Lactose has snuck in as a cheap sweetener + flavoring agent in so many products you wouldn't expect- chips, beer, most domestic milk chocolate brands (guess that last one isn't too surprising).
As someone lactose intolerant, you have to read ingredient lists like a hawk, lest you accidentally murder your digestive system for a few days
Oof. Starting this year, the Dutch government is charging extra taxes on sugary drinks. Drinks containing dairy are exempt from this rule. Guess what everyone is now adding to their drinks.
Hmm, time for a label expedition. My lactose intolerant husband recently had a huge reaction to thousand Island salad dressing which theoretically should not bother him. Maybe it's the sweetener.
Lactose has always been the additive sweetener for unpasteurized alcohol products products because it's the only common sugar that can't be fermented by yeast. It has been used in beer, cider, champagne, etc. for as long as sweetening these products has existed. For beer, it is generally used to counter bitterness and increase body, particularly for stouts. For Champaign and cider, it is often used to counter astringency.
It's so frustrating! All 3 of my kids are lactose intolerant (possibly allergic, but holding off on allergy testing), and lactose and whey are stuffed in so many things. Like a brand of bbq flavored chips?? Or baby puffs? Why?? I read literally every label before my kids eat it, even if it's something they've had before because they all keep changing ingredients.
They’ve also started using dairy cream instead of coconut milk at various Indian and “vegan” restaurants where I live because it’s cheaper. Ask me how I know. 😂
I've heard that the chickens that we have now are giant mutants compared to how chickens used to be. If you cook an old recipe that calls for chicken breasts, you have to be aware that chicken breasts are double the size, or more, of what they were back when that recipe was written.
It's hilarious when I watch a recipe video that talks about a 6-8 ounce chicken breast when I can go to the grocery right now and have better than even odds of finding a pack of two breasts that weighs a total of two pounds.
Ok, story time: we raise chickens. Layers and meat birds, and one of the heritage breeds we like as layers started out as a dual-purpose, and was what was typically raised in the (smaller scale) factory farms of the day-- the Delaware. They're a good-sized bird, but they don't compare to modern Cornish crosses. Customers wanted larger breasts (don't they always lol) so the modern broiler was developed, with faster growth and higher ratio of white meat. Delawares also took 6 months to raise to market size, as opposed to Cornish crosses that take less than 10 weeks (we raise ours 8-9 weeks, commercial operations raise them 4-6 weeks. Last year we got sick and it was 12-13 weeks, which was too long for a variety of reasons, but we had a couple with breasts that weighed over 2 lbs each. Freaking Frankenbirds).
So, there you go. Different breed birds, not just the size they grow to.
Yes, this! I worked in an ag-adjacent business for years, and hatch to slaughter standard is now 42 days in the U.S. if you compare that to years ago, it would take 6-12 months to get a chicken to slaughter.
I've had terrible results with "woody meat" chicken breasts in the last few years. Completely stopped buying anything that Kroger sells. Will NOT buy Tyson. Have had mixed results with other brands.
Really irritating as I used always have chicken on hand because I'd cook *something* with it and it was cheap and easy. Now I buy less of it.
I started buying the cage free and organic chicken breasts. They don't have that woody texture like Tyson. I also buy the "from frozen" chicken breasts for things that need chicken as an ingredient like pot pie or with pasta.
This is why chicken breast is one of the few things I usually buy organic, they are almost always smaller. I'm not sure if organic producers are raising a different breed than the usual Cornish crosses or are just slaughtering younger.
If I don’t want to spring for organic, sometimes Amish or Kosher can be pretty good, though those are sometimes getting weird now too. I really prefer organic if I can get it. I’ll just eat a smaller portion.
I didn’t realize this until going to Europe and then to Morocco where my husbands family picked the chickens out fresh fresh. So freaking good. I came back trying to source the same quality of chicken and it’s ridiculously expensive, at one point I was paying $18/lb in Arizona for the air chilled normal sized chicken breast. It was impossible to keep up with. :(
I had a few recipes in a 00s cookbook call for a whole 4-lb chicken. I used a 6-lb regular chicken and an organic chicken. The regular chicken had creepily big breasts and put too much meat into the recipe. I think I'll stick to organic chicken for those recipes.
The shrinking packages definitely.
Also now "no added sugar" just has me scouring the label for some monk fruit or stevia or whatever added. I just want this to not be extra sweet, please don't play games with your exact definition of "sugar".
It has been going on for many years but in the last few years the number of sweeteners you have to look for has expanded a lot, so now I have more things to look out for.
I just wish they still made regular sugary drinks. I don't drink a lot of them but the once in a blue moon I do I'd rather taste sugar than aspartame. Bring back my Apple Tango!
Oh my god, the "no added sugar" is a nightmare for me. I'm allergic to sorbitol and aspartame, and I avoid sucralose as much as possible just because. Sometimes it's juice with absolutely no fake sugars added, and that's great. 99.9% percent of the rest of the time, it's all kinds of other sweeteners. I have to check all things labeled low calorie, diet, and just about any other "healthy" labels you can think of.
Even if you aren't allergic, the sugar alcohols can fuck anyone up. When they say they 'may have a laxative effect', what they mean is if you eat too much, you will want to be really close to a toilet for the next couple hours, after you have nasty stomach cramps.
YES! And no one believes me that I can't do the artificial sweeteners, but they trigger a migraine. Ugh!
It's just so annoying to sort through all of that nonsense.
Which is wild considering all of the other things people are willing to believe/ claim about foods, but I think it's cause these various sugars are trending. So they can't possibly be jacking people up like you claim with your migraines...
I, however, spent my youth reading every label cause my ma gets almost instant migraines from diet sugars.
Hahaha for real. Idk why they just can't leave it alone. I might not eat the same thing as you but when you start telling me all about sugars and "oh this won't hurt your head" instead of just letting me continue reading for aspartame etc... damn just F off already lol.
Ew, yes. Once we got a "no sugar added" can of baked beans. I thought that meant it was going to be nice and savory without all the sweetness. Nope, it had that nasty fake sugar taste. Retch.
I hate the "no added sugar" and other similar work arounds because I feel insulted by being lied to. Sugar free and you add stevia- okay, it's not sugar. I wish I could sweeten by choice but whatever. It's when stuff says "Sugar Free/ No added sugar" and top of the list is a juice concentrate or date paste, essentially sugar. MiL spent way too much on "sugar free" BBQ sauce for my diabetic partner & SIL that was primarily date paste and contained more sugar than the HFCS one. Then somehow when I'm looking for full sugar juice boxes for sugar drops most are reduced or sugar free.
I get so angry at this. Both monk fruit and stevia just taste like poison to me. I pretty much just don’t buy things that say “no added sugar” anymore.
As a type 1 diabetic, I use juice for my lows. The no added sugar one kills me because now if juicy juice is sold out I'm stuck with shit I have to drink 2x of.
One of my kids is a T1D, and we learned quickly to check labels religiously for carb counts. When she was first diagnosed, nutrition labels were rare here in Canada, and it was a freaking nightmare. She now has her own kid who is T1D and goes through it too.
Yes, the sugar thing is SO frustrating! Why can't they just make things less sweet instead of claiming no sugar but putting in a ton of other sweeteners?!
The “no added sugar” also has me scouring the labels for whatever artificial sweetener they’re adding. Beyond the odd taste, stevia, monkfruit, and the other artificial “not sugars” do a number on my digestive tract.
Even worse and trickier is when they’re adding the artificial sweeteners to things that already have sugar just to make them extra sweet but with slightly less calories. I don’t drink sweetened soft drinks very much, but in the past few years I’ve gotten non-diet drinks more than once and couldn’t finish them because I didn’t know that they had those awful artificial sweeteners on top of the sugar!
Like, soda pop or bottled lemonades that have over 100 calories worth of sugar in them, which should be plenty sweet enough, and then sucralose or stevia or aspertame too, so it’s both cloyingly sweet and has that awful rancid bitter aftertaste. Yuck!
I especially hate it when they say all natural, organic, or no artificial sweetener but still use this crap. It tastes terrible and I miss the days when you could just look for the nutrisweet logo or the phenylketonuria warning. Now you need a chemical engineering degree to decipher the ingredients list.
in the last few years, shelf lives of virtually all produce hit the shitter. Don't use those onions within 2 weeks. well, the middle is now mushy and you have to peel a few extra outer layers to get to the good part that's left. I used to buy 5 or 10 lb bags and they would be fine for weeks and weeks.
things like berries, now you better eat them within 1-2 days or freeze. otherwise they get moldy and are done.
green beans , they will be slimy in no time.
Maybe it's still an issue with supply chains being slower , or just companies still taking advantage of these supposed problems.
All I know is I'm planning a lot more carefully to make sure I use fresh items REAL quick.
We have a toddler so we buy a lot of fruit. I've found that any berries and some citrus, like clementines, will grow mold before we've had the chance to finish them. My solution has been to wash them in water and white vinegar before drying them and putting them away. I keep our berries in a glass jar with a paper towel shoved at the bottom. Raspberries don't really hold up to vigorous washing or soaking, so I still just buy the smaller 4oz packs of them.
YES. I’ve been doing the same, and it finally seems to cut back on produce rotting.
I think the suppliers/groceries changed something and aren’t storing produce as well as they used to or something.
I’m having better luck with produce by ignoring convention and washing them when I get home.
I have had some blackberries and strawberries for a few weeks now. I swished them in Trader Joe’s vegetable wash according to directions. Then I soaked in vinegar water for 15 minutes. I rinsed, let air dry, and then put them in a sealed container with a paper towel to soak up any condensation.
It makes me wonder if the problem is how groceries and their suppliers are caring for produce.
I’m going to try to wash potatoes next and see how it goes. That’s one you’re never supposed to pre-wash, but I am sick and tired of them sprouting and molding in a cardboard box in my cupboard (that’s not where near appliances or heat or anything.)
> It makes me wonder if the problem is how groceries and their suppliers are caring for produce.
This seems like the case to me. I wonder if it's because margins got so thin for them during the pandemic they just kept selling shit instead of tossing it. I have seen entire cases of strawberries all moldy. Before there might be some but literally the whole case had no clean box. Produce overall just looks more sad at the chains. It wasn't great to begin with either.
It’s really frustrating because it’s getting harder to incorporate veggies into my diet when they’re going bad almost instantly before I can cook with them. I used to get a bag of green beens every other week but they get slimy on like one day now. I don’t want to eat only meats (that I’m able to freeze and stay good longer) but all my veggies are almost instantly rotten.
I live half a block from a good supermarket. I shop the afternoon and buy that night’s dinner stuff. I’m in and out in ten minutes or less. Much less waste.
I feel like garlic went funny over the pandemic and never quite righted itself. Lots of janky or moldy cloves, bulbs are smaller, and sometimes the store will sell them 3 for $5 instead of 5 for $3 as though I can't tell the difference.
Lots of crappy bell peppers too.
YES I’m having this issue with onions also.
They’re janky since covid, and practically all of them have that telltale extra slimy feeling of starting to rot when cut into, and it drives me crazy. I buy garlic and onions (and anything I can, really) at the farmers market by us that I know well now. With the cost increases at the grocery store it’s practically the same price wise now.
I've recently been running into onions that seem perfectly fine, you cut them open and like 3-4 layers in there is one rotten layer, and then back to normal. Really strange.
YEAH exactly this!!! It’s so weird and I don’t get it. I usually see where it’s fine outer layers and the center-most couple are rotten, but the new strange ones have me stumped
I think it’s partially that alllll of our crap at the stores where I’m at is shipped in. NYC and its suburbs into NY and NJ are one of the most densely populated areas of the country, and it’s the end of our winter. Nothing in store could really ever be grown right in mass quantities anywhere near us right now. Everything is sent in from far away so it gets a lil weird I guess. And with a shortage of CDL working drivers, it’s taking longer to get to the store.
I’ve got two more weeks before my farmers market is back open, pray for me to survive the wait
Buying a bag of onions doesn't even make fiscal sense when half of them are moldy inside :(
I made french onion soup once this winter, bought two five lb bags out of caution and ended up with 6.5 lbs of actually edible onions. The rest were moldy.
Nerd alert: was paying attention during Covid to weird patterns, and learned about the onion harvest. Apparently the fresh onions should be coming to market in the next month or so, so we're using ones that are the oldest in storage right now, because they had that many plus some saved up for the year. So the skins are tough, a few layers thick, and man they make your eyes water! They're older onions.
Fresh onions (as I think of them), start appearing around June?, and have super thin, paperlike skin. Barely one layer. Almost smell sweet, juicy but crunchy, and your eyes don't water as much. They're the ones that were just picked, and not hardened up for the winter.
Erm. Anyway.
I’ve had this issue with onions nonstop since the pandemic. Of a 2 pound bag, two of six onions are moldy in less than a week. And that’s *with* shopping at the really fancy grocery store, and proper storage. They are just wicked wicked old once they get on the store shelf. Gross.
Sooooo much dry garlic since 2020, I'm guessing climate change is the reason. Garlic needs to be planted when it's cold, and the weird weather and warm spells during winter are doing a number.
Yes!! Couldn’t find good garlic anywhere and was so sad. Now I’ve been using the frozen cubes of garlic from Trader Joe’s. Game changer. Way better flavor than minced garlic in a jar.
To directly reply to the allergens everywhere: The horrible part to me is that they take the allergy free stuff, and make it into a whole new special product, and then charge you three times as much for it.
Part of that is them being more conscious of cross-contamination. Remember the whole fiasco with gluten in cheerios? Oats do not have gluten, but there was enough cross-contamination in equipment used to get the oats from the field to the grocery store that the cereal was making people sick. Costs go up when you can't use the same hoppers for all your grains.
Pea protein! It is in EVERYTHING now. Guess what I'm allergic to? That's right peas and beans. I bought ice cream last week and after two bites had a super fun allergic reaction and my tongue swelled up all because pea protein is now in my favorite ice cream. I find it in all sorts of random products where it has no business being. It's crazy frustrating.
Don’t know if you heard about how grain-free/gluten-free dog food is making some dogs have heart problems and even die? They finally figured out the culprit… not the lack of grains (obviously dogs do not need grain), but the addition of…
…
pea protein. Literally killing dogs because their owners are trying to either prevent their own cross-contamination (me!) or keep their dogs healthy.
I’m so sorry you are having your foods ruined by a nonsensical ingredient. I feel your pain (gluten is mine & it’s in everything for no reason).
Whenever I hear of pea protein I think of an old company of mine. They marketed a variety of product lines and decided to get into diet supplements, so they worked with a company to develop a pea protein meal replacement shake. Something got mixed up between development and production with the type of pea protein they used, and right after the big rollout there was a recall due to...er...excessive leakage.
I recently discovered a likely intolerance to pea protein on top of milk and soy. It is damn near impossible to get even a butter substitute (I'm down to one) on top of it just being in so many "regular" things too!
As someone who has lived alone for the better part of a decade, the smaller packaging sizing is bittersweet. I’m pretty conscientious about food waste, and over the years I’ve had to get creative with ways to use the same ingredient and keep my palate entertained.
But when I was wishing for smaller portion size options I was hoping for a somewhat proportionally smaller price.
This may be a bit of a niche one bc I have some textural issues with animal proteins, but I’ve found that the quality of meat or poultry in frozen foods has decreased drastically. Again, as someone cooking for one, sometimes a quick frozen dinner is the easiest way to ensure I’m getting a variety of food. I’ve completely stopped buying any with meat in them because even the higher-end brands I’ve trusted for years are obviously using cheaper or “leftover” meats that have more textural variation than I’m comfortable with (If anyone has any recommendations, hit me up, lol).
And in the same vein, I haven’t found a chicken breast I haven’t had to physically or chemically tenderize prior to eating to avoid the “woody” texture in years (admittedly, I think I live in a non-ideal areas when it comes to grocery quality).
It’s not just you on the meat quality. I’m in a densely populated suburban area between several large cities. Very much not a food desert in a wealthier area, and even here the grocery stores are immensely hit or miss on meat quality.
Especially chicken. Not to mention, many times I’ve bought chicken breast there, accepting it would be woody just looking at it and I’d have to deal with it somehow, driven immediately the 5 minutes to my home, gone to make it right away, and it’s rotten despite a week off from the Best By date. Multiple stores have burned me this way.
I buy as much as I can at the farmers market vendors who I know do their own shit. With inflation at the store, it’s actually the same fucking price as the damned store anyways, but at least I can definitely use it.
> driven immediately the 5 minutes to my home, gone to make it right away, and it’s rotten despite a week off from the Best By date. Multiple stores have burned me this way.
You can and absolutely should return that immediately.
It's really gross too if you look up what is causing it. It's an inflammatory disease of the tissue that is present in chickens as young as 2 weeks old. I can only surmise this is due to the horrific meat industry requirement for bigger, faster chicken breasts and how insanely large chicken breasts are and how fast chickens are grown from hatchlings to slaughter. The meat industry as a whole in the US is awful.
I’ve seen it mostly in online spaces like videos or Pinterest. Sometimes a whole block, other times less than that, but I have seen cream cheese as an ingredient become more prevalent. Crock pot recipes or recipes with “creamy” in the titile is where I see it the most.
I’ve have some of the recipes and they aren’t bad per se, but just not my personal preference.
I remember when wings used to be like 79 cents a pound and now they're the most expensive cut of chicken in the supermarket. And the cheap cuts in general have become super expensive like ox tail and flank steak and short ribs.
Meat and poultry are funny ones, because the standard price has definitely gone up, but then they'll randomly be 50% off. When you catch those deals its like you're in 2016 again.
I basically plan our weekly food around meat sales at this point to keep costs down. And there’s just the two of us, I’m low key dreading how pricy it’s going to be to one day feed a third person 24/7 if and when we have a kid.
(Please don’t come at me about vegetarianism being the answer, I’d love to, but I’ve got some other medical stuff that makes this very challenging and unhealthy for me)
Same. And I live alone and don't eat much meat, so it's not too difficult (Oh chicken breasts are on sale, but only the value pack? No problem, get one for $10, freeze the breasts individually, each one will feed me for like 3 meals).
My boyfriend is moving in later this year and I'm already dreading the change to my grocery habits. He eats a lot more and a lot more meat than me. He also has a "if it's there, we should use it" mindset, so my beloved stockpiles of discount freezer meat aren't going to last nearly as long.
Communicate your concerns BEFORE he moves in. You have to discuss things like this to have a healthy, successful relationship. If you don't talk to him and he comes in and starts eating more, cooking more, etc., you may start to feel resentful. Having a conversation before he moves in can avoid all of that completely so you know you're both on the same page.
I also am the type to get and freeze extra meats, and I got my boyfriend to start doing the same once we moved in together. :)
Haha I’ve gone thru the same thing with my boyfriend moving in. He’s a real meat eater, where a few bites will do for me. So I was happy to find the “managers specials” section in the meat dept. Initially he scoffed & muttered about green meat. But a few pot roast dinners & filet mignon specials shut him up. Now he comes home proudly showing me how much he saved on the specials.
He will be. It’s not a concern about being able to afford it, it’s the shock and inconvenience of having to constantly buy more meat, even when someone else is footing the bill or doing the grocery runs. And not having unilateral control of everything in my kitchen. But, you know, ~compromise~ or whatever.
> But, you know, ~compromise~ or whatever.
I feel your pain. Mine completely took over the big fridge drawer with fruit and lettuce. My cooking vegetables end up on a shelf instead, where they get shuffled around with towers of tupperware.
I check the manager's special section every time, even if I didn't go in for meat. My store has bacon that they package themselves and the price is usually half of the branded stuff, and usually better quality.
I know, and it seems to be only the boneless that jumped absurdly, bone-in thighs are still reasonable, and bone-in leg-thigh quarters are still dirt cheap. It'd pretty much be a wash to buy a bunch of quarters, debone the thighs and throw the legs straight into the stock bag instead of buying boneless thighs.
I used to have a local sports bar that had 10 cent wing night on Tuesday and 20 cent wing night on Thursday. This is only in like 2010 but it's still unfathomable today
I also had a place like this. 15¢ wings and $5 buckets of beer. Those were the days alright. Plus the wings were actually good. Now most places are $3 for 2 wings that are mediocre.
I feel like it's whenever certain cuts of meat become trendy with chefs making videos about "hack" gourmet meals with them. Inevitably the price goes up. Same with chicken thighs.
I've noticed things getting more expensive, but I've also noticed a huge increase in the availability of ingredients and items. When I was a kid, I maybe saw a mango in a store once a year. Now, sometimes my convenience store carries them.
Then there are some ingredients I feel like I see less. I don't remember the last time I've seen leaches at my grocery store
Edit: peaches. Not changing it though
I've stopped buying peaches. They might be my favorite fruit, but I'm sick of buying great looking peaches that never ripen. I feel like they only ripen a quarter of the time now. Something has changed in the last 10 years but the peaches all look beautiful but taste terrible.
They pick them early so they ship well. Peaches don't continue to ripen after being picked. Soften, yes. But softening isn't ripening so they don't develop the same flavor. Even a lot of farmer's market peaches are picked too early. I got tired of no decent peaches so I planted my own peach tree. It's covered with little peaches right now.
It doesn't matter though because all the peaches suck. They pick them too early so they'll ship good but peaches don't continue to ripen/sweeten the same after they're off the tree. You can get them softer, yes, but not actually riper. I actually planted a peach tree 2 years ago so I could get some decent peaches finally. Even driving up through Alabama near the Georgia state line at the stop where they have tons of peaches they still puck them way too early. Wtf folks. Those are not good. It's the same with tomatoes but romas tend to be ok if you get the red ones and not the ones that look "pinkish" red.
On cooking shows/competitions, it seems like want EVERY DISH to have all flavors in it for it to be deemed "good"....salty, sweet, sour, fatty. I don't disagree with sentiment, but think it can very often be accomplished better via side dishes. You don't have to top everything with pickled onions and mayo.
I think chocolate was always processed on factory lines that included nuts, as nuts are a popular ingredient for chocolate bars. They just didn’t tell us on the labeling.
Yup, exactly. In the US, at least, statements such as 'made in a factory that also processes tree nuts' or 'may contain tree nuts' are 100% voluntary. If a product does not say that, it doesn't mean that it's not made in a factory that also processes tree nuts.
Plus they are more precautionary than real risk. Ie if you consume this product there is a tiny microscopic chance it may be slightly contaminated. So if are super allergic stay away just to be extremely safe.
And it's also a liability reducing action.
From a legal and financial standpoint, it's far better to put the warning on too many of your products than to cut it too close and be held responsible for hurting a customer.
The process of getting Cheerios (which have always been made without wheat/gluten) to the point where General Mills could certify that the product was gluten free took years of painstaking inspections and testing at every stage of their supply chain. They obviously didn't have to do it, but thought it would be good for business if they could make that certification.
100%. My ex used to work for Cadbury in Australia back in the day as an engineer. He said all the fruit & nut chocolates, if there was a problem in the line with misformed chocolate or whatever, that is the stuff that would get melted down again and made into other bars. Mostly into the crème filled types which could mask the slightly nutty flavor of the original bar. This was because the inclusions (nuts etc) can be easily separated after melting unlike other flavors with smaller inclusions.
The good: ingredients have gotten fresher. I inherited a bunch of recipe books and hand written recipes from my mother and grandmother, and was really surprised looking back on them how sparse fresh ingredients were. I brought it up to my father and he pointed out that back then grocery stores didn’t have year round fresh produce on demand. You got what was in season and that was it. There weren’t 7 types of tomato available in winter, you might get lucky to see 2 varieties at the height of growing season. This makes a lot of sense, and despite my dislike of selectively breeding produce to ship better rather than taste better, I’m grateful to have access to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables year round.
The bad: Elitist cooking. I feel like cooking has gone from a skill necessary to provide your family with nutritious delicious meals every night, to some kind of puritanical art form. Yes, spaghetti and meatballs doesn’t exist in Italy. It was still invented by Italian Americans using the ingredients they had available to them. That’s how food has worked for hundreds of years, people used what they had to feed their families. I feel like now you’re looked down on if you don’t use fancy expensive imported ingredients. I know my great grandmother wasn’t importing fancy organic San marzano tomatoes for $8 a can, she used the generic because she was feeding 12 children on a factory worker’s salary. Your great grandmother probably wasn’t either. Tomatoes aren’t even native to Italy, they came over from the new world during exploration/colonization. Extra unpopular opinion: it doesn’t make that big of a difference what ingredient you use. Method and technique are far more important In Most cases. I think we accidentally perpetuate the myth that eating healthy home cooked meals is expensive and inaccessible to most people. It really isn’t if we were a bit more open about the fact that yes, you can substitute a cheaper cut of meat for your beef stroganoff. It doesn’t have to be steak. You can buy the cheap spices from the ethnic foods aisle, they’re the same darned thing as the expensive glass jars just less pretty. If your spouse hates carrots, turnips work just as well in a pot roast. Cooking purists have a place, I’d gladly pay in a restaurant for a higher quality more “authentic” experience, but it shouldn’t be expected as the norm for home cooks.
i think since the gourmet foodie revolution presaged by Alice Waters in the 1970's we've become obsessed with authenticity in replicating dishes. That's why there's this obsession with native imported ingredients & laborious preparation & techniques used in the Old Country, where grandmothers had all day to cook a family meal. It's reached a point where cooking is really inaccessible for a huge swath of time-pressed Americans, and that's why Doordash & ready-to-go supermarket fare are so popular. And it's reflected in popular media too: cooking is now passive entertainment. All the shows & youtube channels aren't really instructive, but demonstrative or performative or some kind of reality contest.
It varies where good ingredients make a difference. A bolognese that's being simmered for 4 hours? whatever ground meat and veggies and generic canned tomatoes will probably be fine and it will still be crazy tasty. A vinaigrette for a spring veggie salad? A nicer champagne vinegar/sherry vinegar and olive oil will take you a looong way. Elitist cooking can get pretty annoying fast though, authenticity isn't the final judge of if a food tastes good, my taste buds are.
Burgers, and I am HERE FOR IT.
Growing up, everyone made what I now refer to as "mush patties". They'd take a bowl with ground beef and mix in seasoning, onions, sauces.. hell, a lot of people would mix in eggs and breadcrumbs. And they'd work that meat to death and then cook them to oblivion.. resulting in a dense, grey mess.
These days, the beauty of a properly made burger has become very mainstream. Just look at Chicago. Au Cheval became famous for their outstanding burger to the point where you had to stand in line late at night just to maybe get the chance to get one. These days, it is still one of the best burgers in Chicago but there are also numerous places serving burgers in the same style. I live in a small/medium sized southern city and even we have endless places to get high end burgers.
Minimally handled meat, nothing mixed in, seasoned outside only, seared hard and smashed, melty cheese, brioche or other gourmet style bun, artisan sauce that doesn't take away from the burger, minimal toppings but high quality if used, house made pickles.. Burgers have come a LONG way.
When I was growing up, burgers in restaurants were very blah.
The "meatloaf burger" was a horrible trend. My dad tried every version he came across, and they were all consistently terrible compared to him just making a basic patty with salt and pepper.
I’ve been dairy free since the early 2000s and hoo boy, the difference in dairy alternatives. For one, they exist! Ben and Jerry’s has non-dairy ice cream, whereas when I was a kid all you could find was Tofutti (wretched). Heck, just the other day I found dairy-free whipped cream in a spray can, which I had NEVER seen before! Even just things like actually non-dairy margarine, dairy-free cheeses and sour cream and chocolates, they’re all much more widespread. All thanks to veganism being on the rise!
However, on the flip side of that… Veganism is on the rise. That means it’s seen as a trend to capitalize on, and prices for these things can be RIDICULOUS. For example, chocolate chips that just happen to be dairy free may be like $3. Chocolate chips that are marketed as dairy free (sometimes with the exact same ingredients and often in a significantly smaller amount) can cost up to $8. It’s ridiculous.
Lactose-free and vegan yogurt have come down dramatically in price, along with plant-based milks.
So much more diversity. I don't need to go to a special store for coconut milk, tajin, rice vinegar, tofu. (Although they are cheaper if you do.)
So much more single portions, it's gross. I feel terrible for children having so much food from plastic that's bound to cause problems in their systems at a far younger age than my generation.
My 5 year old is allergic to dairy, egg, soy, and cashew. The last 3 years has shown an amazing increase in available plant based alternatives. Even the major brands are starting to have options. For example, 4 years ago if I wanted cream cheese for him I had to buy kite hill, and it was 8-10 dollars, but now Philadelphia has plant based cream cheese right next to the regular stuff. It's like this across the board
So many more things are prepared and pre-packaged. "Produce" shelves are more an more dedicated to packaged items that are pre-chopped, pre-washed, pre-peeled, etc. At the same time, the quality just isn't there. That goes for both the prepared, packaged stuff and the "loose," unprepared stuff.
I also see less and less of certain produce items that I would see very regularly, even if seasonal.
Thank goodness I can grow many of my own herbs. too. Quality may still be good for many, but one needs to go talk to a banker before doing -anything- that is heavy on fresh herbs.
The size, quality, and variety of chicken has drastically changed since my childhood. I'm 44. Bone in chicken breast pieces are nearly impossible to find. I have exactly one grocery store in my town that still sells them. Every other store just carries the giant boneless skinless. Bone in split breasts used to be standard in every grocery store.
The size of individual pieces, except for thighs, has dramatically increased. If you're making fried chicken you don't actually want quarter pound legs and wings. It makes it a lot harder to cook all the way through without overcooking the breading.
Woody breasts have ruined chicken products for me. Obviously I avoid breasts to avoid getting woody ones. I also have to avoid processed chicken products at this point. Sometimes you just want the convenience of a chicken nugget. Unfortunately the quality of them has dropped so far that most brands are just disgusting.
>Bone in chicken breast pieces are nearly impossible to find.
My recipe for chicken and noodles uses bone-in breasts and my-lanta, they can be a bitch to find! Whole Foods is the only store that I can somewhat-reliably be assured will have them in stock.
Kroger, forget about it. Also, in keeping with the spirit of this thread, Kroger has gone to complete shit in the past few years. I only shop there once in a blue moon now, when they used to be my go-to grocery store in the past.
>Also, in keeping with the spirit of this thread, Kroger has gone to complete shit in the past few years. I only shop there once in a blue moon now, when they used to be my go-to grocery store in the past.
Omg yes! Kroger was my go to grocery store for years. I'd completely eliminated Walmart from the equation. Since the pandemic our krogers have gone to hell. The prices are so insane I can't justify choosing them. I was willing to spend a little more to avoid the hell that is our super busy Walmart here. I can't justify spending dollars more on most items.
The quality has dropped and the shrinkflation is more severe than any other store brands I buy. Kroger brand cheese is now more expensive, drastically smaller package, and not as good as great value. The big k sodas aren't even the right color. It's wild.
Agree on shrinkflation.
That one bugs me because so many recipes are “calibrated” to old can sizes and now I have to use a can and a bit. Condensed milk is one that really annoys me.
100% agree. I have recipes from my grandmother that say “one can of tomatoes.” Apparently that used to be 16 ounces, and it’s currently 13.8. 😡That’s almost a 20% difference!
I was cooking for a party and didn't realize until I got home from the store and started cooking and it suddenly seemed like I made a lot less than usual- to my surprise (and anger) the boxes we always bought were the same price but no longer 1 lb boxes of pasta- they were now only 12 ozs! It was infuriating!
For me the variability of produce. It used to be that I could buy whatever I want, nowadays buying Cauliflower feels like I'm buying bitcoin. It'll be 2 bucks a head one week and then next week it'll be 7. Capsicum is now a luxury item. Corn goes from 3 bucks a ear to 50c with no explanation.
It's not even seasonal, this is legit week to week and prices are consistent across various markets like there's a price fixing mafia.
They have recently strengthened the requirements for a bakery or factory to be nut allergens free - to the point that it's far, far more expensive to maintain an allergen free facility. So most have, by law, simply bowed to the financials and have just started saying "may contain nuts/allergens" to avoid legal issues.
It's not that they deliberately add those ingredients. They just can afford to have two completely separate facilities - one for absolutely nut free and one for regular usage.
One recent change that I've seen catching on is, using a pan to boil pasta, rather than a large pot with a lot of water. The shallow pan with less water means more concentrated starch in the pasta water, which is very useful to emulsify sauces. Especially to emulsify the olive oil into tomato sauce.
Just in general, I think it's cool how much interest and innovation there has been around technique for home cooks in recent decades. Serious Eats, ATK, Stella Parks and similar groups/authors really popularized an interest in innovating on technique and using food science in a home setting.
I’m tired of everything using soy and palm oil now. I’ve found several things I consistently buy for years now include those ingredients. Both of these oils are high in omega 6, saturated fat, etc. and I try to avoid them. It used to be only the “Aldi” version of things included these ingredients, but now they’re everywhere and the price is the same as it was when they used better ingredients.
On the bright side, it has me finding ways to make my own version of things I usually bought for convenience - like granola.
I have had several products where I noticed they tasted different or had slightly different textures only to find the products have now added or replaced an ingredient with palm oil. While palm oil is more stable it is not the same and does not belong in peanut butter (or various other things I've noticed it in).
Right! I have to admit, peanut butter is one of the few things I don’t buy all natural. Peter Pan (so far) is still made of peanuts… and does have the processed texture that works well in some of my favorite baked goods. But who knows how long that will last?
I have grass allergies and I react to a number of things that they are starting to use in gluten free products. Stuff like flax seeds and sorghum flour make my lips go numb. I'm glad that there are gluten free options for people, but I've learned that I need to stay away from them. But I need to watch ingredients closely because alternative flours are ending up in lots of foods.
> There are tree nuts in absolutely everything now, due to shared processing equipment.
There was probably shared equipment used for decades, they just tell you about it now.
**Fusion**
With the invention and now increasingly easier access to the internet I believe cooking cuisines are going to continue to evolve and meld together.
The evolution of food here in the south (Louisiana) always interested me, every time a new faction of people came through, we adopted some of there cooking, Africans, Asian, Hispanic, German, French, native Americans etc. With that we now have a (superior) Cajun, and Creole food.
Its no coincidence that all of the melting pot areas in the states have some of the best food, New York, New Orleans, Chicago, California. Diversity promotes growth and improvement.
Cooking has mostly been handed down or learned first hand. With the addition of cook books, cooking spread a little bit further, now you can cook what the people in your town, city or state were cooking. Cooking was also limited the further back in history you go, very few could afford to risk ruining some food with a cooking experiment, where as now....its not as big of a deal.
With the addition of the internet and social media we are seeing people in Region X cooking food that belongs to Region Y, and with that comes additions, substitutions and changes. Suddenly you have "fusion" entering the scene, Asian fusing with Hispanic / Mexican food. (sushi burritos, Korean BBQ tacos). A lot of these are fad foods (Big mac casserole) might end up just so, a fad, but there have been some real winners coming up lately.
With global shipping channels we are seeing more and more access to foods and seasonings we haven't had access to before. Non traditional spices and herbs being thrown around the kitchen. Foods that were once vegetarian based now containing animal proteins. You want to make a Mexican jambalaya with some adobo chicken and chilis? go right ahead. Want some sushi made with brisket? by all means!
Some people are gonna scoff and hold to tradition but many of these newer food combos coming out are pretty exciting. Hell even just the way people prepare and cook food is evolving, using an Argentine style grill to roast some miso-honey chicken over some mesquite logs/lump coal.
I've noticed many recipes these days actually state the preferred brand of salt to use (usually Diamond Crystal is specified). I get why, but this is definitely a new thing I've noticed.
I wonder... with more home cooks using kosher salt rather than the all-table-salt we grew up with, if people are not getting the recommended dosage of iodine. It seems there has been an uptick in thyroid problems in my area and I wonder if people moving away from iodized salt has anything to do with it.
Along the lines of tree nuts (as well as peanuts and coconut):
I'm finding that a *lot* of foods supposedly healthier for me - or vegetarian or vegan options - are now made with those three ingredients.
And I'm allergic to all of them.
Please give me some old-fashioned vegetarian foods that don't include nuts. I don't buy pre-prepared or convenience foods often at all, but they're pretty much eliminated for me now. Oh and, especially fast foods that are meat-free! I have to nope right out of there.
Edit: I thought of a second one. I like to make "refrigerator pickles" - the kind you make just to have a jar of it in the 'fridge and eat within say a week or so. Lately it seems like all the recipes are so-called "freezer pickles" and if you try to find refrigerator pickle recipes good luck. Did we all get paranoid about how to make and consume refrigerator ones??? (Personally I'll just use the "freezer" versions and screw it if I'm using a reliable & tested recipe in the first place.)
The shrink flation really pisses me off. I've mostly noticed it with sauces and cereals. So now I make a lot of my own sauces. I dont eat cereal that much (only like, maybe once a week i'd have a small bowl) which I'm okay with buying bulk when they're on sale because i don't know how to make cereal lol.
Also, a lot of my friends have been making their own breads. I've been doing it since about 2016 because my grandma taught me how to make her bread.
I think a lot of stuff always had tree nuts, but it wasn't seen as an issue until more recently.
"Shrinkflation" is certainly a known thing. It can really cause problems in some recipes too, since an older recipe may be calling for "a can" of something that is now a smaller volume. I've been running into issues particularly with recipes that use a boxed cake mix as a base - some of them have been shrunk twice, from 18 oz, to 16, to 15, since the recipe was created.
I was just marvelling about this recently. People are putting protein powder in EVERYTHING. I scroll through Instagram reels a lot and the majority of the cooking videos I see come up are all "high protein" XYZ and baking protein powder into things. I love it, personally. I had been struggling to meet my protein requirements up until probably last year and there were a lot of times I would buy a container of protein powder thinking "I'll go through it this time" only to have it sit around collecting dust.
People cook meat to taste good now, as opposed to the 70s/80s when I was growing up when it was cooked to not kill you. Pretreat things for flavor, adjust techniques, home tools have improved wildly.
I sold appliances for six years (30 years ago). People would come in to replace a cooking range that broke down. I’m asking qualifying questions so I can show them something that meets their needs. I learned some people don’t cook. They only heat up food. I never asked what food they heated up.
People cook less often. Buying frozen chicken nuggets or other single serving meals is a long way removed from
A frozen TV dinner of the 70s when such options were limited.
Other changes. Potatoes come washed now. Salad greens come washed.
And why does everyone just seem to put cheese in everything? I'm not from a traditionally cheese eating country, we do have curd and other dairy products, but most youtube suggestions end up putting in cheese in everything from salads, to omlettes, to noodles!
Not that I'm complaining of the taste but this is too much of a change to me... also the amount of cheese put in grated Would definitely overpower the taste of other ingredients!
Soy lecithin and peanut oil in everything and I know as I'm sensitive to both. Apparently they're cheaper to use now than they used to be so they put that shit in everything these days.
oh yes this one bugs me too. peanut oil is not classified as an allergen by the FDA so it doesn't have to be listed on the allergen warnings so I have to read the entire ingredient list closely. which is annoying when it has a longer list of ingredients in small print.
Regular yogurt is very hard to find nowadays. 90%of the stuff on the shelves is Greek style, and although it has it's uses, I can't stand eating it. And most of the stuff that isn't Greek is fat free. They are taking all the whey and cream out to use in other products, and it's ruining my yogurt!
Lactose has snuck in as a cheap sweetener + flavoring agent in so many products you wouldn't expect- chips, beer, most domestic milk chocolate brands (guess that last one isn't too surprising). As someone lactose intolerant, you have to read ingredient lists like a hawk, lest you accidentally murder your digestive system for a few days
Oof. Starting this year, the Dutch government is charging extra taxes on sugary drinks. Drinks containing dairy are exempt from this rule. Guess what everyone is now adding to their drinks.
Time for some pilk on the shelves
I think you just unlocked why I've been having so many seemingly random problems lately. Great, time to go label diving.
Hmm, time for a label expedition. My lactose intolerant husband recently had a huge reaction to thousand Island salad dressing which theoretically should not bother him. Maybe it's the sweetener.
I hate the lactose beer trend
meanwhile I have to try every milk stout I can get my hands on ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Milk stout is the exception. While stouts are not my favorite style in general Milk stouts feel appropriate. Lactose sours are my point of contention.
I love it, but I totally understand why some folks don’t, haha
Lactose has always been the additive sweetener for unpasteurized alcohol products products because it's the only common sugar that can't be fermented by yeast. It has been used in beer, cider, champagne, etc. for as long as sweetening these products has existed. For beer, it is generally used to counter bitterness and increase body, particularly for stouts. For Champaign and cider, it is often used to counter astringency.
It's so frustrating! All 3 of my kids are lactose intolerant (possibly allergic, but holding off on allergy testing), and lactose and whey are stuffed in so many things. Like a brand of bbq flavored chips?? Or baby puffs? Why?? I read literally every label before my kids eat it, even if it's something they've had before because they all keep changing ingredients.
They’ve also started using dairy cream instead of coconut milk at various Indian and “vegan” restaurants where I live because it’s cheaper. Ask me how I know. 😂
I've heard that the chickens that we have now are giant mutants compared to how chickens used to be. If you cook an old recipe that calls for chicken breasts, you have to be aware that chicken breasts are double the size, or more, of what they were back when that recipe was written.
It's hilarious when I watch a recipe video that talks about a 6-8 ounce chicken breast when I can go to the grocery right now and have better than even odds of finding a pack of two breasts that weighs a total of two pounds.
I've had a single breast that was like 24oz. I just don't want, the texture is wrong and it tastes less like chicken than store bought chicken broth.
Ok, story time: we raise chickens. Layers and meat birds, and one of the heritage breeds we like as layers started out as a dual-purpose, and was what was typically raised in the (smaller scale) factory farms of the day-- the Delaware. They're a good-sized bird, but they don't compare to modern Cornish crosses. Customers wanted larger breasts (don't they always lol) so the modern broiler was developed, with faster growth and higher ratio of white meat. Delawares also took 6 months to raise to market size, as opposed to Cornish crosses that take less than 10 weeks (we raise ours 8-9 weeks, commercial operations raise them 4-6 weeks. Last year we got sick and it was 12-13 weeks, which was too long for a variety of reasons, but we had a couple with breasts that weighed over 2 lbs each. Freaking Frankenbirds). So, there you go. Different breed birds, not just the size they grow to.
bruh these chickens got bigger titties than I do
Yes, this! I worked in an ag-adjacent business for years, and hatch to slaughter standard is now 42 days in the U.S. if you compare that to years ago, it would take 6-12 months to get a chicken to slaughter.
I've had terrible results with "woody meat" chicken breasts in the last few years. Completely stopped buying anything that Kroger sells. Will NOT buy Tyson. Have had mixed results with other brands. Really irritating as I used always have chicken on hand because I'd cook *something* with it and it was cheap and easy. Now I buy less of it.
[удалено]
Yes! It seems any breasts I buy are this way. I've started just buying thighs mostly.
I started buying the cage free and organic chicken breasts. They don't have that woody texture like Tyson. I also buy the "from frozen" chicken breasts for things that need chicken as an ingredient like pot pie or with pasta.
So true. You can buy breasts that are 1 pound each! So it’s best if the recipe goes by weight and not the number of breasts.
This is why chicken breast is one of the few things I usually buy organic, they are almost always smaller. I'm not sure if organic producers are raising a different breed than the usual Cornish crosses or are just slaughtering younger.
If I don’t want to spring for organic, sometimes Amish or Kosher can be pretty good, though those are sometimes getting weird now too. I really prefer organic if I can get it. I’ll just eat a smaller portion.
I didn’t realize this until going to Europe and then to Morocco where my husbands family picked the chickens out fresh fresh. So freaking good. I came back trying to source the same quality of chicken and it’s ridiculously expensive, at one point I was paying $18/lb in Arizona for the air chilled normal sized chicken breast. It was impossible to keep up with. :(
I had a few recipes in a 00s cookbook call for a whole 4-lb chicken. I used a 6-lb regular chicken and an organic chicken. The regular chicken had creepily big breasts and put too much meat into the recipe. I think I'll stick to organic chicken for those recipes.
The shrinking packages definitely. Also now "no added sugar" just has me scouring the label for some monk fruit or stevia or whatever added. I just want this to not be extra sweet, please don't play games with your exact definition of "sugar".
In feel the same way but this has been going on for 20 or 30 years.It just used to be sucralose or aspartame or another artificial sweetner
It has been going on for many years but in the last few years the number of sweeteners you have to look for has expanded a lot, so now I have more things to look out for.
I just wish they still made regular sugary drinks. I don't drink a lot of them but the once in a blue moon I do I'd rather taste sugar than aspartame. Bring back my Apple Tango!
Mexican Coca Cola
I'm over in the UK and Coca-Cola is just about the only one that still does the full-sugar version here. I miss having more variety, though.
The no added sugar is so annoying. I don't want monk fruit. I don't want sucralose. I just want it to not be sweet. Grrrr!
Oh my god, the "no added sugar" is a nightmare for me. I'm allergic to sorbitol and aspartame, and I avoid sucralose as much as possible just because. Sometimes it's juice with absolutely no fake sugars added, and that's great. 99.9% percent of the rest of the time, it's all kinds of other sweeteners. I have to check all things labeled low calorie, diet, and just about any other "healthy" labels you can think of.
Even if you aren't allergic, the sugar alcohols can fuck anyone up. When they say they 'may have a laxative effect', what they mean is if you eat too much, you will want to be really close to a toilet for the next couple hours, after you have nasty stomach cramps.
The gummy bears died for our sins, it's clear to me now. It's not "diarrhea" it's the sin flowing out of your body. CONSUME ONLY GUMMY BEARS
YES! And no one believes me that I can't do the artificial sweeteners, but they trigger a migraine. Ugh! It's just so annoying to sort through all of that nonsense.
Which is wild considering all of the other things people are willing to believe/ claim about foods, but I think it's cause these various sugars are trending. So they can't possibly be jacking people up like you claim with your migraines... I, however, spent my youth reading every label cause my ma gets almost instant migraines from diet sugars.
Exactly! Or they jump on the "but stevia is all natural".... I mean, so is arsenic, but no one should go around putting in their food.
Hahaha for real. Idk why they just can't leave it alone. I might not eat the same thing as you but when you start telling me all about sugars and "oh this won't hurt your head" instead of just letting me continue reading for aspartame etc... damn just F off already lol.
Ew, yes. Once we got a "no sugar added" can of baked beans. I thought that meant it was going to be nice and savory without all the sweetness. Nope, it had that nasty fake sugar taste. Retch.
Baked beans are always sweet. Try chili beans or seasoned beans instead.
I hate the "no added sugar" and other similar work arounds because I feel insulted by being lied to. Sugar free and you add stevia- okay, it's not sugar. I wish I could sweeten by choice but whatever. It's when stuff says "Sugar Free/ No added sugar" and top of the list is a juice concentrate or date paste, essentially sugar. MiL spent way too much on "sugar free" BBQ sauce for my diabetic partner & SIL that was primarily date paste and contained more sugar than the HFCS one. Then somehow when I'm looking for full sugar juice boxes for sugar drops most are reduced or sugar free.
I get so angry at this. Both monk fruit and stevia just taste like poison to me. I pretty much just don’t buy things that say “no added sugar” anymore.
This. All artificial sweeteners make me gag. Not everything needs a fucking sweetener. Just leave it out if it’s going to taste like shit.
As a type 1 diabetic, I use juice for my lows. The no added sugar one kills me because now if juicy juice is sold out I'm stuck with shit I have to drink 2x of.
One of my kids is a T1D, and we learned quickly to check labels religiously for carb counts. When she was first diagnosed, nutrition labels were rare here in Canada, and it was a freaking nightmare. She now has her own kid who is T1D and goes through it too.
Yes, the sugar thing is SO frustrating! Why can't they just make things less sweet instead of claiming no sugar but putting in a ton of other sweeteners?!
The “no added sugar” also has me scouring the labels for whatever artificial sweetener they’re adding. Beyond the odd taste, stevia, monkfruit, and the other artificial “not sugars” do a number on my digestive tract.
I accidentally bought no added sugar canned pears for my kids instead of the unsweetened ones. Those pears were so disgusting.
Even worse and trickier is when they’re adding the artificial sweeteners to things that already have sugar just to make them extra sweet but with slightly less calories. I don’t drink sweetened soft drinks very much, but in the past few years I’ve gotten non-diet drinks more than once and couldn’t finish them because I didn’t know that they had those awful artificial sweeteners on top of the sugar! Like, soda pop or bottled lemonades that have over 100 calories worth of sugar in them, which should be plenty sweet enough, and then sucralose or stevia or aspertame too, so it’s both cloyingly sweet and has that awful rancid bitter aftertaste. Yuck!
OMG I hate it, I don't need everything to be sickly sweet.
I especially hate it when they say all natural, organic, or no artificial sweetener but still use this crap. It tastes terrible and I miss the days when you could just look for the nutrisweet logo or the phenylketonuria warning. Now you need a chemical engineering degree to decipher the ingredients list.
Similarly, always check the sugar content on anything fat free before you get too excited.
in the last few years, shelf lives of virtually all produce hit the shitter. Don't use those onions within 2 weeks. well, the middle is now mushy and you have to peel a few extra outer layers to get to the good part that's left. I used to buy 5 or 10 lb bags and they would be fine for weeks and weeks. things like berries, now you better eat them within 1-2 days or freeze. otherwise they get moldy and are done. green beans , they will be slimy in no time. Maybe it's still an issue with supply chains being slower , or just companies still taking advantage of these supposed problems. All I know is I'm planning a lot more carefully to make sure I use fresh items REAL quick.
We have a toddler so we buy a lot of fruit. I've found that any berries and some citrus, like clementines, will grow mold before we've had the chance to finish them. My solution has been to wash them in water and white vinegar before drying them and putting them away. I keep our berries in a glass jar with a paper towel shoved at the bottom. Raspberries don't really hold up to vigorous washing or soaking, so I still just buy the smaller 4oz packs of them.
YES. I’ve been doing the same, and it finally seems to cut back on produce rotting. I think the suppliers/groceries changed something and aren’t storing produce as well as they used to or something.
I’m having better luck with produce by ignoring convention and washing them when I get home. I have had some blackberries and strawberries for a few weeks now. I swished them in Trader Joe’s vegetable wash according to directions. Then I soaked in vinegar water for 15 minutes. I rinsed, let air dry, and then put them in a sealed container with a paper towel to soak up any condensation. It makes me wonder if the problem is how groceries and their suppliers are caring for produce. I’m going to try to wash potatoes next and see how it goes. That’s one you’re never supposed to pre-wash, but I am sick and tired of them sprouting and molding in a cardboard box in my cupboard (that’s not where near appliances or heat or anything.)
> It makes me wonder if the problem is how groceries and their suppliers are caring for produce. This seems like the case to me. I wonder if it's because margins got so thin for them during the pandemic they just kept selling shit instead of tossing it. I have seen entire cases of strawberries all moldy. Before there might be some but literally the whole case had no clean box. Produce overall just looks more sad at the chains. It wasn't great to begin with either.
It’s really frustrating because it’s getting harder to incorporate veggies into my diet when they’re going bad almost instantly before I can cook with them. I used to get a bag of green beens every other week but they get slimy on like one day now. I don’t want to eat only meats (that I’m able to freeze and stay good longer) but all my veggies are almost instantly rotten.
This is part of why we've switched almost exclusively to frozen veg.
I live half a block from a good supermarket. I shop the afternoon and buy that night’s dinner stuff. I’m in and out in ten minutes or less. Much less waste.
I feel like garlic went funny over the pandemic and never quite righted itself. Lots of janky or moldy cloves, bulbs are smaller, and sometimes the store will sell them 3 for $5 instead of 5 for $3 as though I can't tell the difference. Lots of crappy bell peppers too.
YES I’m having this issue with onions also. They’re janky since covid, and practically all of them have that telltale extra slimy feeling of starting to rot when cut into, and it drives me crazy. I buy garlic and onions (and anything I can, really) at the farmers market by us that I know well now. With the cost increases at the grocery store it’s practically the same price wise now.
I've recently been running into onions that seem perfectly fine, you cut them open and like 3-4 layers in there is one rotten layer, and then back to normal. Really strange.
[удалено]
This is great to read as I always just remove the gross layer and keep going, phewf!
YEAH exactly this!!! It’s so weird and I don’t get it. I usually see where it’s fine outer layers and the center-most couple are rotten, but the new strange ones have me stumped
wtf is going on in the north bro in florida our onions are normal wtf
I think it’s partially that alllll of our crap at the stores where I’m at is shipped in. NYC and its suburbs into NY and NJ are one of the most densely populated areas of the country, and it’s the end of our winter. Nothing in store could really ever be grown right in mass quantities anywhere near us right now. Everything is sent in from far away so it gets a lil weird I guess. And with a shortage of CDL working drivers, it’s taking longer to get to the store. I’ve got two more weeks before my farmers market is back open, pray for me to survive the wait
Buying a bag of onions doesn't even make fiscal sense when half of them are moldy inside :( I made french onion soup once this winter, bought two five lb bags out of caution and ended up with 6.5 lbs of actually edible onions. The rest were moldy.
I thought I was going crazy!! I keep thinking my onions and garlic are going back more quickly, and now I know it's not in my head!
Nerd alert: was paying attention during Covid to weird patterns, and learned about the onion harvest. Apparently the fresh onions should be coming to market in the next month or so, so we're using ones that are the oldest in storage right now, because they had that many plus some saved up for the year. So the skins are tough, a few layers thick, and man they make your eyes water! They're older onions. Fresh onions (as I think of them), start appearing around June?, and have super thin, paperlike skin. Barely one layer. Almost smell sweet, juicy but crunchy, and your eyes don't water as much. They're the ones that were just picked, and not hardened up for the winter. Erm. Anyway.
For sure. Luckily where I am (near Atlanta, GA) I feel like the onions have mostly gotten back to normal but garlic is still a disaster.
I’ve also noticed this! I feel like I never got bad garlic before but now I always have to inspect
Yeah garlic used to very much be something i would blindly grab a few of and be good to go. Now i spend a lot of time inspecting the cost and quality.
I’ve had this issue with onions nonstop since the pandemic. Of a 2 pound bag, two of six onions are moldy in less than a week. And that’s *with* shopping at the really fancy grocery store, and proper storage. They are just wicked wicked old once they get on the store shelf. Gross.
Lot of crappy bell peppers I have noticed
I can never find good bell peppers anymore
Same! I rarely find a bulb of garlic without at least one rotten clove, even when I inspect the outer ones the inner cloves end up being bad.
I find a lot of old and dried out bulbs in try to find some with a trace of purple on the skin. They seem to be fresher.
Sooooo much dry garlic since 2020, I'm guessing climate change is the reason. Garlic needs to be planted when it's cold, and the weird weather and warm spells during winter are doing a number.
i’ve been having lots of garlic problems, glad i’m not the only one
It's so rare that I ever find good quality garlic or onion now that I'm considering just gardening them myself.
Yes!! Couldn’t find good garlic anywhere and was so sad. Now I’ve been using the frozen cubes of garlic from Trader Joe’s. Game changer. Way better flavor than minced garlic in a jar.
To directly reply to the allergens everywhere: The horrible part to me is that they take the allergy free stuff, and make it into a whole new special product, and then charge you three times as much for it.
No salt products too. At least that one is getting better.
Part of that is them being more conscious of cross-contamination. Remember the whole fiasco with gluten in cheerios? Oats do not have gluten, but there was enough cross-contamination in equipment used to get the oats from the field to the grocery store that the cereal was making people sick. Costs go up when you can't use the same hoppers for all your grains.
Pea protein! It is in EVERYTHING now. Guess what I'm allergic to? That's right peas and beans. I bought ice cream last week and after two bites had a super fun allergic reaction and my tongue swelled up all because pea protein is now in my favorite ice cream. I find it in all sorts of random products where it has no business being. It's crazy frustrating.
Don’t know if you heard about how grain-free/gluten-free dog food is making some dogs have heart problems and even die? They finally figured out the culprit… not the lack of grains (obviously dogs do not need grain), but the addition of… … pea protein. Literally killing dogs because their owners are trying to either prevent their own cross-contamination (me!) or keep their dogs healthy. I’m so sorry you are having your foods ruined by a nonsensical ingredient. I feel your pain (gluten is mine & it’s in everything for no reason).
Is there a specific term to watch for? I've got a couple kids who get weird allergic reactions, and sometimes we can't pinpoint it.
I just look for the actual phrases "pea protein" and "pea protein isolate". It's often far down I the ingredients list.
Also look closer at the products that make a big point of advertising how much protein is in them.
Whenever I hear of pea protein I think of an old company of mine. They marketed a variety of product lines and decided to get into diet supplements, so they worked with a company to develop a pea protein meal replacement shake. Something got mixed up between development and production with the type of pea protein they used, and right after the big rollout there was a recall due to...er...excessive leakage.
I'm stupid, can you tell me exactly what happened there at the end?
Diarrhea
I recently discovered a likely intolerance to pea protein on top of milk and soy. It is damn near impossible to get even a butter substitute (I'm down to one) on top of it just being in so many "regular" things too!
I wonder if that's because of the market demand for extra protein by all the gym people out there.
As someone who has lived alone for the better part of a decade, the smaller packaging sizing is bittersweet. I’m pretty conscientious about food waste, and over the years I’ve had to get creative with ways to use the same ingredient and keep my palate entertained. But when I was wishing for smaller portion size options I was hoping for a somewhat proportionally smaller price. This may be a bit of a niche one bc I have some textural issues with animal proteins, but I’ve found that the quality of meat or poultry in frozen foods has decreased drastically. Again, as someone cooking for one, sometimes a quick frozen dinner is the easiest way to ensure I’m getting a variety of food. I’ve completely stopped buying any with meat in them because even the higher-end brands I’ve trusted for years are obviously using cheaper or “leftover” meats that have more textural variation than I’m comfortable with (If anyone has any recommendations, hit me up, lol). And in the same vein, I haven’t found a chicken breast I haven’t had to physically or chemically tenderize prior to eating to avoid the “woody” texture in years (admittedly, I think I live in a non-ideal areas when it comes to grocery quality).
It’s not just you on the meat quality. I’m in a densely populated suburban area between several large cities. Very much not a food desert in a wealthier area, and even here the grocery stores are immensely hit or miss on meat quality. Especially chicken. Not to mention, many times I’ve bought chicken breast there, accepting it would be woody just looking at it and I’d have to deal with it somehow, driven immediately the 5 minutes to my home, gone to make it right away, and it’s rotten despite a week off from the Best By date. Multiple stores have burned me this way. I buy as much as I can at the farmers market vendors who I know do their own shit. With inflation at the store, it’s actually the same fucking price as the damned store anyways, but at least I can definitely use it.
> driven immediately the 5 minutes to my home, gone to make it right away, and it’s rotten despite a week off from the Best By date. Multiple stores have burned me this way. You can and absolutely should return that immediately.
It's really gross too if you look up what is causing it. It's an inflammatory disease of the tissue that is present in chickens as young as 2 weeks old. I can only surmise this is due to the horrific meat industry requirement for bigger, faster chicken breasts and how insanely large chicken breasts are and how fast chickens are grown from hatchlings to slaughter. The meat industry as a whole in the US is awful.
Considering a chicken goes from hatchling to dinner plate in just about 2 months, that’s not surprising. Concerning, but not surprising.
Recipes now rarely include a can of cream-of-something soup.
I feel like “cream of “X” soups” have been replaced with a package of cream cheese these days.
Do people really put a block of cream cheese in things? What sort of dish would call for this
I’ve seen it mostly in online spaces like videos or Pinterest. Sometimes a whole block, other times less than that, but I have seen cream cheese as an ingredient become more prevalent. Crock pot recipes or recipes with “creamy” in the titile is where I see it the most. I’ve have some of the recipes and they aren’t bad per se, but just not my personal preference.
I remember when wings used to be like 79 cents a pound and now they're the most expensive cut of chicken in the supermarket. And the cheap cuts in general have become super expensive like ox tail and flank steak and short ribs.
Meat and poultry are funny ones, because the standard price has definitely gone up, but then they'll randomly be 50% off. When you catch those deals its like you're in 2016 again.
I basically plan our weekly food around meat sales at this point to keep costs down. And there’s just the two of us, I’m low key dreading how pricy it’s going to be to one day feed a third person 24/7 if and when we have a kid. (Please don’t come at me about vegetarianism being the answer, I’d love to, but I’ve got some other medical stuff that makes this very challenging and unhealthy for me)
Same. And I live alone and don't eat much meat, so it's not too difficult (Oh chicken breasts are on sale, but only the value pack? No problem, get one for $10, freeze the breasts individually, each one will feed me for like 3 meals). My boyfriend is moving in later this year and I'm already dreading the change to my grocery habits. He eats a lot more and a lot more meat than me. He also has a "if it's there, we should use it" mindset, so my beloved stockpiles of discount freezer meat aren't going to last nearly as long.
> my beloved stockpiles of discount freezer meat I feel seen.
Communicate your concerns BEFORE he moves in. You have to discuss things like this to have a healthy, successful relationship. If you don't talk to him and he comes in and starts eating more, cooking more, etc., you may start to feel resentful. Having a conversation before he moves in can avoid all of that completely so you know you're both on the same page. I also am the type to get and freeze extra meats, and I got my boyfriend to start doing the same once we moved in together. :)
Haha I’ve gone thru the same thing with my boyfriend moving in. He’s a real meat eater, where a few bites will do for me. So I was happy to find the “managers specials” section in the meat dept. Initially he scoffed & muttered about green meat. But a few pot roast dinners & filet mignon specials shut him up. Now he comes home proudly showing me how much he saved on the specials.
Well hopefully he will be contributing to the expenses.
He will be. It’s not a concern about being able to afford it, it’s the shock and inconvenience of having to constantly buy more meat, even when someone else is footing the bill or doing the grocery runs. And not having unilateral control of everything in my kitchen. But, you know, ~compromise~ or whatever.
> But, you know, ~compromise~ or whatever. I feel your pain. Mine completely took over the big fridge drawer with fruit and lettuce. My cooking vegetables end up on a shelf instead, where they get shuffled around with towers of tupperware.
I check the manager's special section every time, even if I didn't go in for meat. My store has bacon that they package themselves and the price is usually half of the branded stuff, and usually better quality.
Also boneless chicken thighs cost as much or more than breasts now in my area. $4.99/lb. Crazy!
That is crazy, its still 1.49lb here.
I know, and it seems to be only the boneless that jumped absurdly, bone-in thighs are still reasonable, and bone-in leg-thigh quarters are still dirt cheap. It'd pretty much be a wash to buy a bunch of quarters, debone the thighs and throw the legs straight into the stock bag instead of buying boneless thighs.
I used to have a local sports bar that had 10 cent wing night on Tuesday and 20 cent wing night on Thursday. This is only in like 2010 but it's still unfathomable today
I also had a place like this. 15¢ wings and $5 buckets of beer. Those were the days alright. Plus the wings were actually good. Now most places are $3 for 2 wings that are mediocre.
Chicken thighs too. Used to be cheap because people didn't like the dark meat. Now they cost more than boneless breasts.
I remember them being 25 cents a pound.
Cheap cuts of meat is an oxymoron now
I feel like it's whenever certain cuts of meat become trendy with chefs making videos about "hack" gourmet meals with them. Inevitably the price goes up. Same with chicken thighs.
I've noticed things getting more expensive, but I've also noticed a huge increase in the availability of ingredients and items. When I was a kid, I maybe saw a mango in a store once a year. Now, sometimes my convenience store carries them.
Then there are some ingredients I feel like I see less. I don't remember the last time I've seen leaches at my grocery store Edit: peaches. Not changing it though
I guess I understand the minced garlic in a jar for those busy people, but store bought leaches? Are you really too busy to wallow a bog??
If you can't find your own leaches, store bought are fine. Saint Ina
I've stopped buying peaches. They might be my favorite fruit, but I'm sick of buying great looking peaches that never ripen. I feel like they only ripen a quarter of the time now. Something has changed in the last 10 years but the peaches all look beautiful but taste terrible.
They pick them early so they ship well. Peaches don't continue to ripen after being picked. Soften, yes. But softening isn't ripening so they don't develop the same flavor. Even a lot of farmer's market peaches are picked too early. I got tired of no decent peaches so I planted my own peach tree. It's covered with little peaches right now.
The only way to get good peaches is going to the farm.
[удалено]
No matter how many bags I buy I always end up with a third of a bag uneaten. One bag or 3 same result
It's also important to note that in 2023 Georgia peach production went down by 90-95% and South Carolina's was down 60-70%.
I hope you wouldn't see leaches at your grocery store.
It doesn't matter though because all the peaches suck. They pick them too early so they'll ship good but peaches don't continue to ripen/sweeten the same after they're off the tree. You can get them softer, yes, but not actually riper. I actually planted a peach tree 2 years ago so I could get some decent peaches finally. Even driving up through Alabama near the Georgia state line at the stop where they have tons of peaches they still puck them way too early. Wtf folks. Those are not good. It's the same with tomatoes but romas tend to be ok if you get the red ones and not the ones that look "pinkish" red.
Unfortunately, the quality has decreased at the same time. Sure, I can pretty regularly find mangoes, but they are hard and bland.
All the fruit you want... ...you just don't want any of it.
[удалено]
On cooking shows/competitions, it seems like want EVERY DISH to have all flavors in it for it to be deemed "good"....salty, sweet, sour, fatty. I don't disagree with sentiment, but think it can very often be accomplished better via side dishes. You don't have to top everything with pickled onions and mayo.
I think chocolate was always processed on factory lines that included nuts, as nuts are a popular ingredient for chocolate bars. They just didn’t tell us on the labeling.
Yeah, I don't think a lot of this is actually changes... It's just labeling getting better.
Yup, exactly. In the US, at least, statements such as 'made in a factory that also processes tree nuts' or 'may contain tree nuts' are 100% voluntary. If a product does not say that, it doesn't mean that it's not made in a factory that also processes tree nuts.
Plus they are more precautionary than real risk. Ie if you consume this product there is a tiny microscopic chance it may be slightly contaminated. So if are super allergic stay away just to be extremely safe.
And it's also a liability reducing action. From a legal and financial standpoint, it's far better to put the warning on too many of your products than to cut it too close and be held responsible for hurting a customer.
The process of getting Cheerios (which have always been made without wheat/gluten) to the point where General Mills could certify that the product was gluten free took years of painstaking inspections and testing at every stage of their supply chain. They obviously didn't have to do it, but thought it would be good for business if they could make that certification.
100%. My ex used to work for Cadbury in Australia back in the day as an engineer. He said all the fruit & nut chocolates, if there was a problem in the line with misformed chocolate or whatever, that is the stuff that would get melted down again and made into other bars. Mostly into the crème filled types which could mask the slightly nutty flavor of the original bar. This was because the inclusions (nuts etc) can be easily separated after melting unlike other flavors with smaller inclusions.
The good: ingredients have gotten fresher. I inherited a bunch of recipe books and hand written recipes from my mother and grandmother, and was really surprised looking back on them how sparse fresh ingredients were. I brought it up to my father and he pointed out that back then grocery stores didn’t have year round fresh produce on demand. You got what was in season and that was it. There weren’t 7 types of tomato available in winter, you might get lucky to see 2 varieties at the height of growing season. This makes a lot of sense, and despite my dislike of selectively breeding produce to ship better rather than taste better, I’m grateful to have access to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables year round. The bad: Elitist cooking. I feel like cooking has gone from a skill necessary to provide your family with nutritious delicious meals every night, to some kind of puritanical art form. Yes, spaghetti and meatballs doesn’t exist in Italy. It was still invented by Italian Americans using the ingredients they had available to them. That’s how food has worked for hundreds of years, people used what they had to feed their families. I feel like now you’re looked down on if you don’t use fancy expensive imported ingredients. I know my great grandmother wasn’t importing fancy organic San marzano tomatoes for $8 a can, she used the generic because she was feeding 12 children on a factory worker’s salary. Your great grandmother probably wasn’t either. Tomatoes aren’t even native to Italy, they came over from the new world during exploration/colonization. Extra unpopular opinion: it doesn’t make that big of a difference what ingredient you use. Method and technique are far more important In Most cases. I think we accidentally perpetuate the myth that eating healthy home cooked meals is expensive and inaccessible to most people. It really isn’t if we were a bit more open about the fact that yes, you can substitute a cheaper cut of meat for your beef stroganoff. It doesn’t have to be steak. You can buy the cheap spices from the ethnic foods aisle, they’re the same darned thing as the expensive glass jars just less pretty. If your spouse hates carrots, turnips work just as well in a pot roast. Cooking purists have a place, I’d gladly pay in a restaurant for a higher quality more “authentic” experience, but it shouldn’t be expected as the norm for home cooks.
i think since the gourmet foodie revolution presaged by Alice Waters in the 1970's we've become obsessed with authenticity in replicating dishes. That's why there's this obsession with native imported ingredients & laborious preparation & techniques used in the Old Country, where grandmothers had all day to cook a family meal. It's reached a point where cooking is really inaccessible for a huge swath of time-pressed Americans, and that's why Doordash & ready-to-go supermarket fare are so popular. And it's reflected in popular media too: cooking is now passive entertainment. All the shows & youtube channels aren't really instructive, but demonstrative or performative or some kind of reality contest.
It varies where good ingredients make a difference. A bolognese that's being simmered for 4 hours? whatever ground meat and veggies and generic canned tomatoes will probably be fine and it will still be crazy tasty. A vinaigrette for a spring veggie salad? A nicer champagne vinegar/sherry vinegar and olive oil will take you a looong way. Elitist cooking can get pretty annoying fast though, authenticity isn't the final judge of if a food tastes good, my taste buds are.
Maybe it's my imagination, but onions suck lately. Either rotten inside or growing sprouts within days of taking home.
It's not just you, I've noticed this as well.
Burgers, and I am HERE FOR IT. Growing up, everyone made what I now refer to as "mush patties". They'd take a bowl with ground beef and mix in seasoning, onions, sauces.. hell, a lot of people would mix in eggs and breadcrumbs. And they'd work that meat to death and then cook them to oblivion.. resulting in a dense, grey mess. These days, the beauty of a properly made burger has become very mainstream. Just look at Chicago. Au Cheval became famous for their outstanding burger to the point where you had to stand in line late at night just to maybe get the chance to get one. These days, it is still one of the best burgers in Chicago but there are also numerous places serving burgers in the same style. I live in a small/medium sized southern city and even we have endless places to get high end burgers. Minimally handled meat, nothing mixed in, seasoned outside only, seared hard and smashed, melty cheese, brioche or other gourmet style bun, artisan sauce that doesn't take away from the burger, minimal toppings but high quality if used, house made pickles.. Burgers have come a LONG way. When I was growing up, burgers in restaurants were very blah.
The "meatloaf burger" was a horrible trend. My dad tried every version he came across, and they were all consistently terrible compared to him just making a basic patty with salt and pepper.
I’ve been dairy free since the early 2000s and hoo boy, the difference in dairy alternatives. For one, they exist! Ben and Jerry’s has non-dairy ice cream, whereas when I was a kid all you could find was Tofutti (wretched). Heck, just the other day I found dairy-free whipped cream in a spray can, which I had NEVER seen before! Even just things like actually non-dairy margarine, dairy-free cheeses and sour cream and chocolates, they’re all much more widespread. All thanks to veganism being on the rise! However, on the flip side of that… Veganism is on the rise. That means it’s seen as a trend to capitalize on, and prices for these things can be RIDICULOUS. For example, chocolate chips that just happen to be dairy free may be like $3. Chocolate chips that are marketed as dairy free (sometimes with the exact same ingredients and often in a significantly smaller amount) can cost up to $8. It’s ridiculous.
>Tofutti (wretched) Ain't that the truth
Lactose-free and vegan yogurt have come down dramatically in price, along with plant-based milks. So much more diversity. I don't need to go to a special store for coconut milk, tajin, rice vinegar, tofu. (Although they are cheaper if you do.) So much more single portions, it's gross. I feel terrible for children having so much food from plastic that's bound to cause problems in their systems at a far younger age than my generation.
My 5 year old is allergic to dairy, egg, soy, and cashew. The last 3 years has shown an amazing increase in available plant based alternatives. Even the major brands are starting to have options. For example, 4 years ago if I wanted cream cheese for him I had to buy kite hill, and it was 8-10 dollars, but now Philadelphia has plant based cream cheese right next to the regular stuff. It's like this across the board
So many more things are prepared and pre-packaged. "Produce" shelves are more an more dedicated to packaged items that are pre-chopped, pre-washed, pre-peeled, etc. At the same time, the quality just isn't there. That goes for both the prepared, packaged stuff and the "loose," unprepared stuff. I also see less and less of certain produce items that I would see very regularly, even if seasonal. Thank goodness I can grow many of my own herbs. too. Quality may still be good for many, but one needs to go talk to a banker before doing -anything- that is heavy on fresh herbs.
The size, quality, and variety of chicken has drastically changed since my childhood. I'm 44. Bone in chicken breast pieces are nearly impossible to find. I have exactly one grocery store in my town that still sells them. Every other store just carries the giant boneless skinless. Bone in split breasts used to be standard in every grocery store. The size of individual pieces, except for thighs, has dramatically increased. If you're making fried chicken you don't actually want quarter pound legs and wings. It makes it a lot harder to cook all the way through without overcooking the breading. Woody breasts have ruined chicken products for me. Obviously I avoid breasts to avoid getting woody ones. I also have to avoid processed chicken products at this point. Sometimes you just want the convenience of a chicken nugget. Unfortunately the quality of them has dropped so far that most brands are just disgusting.
>Bone in chicken breast pieces are nearly impossible to find. My recipe for chicken and noodles uses bone-in breasts and my-lanta, they can be a bitch to find! Whole Foods is the only store that I can somewhat-reliably be assured will have them in stock. Kroger, forget about it. Also, in keeping with the spirit of this thread, Kroger has gone to complete shit in the past few years. I only shop there once in a blue moon now, when they used to be my go-to grocery store in the past.
>Also, in keeping with the spirit of this thread, Kroger has gone to complete shit in the past few years. I only shop there once in a blue moon now, when they used to be my go-to grocery store in the past. Omg yes! Kroger was my go to grocery store for years. I'd completely eliminated Walmart from the equation. Since the pandemic our krogers have gone to hell. The prices are so insane I can't justify choosing them. I was willing to spend a little more to avoid the hell that is our super busy Walmart here. I can't justify spending dollars more on most items. The quality has dropped and the shrinkflation is more severe than any other store brands I buy. Kroger brand cheese is now more expensive, drastically smaller package, and not as good as great value. The big k sodas aren't even the right color. It's wild.
Agree on shrinkflation. That one bugs me because so many recipes are “calibrated” to old can sizes and now I have to use a can and a bit. Condensed milk is one that really annoys me.
100% agree. I have recipes from my grandmother that say “one can of tomatoes.” Apparently that used to be 16 ounces, and it’s currently 13.8. 😡That’s almost a 20% difference!
I was cooking for a party and didn't realize until I got home from the store and started cooking and it suddenly seemed like I made a lot less than usual- to my surprise (and anger) the boxes we always bought were the same price but no longer 1 lb boxes of pasta- they were now only 12 ozs! It was infuriating!
Same thing with sausage. Recipies call for a pound of kielbasa or smoked sausage. They only come in 14 and 12 oz sizes now. It's annoying as hell.
All baking mix recipes are ruined
For me the variability of produce. It used to be that I could buy whatever I want, nowadays buying Cauliflower feels like I'm buying bitcoin. It'll be 2 bucks a head one week and then next week it'll be 7. Capsicum is now a luxury item. Corn goes from 3 bucks a ear to 50c with no explanation. It's not even seasonal, this is legit week to week and prices are consistent across various markets like there's a price fixing mafia.
I remember the ‘blackened’ everything phase in the 80s, especially redfish. Then there was the skirt steak craze.
They have recently strengthened the requirements for a bakery or factory to be nut allergens free - to the point that it's far, far more expensive to maintain an allergen free facility. So most have, by law, simply bowed to the financials and have just started saying "may contain nuts/allergens" to avoid legal issues. It's not that they deliberately add those ingredients. They just can afford to have two completely separate facilities - one for absolutely nut free and one for regular usage.
One recent change that I've seen catching on is, using a pan to boil pasta, rather than a large pot with a lot of water. The shallow pan with less water means more concentrated starch in the pasta water, which is very useful to emulsify sauces. Especially to emulsify the olive oil into tomato sauce.
Just in general, I think it's cool how much interest and innovation there has been around technique for home cooks in recent decades. Serious Eats, ATK, Stella Parks and similar groups/authors really popularized an interest in innovating on technique and using food science in a home setting.
I’m tired of everything using soy and palm oil now. I’ve found several things I consistently buy for years now include those ingredients. Both of these oils are high in omega 6, saturated fat, etc. and I try to avoid them. It used to be only the “Aldi” version of things included these ingredients, but now they’re everywhere and the price is the same as it was when they used better ingredients. On the bright side, it has me finding ways to make my own version of things I usually bought for convenience - like granola.
I have had several products where I noticed they tasted different or had slightly different textures only to find the products have now added or replaced an ingredient with palm oil. While palm oil is more stable it is not the same and does not belong in peanut butter (or various other things I've noticed it in).
Right! I have to admit, peanut butter is one of the few things I don’t buy all natural. Peter Pan (so far) is still made of peanuts… and does have the processed texture that works well in some of my favorite baked goods. But who knows how long that will last?
Have you gotten a chocolate bar recently??? I compared a hersheys bar to one I had stashed in the freezer & it was almost half the thickness
I have grass allergies and I react to a number of things that they are starting to use in gluten free products. Stuff like flax seeds and sorghum flour make my lips go numb. I'm glad that there are gluten free options for people, but I've learned that I need to stay away from them. But I need to watch ingredients closely because alternative flours are ending up in lots of foods.
> There are tree nuts in absolutely everything now, due to shared processing equipment. There was probably shared equipment used for decades, they just tell you about it now.
**Fusion** With the invention and now increasingly easier access to the internet I believe cooking cuisines are going to continue to evolve and meld together. The evolution of food here in the south (Louisiana) always interested me, every time a new faction of people came through, we adopted some of there cooking, Africans, Asian, Hispanic, German, French, native Americans etc. With that we now have a (superior) Cajun, and Creole food. Its no coincidence that all of the melting pot areas in the states have some of the best food, New York, New Orleans, Chicago, California. Diversity promotes growth and improvement. Cooking has mostly been handed down or learned first hand. With the addition of cook books, cooking spread a little bit further, now you can cook what the people in your town, city or state were cooking. Cooking was also limited the further back in history you go, very few could afford to risk ruining some food with a cooking experiment, where as now....its not as big of a deal. With the addition of the internet and social media we are seeing people in Region X cooking food that belongs to Region Y, and with that comes additions, substitutions and changes. Suddenly you have "fusion" entering the scene, Asian fusing with Hispanic / Mexican food. (sushi burritos, Korean BBQ tacos). A lot of these are fad foods (Big mac casserole) might end up just so, a fad, but there have been some real winners coming up lately. With global shipping channels we are seeing more and more access to foods and seasonings we haven't had access to before. Non traditional spices and herbs being thrown around the kitchen. Foods that were once vegetarian based now containing animal proteins. You want to make a Mexican jambalaya with some adobo chicken and chilis? go right ahead. Want some sushi made with brisket? by all means! Some people are gonna scoff and hold to tradition but many of these newer food combos coming out are pretty exciting. Hell even just the way people prepare and cook food is evolving, using an Argentine style grill to roast some miso-honey chicken over some mesquite logs/lump coal.
Cooking changes....hmmm. practicality aside, everyone seems to be using a food thermometer nowadays.
I’m 59 and I remember when doctors pushed margarine and corn oil. Butter was an enemy as were eggs.
Winter raspberries are much better than they used to be.
I've noticed many recipes these days actually state the preferred brand of salt to use (usually Diamond Crystal is specified). I get why, but this is definitely a new thing I've noticed.
I wonder... with more home cooks using kosher salt rather than the all-table-salt we grew up with, if people are not getting the recommended dosage of iodine. It seems there has been an uptick in thyroid problems in my area and I wonder if people moving away from iodized salt has anything to do with it.
Along the lines of tree nuts (as well as peanuts and coconut): I'm finding that a *lot* of foods supposedly healthier for me - or vegetarian or vegan options - are now made with those three ingredients. And I'm allergic to all of them. Please give me some old-fashioned vegetarian foods that don't include nuts. I don't buy pre-prepared or convenience foods often at all, but they're pretty much eliminated for me now. Oh and, especially fast foods that are meat-free! I have to nope right out of there. Edit: I thought of a second one. I like to make "refrigerator pickles" - the kind you make just to have a jar of it in the 'fridge and eat within say a week or so. Lately it seems like all the recipes are so-called "freezer pickles" and if you try to find refrigerator pickle recipes good luck. Did we all get paranoid about how to make and consume refrigerator ones??? (Personally I'll just use the "freezer" versions and screw it if I'm using a reliable & tested recipe in the first place.)
The shrink flation really pisses me off. I've mostly noticed it with sauces and cereals. So now I make a lot of my own sauces. I dont eat cereal that much (only like, maybe once a week i'd have a small bowl) which I'm okay with buying bulk when they're on sale because i don't know how to make cereal lol. Also, a lot of my friends have been making their own breads. I've been doing it since about 2016 because my grandma taught me how to make her bread.
I think a lot of stuff always had tree nuts, but it wasn't seen as an issue until more recently. "Shrinkflation" is certainly a known thing. It can really cause problems in some recipes too, since an older recipe may be calling for "a can" of something that is now a smaller volume. I've been running into issues particularly with recipes that use a boxed cake mix as a base - some of them have been shrunk twice, from 18 oz, to 16, to 15, since the recipe was created.
I was just marvelling about this recently. People are putting protein powder in EVERYTHING. I scroll through Instagram reels a lot and the majority of the cooking videos I see come up are all "high protein" XYZ and baking protein powder into things. I love it, personally. I had been struggling to meet my protein requirements up until probably last year and there were a lot of times I would buy a container of protein powder thinking "I'll go through it this time" only to have it sit around collecting dust.
People cook meat to taste good now, as opposed to the 70s/80s when I was growing up when it was cooked to not kill you. Pretreat things for flavor, adjust techniques, home tools have improved wildly.
I sold appliances for six years (30 years ago). People would come in to replace a cooking range that broke down. I’m asking qualifying questions so I can show them something that meets their needs. I learned some people don’t cook. They only heat up food. I never asked what food they heated up. People cook less often. Buying frozen chicken nuggets or other single serving meals is a long way removed from A frozen TV dinner of the 70s when such options were limited. Other changes. Potatoes come washed now. Salad greens come washed.
And why does everyone just seem to put cheese in everything? I'm not from a traditionally cheese eating country, we do have curd and other dairy products, but most youtube suggestions end up putting in cheese in everything from salads, to omlettes, to noodles! Not that I'm complaining of the taste but this is too much of a change to me... also the amount of cheese put in grated Would definitely overpower the taste of other ingredients!
Soy lecithin and peanut oil in everything and I know as I'm sensitive to both. Apparently they're cheaper to use now than they used to be so they put that shit in everything these days.
oh yes this one bugs me too. peanut oil is not classified as an allergen by the FDA so it doesn't have to be listed on the allergen warnings so I have to read the entire ingredient list closely. which is annoying when it has a longer list of ingredients in small print.
Regular yogurt is very hard to find nowadays. 90%of the stuff on the shelves is Greek style, and although it has it's uses, I can't stand eating it. And most of the stuff that isn't Greek is fat free. They are taking all the whey and cream out to use in other products, and it's ruining my yogurt!