Do your food preferences make you an outcast in your own family or ethnic group?

[jimb0]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

For @Tropicalsenior and others with sauerkraut trauma - I was cleaning out storage boxes and this old family classic popped up. Might ease your pain U ade it several times years ago, Chocolate Sauerkraut cake (there are versions on line)

 

i've had one of these before! if others haven't, it's as you might expect - they don't actually taste like sauerkraut, esp with a half cup of cocoa in there.

[heidih]

It just adds a tang and moisture. Personally not averse to hard core sauerkraut but more a kimchi girl now, Young radish is my fave. Made in house at local market. 

[kayb]

On 2/23/2021 at 1:33 PM, Darienne said:

I love lamb, liver and cooked beets.  Ed will not touch them.  He likes head cheese.  Yuck.  I won't eat anything jellied.  We both like sauerkraut.  No one with any sense at all likes gefilte fish.   We both can't stand Nutella.  And we don't eat shellfish of any kind.  Partly heritage; partly I don't like meat that crunches. (emphasis added)

 

 I've never had corned beef and cabbage but I'd like to try. 

I don't think you're supposed to eat the shells. (yes, that's my smart-ass comment for the next 15 minutes).

 

The three things I will not eat to this day, all of which cause my West Tennessee relatives to raise an eyebrow:

 

1. Cooked greens of any kind. Even spinach.

2. Calves liver (I will eat chicken livers in pate).

3. Souse meat/head cheese. 

 

I can't bear to be in the house when Nos. 1 and 2 are being cooked. The smell nauseates me. My late husband did not believe me. He once cooked liver and onions for his dinner while I was out at a meeting. I came home, walked inside, got a deep breath, and threw up. That broke him from ever trying to cook liver at home. Greens are not as bad, but decidedly unpleasant to smell cooking.

 

Souse meat is just nasty. I'd rather eat chitlins.

Edited March 4, 2021 by kayb (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

3 minutes ago, kayb said:

Souse meat is just nasty. I'd rather eat chitlins.

I'll pass on both!

[kayb]

1 minute ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I'll pass on both!

I don't eat chitlins by choice.  But they are edible, if fried really crisp.

 

Souse meat is in no fashion edible.

 

[Tropicalsenior]

5 minutes ago, kayb said:

Souse meat is in no fashion edible.

I thought I knew what that was and I went to the internet and sure enough, head cheese! Yuck! My mother-in-law used to make that and I wouldn't go near her house for three days. She was the world's worst cook anyway and that was the bottom of the barrel.

[heidih]

I mentioned before about lack of headcheese love but did remember I took one for the team during my eG blog and it was its own sort of good. Billed as Hungarian - lots of medium hot paprika and packed with meat bits. Thin sliced and nice on sourdough rye with bit of spicy mustard.Held up to like it had a stained glass sort of look. 

[Kerala]

My wife (Nepalese but raised in a convent in Derbyshire) and children (born and bred in Notts) can't eat properly hot food. This is a sadness in my life, as it means I rarely eat the food of my childhood.

[heidih]

50 minutes ago, Kerala said:

My wife (Nepalese but raised in a convent in Derbyshire) and children (born and bred in Notts) can't eat properly hot food. This is a sadness in my life, as it means I rarely eat the food of my childhood.

 

Yes I can imagine that is a sadness. I always twitch when I hear or read people say how you can make it w/o spice for kids based on assumption they won't eat it spicy. .I respect various tastes and heat preferences but blanket assumptions bug me a bit. My father always put down "Mexican" food as heartburn causing- attributing to spice heat. Um no dad - it was the fat/grease that got you. Eat slower and pick less lardy laden items. 

[MokaPot]

I probably have a high tolerance for "fishy" and other objectionable food aromas. At my old work place, there were a lot of baby-tasters. Lots of complaints about food smells (e.g., curry) and use of the microwave. I had to be careful about what foods I brought to work and ended up going home to for lunch about a third of the time. (I was lucky to live close to work.)

[Katie Meadow]

9 hours ago, Kerala said:

My wife (Nepalese but raised in a convent in Derbyshire) and children (born and bred in Notts) can't eat properly hot food. This is a sadness in my life, as it means I rarely eat the food of my childhood.

Our solution, when our daughter was young, was to have roasted hot green chiles in the freezer in small packages that could be added to the finished meal, whether a curry or a pot of beans, upon serving as desired. I know it isn't exactly the same as a blend of hot spices, or as subtle, but at least we had some tasty heat when really needed.

[liuzhou]

The area of China where I live tends to the spicy (sometimes very), yet children eat the same as their parents. They soon get used to it.

 

Also, I have never seen a children's menu in a restaurant in China. Again, everyone eats the same irrespective of age.

 

Nor have I ever heard a parent complaining that their child is a 'fussy eater'. In fact, I've had trouble trying to explain the concept to Chinese people.

Edited March 5, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[patti]

Someone mentioned headcheese. I bet I’d love it if I ever actually tasted it, but I can’t get past my childhood memory of seeing it regularly in a grocery store display case and seeing what I was quite sure were toenail clippings in it. 
 

My husband’s family is a family of picky eaters. Cooking for them is not enjoyable because of how narrow their likes are. I recall showing up to a holiday dinner (many years ago) with cute little mini cheesecakes, some topped with blueberries and some with strawberries. Not a single one was eaten. Cheese? In cake?!  Another time, my B-I-L’s third wife was over for the first time. She hollered out to her husband, in another room,  “You’re not going to like anything she’s making!” Oy vey. 

Edited March 29, 2021 by patti (log)

[Shelby]

8 minutes ago, patti said:

Someone mentioned headcheese. I bet I’d love it if I ever actually tasted it, but I can’t get past my childhood memory of seeing it regularly in a grocery store display case and seeing what I was quite sure were toenail clippings in it. 
 

My husband’s family is a family of picky eaters. Cooking for them is not enjoyable because of how narrow their likes are. I recall showing up to a holiday dinner (many years ago) with cute little mini cheesecakes, some topped with blueberries and some with strawberries. Not a single one was eaten. Cheese? In cake?!  Another time, my B-I-L’s third wife was over for the first time. She hollered out to her husband, in another room,  “You’re not going to like anything she’s making!” Oh vey. 

Oh man, that's rude!  Ugh.  In-laws lol.

 

Head cheese isn't pretty, but I really like it.  I get it from here when I order our boudin---they have the best boudin IMO.

[ElsieD]

I love headcheese, particularly pickled headcheese although I no longer seem to be able to find it so I make do with the regular stuff.   I also like tongue and blood sausage for sandwiches.

[patti]

12 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Oh man, that's rude!  Ugh.  In-laws lol.

 

Head cheese isn't pretty, but I really like it.  I get it from here when I order our boudin---they have the best boudin IMO.

Best Stop definitely has good stuff. I wonder if cracklins travel well? There are now three other shops in the vicinity of Best Stop that are giving them stiff competition. My husband and I disagree on who makes the best boudin. If I’m picking it up, it’s from Billeaud’s. If my husband is picking it up, it’s from Chops. Have you tried crawfish boudin?

[Shelby]

41 minutes ago, patti said:

Best Stop definitely has good stuff. I wonder if cracklins travel well? There are now three other shops in the vicinity of Best Stop that are giving them stiff competition. My husband and I disagree on who makes the best boudin. If I’m picking it up, it’s from Billeaud’s. If my husband is picking it up, it’s from Chops. Have you tried crawfish boudin?

Crawfish boudin is my favorite  .  I've ordered the cracklins and they were great!  

[Toliver]

When I was in college, I worked at a Hickory Farms in the local shopping mall. They carried Head Cheese. I knew what it was before I started working there.

My mom's family, living in a small Kansas town, raised a yearly pig. She said her family ate everything but the "Oink"... the  "everything" included head cheese. My mom said the one thing she would never eat again was blood sausage. The old axiom says if you watch how sausage is made, you'll never eat it again. For my mom that was the blood sausage.

 

Her parents came to America from Bohemia. The national dish they used to eat as often as they could was pork roast and home-made sauerkraut which became my family's "national" dish. As a kid, I hated it. As an adult, I adore it. Fortunately, I learned from my mom how to make it before she passed. She would also make a "knock off" version using Country Pork Ribs instead of the pork roast. Still quite good.

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

4 minutes ago, Toliver said:

I learned from my mom how to make

Did you make your own sauerkraut?

[Toliver]

Just now, Tropicalsenior said:

Did you make your own sauerkraut?

No. My one give-in to modern times.

My Aunt Mary, who raised my mom, would make buckets of home-made sauerkraut every week (she oversaw a family of 9 kids) so she always had some on hand ready to serve with the traditional pork roast.

And Sunday was Aunt Mary's baking day when she would make all the bread they would eat during the rest of the week.

[Tropicalsenior]

28 minutes ago, Toliver said:

baking day

My grandmother was about four foot nine and weighed about 85 pounds. She had eight kids and every week she would bake 10 loaves of bread to feed her family. Mealtime at her house was pretty bland. Almost everything was boiled and sometimes fried, but, boy, could she bake! And she made barrels of sauerkraut. Dreaded nasty rotten sauerkraut!

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

I love headcheese, particularly pickled headcheese although I no longer seem to be able to find it so I make do with the regular stuff.

 Could you explain the concept “pickled headcheese” ?

[Anna N]

. Since I think it’s extremely rude to answer a question addressed to another poster (unless it sits unanswered for days) let me first of all apologize to @ElsieD. I love head cheese so my curiosity was aroused with this question and I found myself falling down the rabbit hole. One of the places I landed was here!

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

. Since I think it’s extremely rude to answer a question addressed to another poster (unless it sits unanswered for days) let me first of all apologize to @ElsieD. I love head cheese so my curiosity was aroused with this question and I found myself falling down the rabbit hole. One of the places I landed was here!

Hmm ... for me that would just be headcheese with vinegar in it (as about half of the varieties of Sülze have here). I do not see the pickling aspect, that for me would involve some treatment/storage option for the final product. Or maybe I got lost in translation, as so often ...

[heidih]

5 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Hmm ... for me that would just be headcheese with vinegar in it (as about half of the varieties of Sülze have here). I do not see the pickling aspect, that for me would involve some treatment/storage option for the final product. Or maybe I got lost in translation, as so often ...

Yes step mom's Sultze is very vinegary. She adds even more when eating. Always in a glass dish in icebox so the quivery mass & vinegar hit you as you open the door. Kinda why I never ventured to this https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Ham-and-Parsley-Terrine/