I just bought a little beef jerky. Haven’t had any in quite a while. It was supposed to be spicy. What I got was something sweet, rubbery and gummy, with barely a hint of heat. (In the US) W.t.f.
When I was a kid, jerky was dry AF, thin, salty, tooth-rippingly tough sometimes, never sweet unless you specifically got a teryaki flavor or something. If you wanted spicy, it was covered in pepper and your mouth would be on fire after just a couple pieces. It was awesome.
Now it’s sugary and chewy. Why people gotta put sugar on everything? Can’t find that dry, thin, peppery stuff anywhere.
What food of yours has disappeared or been wrecked in order to appeal to more people?
Potato skins chips. I gorged myself on them aa a kid and can’t find them easily anymore. The ones I found tasted like regular chips.
Cadbury Creme Eggs were one of my favorites as a kid in the 80’s. Soft chocolaty shell, with creamy goodness on the inside.
Now it’s a chalky brown husk with a nasty grainy gritty paste in the middle. 🤮
Truth. Cadbury used to be great back in the day. I liked their candy shell milk chocolate eggs too. It’s crap now.
I’d go with junk food generically. While some of it has to do with changing tastes as I get older, most junk food has gotten so bad that it’s not even tempting. Now ice cream is trying to join that mess, but there are still a few brands worth enjoying.
On the other hand, Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups are truly amazing, in a way Reese’s could never even dream
Old El Paso taco seasoning. I think they changed it a long time ago. I’m sure it was cost considerations, and not broader appeal.
I’ve tried making my own but I can never get it quite right.
Entenmann’s chocolate cake with the black and white frosting. You can still get chocolate cake but the icing is just not the same.
Drake’s Devil Dogs. There used to be so much cream filling that I could run my fingers down each side and still leave plenty in the middle.
Polenta that is not liquid or soup like. I remember it being thick, almost crumbly but I never can get the consistency from my childhood.
When I was a kid, jerky was dry AF, thin, salty, tooth-rippingly tough sometimes, never sweet unless you specifically got a teryaki flavor or something.
Look for local brands. I saw something like that just last year. You gotta keep it in your mouth for a while before it’s soft enough to chew. National brands aim for the lowest common denominator.
When I was a kid, I liked McDonald’s pizza happy meals (I still remember the song from the advertisements). I doubt middle-aged-adult me would like it, but I weirdly want to try it again. I’m sure there’s other stuff from the '80s and '90s, but I can’t immediately think of it.
The only place in the USA where you can still get a McPizza is the “Epic McD’s” in Orlando Florida.
That would be fun if you could try the actual food for real again and see if it was decent or just kid rose-colored glasses thinking it was awesome.
Is anything still the same as it once was? Corporately produced food is designed by food chemists to be maximally profitable and shifts recipes regularly. Most smaller food makers/preparers are downstream from those corporate entities, relying on them for ingredients. Even the base ingredients, like produce, are being bred to be more profitable, so they change too, just slower. The only thing that won’t have changed is things like ‘that fruit tree that mom has growing by her window.’
You might want to check if there’s someplace nearby that sells biltong. There’s a local butcher shop in my area that makes and sells it and it’s like the jerky you describe from when you were a kid.
I used to enjoy puffed corn snacks called Monster Munch. Apparently they’re British-produced and still available over there. An expat friend who goes to Gencon* every year likes to take a few packs of gherkin flavour Monster Munch to horrify his American friends.
*Maybe not this year… or ever again.
Vanilla coke. The older version tasted like proper vanilla and now it tastes just bad.
I highly recommend purchasing a dehydrator and making one’s own beef (or other) jerky. You can get a good ehyrdeator for like $100 or so. The only downside is how expensive beef is, currently. That said, you’ll still save a massive amount of money per pound, and it’s amazing.
Hershey’s made a smores bar decades ago. Despite not liking Hershey’s at all, I loved that thing. Had the perfect ratio of chocolate, marshmallow, and Graham cracker, wasn’t too sweet, and it was easy to eat unlike the messy real deal. I still crave it from time to time.
Butterfingers used to be my goto, up until they changed the recipe a few years ago to be more nutella-like. They’re horrible now.
I still remember butterfinger bb’s, would risk diabetes for a pack of those right about now
I had one of my kid’s Butterfinger bars from their Halloween stash last Fall. It was awful. I remember that chocolate-crispy-peanut brittle flavor being so much better. Instead it was waxy sugar.
