Ask Lemmy

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.

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.

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.

There was one specific flavour of crisps made by a local company that I used to think were awesome as a kid. They made all kinds, but those were the best.

I am not sure whether I got older or whether they changed the recipe, but the last time I tried them they were not the same.

There's also one specific kind of cake that a local supermarket used to sell that was literally the best cake ever. And of course they cancelled it because they "weren't selling enough". The staff were very surprised at the number of people who asked for it after it went away. But then, they weren't the ones who made the decision to cancel it.

Snelgrove’s burnt almond fudge ice cream. It was a revelation, and now it’s gone forever.

Vanilla coke. The older version tasted like proper vanilla and now it tastes just bad.

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.

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.

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.

I spent a fair bit of time in hospitals as a kid and subsequently, because the two are somehow linked, ate a lot of grapes.

I genuinely swear to you, thirty years ago white grapes used to be delicious, and unless they were getting old and gross, they weren't even particularly sweet. Their flavour wasn't strong, the skin was fruity and the flesh was slightly sour, but they were so refreshing and watery, and if they'd been in the fridge, crunchy too! Oh and they had pips! I used to try and swallow the pips whole as spitting them was gross, but ngl I even kinda miss the crunchy tannins they bought to the experience.

In some mad fit of nostalgia not too long ago, I bought all the green grapes I could find online that I could get delivered to me. I spent like £80 on grapes.

Grapes suck now. They are all so obnoxiously sweet, every variety I could get my hands on tasted like juice concentrate, and they're all freaking huge now too. Fuck whoever decided grapes needed to taste like 'cotton candy', you ruined grapes.

Healthy food.

Tomatoes.

Back then: the home grown ones of my mom were the normal thing. Strong taste, a little sour maybe.

Nowadays: only water with only a slight remembrance of tomato. Thick and hard wax on the outside.

Last time I had Oreos was about two years ago. They must have changed the recipe for the cookies because it tasted so bad — even when I dunked it in milk... If anyone lives in Japan, Noir is a way better alternative.

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 must second the disappointment that is modern jerky. I loved how a piece used to take a long time to chew.

For me it's been kutchup. I don't remember it being so sweet. It used to be tangy and salty. I stopped buying and using it about two decades ago and recently tried making an old family recipe. It came out rather sweet. Definitely not how i remember. Went looking for a sugar free version of katchup and got tricked. The suger free katchup was loaded with artificial sweetener. Had to make the katchup from scratch in the end. Why is suger in everything now?

Ecto Cooler Kool Aid.

Cookie dough ice cream, without chocolate chips. Maybe it was a limited time thing, but I remember having this at an ice cream shop similar to Baskin Robbins in my youth. It was just plain vanilla ice cream with cookie dough in it and neither part had chocolate chips.

I get that I'm likely one of very few people this would have sold to. But, I really do wish I could have this again.

Hamburger helper. I'm not sure if it was my taste buds as a kid VS adult, but I hadn't had it in years and wanted to share the experience with my kids. It was so bad. It tasted like stale powders and cardboard. I know it wasn't the height of cuisine but at least it was edible. This wasn't.