'Out of Style' Foods you love

[jhlurie]

Chicken parm(esan(o)), baby.

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VEAL parm(esan(o))!

The classics never die. Take that, baby cow!

[ruthcooks]

I learned to cook with Julia Child when French food was in vogue. Still love anything with cream and butter...I'm not too fond of vegetables, but put one in a cream sauce with buttered crumbs and I'll gladly make it my entire dinner.

Quiches and crepes are favorites, too.

[touaregsand]

I hate that there are so many fashion and food police theses days to tell everyone what's hot and what's not..I'm always aghast at what some of these guys are wearing/eating themselves....

That said....Let's hear it for veal or chicken cordon bleu. As soon as the Atkins people put out the word... it will have a new run.

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I agree.

My husband is a chef and we like to develop new recipes. But we are not of the mindset that dishes go out of style. I recall a food critic jokingly (I hope) asking a chef if seared sea scallops were out of style. A seared scallop is out of style? How does a simple ingredient and a basic way of cooking it become out of style? The "hot" chefs apparently boil them now?

As an experiment I would like to gather a list of "out of style" dishes and invite trendy food critics to try my husband's versions of them. And ask them a simple question, "does it taste good/great?"

[NulloModo]

I recall a food critic jokingly (I hope) asking a chef if seared sea scallops were out of style.  A seared scallop is out of style? How does a simple ingredient and a basic way of cooking it become out of style? The "hot" chefs apparently boil them now?

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That was Steingarten to Mario Battali on ICA.

[Lone Star]

I didn't know salmon patties were out of style!

They are in my repertoire of weeknight dinners. Now what am I going to do?

[touaregsand]

Does anyone else remember the anti-beef "movement" about 17-18 years ago? Americans were drastically cutting down on the amount of beef they were eating. Or am I remembering it as a bigger thing than it actually was?

[Susan G]

Lemon pound cake with confectioners sugar icing. Angle food cakes. Freezer cakes. Bundt cakes. (I'm noticing a trend here!)

Stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, oysters Rockefeller. Beef stroganoff.

I'm saying these foods are out of style, just that perhaps they've slipped below the collective radar.

And I miss them.

[Ovenfrenzy]

I love the hopelessly un-trendy "layered salad", which I think is from the 70's...It's a cold gloppy dish of iceberg lettuce, peas, cheese,red onions,tomatoes, and mayonnaise(or Miracle Whip! ) all tossed together after sitting in the fridge all night. I also love to read the passe Silver Palate cookbooks- the recipes seem SO dated but wickedly delicious at the same time- everything is rich, napped in cream, fried in butter, topped with cheese...and spritzed with raspberry vinegar! I confess I haven't tried to many of the recipes, but those I have tried were fantastic.

[snowangel]

Last night, prompted by this thread, Paul and I were recalling the first Xmas party for the company I used to work for, back in 1981. It was a small company, and there were only 12 of us total, so we fit around one table. The meal: Beef Wellington (carved tableside). Caesar salad (tossed tableside). Cherries flambe (flambed tableside). Don't see meals like that every often anymore.

[Lone Star]

Lemon pound cake with confectioners sugar icing.  Angle food cakes.  Freezer cakes.  Bundt cakes. (I'm noticing a trend here!)

Stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, oysters Rockefeller.  Beef stroganoff.

I'm saying these foods are out of style, just that perhaps they've slipped below the collective radar.

And I miss them.

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Your post just jarred memories of my mother baking angel food cakes, taking them out of the oven and inverting the pan on a glass 7-Up bottle she kept just for that purpose.

[WHS]

Chicken a la King

[lcdm]

Spinach Dip served in hollowed out pumpernickle.

[lesfen]

Spinach Dip served in hollowed out pumpernickle.

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Ohhh. I love it. LOVE IT!!! It's alive and well here in the heartland. God bless my mother... if you invite her to any function, she'll come armed with a batch, and a back up batch. Around the holidays, she might also have a cheese ball (cream cheese, green olives, sharp cheddar, horseradish... all rolled into a ball and covered in walnuts.) and a box of Wheat Thins stashed somewhere.

[iheartoffal]

Spinach Dip served in hollowed out pumpernickle.

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I love it, too! I used to just camp out by that stuff at family christmas parties and the like. You know what? I think I'll make some tonight! lol

[lesfen]

Spinach Dip served in hollowed out pumpernickle.

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I love it, too! I used to just camp out by that stuff at family christmas parties and the like. You know what? I think I'll make some tonight! lol

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I've already sent the man of the house to the grocery store for supplies... he's just as excited as I am!!

[slbunge]

Around the holidays, she might also have a cheese ball (cream cheese, green olives, sharp cheddar, horseradish... all rolled into a ball and covered in walnuts.) and a box of Wheat Thins stashed somewhere.

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I love that sort of cheeseball, and Wheat Thins always seem to be the right accompaniment.

[markk]

A favorite of my husband's that you never see on menus anymore is Lobster Thermidor.

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I LOVE Lobster Thermidor, and no, you don't. But when Emeril's opened the first Delmonico's restaurant in New Orleans around 1996 or 97, it was on their menu, and it was absolutely sensational. I've never seen it on a restaurant menu since. I think it's a dish that needs to make a comeback!

[hjshorter]

Chicken a la King

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I still make this all the time - same recipe my mom used from the 1965 Fannie Farmer cookbook. Served on toast, of course.

[jgarner53]

spinach dip, definitely. It's one of those things that always gets devoured if I serve it at a party or bring to a pot luck.

fondue and quiche both

hot dogs sliced down the middle and stuffed with cheddar cheese, then rolled in a Pillsbury crescent roll and baked. (I always thought that the term "pigs in a blanket" referred to sausage rolled in pancakes.)

dutch baby pancakes

port wine cheese spread (either in a tub or formed into a ball and rolled in almonds). Anyone remember cheese spread coming in ceramic crocks?

[SuzySushi]

Just thought of another one you don't see any more:

When I was studying Italian at The New School in NYC oh, so many years ago, after class, a friend and I would sometimes dine at Vesuvio, a long-gone Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. Our entrees varied, but for dessert we'd inevitably order strawberries with zabaglione, which the waiter prepared at the table in a copper bowl.

No one wants to touch undercooked eggs anymore.

[Andrew Fenton]

Does anyone else remember the anti-beef "movement" about 17-18 years ago? Americans were drastically cutting down on the amount of beef they were eating. Or am I remembering it as a bigger thing than it actually was? 

No, it was a big thing-- or at least a high-profile media thing, what with the fat and the cholesterol and the hey hey MY ARTERIES! But as a movement, it was sacrificed on the altar of the great god Atkins...

[Andrew Fenton]

What do we mean by "out of style", anyway? I note that nobody's mentioning larks' tongues pickled in aspic, or swan poached in galantyne, or mastodon steak a la Grandpa Ugg. But you can't find any of these at a restaurant nowadays; more's the pity.

[Carlovski]

What do we mean by "out of style", anyway?  I note that nobody's mentioning larks' tongues pickled in aspic, or swan poached in galantyne, or mastodon steak a la Grandpa Ugg.  But you can't find any of these at a restaurant nowadays; more's the pity.

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And what about wolf nipple chips?

[Carlovski]

What do we mean by "out of style", anyway?  I note that nobody's mentioning larks' tongues pickled in aspic, or swan poached in galantyne, or mastodon steak a la Grandpa Ugg.  But you can't find any of these at a restaurant nowadays; more's the pity.

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Whoops, submitted twice and now can't think of anything to say!

Edited February 23, 2005 by Carlovski (log)

[andiesenji]

Just thought of another one you don't see any more:

When I was studying Italian at The New School in NYC oh, so many years ago, after class, a friend and I would sometimes dine at Vesuvio, a long-gone Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. Our entrees varied, but for dessert we'd inevitably order strawberries with zabaglione, which the waiter prepared at the table in a copper bowl.

No one wants to touch undercooked eggs anymore. 

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And the sad thing is that this doesn't make sense. It is so easy to pasteurize eggs. I have been doing it at home for a long time. For a while we had pasteurized eggs in some markets and I believe some markets down in the LA/OC areas still carry them but I can't buy them up here.

I just pasteurize all my eggs immediatley after I bring them home from the market, then refrigerate them.

The recommended time to hold them at 142 degrees is 3 1/2 minutes - I make it 5 minutes, just to be sure and because I use mostly jumbo eggs. This is not hot enough to cook them but is hot enough to kill the salmonella bacteria.

I love eggnog, syllabub and the above-mentioned zabaglione as well as very soft "French" style omelettes and very soft scrambled eggs, coddled and soft-boiled eggs, eggs sunny-side-up and so on.

I can't even remember how many years ago I got the information from either U.C. Davis or Cal Poly Pomona about pasteurizing eggs but it has been close to 30 as I have been using them since the 70s.

Edited February 23, 2005 by andiesenji (log)