Beans Beans Beans... What Did You Grow Up On? - Regional Foods & Brands

[Phillip Dampier]

We all know Better Most isn't a real brand, but thinking about nostalgic foods, how about a thread about the unique foods and brands in your area that say home and family to you?

Here in Rochester, NY - we are known for a variety of products that originated here and/or are made here - Cool Whip, Jell-O, Ragu & Francisco Rinaldi sauces, the R.T. French's spice company, and perhaps the most unusual thing of all to ask an out of towner: "would you like a red or white hot?"  Yes, here in Rochester and lots of western NY places red hot dogs are sold right next to the white hot dogs, all thanks to Zweigles, a Rochester sausage and hot dog institution.

If you are lucky enough to have a Wegmans supermarket in your area (another gift from our city to yours), you might find them.

For baked beans, there is one major local favorite - Grandma Brown's, which is very popular in both Rochester and Buffalo.   Some slices of bacon and lots of brown sugar and into the oven... a picnic favorite around here...

What's your area's greatest foods and brands?

[twistedude]

Duriong WWII (a lot of you may not know!--in fact, probably ALL of you), there was very strict butter and meat and sugar rationing.  But all I remember is 1) the white margerine, with the dark orange bubble in the center, which you had to spread yourself throughout the big cube, thus making it butter colored. and 2) a WONDERFUL recepe my mother had for sour cream pancakes (sour cream was NOT rationed!--it was so much better than pancakes made with butter!

My whole childhood, otherwise, and even during ther war! seems to have been awash with meat, sugar--and lots and lots of salads, which my mother mixed in a wooden bowl, which she would rub every day with garlic, and only riinse after meals. She would make the dressing in one of ther big wooden spoons, ands stir it with the wooden fork...they were delicious.

Chicago, 1941-45

[Phillip Dampier]

Duriong WWII (a lot of you may not know!--in fact, probably ALL of you), there was very strict butter and meat and sugar rationing.  But all I remember is 1) the white margerine, with the dark orange bubble in the center, which you had to spread yourself throughout the big cube, thus making it butter colored. and 2) a WONDERFUL recepe my mother had for sour cream pancakes (sour cream was NOT rationed!--it was so much better than pancakes made with butter!

My parents used to tell me about that.  They used to fight over who got to either break the dot and add it or who got to mix it up.  Apparently it was sold both ways.

My whole childhood, otherwise, and even during ther war! seems to have been awash with meat, sugar--and lots and lots of salads, which my mother mixed in a wooden bowl, which she would rub every day with garlic, and only riinse after meals. She would make the dressing in one of ther big wooden spoons, ands stir it with the wooden fork...they were delicious.

I wonder how much of our society in our current war reflects at all on life during WWII.  I sense it's probably closer to what we went through during Vietnam, because I'm sure most Americans felt far more threatened by the Japanese and Germans than we ever did against Saddam or Ho Chi Minh.  It is amazing how weird things are when unexpected things you take for granted happen.  During a budget crisis a few years ago, they turned off all the expressway lights at night.  It was a very bizarre sensation.  Last year's Katrina impact on gas (and having it be unavailable at many stations here for a time) was unsettling as well.  All minor I'm sure compared to the profound impact a world war has on a country.

[isabelle]

I am from Brittany, in the North West of France. The traditional food here is pancakes (brown wheat for main course, sweet pancakes for desert). But in MY particular part of Brittany, we call the main-course pancake "Galette'. At weekends, when we used to go to the seaside , we would always stop on the way back home to get us each a "galette saucisse", which is this brown-wheat pancake in which you roll up a grilled sausage - yummy!
Otherwise, we Bretons are known for loving butter, and SALTY butter at that, whereas in the rest of France they have salt-free butter - tasteless to us!

[Phillip Dampier]

Otherwise, we Bretons are known for loving butter, and SALTY butter at that, whereas in the rest of France they have salt-free butter - tasteless to us!

I think I discovered that when our local grocer started carrying French-made butter.  Our grocer carries the President brand of butter, made in France, and when they say "salted" they mean it.  The salt almost seems more like sea salt - it's different from the usual salted butter.  The European butters with a higher butterfat content are relatively new to a lot of Americans.  Our butter, typically sold in more narrow sticks, usually contains less butterfat and is milder in flavor.  The big brand for a lot of us is Land 'o Lakes.  Plugra butter is also sold, among others.

Unsalted butter is fine for cooking/recipes, but is practically tasteless to me as a spread for bread or table use.

[Lynne]

So, from time to time, I've been doing some research about brands local to TN....and here's what I've discovered...
Bush beans were the favored brand in the 1960's...national brand today.  One of my favorite camping meals is Annie's mac and cheese with the vegetarian baked beans and sliced SmartDogs.  For the carnivores, Bush's distributes the Showboat pork-n-beans...not elk, but you make do, right?

[Lynne]

And for dairy products, PET and Mayfield seem to be the two choices from the 1960's.  I knew about Mayfield - they're still around today, but PET is almost solely condensed milk now.  I was clued into PET because they're a sponsor of the Grand Ole Opry seen recently in Walk the Line but haven't found a logo for them.  Purity is the prominent brand today.

[Lynne]

OK...the last of the shameless TN promotion...they're not Ol' Rose, but we make do...In this narrow instance only, George is leaps and bounds better than Jack, but of course, Jack has better PR.  And both are made within 15 miles of me.

[opinionista]

Well, I actually grew up on beans! My mother made me eat them when I was a kid, but I never really liked them. Now I don't eat them. But my brother and sister do, they even crave on beans.

[ednbarby]

Hey, Phillip, don't forget that the Rochester area also gave us Honey Brown beer and Pink Catawba (blech) wine.  I try to explain the concept of red and white hots (aren't the white hots made from chicken, or are those made from pork too?) to people not from that area and they look at me like I have three eyes.  Also, do you remember when the biggest competition for McDonald's was Carrols, not Burger King?  I think maybe Carvel custard originated there, too, but I'm not sure.

I lived in Dayton, Ohio for a while, and bratwurst (or brat for short, pronounced brawt) is big there, and they do have red and white versions of it.  ("Would you like a red brat or a white brat?")  Not the same as white hots - more like Italian sausage.  Then there's the famous Skyline chili, originated in Cincinnati.  Really more of a spicy spaghetti sauce than a chili - they serve it over spaghetti and with shredded cheddar cheese on top call it a "three-way."

Here in South Florida, the regional tastes really have been brought here by people from other areas.  There are a lot of Cuban and Jewish influences - the Cuban coffee will knock your socks off (it's like a triple shot of espresso) and you can throw a stone in any direction and hit a Jewish deli.  Can't think of anything that originated here, though, other than the Boca Blonde beer made at the local Brewwzi's restaurant.  We do have those coconut patties, I guess, which are like York peppermint patties except it's all coconut inside instead of a sugary goo.

[Pipedream]

Proud Kraut here:

 

[Toast]

Hi Lynne
it is interesting that you have Purity as a brand name in Tennessee
we also have Purity (Purity Factories) here in Newfoundland. (Canada)
they make baked goods mainly - biscuits.
crackers and cookies.
but our main "cultural" product that they make is Purity Hard Bread.
this "sea biscuit" kind of a bread, is used to make a dish we call brewis.
the hard bread will keep forever.
it is a relic of the British Navy, and was stored below deck on ships at sea.
Just soak it for a couple of hours, and serve warmed as the carbohydrate replacement.
served like potato with fish dishes.


We also have our Newfie screech (rum)

and when we joined Canada in 1949, we were allowed to have our margarine yellowed.  there was a part of the confederation agreement that we did not have to add our own colour to the margarine.  we still have yellower margarine than most of Canada, even though the Eversweet Margarine is now made in Ontario for us.

Beans in Newfoundland are purchased canned as well
but we love our home made baked beans and we have a dish called stewed beans, kind of a soup with a small amount of salt beef, vegetables and lots of dried beans well cooked.



ps Purity Bread from Newfoundland actually shows up on the shelves of Monroe's supermarket.

[Pipedream]

Just got to mention something else: Steinpilze aka funghi porcini aka yellow boletuses (is that the right English expression?).... Yum, yum, yum, yum!!! 

Forget brands! Forget supermarkets! Pack a knife and a basket and venture out into nature! Best time of the year: end of August, beginning of September. Best place to look for them? Naw, I won't tell ya. No true Steinpilz-maniac ever will.

Don't buy them at the market! Don't buy them pickled! They taste their very best when found personally, crawling under the trees; Guess it's something you just inherit. My Dad's that crazy aswell. Luv him.
It also helps when you don't live in a big city...


 

[ProwlAmongUs]

I grew up and still live in the Syracuse, NY area, and Grandma Brown's Beans were what many fell back on when not wanting to go the extra mile to make their own. Red and white hots are another memory. Enrico's spaghetti sauce, made in Syracuse, was my mom's short cut when I was a kid. Thanks for jogging my memory.

[hermitdave]

 I grew up in rural Texas. The food I remember most is my grandmothers cooking. She made the best cornbread. It was baked in an old cast iron pan. It was crunchy on the edges and moist but textured (corn meal) throughout. She also made homemade buttermilk biscuits,  banana pudding, and the most delicious peach cobbler. I wish I had the recipes (even though I dont cook). Nowadays, I buy whatever frozen dinners are on sale. Five minutes in the microwave and dinner is served- yuck.

[TJ]

I grew up mostly in Rogers County, Oklahoma. I was born in the Cherokee community of Tiawah which is now south of Claremore, the county seat. Except for living as a baby in Los Angeles when Dad worked for Douglas Aircraft during WWII, we never lived in a real city until we moved to Tulsa when I was in the 11th grade.

We had all kinds of beans to eat when I was growing up. I tolerated "blackeyed peas," which were not peas but beans.

We were just lower-middle-class or lower-class income type people. We lived in the country quite a few times, too and then the milk and eggs we had was as fresh as fresh could be.

There were times we had very little to eat; but, we never starved, because the LORD provided.

Someone had given us some blackstrap molasses which most people used as a health tonic and it was bitter when taken straight. But, mom used it with ginger spice and vanilla and made molasses cookies. It was almost like Jesus changing the water into wine; they tasted like they were made with regular dark molasses.

I also liked Spam growing up and I still like it. I buy a few cans of it every month.

One thing that I just liked naturally when I was growing up was Tex-Mex type foods. Mom would buy "Chili Bowl" brand mix which was made the size of a regular red brick. You added water and some more meat to make the chili.

Now in my old age, 63, I consider Picante Salsa to be a major food group.

[Rayn]

My folks are from New York city, so I was brought up on a lot of different foods that they liked. My father taught my mother how to cook and is still better in the kitchen today.  He makes a mean New York Italian spaghetti sauce from a family recipe (we have Italians in the family) and a hearty lamb stew that is great on cold winter nights, but what I liked best from the local area I grew up in (Southern California) was Mexican foods like tamales, enchiladas, tacos, tostados, chile verde or carnittas. 

The best beans to me were pinto beans or navy beans always cooked with a ham hock for flavor.  We also were friends with a Native American tribe and ate amazing food at feasts when the men came home after hunts.  Venison was cooked in stews and served with hominy and stone oven baked bread, but you know what my very favorite thing to eat as a boy was?  I loved plain old Campbell’s Pork and Beans from the can with a package of franks and lots of ketchup on top!  LOL 

Yep.  I still eat that as a "comfort food"... that or homemade Macaroni and Cheese also with ketchup.  It doesn't take too much to please me.  I'm a man of simple and often ordinary tastes.

Surely,
Rayn

[Jeff Wrangler]

I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Amish Country (think of Witness, with Harrison Ford). New Jersey may call itself the Garden State, but for generations Lancaster County has billed itself as the Garden Spot of America.

Since it's now late spring and summer is a-comin' in, my thoughts are turning to the locally grown produce we feasted on. First, at this time of year, local strawberries and what we in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country know as "sugar peas" but the rest of the world knows as "snow peas."

How that staple of Asian cooking made its way to the Dutch Country I have no idea, but they have been grown in Central Pennsylvania long enough to be considered a part of "traditional" Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.

Later in the summer we had the best tomatoes in the civilized world, and the same for the sweet corn. I have fond memories of going to a farm market with my parents, buying white sweet corn that had been picked that morning, and having it for supper that evening. (Yes, my family was close enough to its rural roots that we had "supper," just like Ennis and Jack.)

As for brand names, Campbell's was big in our area, too. I lived close enough to my elementary school that I was able to go home for lunch every day, and usually my mother had Campbell's soup for me for lunch. Campbell's Vegetable Beef is still my favorite. Also, while the rest of the world stuffed itself with Hostess snack cakes, we had southeastern Pennsylvania's own brand, Tastykake!

We also had a local dairy that specialized in milk from Guernsey cows. You don't see Guernsey dairy herds any more, because farmers switched to Holsteins, which give more milk per pound of feed, but Guernsey milk has a higher butterfat content. When I was 4 years old, I nearly died of a ruptured appendix, and I lost a lot of weight during my illness. As I was recovering, my mother gave me Guernsey milk to fatten me up. Boy, did it ever!

My favorite comfort food is still homemade macaroni and cheese, prepared according to my mother's recipe, baked in a casserole dish with tomato sauce included among the layers of elbow macaroni and cheese slices.

[2robots4u]

Hi all, I just found this thread and have enjoyed reading it.  I remember my mom and aunt telll us kids about what they could and could not get during WWII (I was born in 1942).  As a young boy in the south we ate pinto beans almost every day, but after coming to Calif my mom still cooked the southern way...pinto beans and cornbread.  I finally rebelled and refused to eat almost every kind of bean made, except good ole Campbell's Pork and Beans.  I have since resumed eating pinto beans, but now they are called refried beans and I eat them only on a Mexican plate.

I don't recall food labels until I took an interest in cooking (when your interest is eating, and I did enjoy it as I was a skinny kid who could never gain enough weight, you don't pay attention to brands).  In So. Cal we had most of the national brands and a few not-so-familiar brands.  Over the years I have seen more and more new brands and the spreading of brands usually found in a specific region of the country.  With the up-start of "speciality" stores (Trader Joe's for instance) it became possible to find almost any brand you wanted...of course, cost was a major factor in whether or
not you bought it.  And now, with the constant buying/selling of food companies, you'll find those delicious sweet roll you love so much, are actually made by Alpo Dog Food Co.  But we still eat them, don't we?

[mvansand76]

Boerenkool met worst (Curly cale with mashed potatoes and sausage)
Zuurkool stamppot (Sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and sausage)
Bloemkool, aardappelen en vlees!
Vla, sperziebonen,...

[Amber]

I grew up on a combination of Polish cooking and good ol' country cooking.

Some of the Polish favorites: 

Pieorgies made the real way - ditch the potatoes and garlic.  Make your own basic dough, add cottage cheese, boil and then fry the pieorgies in butter.  I can't even look at a box of frozen pieorgies.  When I was really little though they were called "Froggies" by my grandparents who taught us the recipe.

We also ate a lot of this thick barley and tomato soup/stew.  We called it Jimesetti (completely unsure of the spelling!!) but I have no idea what the original name of the dish is.  It's barley, small veggies, tomato sauce, ground beef and molasses.  Delicious.  It was my choice of birthday dinners for a LONG time!

As far as the country cooking - my favorite is my grandfathers milk gravy.  There is nothing better along side a good biscuit, fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  Delicious!!  Heck, it's even great with Elk steaks - which I have had the pleasure of eating on occassion.

Who else had grandparents who fed them food and only told them afterwards what they actually ate.  Mine did that ALL the time.  "Oh by the way, how did you like the elk, dove, quail, phesant etc."  Can't tell you how often this happened to me when visiting grandma and grandpa *lol*

[Jeff Wrangler]

Who else had grandparents who fed them food and only told them afterwards what they actually ate.  Mine did that ALL the time.  "Oh by the way, how did you like the elk, dove, quail, phesant etc."  Can't tell you how often this happened to me when visiting grandma and grandpa *lol*

I can't say my grandparents ever pulled that one on me, but it makes me think of a certain Pennsylvania German delicacy--I use that word lightly--I was subjected to from time to time while growing up: Pig stomach! (I think in other parts of the U.S. it may be called "hog maw," but among the Pennsylvania Germans it's just plain pig stomach.)

Anyway, it used to be said that farmers used every part of the pig except the squeal, so my grandmother would take a thoroughly cleaned pig stomach, stuff it with diced potatoes and sausage, and roast it for I-don't-know-how-long. The stuffing of sausage and potatoes was actually pretty good, but they'd never get me to eat the stomach itself, which turns brown and crisp from the roasting.

I'll never forget one November when Grandma actually suggested having pig stomach for Thanksgiving Dinner. I looked at my mother, and my mother looked at me, and Mother then announced that we would have Thanksgiving Dinner at our house. Mother didn't like pig stomach either! 

[Andrew]

For me in Indiana, it was B&M Boston Baked Beans.  Maybe that planted a subconscious seed that ended up with my being in Boston.  I have to wonder if the BetterMost name had something to do with B&M as well as Brokeback Mountain.

My mother got them in the glass jars.  They had a lump of pork fat at the top.  Something like the one pictured below, but as I remember the jars were more practical, straight-sided so you could pack more into your pantry.

http://www.bgfoods.com/bm/bm_products.asp

[Lynne]

I am on a quest for the thread that mentioned a now-defunct Old Rose distillery...this isn't it, but it's fun!

*bump*

[loneleeb3]

I am on a quest for the thread that mentioned a now-defunct Old Rose distillery...this isn't it, but it's fun!

*bump*

I been lookin for old rose and can't find it anywhere. Maybe thats why! LOL

[Ellemeno]

I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Amish Country (think of Witness, with Harrison Ford). New Jersey may call itself the Garden State, but for generations Lancaster County has billed itself as the Garden Spot of America.

Since it's now late spring and summer is a-comin' in, my thoughts are turning to the locally grown produce we feasted on. First, at this time of year, local strawberries and what we in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country know as "sugar peas" but the rest of the world knows as "snow peas."

How that staple of Asian cooking made its way to the Dutch Country I have no idea, but they have been grown in Central Pennsylvania long enough to be considered a part of "traditional" Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.

Hi Jeff, I'm very late to this conversation.  Sugar peas and snow peas aren't the same.  Snow peas are very flat (though maybe curled).  Sugar pea pods are more rounded, more like English peas, and are much more flavorful.  I am proof they are different - I love sugar peas, and am not wild about snow peas.