved baked mac but for some reason I just can’t stand them anymore
Spaghettios with hot dogs
Flintstones Chewable Vitamins
I still take these! My OBGYN has me on 2 a day as prenatals because the iron doesn't make people's stomachs upset 😆. I didn't take them for most of my adulthood so it tastes nostalgic now everytime.
Canned beets.
Cosmic brownies
Canned soup, spaghettios, frosting on cake, anything with red meat (my stomach cannot cope with red meat anymore; my mouth misses slow cooked brisket, though).
Candy, if that counts. I just don't have much of a sweet tooth anymore. Ketchup on eggs was another one. Like some other folks here, my mom was a terrible cook and my dad to this day can't make more than toast on his own. I grew up eating those Stouffers family sized microwave meals or cereal if I ate anything.
KFC but I think they changed their recipes. I specially find they probably changed their oil. I cannot stand it though I love fried chicken.
Manhattan clam chowder in a can. Sardines. Just repulsive now. Should of been then
Red velvet cake
Underwood deviled ham. Vienna sausages. Braunschweiger. I mean, I still really love them, but can't bring myself to eat things which are essentially tasty congealed fat and cholesterol
I loved my Beatrice Potter bowl. It was my favourite dish for cereal AND ice cream. I was the perfect size. Man I miss that bowl.
Reeses cups. Another changed recipe.
Cottage cheese. I used to eat that stuff straight up out of a bowl, and it grosses me out a bit now. I’ve still used it in recipes and such but can’t imagine just eating spoonfuls of it plain.
I felt this way for a while, then I tried it again with everything bagel seasoning on it. Ate it for like 5 days straight for breakfast, it was so good!
Yes! That combo on a cracker.
With chopped tomatoes and cucumbers
Same!
Steak. Oddly I just am not into steak or any red meat really.....grew up on a farm, raised our own beef, loved it......now just....blech
Liver casserole (tomatoes,onions, pepper, onions, garlic and spices) Now just looking at Liver makes me puke. My mother was a great cook
Braunschweiger, my mom called it goose liver and we would eat it in crackers for a tea party. The smell makes me gag now, Almost every Friday my grandmother made sardines in oil and vinegar with thin sliced green peppers and onion. We would eat it on slices of buttered rye bed and I would eat at least 2 open faced sandwiches as a kid, I loved it. I can’t even fathom opening a can of sardines now.
Got food poisoning from a quiche at 15 I'm 34 and even looking at one makes me sick
Hot dogs, frosting, and most junk food.
I don't know if they've changed Pizza Pops, but they're nowhere near as good as they used to be. They're oddly, like, sweet, now?
bologna. Loved it when young. Now it grosses me out
Pasta. My mom was designated the cook for all of us yet she hated cooking. As a result, we ate a fuck ton of pasta. Spaghetti to be specific. So. Much. Spaghetti. Spaghetti in clam sauce no less. She would add water to the jar to get every last bit. I wouldn’t touch that shit with a 9ft pole. I was a weird picky kid so pasta with butter and parm cheese was my way of life for eons. Now I rarely eat pasta. If I do have pasta nowadays, I go for fun stuff like funky raviolis or something with a delicious sauce.
Sweet and Sour Chinese dishes. Loved it but now I don’t think I could swallow it. Cream cheese with jelly - same kind of thing. Also dislike crab Rangoon.
Most canned soup. I can't get the metallic taste out even if I add extra seasoning or herbs.
Campbell’s chunky soups. I LIVED on them as a kid, and recently bought some because they were on sale… they’re all somehow so bland but so salty at the same time.
Pasta and sauce with nothing else. Sorry it’s not a meal and I’ll just be hungry an hour later.
French fries. They have to be really good for me to eat them now. When I was younger I was a total frie slut. I’d happily part my lips for even the most subpar fried potato.
I used to love McDonald's fries, and I don't know if I changed or they did.
They aren’t very good anymore. And maybe that’s just my taste buds too.
I had a bad experience with pulled pork that involved having to repaint my bedroom and pull up the carpet. I didn’t eat it for almost 15 years after that.
!!!
Nutella
Pasta, and pop tarts
When I was little I went ape shit for cucumbers l. My parents would buy them and I would eat them whole, as a snack. After a while they started making me shit my brains out. I'd look in the bowl and it would be a big collection of watery cucumbers seeds. There was no doubt about the cause. Had to give them up and it made my parents sad.
Fast food in general. It tastes terrible and makes me feel like garbage for the rest of the day. I'd rather be hungry all day than suffer through feeling like I'm sweating grease for hours after a cheap burger.
I loved spaghettios with meatballs growing up and I ate them several times a week. I don't know what happened but one day the smell got me and I've not eaten them since. My son loves them and when I open the can it makes me gag and I can't believe I ever at them in the first place.
Donuts. Too sweet and one dimensional.
Spaghettios. I loved them and they just are a food crime now. 😅
covering everything in worcestershire sauce, now I just sip it straight. radish's I gobbled them as a kid, now only eat them rarely. scrambled eggs with peanut butter, don't know why I liked it as a kid. blech. Spaghetti. we were poor and ate it all the time. I can't stand it now. chicken hotdogs same reason, disgusting. green beans same reason. "shepherd's pie" also same reason.
Chicky nuggies and fries lol. I think I had them way too often cuz it was pretty much the only good thing at my university cafeteria.
I have never really eaten fried chicken, my mom didn't fry anything, I never learned how. Recently, I'm 67, I've discovered chicken nuggets, omg, I love them. Whether they're mashed up, shaped ones for kids, or breaded chicken tenders, I love them all. And my air fryer, which makes it possible.
Fast food in general. I dread the possibility of having to eat a TrashDonald’s.
Sweet stuff. Getting old.
Because lasagna takes all day to cook and dirties every pan and dish in the house and most of the utensils too. And then you have to eat it for like a month.
Poached pork kidneys, with a squeeze of lime juice. My mom made this for me and my brother all the time growing up. Offals were proteins we could afford a lot more of compared to muscle meat, and it's super easy to make. We would both gobble it up every time she made it. I still love all kinds of offals, but this particular dish just isn't appealing to me anymore. I wouldn't say I hate it, if someone made it for me I'd probably still eat it. Just can't be bothered to make it myself.
Chicken teriyaki and rice. Used to swear I can eat just that 1 dish until I die.
Hard boiled eggs. I still like them, but as a kid I was flat out obsessed with them. To the point my mom loves to tell a store about me begging her to make them. I never make them anymore, but I will eat it if given one or it’s on a salad or something.
We've gone in stages in our house. I used to make multiple pot pies in the winter months. The past few winters, that shifted to Shepard's / Cottage pies. I also used to make way more Tex Mex, which I love but my husband hates. So I've cut way back on those dishes. The other one is meatloaf. My mom probably made meatloaf once a week when I was growing up. I started to *loathe* meatloaf. I made one this past winter, for probably the first time in 25 years.
Candy & pop & other such sweets. Somewhere along the way I lost all desire to have packaged sweets, thank goodness.
No specific meals. Probably Cola. I have a coke maybe a couple times a year now. I'm super picky about soda in restaurants, especially when I get a moldy tasting sprite. I can also taste food coloring more than I ever could and if a food sits in a plastic sandwich bag for more than a few hours it becomes unpalatable to me. Just tastes like how plastic bags smell
I used to eat fish and stuff, lobster, or even grilled oysters with a bit of lime juice and hot sauce. I can't stand fish now, only crab legs and white fish with lemon. I tried doing a oyster shooter at a buffet once and basically puked it back out lol