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Why We Pay More for Retro Foods; and the Food Cartel That Started One! · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:03
  Nancy May: So Sylvia, this is gonna sound like a joke starting out, but it's not.
• 0:07
  So - six researchers did an experiment, like six researchers in a bar, and they kept getting the same results
• 0:14
  Sylvia France: What can that possibly be?
• 0:17
  Nancy May: Well, hopefully it didn't involve beer, but maybe it did.
• 0:20
  But apparently when people feel nostalgic they'll actually pay more for anything
• 0:26
  Sylvia France: So when the snack you grew up on comes back with a old label
• 0:30
  Nancy May: Guess what?
• 0:30
  You're gonna be paying through the nose for it
• 0:33
  Sylvia France: meanwhile, Spam was hitting record sales while grocery prices climbed
• 0:37
  Nancy May: All right.
• 0:38
  Spam to me is dog food.
• 0:40
  I bought it once, never again
• 0:42
  Sylvia France: Well, my mom, and I understand your aunt would argue with you
• 0:46
  Nancy May: She would, but she dressed a can up well, not in a skirt, but we'll talk about that a little later on.
• 0:53
  I still will not buy it.
• 0:55
  I'm sorry
• 0:56
  Sylvia France: By the end of this, you'll know which of these is
• 0:58
  worth your grocery money and which ones Nancy and I don't agree on
• 1:03
  Nancy May: You might be surprised on that one, but thank you for listening.
• 1:07
  we are your award-winning podcasters so let's grab a glass and toast to that one, among other things, like retro foods
• 1:16
  Sylvia France: To whatever your family served that you still can't explain.
• 1:20
  I have several of those.
• 1:22
  so I'll fess up.
• 1:24
  I drank Bartles & Jaymes in college
• 1:27
  Nancy May: Ooh, not this one.
• 1:28
  The one with the malt beverage
• 1:30
  Sylvia France: Of course not
• 1:32
  , Nancy May: And to my friend Diane's Jell-O salad
• 1:36
  Sylvia France: Cheers.
• 1:37
  Sante to health
• 1:38
  Nancy May: Cheers, cheers.
• 1:39
  Sylvia France: So I understand you like Jell-O salad.
• 1:43
  To me, that's hospital food or what you had in the cafeteria when you were in elementary school.
• 1:48
  Ugh
• 1:49
  Nancy May: Well, not just any Jell-O salad, to be honest with you.
• 1:52
  My friend Diane's Jell-O salad, I never thought I'd like it, but she served it one Christmas Eve dinner.
• 1:59
  I could've eaten the whole thing and left the turkey to the side
• 2:02
  Sylvia France: Well, I asked my millennial son what he considered retro foods.
• 2:07
  He put Jell-O casserole on his list right next to pineapple upside-down cake, Spam, and SOS
• 2:15
  Nancy May: Not one thing from his lunchbox even as a kid?
• 2:18
  And I've never heard of Jell-O casserole
• 2:20
  Sylvia France: Not one.
• 2:21
  For him, retro is his grandparents' table
• 2:24
  Nancy May: So if you ask somebody else his age, you're likely gonna get what was in their lunchbox or on the lunch
• 2:30
  tray at school either way, a lot of it started all, of course, with a company
• 2:35
  Sylvia France: And marketing too.
• 2:37
  Well, at least Jell-O salad did.
• 2:39
  A gelatin company ran a recipe contest in 1905, and third place was cabbage set in gelatin.
• 2:47
  Ugh.
• 2:48
  It sounds awful.
• 2:49
  Every account credits it to Mrs. John E. Cook.
• 2:53
  What is ironic is no one ever wrote down her first name
• 2:57
  Nancy May: That is so sad.
• 2:58
  And if you can find it you might be better sleuths than we are.
• 3:02
  Please send it to us in our Facebook group at Family Tree Food Stories on Facebook or Instagram
• 3:07
  Sylvia France: But she's not the only one.
• 3:09
  There's another woman whose recipe probably on your Thanksgiving table and you don't know her name either
• 3:16
  Nancy May: Later.
• 3:16
  So I have to say that your son's cake came out of a contest too.
• 3:21
  Did you know that the Hawaiian Pineapple Company - ran one in 1925, and the company said that about 2,500
• 3:28
  people sent in, you got it, pineapple upside-down cake as their recipe
• 3:34
  Sylvia France: That's the company selling its pineapple.
• 3:37
  Nancy May: right?
• 3:38
  Which is why we're saying the company says.
• 3:41
  The upside down part is a lot older, however.
• 3:44
  People were doing that with plums and apples and cast iron skillets way back in the 1800s.
• 3:49
  I'm gonna guess your grandma did it in her cast iron pan too
• 3:53
  Sylvia France: Probably, I would guess she did.
• 3:55
  Oh, and tell me about SOS.
• 3:58
  I know he knows what it stands for, and I would wash his mouth out with soap, and I'm not saying it because I'm a lady
• 4:06
  Nancy May: No, and SOS is not your scrubby either.
• 4:10
  my feeling is that the disgusting SOS is the creamed chipped beef
• 4:15
  on toast, straight out of the Army's 1910 manual for Army cooks.
• 4:19
  dried beef and canned milk were kept in the field, and the polite version of SOS, save our stomachs and same old stuff.
• 4:28
  I like the SOS that we know.
• 4:32
  Sylvia France: Before we get to why we're craving any of this, thank you for being here.
• 4:36
  I am so glad you're listening today
• 4:39
  Nancy May: And since you are, please follow us and the show and leave us a review at Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.
• 4:46
  That's how anybody finds us
• 4:48
  Sylvia France: And also, don't forget to sign up for our newsletter but before we begin, a shout-out to
• 4:54
  another Sylvia, Sylvia Scott in the UK, and our new friends in Portugal
• 4:59
  Nancy May: Cheer cheers or cheerio to Sylvia.
• 5:02
  And tell us your retro food because we'd like to put it on trial, mm, - somewhere
• 5:07
  along the line at least in Facebook, and we read every one of our messages
• 5:11
  Sylvia France: Psychologists have actually studied comfort food.
• 5:14
  In one experiment, people who wrote about a comfort food felt
• 5:17
  less lonely afterwards, at least the ones with solid relationships
• 5:22
  Nancy May: So this was just writing about comfort food as opposed to eating it?
• 5:26
  Sylvia France: Yes.
• 5:27
  The researchers think comfort food is tied to the people you ate it with.
• 5:31
  So the mac and cheese you want after a rough day, you might be missing whoever made it out of that blue and orange box
• 5:39
  Nancy May: Aw, that's so sweet.
• 5:41
  But did they test their theory with real food?
• 5:44
  Sylvia France: They actually did, of all things, can you believe it?
• 5:47
  Chicken soup.
• 5:48
  It only worked on people who already called chicken soup a comfort food
• 5:53
  Nancy May: Well, to me, chicken soup was, uh, just another way to
• 5:56
  describe body odor that my mom and I talked about when we'd shopping.
• 6:00
  You know?
• 6:00
  Old guys not smelling too good, mm, we'd look at each other and say, "Chicken soup."
• 6:06
  Sylvia France: That is so gross, but I have another story about that, that it would be appropriate for Valentine's Day,
• 6:12
  Nancy May: Okay.
• 6:13
  Body odor and Valentine's Day.
• 6:15
  Next.
• 6:16
  , But other researchers also found loneliness can set off nostalgia in the first place
• 6:21
  Sylvia France: Aw, nobody wants to be lonely
• 6:24
  Nancy May: Which brings me to my fondue pot.
• 6:26
  Never lonely with that.
• 6:28
  My mom said she got her first set from the Swiss Embassy in New York.
• 6:32
  It's, was a ceramic pot with plates, a burner, the whole nine
• 6:35
  yards, , and a beautiful picture of little boys and girls on each plate
• 6:39
  Sylvia France: The embassy?
• 6:41
  .. Nancy May: I know it sounds a little weird, but trust me.
• 6:44
  However, that pot and that fondue set turned into our New Year's Eve family dinner every single year, and there
• 6:50
  was one rule: if the bread fell off your fork and into the cheese, you had to kiss the person next to you.
• 6:57
  We still do that.
• 6:58
  I know.
• 6:59
  Sylvia France: You know, it depended on who was next to you if you liked the kiss or not.
• 7:03
  I'm sure you would not wanna kiss your sister
• 7:06
  Nancy May: No, definitely not.
• 7:07
  But we've done it with friends and it's always fun.
• 7:10
  And Bob and I still do fondue on our own, not with mom's pots 'cause they've
• 7:15
  cracked and gone their own way, , but with our own ceramic still, of course.
• 7:20
  and our friends love that little misfortune trick
• 7:23
  Sylvia France: well, the Swiss have forfeits too.
• 7:25
  If you lose your bread, you have to buy a round of drinks or sing a song
• 7:30
  Nancy May: Well, if you're buying a round of drinks, , you're probably eating it in a restaurant.
• 7:34
  , And ones here in the States, like The Melting Pot, are not fondue in my book.
• 7:38
  But ours was Kiss.
• 7:40
  But why would an embassy, on the first place, be even handing out fondue sets?
• 7:44
  That's my biggest question
• 7:46
  Sylvia France: Well, before 1930, fondue was mostly a French-speaking Switzerland thing.
• 7:51
  Then a cheese cartel, the Swiss Cheese Union, spent the 1930s pushing
• 7:56
  it as the national dish so people, of course, would buy more cheese.
• 8:02
  Nancy May: Of course, a cheese cartel?
• 8:04
  Ugh.
• 8:04
  Buy more cheese?
• 8:05
  Sounds kind of stupid, but I get it
• 8:08
  Sylvia France: Well, you know, there is validation.
• 8:10
  The Swiss government's own website says so.
• 8:12
  They had a slogan that roughly means, "Fondue is good and puts you in a good mood," and posters with snow outside with
• 8:19
  a window that said, "Fondue weather." We don't get a lot of that in Florida
• 8:23
  Nancy May: No, we don't.
• 8:24
  But the cartel apparently lasted until 1999 and then guess what?
• 8:30
  It gets broken up after corruption charges against some of its officials.
• 8:34
  Surprise
• 8:35
  Sylvia France: So it sounds like the fondue has a long rap sheet
• 8:39
  Nancy May: I got it
• 8:41
  Sylvia France: and in 1964, the Swiss Pavilion at the New York World's Fair was serving fondue to Americans
• 8:47
  Nancy May: Somewhere in there, however, my mom ends up with her fondue pot at the embassy
• 8:52
  Sylvia France: I can't prove the cartel actually put it in her hands.
• 8:56
  Doesn't sound like your mom.
• 8:57
  Nancy May: No, not my mom.
• 8:59
  Sylvia France: somebody just wanted your family eating Swiss cheese though
• 9:03
  Nancy May: Oh, my mom could stir up some trouble, so beyond cheese.
• 9:06
  Maybe, who knows?
• 9:08
  But it worked at least in our family, and the best part is always the burnt crust at the bottom.
• 9:13
  And if you've never tried it, you will be fighting over it the next time you do
• 9:17
  Sylvia France: Well, did you know the Swiss call it La Reluge?
• 9:20
  Nancy May: No, I didn't, but what does that mean?
• 9:23
  Sylvia France: A nun, or I like to think of it as the spinster
• 9:27
  Nancy May: Well, somehow I'm not equating nuns and Swiss cheese by any means, or fondue
• 9:33
  Sylvia France: But let's go back to those experiments.
• 9:35
  When you feel nostalgic, money matters less to you, and you'll pay more for the product in front of you
• 9:41
  Nancy May: So they hand over more money, not more time it sounds like, at least they being us as customers.
• 9:47
  We're suckers every single time, right?
• 9:50
  Sylvia France: Yep, we like to pay extra and skip the cooking
• 9:54
  Nancy May: I don't know.
• 9:54
  I think I'd rather cook, but
• 9:56
  Sylvia France: I agree with you.
• 9:57
  That's why we do a food show
• 9:59
  Nancy May: Unless it's a four-star restaurant, you know, Michelin, like last time.
• 10:03
  - However, the companies know it, and the researchers said that's probably why nostalgia shows up more now than ever
• 10:10
  . Sylvia France: So is that what happened to the Dunkaroos?
• 10:13
  I had never heard of them until we were doing research for this show
• 10:17
  Nancy May: I never heard of them either, , but a Dunkaroo apparently are little cookies, from General Mills
• 10:22
  made in 1992, and they pulled them from the US store shelves in 2012 to focus on, you got it, the healthy snack craze.
• 10:31
  Kinda boring
• 10:32
  Sylvia France: Ugh.
• 10:33
  And it probably didn't taste as good but I admit . They never went into my kids' lunch boxes they, weren't
• 10:39
  able to watch Barney either, and that's why they tell me they twitch.
• 10:43
  But let's guess who wanted them back?
• 10:46
  Nancy May: Well, apparently General Mills and thousands of people did.
• 10:49
  They got a lot of complaints, and in 2018, one of the biggest loudmouths
• 10:53
  out there on social media, Kim Kardashian, posted that she was obsessed.
• 10:58
  I think if you look at her backside, you'd probably know why.
• 11:02
  And when they returned in 2020, , the brand quoted her with an answer, "So Kim, you got your wish."
• 11:10
  Sylvia France: So it sounds like the kids who ate them grew up and just wanted their frosting back
• 11:15
  Nancy May: Tell me about it.
• 11:15
  I'll just take the frosting alone.
• 11:17
  Mine was Hostess, you know, the Hostess Twinkies and cupcakes?
• 11:21
  You cut them in half or break them in half, you lick out the frosting
• 11:25
  cream on the inside, bite off the icing or peel off the icing.
• 11:29
  There is a process to this, and then you toss away the cake.
• 11:33
  But there's also Devil Dogs, and you have to lick out the frosting again, toss out the cake.
• 11:39
  Sylvia France: I would love to see that sometime.
• 11:42
  . You go into a lot of detail, it was important to
• 11:44
  you.
• 11:45
  Yeah.
• 11:46
  Nancy May: like Oreos, you gotta eat the inside first.
• 11:49
  Sylvia France: But , sometimes the comeback really is the old thing.
• 11:52
  Pepsi's Throwback in 2009 had a 1940s logo and real sugar instead of corn syrup.
• 11:58
  People liked it so much that Pepsi made it permanent in 2011
• 12:03
  Nancy May: Coke did something similar with, they call it Mexican Coke.
• 12:06
  But root beer and Coke taste better, in my opinion, out of the old-fashioned glass bottles a cold Coke on a hot day.
• 12:14
  Oh, and then there's the movie theater candy, too.
• 12:17
  Dots, Turkish taffy.
• 12:19
  As kids, we weren't allowed any of that, not even popcorn.
• 12:22
  But I'll sneak a box of popcorn and some of those Dots anytime
• 12:26
  Sylvia France: I always liked the Raisinets.
• 12:27
  But wait, . You know our love for s'mores and that graham cracker
• 12:32
  Nancy May: Did they ever leave?
• 12:33
  I love s'mores and graham crackers
• 12:35
  Sylvia France: Behind that little innocent snack is a minister who wanted people to stop thinking about sex.
• 12:41
  Nancy May: No way.
• 12:42
  Sylvia France: Yes, for a cookie.
• 12:45
  Sylvester Graham, the cracker's namesake.
• 12:48
  .. In the 1830s, , this Presbyterian minister promoted a strict vegetarian diet, including coarse whole wheat bread.
• 12:56
  He believed eating that way would curb sexual desire.
• 13:00
  Well, maybe that's why they call them the Presbyterians the frozen chosen
• 13:05
  Nancy May: I've never heard that one before.
• 13:07
  Sylvia France: It's true
• 13:08
  Nancy May: All right, so the idea was less temptation, though, through better digestion.
• 13:13
  Sounds like a religious faction that I wouldn't join
• 13:17
  Sylvia France: Or a bad tagline but more or less.
• 13:21
  But today's sweet graham cracker is a long way from his dietary crusade
• 13:26
  Nancy May: Thankfully.
• 13:26
  And we've added chocolate, marshmallows, sugar, spice, everything nice, including a Girl Scout or two.
• 13:32
  I was a Girl Scout.
• 13:33
  Sylvia France: And you are on the board, so
• 13:35
  Nancy May: yes, I was on the board.
• 13:38
  and that minister's program took a sharp turn, thank goodness
• 13:42
  Sylvia France: So do we keep or toss?
• 13:45
  Nancy May: Well, the graham cracker of today I think we keep, especially anything that has a morality lecture behind it.
• 13:52
  . . And then became a cheesecake crust deserves our total respect
• 13:57
  Sylvia France: Maybe for Christmas I'll bring my cheesecake with Grand Marnier.
• 14:01
  It's pretty yummy.
• 14:03
  Nancy May: As long as it doesn't have bananas in it, I'm
• 14:04
  good.
• 14:05
  Sylvia France: I don't like bananas.
• 14:07
  Now, back to that bottle you read at the top.
• 14:09
  Wine Cooler started in 1981, and in 1991 the federal tax on wine went up about only 500%.
• 14:18
  Nancy May: Yikes.
• 14:18
  You don't need marketing - from that perspective.
• 14:21
  But , so out goes the wine
• 14:24
  … . Sylvia France: most brands switched to cheaper malt and Bartles and Jaymes went all malt that same year
• 14:30
  . Nancy May: So, and Gallo brought some wine-based ones back in 2019, but it's still mostly malt.
• 14:37
  Eh, not my thing.
• 14:39
  . And that product was promoted by Frank and Ed.
• 14:42
  You know those ads?
• 14:43
  Sylvia France: Yes, I do
• 14:44
  Nancy May: the two guys on the front porch, and every one ended with, "I thank you for your support."
• 14:51
  Sylvia France: I love it when you say that.
• 14:52
  It always makes me laugh
• 14:54
  Nancy May: After the break, how my aunt pulled off a ham, mm, spam,
• 14:59
  and what it meant for her grocery bill, and it could mean for yours.
• 15:02
  Stay tuned
• 16:24
  So here's the story.
• 16:25
  My Aunt Pat and my Uncle Nate were newlyweds in Queens, New York in the '60s.
• 16:30
  They were tight on cash, and they had their first baby on the way.
• 16:34
  A turkey or a real ham was not gonna make it to their table based on their budget
• 16:39
  Sylvia France: So let me guess, a can of Spam
• 16:42
  Nancy May: Yes, a can of Spam, although I don't know how big it was.
• 16:46
  Pineapple slices and cloves dressed like a real canned ham, and I don't know how it tasted, but that's
• 16:52
  the story that my cousin also continues to share with me as well
• 16:55
  Sylvia France: Well, , she wasn't the last to have Spam.
• 16:58
  Hormel's CEO said Spam hit record sales in 2021, and when grocery prices
• 17:04
  spiked in the UK in 2022, one big grocer said Spam sales jumped by 36%.
• 17:12
  . Nancy May: Yikes.
• 17:13
  Oh, That's amazing.
• 17:15
  But Hormel's been at it since 1937, and the GIs in World War II shared it all over the Pacific.
• 17:22
  Hawaiian apparently never let go, so people there eat more Spam per person than anywhere else in the country even today
• 17:29
  Sylvia France: I understand it's called Spam musubi.
• 17:32
  Rice and Spam wrapped in seaweed, sold everywhere from gas stations to fine dining.
• 17:38
  . And in South Korea, Spam comes in holiday gift sets
• 17:42
  Nancy May: Okay, I'm never going to South Korea and, uh, maybe I'm just
• 17:45
  gonna cut them off altogether… I do not want spam as a gift
• 17:49
  Sylvia France: about 60% of its sales in South Korea come at Lunar New Year and Chuseok.
• 17:55
  … It came in as an army ration after the Korean War
• 17:59
  Nancy May: I guess it's kinda like our fruitcake, but one professor there
• 18:03
  says people give it , because it's something you'd never buy for yourself.
• 18:06
  Like I said, the fruitcake.
• 18:08
  Sylvia France: Well, as you know, my mom would.
• 18:11
  She loves fried Spam sandwiches.
• 18:13
  Ugh
• 18:14
  Nancy May: I agree.
• 18:14
  Yuck.
• 18:15
  Also, fried bologna sandwich is another one.
• 18:18
  Disgusting.
• 18:19
  Sylvia France: No, count me out
• 18:20
  Nancy May: Yeah, but Spam is pork salt, water, modified potato starch, sugar,
• 18:25
  of course, ' because that's gonna make you wanna like it, and sodium nitrate.
• 18:30
  And that's it
• 18:31
  Sylvia France: That's it.
• 18:32
  They seal the can and cook it right inside
• 18:34
  Nancy May: Again, another disgusting thing.
• 18:36
  But Hormel also runs a free Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota.
• 18:43
  Of course it's free.
• 18:44
  Who would pay to go to a Spam museum?
• 18:46
  So you know who's telling the story, obviously.
• 18:49
  Them.
• 18:50
  Still not buying it, though.
• 18:52
  My aunt and your mom, however, I'm gonna guess, can have that one to themselves
• 18:58
  Sylvia France: Actually, when I went to the Lodge Museum, they charged me 10 bucks,
• 19:02
  Nancy May: Ooh Bad marketers at Hormel.
• 19:04
  Okay so note that, a meal kit company.
• 19:08
  Hmm, kind
• 19:09
  of suspicious
• 19:19
  Because of the price.
• 19:21
  Yeah
• 19:30
  That's pretty sad, but that's what a casserole was for, at least in our generation.
• 19:35
  Pantry staples, one dish feeds everybody and lots of it
• 19:44
  And cream of spinach and cream of celery and cream of corn and
• 19:48
  cream of pearl onions and yes, tuna casserole on anything and everything.
• 19:53
  Anything with Campbell's Cream of something on it, baby vomit in my book.
• 19:58
  ugh,
• 20:07
  Just that term mouthfeel alone is kind of disgusting.
• 20:10
  But at least, Sylvia, we finally agree on something
• 20:28
  All right.
• 20:28
  I think we're still on that round today, but more green bean casseroles, uh, for sure.
• 20:33
  And my made one, and my mom made one once in a while with the long French-cut string beans.
• 20:39
  You know, the kind that are slit and s-
• 20:42
  the kind that are slit and sort of skinny?
• 20:46
  The fancy schmancy ones, right?
• 20:47
  Although they're frozen.
• 20:49
  And then she always topped it with French's… Was it French's fried onions on top?
• 20:54
  The little, little crispy things?
• 20:55
  Just give me that and I'll forget the string beans.
• 20:59
  Yeah
• 21:07
  That's disgusting.
• 21:08
  Soy sauce in 1955.
• 21:11
  All right, that's ultra salty in my book
• 21:19
  Oh, we gotta go find a copy of that one and share that for sure, right?
• 21:32
  and if you're hosting your first Thanksgiving and you try it, and if
• 21:36
  you're hosting your first Thanksgiving, tradition says you have to try it.
• 21:40
  But how does anybody get, uh, but how did it get onto anybody's table to begin with?
• 21:49
  Of course,
• 21:56
  and then Campbell says it's on more than 20 million Thanksgiving tables today.
• 22:01
  Wow
• 22:09
  Well, that was very sweet, but Tom also reported that it was so
• 22:13
  simple, even I can do it, kind of like Shake 'N Bake, and I helped.
• 22:28
  And then what do you do when you put it on the table if it's not, uh… And then what do you put on the table if not her recipe?
• 22:40
  Of course
• 22:54
  So does it all go together in one dish?
• 22:58
  And what do you remember from Grandma Spivey
• 23:06
  Hmm.
• 23:13
  I'm not surprised, but I love the fact that you remember the sound of the presser coo- pressure cooker, that chhhh, right?
• 23:20
  My mom was always afraid of pressure cookers, that they would explode, but those were the old ones.
• 23:24
  and the snap of the beans, right?
• 23:30
  Aw.
• 23:40
  Well, uh, so of course your mom doesn't cook.
• 23:53
  and Bob and I are bringing our fondue bar… And Bob and I are definitely bringing our fon- And Bob and I are
• 23:59
  definitely breaking out our fondue set now that we're in our new house, just
• 24:04
  as soon it gets cold en- just as soon as it gets cold enough here in Florida
• 24:12
  Yeah, January
• 24:16
  So I'm not a fan of Jell-O salad, although the only one that I will absolutely devour is my friend Diane and her Jell-O salad.
• 24:25
  That stays.
• 24:27
  Anything with canned cream of something soup in it, dead in my book
• 24:47
  Yep.
• 24:47
  Family Tree Food Stories Journal and Amazon.
• 24:50
  Okay, little plug.
• 24:53
  But five things, but five things and then you can go raid your gra- And
• 24:59
  then, but five things and then you can go raid your own mom's recipe box
• 25:14
  Two, feeling nostalgia is ok- Two, feeling nostalgic is okay.
• 25:20
  It's in the snack, blah.
• 25:22
  Feeling nostalgic in the snack aisle is exactly when you're gonna
• 25:26
  pay a lot more, like through the nose, and ask who's selling it.
• 25:31
  But you know what?
• 25:32
  I think feeling nostalgic is still okay
• 25:45
  I love finding those old ads.
• 25:47
  But four, cook the old recipe instead of buying the old package.
• 25:51
  My aunt made ham- my aunt made ham, uh, my aunt made a ham dinner out of, yes, one can of SPAM.
• 25:59
  That's pretty creative in my book
• 26:10
  I'm gonna host a dinner party next time.
• 26:12
  Uh, a- and my suggestion, if you l- and if you like nostalgic food, my suggestion is h- my suggestion is
• 26:21
  host a dinner party where everybody brings one retro food from their childhood that they absolutely loved.
• 26:27
  You might be surprised of what they consider restro- well, you might be surprised of what they
• 26:31
  consider retro and where their fav- and what their favorites are.
• 26:36
  Or you might just be disgusted.
• 26:45
  Well, first of all, I'm gonna bring a little grilled cheese with a buttered bread, you know, the kind that gets
• 26:50
  really toasted and soggy and just tastes like butter and American cheese.
• 26:54
  American processed cheese, of course.
• 26:57
  Split hot dogs on a cast iron pan cooked so there's crust on it, and Fluffernutter.
• 27:03
  Remember that?
• 27:05
  Oh, okay.
• 27:06
  Go look on the shelf.
• 27:07
  It's come back in pink and white.
• 27:10
  But you take that, you put it on a hot chocolate, and it's delicious.
• 27:14
  But the adult beverage, just add a splash of Bob's Santa Secret Flying Sauce in it.
• 27:20
  Little boozy.
• 27:31
  To Mrs. John E. Cook.
• 27:34
  Somebody out there knows your first name
• 27:39
  Thank you for your support.
• 27:46
  I think so.
• 27:47
  I have to do that one.
• 27:53
  And so next week we're talking about food that you might think is real, but eh, might be faking you out on that one.
• 27:59
  Nyah.
• 28:04
  Now where's my Fluff and Boozy Boujee to put in my hot chocolate?
• 28:08
  Yum.
• 28:10
  Bye-bye
• 28:16
  Actually, I think that was pretty good
• 28:20
  So Sylvia, this is gonna sound like a joke starting out, but it's not.
• 28:26
  Six researchers did an experiment, like six re- re- six researchers did an experiment, like six researchers in a,
• 28:33
  in a b- like six researchers in a bar, and they kept getting the same results
• 28:38
  Sylvia France: What can that possibly be?
• 28:42
  Nancy May: Well, hopefully it didn't involve beer, but maybe it did.
• 28:45
  But apparently people feel when people feel nostalgic they'll actually pay more for anything
• 28:54
  Sylvia France: So when the snack you grew up on comes back with a old label
• 28:58
  Nancy May: Guess what?
• 28:59
  You're gonna be paying through the nose for it 'cause somebody's told you that in a study
• 29:05
  Sylvia France: Meanwhile, Spam w- meanwhile, Spam was hitting record sales while grocery prices climbed
• 29:12
  Nancy May: All right.
• 29:12
  Spam to me is dog food.
• 29:14
  I bought it once, never again
• 29:17
  Sylvia France: Well, my mom, and I understand your aunt would argue with you
• 29:22
  Nancy May: She would, but she dressed a can up to, well, not in a skirt, but we'll talk about that a little later on.
• 29:29
  I still will not buy it.
• 29:31
  I'm sorry
• 29:33
  Sylvia France: By the end of this, you'll know which of these is
• 29:35
  worth your grocery money and which ones Nancy and I don't agree on
• 29:40
  Nancy May: You might be surprised on that one, but thank you for listening.
• 29:44
  You, we are your award-winning podcasters so let's grab a glass and toast to that one, among other things, like retro foods
• 29:53
  Sylvia France: To whatever your family served that you still can't explain.
• 29:57
  I have several of those.
• 30:00
  so I'll fess up.
• 30:02
  I drank Bartles & Jaymes in college
• 30:05
  Nancy May: Ooh, not this one.
• 30:06
  The one with the malt beverage
• 30:08
  Sylvia France: Of course not
• 30:11
  Nancy May: And my old, and to my friend Diane's Jell-O salad
• 30:17
  Sylvia France: Cheers.
• 30:18
  Sante to health
• 30:19
  Nancy May: Cheers, cheers.
• 30:20
  Ching ching
• 30:21
  Sylvia France: So I understand you like Jell-O salad.
• 30:25
  To me, that's hospital food or what you had in the cafeteria when you were in elementary school.
• 30:30
  Ugh
• 30:31
  Nancy May: Well, not just any s- Jell-O salad, to be honest with you.
• 30:35
  My friend Diane's Jell-O salad, I never thought I'd like it, but she s- but she served it one Christmas Eve dinner.
• 30:43
  I could've eaten the whole thing and left the turkey to the side
• 30:48
  Sylvia France: Well, I asked my millennial son what he considered retro foods.
• 30:53
  He put Jell-O casserole on his list right next to pineapple upside-down cake, Spam, and SOS
• 31:02
  Nancy May: Not one thing from his lunchbox even as a kid?
• 31:04
  And I've never heard of Jell-O casserole
• 31:07
  Sylvia France: Not one.
• 31:08
  For him, retro is his grandparents' table
• 31:12
  Nancy May: So if you ask somebody else his age, you're likely gonna get what was ever in their lunchbox or on the lunch
• 31:19
  tray at school either way, a lot of it started all, of course, with a company
• 31:24
  Sylvia France: And marketing too.
• 31:26
  Well, at least Jell-O salad did.
• 31:28
  A gelatin company ran a recipe contest in 1905, and third place was cabbage set in gelatin.
• 31:36
  Ugh.
• 31:37
  It sounds awful.
• 31:38
  Every account credits it to Mrs. John E. Cook.
• 31:42
  What is ironic is no one ever wrote down her first name
• 31:46
  Nancy May: That is so sad.
• 31:47
  And if you can find it you might be better sleuths than we are.
• 31:51
  Please send it to us in our Facebook group at Family Tree Food Stories on Facebook or Instagram
• 31:57
  Sylvia France: But she's not the only one.
• 31:59
  There's another woman whose recipe probably on your Thanksgiving table and you don't know her name either
• 32:06
  Nancy May: Later.
• 32:08
  So I have to say that your son's cake came out of a contest too.
• 32:12
  Did you know that it was the Hawaiian Pineapple… Did you know that the Hawaiian Pineapple Company ran one i- ran
• 32:19
  one in 1925, and the company said that about 2,500 people sent in, you got it, pineapple upside-down cake as their recipe
• 32:30
  Sylvia France: That's the company selling its pineapple.
• 32:33
  They love marketing
• 32:34
  Nancy May: right?
• 32:36
  Which is why we're saying the company says.
• 32:39
  The upside down part is a lot older, however.
• 32:42
  People were doing that with plums and apples and cast iron skillets way back in the 1800s.
• 32:48
  I'm gonna guess your grandma did it in her can- in her cast iron pan too
• 32:54
  Sylvia France: Probably, I would guess she did.
• 32:56
  Oh, and tell me about SOS.
• 32:59
  I know he knows what it stan- stands for, and I would wash his mouth out with soap, and I'm not saying it because I'm a lady
• 33:08
  Nancy May: No, and SOS is not your scrubbing s- is not your scrubby either.
• 33:14
  my feeling is that the disgusting SOS is the creamed chipped beef
• 33:18
  on toast, straight out of the Army's 1910 manual for Army cooks.
• 33:23
  Dry beef, canned milk, uh, dried beef and canned milk ca- were, dried beef and canned milk were kept in the
• 33:30
  field, and the polite version of SOS, save our stomachs and same old stuff.
• 33:37
  I like the SOS that we know.
• 33:42
  Sylvia France: Before we get to why we're craving any of this, thank you for being here.
• 33:46
  I am so glad you're listening today
• 33:48
  Nancy May: And since you are, please follow us and the show and leave us a
• 33:52
  review at Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStory- at Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.
• 33:58
  That's how any of, that's how anybody finds us
• 34:02
  Sylvia France: And also, don't forget to sign up for our newsletter but before we begin, a shout-out to
• 34:08
  another Sylvia, Sylvia Scott in the UK, and our new friends in Portugal
• 34:14
  Nancy May: Cheer cheers or cheerio to Sylvia.
• 34:17
  And tell us your retro food because we'd like to put it on trial, mm, somewhere along the line, at least in f- somewhere
• 34:26
  along the line at least in Facebook, and we read every one of our messages
• 34:32
  Sylvia France: Psychologists have actually studied comfort food.
• 34:34
  In one experiment, people who wrote about a comfort food felt
• 34:38
  less lonely afterwards, at least the ones with solid relationships
• 34:43
  Nancy May: So this was just writing about comfort food as opposed to eating it?
• 34:47
  Sylvia France: Yes.
• 34:48
  The researcher- yes.
• 34:50
  The researchers think comfort food is tied to the people you ate it with.
• 34:54
  So the mac and cheese you want after a rough day, you might be missing whoever made it out of that blue and orange box
• 35:02
  Nancy May: Aw, that's so sweet.
• 35:04
  But did they test their theory with real food?
• 35:08
  Sylvia France: They actually did, of all things, can you believe it?
• 35:11
  Chicken soup.
• 35:12
  It only worked on people who already called chicken soup a comfort food
• 35:16
  Nancy May: Well, to me, chicken soup was, uh, just another way to
• 35:19
  describe body odor that my mom and I talked about when we'd shopping.
• 35:23
  You know?
• 35:24
  Old guys not smelling too good, mm, we'd look at each other and say, "Chicken soup."
• 35:30
  Sylvia France: That is so gross, but I have another story about that, that it would be appropriate for Valentine's Day,
• 35:36
  Nancy May: Okay.
• 35:37
  Body odor and Valentine's Day.
• 35:38
  Next.
• 35:39
  But other researchers found that loneliness could be set… But other researcher, uh, but other researchers
• 35:45
  also found lonely, found loneliness can set off nostalgia in the first place
• 35:51
  Sylvia France: Aw, nobody wants to be lonely
• 35:53
  Nancy May: I know.
• 35:54
  Which brings me to my fondue pot.
• 35:57
  Never lonely with that.
• 35:59
  My mom said she got her first set from the Swiss Embassy in New York.
• 36:03
  It's, it was a ceramic pot with plates, a burner, the whole nine yards, and a beautifully little,
• 36:08
  and a beautiful picture of little boys and girls on each plate
• 36:13
  Sylvia France: The embassy?
• 36:14
  Nancy May: I know.
• 36:15
  Uh, it does sound a little weird, but it turns out the New… I know it sounds a little weird, but trust me.
• 36:23
  However, that pot and that fondue set turned into our New Year's Eve family dinner every single year, and there
• 36:29
  was one rule: if the bread fell off your fork and into the cheese, you had to kiss the person next to you.
• 36:36
  We still do that.
• 36:37
  I know.
• 36:38
  Sylvia France: You know, it depended on who k- was next to you if you liked the kiss or not.
• 36:43
  I'm sure you would not wanna kiss your sister
• 36:45
  Nancy May: No, definitely not.
• 36:46
  But we've done it with friends and it's always fun.
• 36:50
  And Bob's and I still do those pots on our own.
• 36:54
  And we've done, uh, uh, and Bob and I still do fondue on our own, not with mom's pots 'cause they've cracked and
• 37:01
  gone their own way, obviously, but with our own ceramic still, of course.
• 37:05
  And our friends love that little, and our friends love that little misfortune trick
• 37:11
  Sylvia France: Well, the Swiss have their fortu- well, the Swiss have forfeits too.
• 37:16
  If you lose your bread, you have to buy a round of drinks or sing a song
• 37:21
  Nancy May: Well, if you're buying a round of drinks, you're probably, you're probably eating it in a, in a restaurant.
• 37:27
  And the ones here in, and the, the, and ones here in the States, like The Melting Pot, are not fondue in my book.
• 37:34
  But ours was Kiss.
• 37:37
  Ours was a Kiss.
• 37:38
  But why would an embassy, on the first place, be even handing out fondue sets?
• 37:43
  That's my biggest question
• 37:45
  Sylvia France: Well, before 1930, fondue was mostly a French-speaking Switzerland thing.
• 37:50
  Then a cheese cartel, the Swiss Cheese Union, spent the 1930s pushing
• 37:55
  it as the national dish so people, of course, would buy more cheese.
• 38:01
  Nancy May: Of course, a cheese cartel?
• 38:03
  Ugh.
• 38:04
  Buy more cheese?
• 38:05
  Sounds kind of stupid, but I get it
• 38:07
  Sylvia France: Well, you know, there is validation.
• 38:09
  The Swiss government's own website says so.
• 38:12
  They had a slogan that roughly means, "Fondue is good and puts you in a good mood," and posters with snow outside with
• 38:18
  a window that said, "Fondue weather." We don't get a lot of that in Florida
• 38:23
  Nancy May: No, we don't.
• 38:25
  But the cartel apparently lasted until 1999 and then guess what?
• 38:30
  It gets broken up after corruption charges against some of its officials.
• 38:34
  Surprise
• 38:37
  Sylvia France: So it sounds like the fondue has a long rap sheet
• 38:41
  Nancy May: I got it
• 38:42
  Sylvia France: and in 1964, the Swiss Pavilion at the New York World's Fair was serving fondue to Americans
• 38:49
  Nancy May: Somewhere in there, however, my mom ends up with a Swiss fondue, with her fondue pot at the embassy
• 38:56
  Sylvia France: I can't prove the cartel I can't prove the cartel actually put it in her hands.
• 39:02
  Doesn't sound like your mom.
• 39:03
  Nancy May: No, not my mom.
• 39:05
  Sylvia France: somebody just wanted your family eating Swiss cheese though
• 39:09
  Nancy May: Oh, my mom could stir up some trouble, so beyond cheese.
• 39:12
  Maybe, who knows?
• 39:14
  But it worked at least in our family, and the best part is the burnt crust
• 39:17
  on the bo- and the best part is always the burnt crust at the bottom.
• 39:22
  And if you've never tried it, you will be fighting over it the next time you do
• 39:27
  Sylvia France: Well, did you know the Swiss call it La Reluge?
• 39:30
  Nancy May: No, I didn't, but what does that mean?
• 39:33
  Sylvia France: A nun, or I like to think of it as the spinster
• 39:37
  Nancy May: Well, somehow I'm not equating nuns and Swiss cheese by any means, or fondue
• 39:43
  Sylvia France: But let's go back to those experiments.
• 39:45
  When you feel nostalgic, money matters less to you, and you'll pay more for the product in front of you
• 39:52
  Nancy May: So they hand over more money, not more time it sounds like, at least they being us as customers.
• 39:58
  We're suckers every single time, right?
• 40:00
  Sylvia France: Yep, we like to pay extra and skip the cooking
• 40:05
  Nancy May: I don't know.
• 40:05
  I think I'd rather cook, but
• 40:07
  Sylvia France: I am agree with you.
• 40:09
  That's why we do a food show
• 40:10
  Nancy May: Unless it's a fancy f- unless it's a fancy food company.
• 40:14
  Oh, I'll try that, too.
• 40:15
  Uh, unless it's a four-star restaurant, you know, Michelin, like last time.
• 40:21
  And the companies know it.
• 40:23
  How- however, the companies know it, and the researchers said that's
• 40:26
  probably why nostalgia shows up more now than ever in so much marketing
• 40:32
  Sylvia France: Did you ever hear about the Dunkaroos?
• 40:35
  I honestly had never heard of them because I did not put them in my kids' lunchboxes or let them watch…
• 40:42
  Nancy May: K- go ahead, sorry
• 40:43
  Sylvia France: Okay, that's all right.
• 40:44
  So is that, is that what happened to the Dunkaroos?
• 40:48
  I had never heard of them until we were doing research for this show
• 40:52
  Nancy May: I never heard of them either, and we don't have kids, uh, uh, again, until this episode.
• 40:57
  But a Dunkaroo apparently is a cook- or, but a Dunkaroo apparently are little cookies, a cup of frosting from General
• 41:04
  Mills made in 1992, and they pulled them from the US store shelves in 2012 to focus on, you got it, the healthy snack craze.
• 41:13
  Kinda boring
• 41:15
  Sylvia France: Ugh.
• 41:15
  And it probably didn't taste as good but I admit they never went into my kidges… I admit they never went into
• 41:23
  my kids' lunch boxes or they didn't, weren't able to watch Barney either, and that's why they tell me they twitch.
• 41:29
  But let's guess who wanted them back?
• 41:32
  Nancy May: Well, apparently General Mills and thousands of people did.
• 41:35
  They got a lot of complaints, and in 2018, one of the biggest loudmouths
• 41:40
  out there on social media, Kim Kardashian, posted that she was obsessed.
• 41:45
  I think if you look at her backside, you'd probably know why.
• 41:50
  And when they re- and when they returned in 2020, the brand quoted her and answered
• 41:56
  qu- uh, the brand quoted her with an answer, "So Kim, you got your wish."
• 42:02
  Sylvia France: So it sounds like the kids who ate them grew up and just wanted their frosting back
• 42:07
  Nancy May: Tell me about it.
• 42:08
  I'll just take the frosting alone.
• 42:10
  Mine was Hostess, you know, the Hostess Twinkies and cupcakes?
• 42:14
  You cut them in half or break them in half, you lick out the frosting
• 42:18
  cream on the inside, you bite off the icing or peel off the icing.
• 42:22
  There is a process to this, and then you toss away the cake.
• 42:27
  But there's also Devil Dogs, and you have to lick out the frosting again, toss out the cake.
• 42:33
  Sylvia France: I would love to see that sometime.
• 42:36
  That sounds… You go into a lot of detail, it was important to you.
• 42:41
  Yeah.
• 42:41
  Nancy May: like Oreos, you gotta eat the inside first.
• 42:44
  Sylvia France: But sometimes come back, sometimes the comeback really is the old thing.
• 42:50
  Pepsi's Throwback in 2009 had a 1940s logo and real sugar instead of corn syrup.
• 42:56
  People liked it so much that Pepsi made it permanent in 2011
• 43:01
  Nancy May: Coke did something similar with, they call it Mexican Coke.
• 43:04
  But root beer and Coke taste better, in my opinion, out of the old-fashioned glass bottles on a cold Coke on a hot day.
• 43:12
  Oh, and then there's the movie theater candy, too.
• 43:15
  Dots, Turkish taffy.
• 43:18
  As kids, we weren't allowed any of that, not even popcorn.
• 43:20
  But I'll sneak a box of popcorn and some of those Dots anytime
• 43:25
  Sylvia France: I always liked the Raisinets.
• 43:27
  But wait, you know… But wait, you know our love for s'mores and that graham cracker
• 43:35
  Nancy May: Did they ever leave?
• 43:37
  I love s'mores and graham crackers
• 43:40
  Sylvia France: Behind that little innocent snack is a minister who wanted people to stop thinking about sex.
• 43:45
  Nancy May: No way.
• 43:47
  Sylvia France: Yes, for a cookie.
• 43:49
  Sylvester Graham, the cracker's namesake, in the 1830s, hi- th- this, uh
• 43:54
  Nancy May: Why don't you say Sylvester, start from the Sylvester Graham again?
• 43:57
  Sylvia France: Sylvester Graham, the cracker's namesake.
• 44:00
  In 18… In the 1830s, this Presbyterian minister promoted a strict ver- In 18- in the 1830s, this Presbyterian minister
• 44:12
  promoted a strict vegetarian diet, including coarse whole wheat bread.
• 44:17
  He believed that eating, he believed eating that way would curb sexual desire.
• 44:23
  Well, maybe that's why they call them the Presbyterians the frozen chosen
• 44:28
  Nancy May: I've never heard that one before.
• 44:30
  Sylvia France: It's true
• 44:32
  Nancy May: All right, so the idea was less temptation, though, through better digestion.
• 44:37
  Sounds like a religious faction that I wouldn't join
• 44:41
  Sylvia France: Or a bad tagline but more or less.
• 44:44
  But today's sweet graham cracker is a long way from his dietary crusade
• 44:50
  Nancy May: Thankfully.
• 44:51
  And we've added chocolate, marshmallows, sugar, spice, everything nice, including a Girl Scout or two.
• 44:56
  I was a Girl Scout.
• 44:57
  Sylvia France: And you are on the board, so
• 44:59
  Nancy May: yes, I was on the board.
• 45:02
  And the reform program took a sh- and that minister's program took a sharp turn, thank goodness
• 45:09
  Sylvia France: So do we keep or toss?
• 45:12
  Nancy May: Well, the graham cracker of today I think we keep, especially anything that has a morality lecture behind it.
• 45:20
  I especially be- and, and then became a cheesecake crust we deserve… And then became a cheese crate.
• 45:26
  And then became a cheesecake crust deserves our total respect
• 45:32
  Sylvia France: Maybe for Christmas I'll bring my cheesecake with Grand Marnier.
• 45:36
  It's pretty yummy.
• 45:38
  Nancy May: As long as it doesn't have bananas in it, I'm good.
• 45:40
  Sylvia France: I don't like bananas.
• 45:42
  Now, back to that bottle you read at the top.
• 45:45
  Wine Cooler started in 1981, and in 1991 the federal tax on wine went up about only 500%.
• 45:53
  Nancy May: Yikes.
• 45:54
  You don't need marketing from that one pers- from that perspective.
• 45:58
  But so the wine goes, so out goes the wine
• 46:02
  Sylvia France: Most brands switched to cheaper malt and Barnes… So most brands
• 46:08
  switched to cheaper malt and Bartles and Jaymes went all malt that same year.
• 46:14
  Nancy May: But all, it sounded like all mob, so
• 46:16
  Sylvia France: Okay.
• 46:17
  Most brands switched to cheaper malt and Bartles and Jaymes went all malt that same year
• 46:24
  Nancy May: So, and Gallo some, uh, and Gallo brought, so and Gallo brought, blah.
• 46:29
  So, and Gallo brought some wine-based ones back in 2019, but it's still mostly malt.
• 46:37
  Eh, not my thing.
• 46:39
  And those were als- and, and that brand was Frank and Ed's.
• 46:44
  W- and, and that product was the Frank and E- and that pr- blah.
• 46:51
  And that product was promoted by the Frank and Ed's ad.
• 46:56
  Was promoted by Frank and Ed.
• 46:58
  You know those ads?
• 46:59
  Sylvia France: Yes, I do
• 47:01
  Nancy May: the two guys on the front porch, and every one ended with, "I thank you for your support."
• 47:08
  Sylvia France: I love it when you say that.
• 47:09
  It always makes me laugh
• 47:12
  Nancy May: After the break, how my aunt pulled off a ham, mm, spam,
• 47:16
  and what it meant for her grocery bill, and it could mean for yours.
• 47:21
  Stay tuned
• 47:25
  So here's the story.
• 47:26
  My Aunt Pat and my Uncle Nate were newlyweds in Queens, New York in the '60s.
• 47:32
  They had very little cash.
• 47:35
  They were tight on cash, and they had their first baby on the way.
• 47:39
  A turkey or a real ham was not gonna make it to their table based on their budget
• 47:44
  Sylvia France: So let me guess, a can of Spam
• 47:47
  Nancy May: Yes, a can of Spam, although I don't know how big it was.
• 47:51
  Pineapple slices and cloves dressed like a real canned ham, and I don't know how it tasted, but that's
• 47:57
  the story that my cousin also continues to share with me as well
• 48:01
  Sylvia France: Well, she wasn't the last to have a Spam.
• 48:05
  She, she wasn't the last to have Spam.
• 48:08
  Hormel's CEO said Spam hit record sales in 2021, and when grocery prices
• 48:14
  spiked in the UK in 2022, one big grocer said Spam sales jumped by 36%.
• 48:23
  Nancy May: Yikes.
• 48:24
  Oh, that's a deal.
• 48:27
  That's amazing.
• 48:28
  Yikes.
• 48:29
  That's amazing.
• 48:30
  But Hormel's been at it since 1937, and the GIs in World War II shared all, shared it all over the Pacific.
• 48:38
  Hawaiian apparently never let go, so people there eat more Spam per person than anywhere else in the country even today
• 48:46
  Sylvia France: I understand it's called Spam musubi.
• 48:50
  Rice and Spam wrapped in seaweed, sold everywhere from gas stations to fine dining.
• 48:55
  And in South Korea, Spam beco- and in South Korea, Spam comes in as holiday gift set.
• 49:03
  Okay.
• 49:03
  And in South Korea, Spam comes in holiday gift sets
• 49:08
  Nancy May: Okay, I'm never going to South Korea and, uh, maybe I'm just
• 49:11
  gonna cut them off altogether as a… I do not want spam as a gift
• 49:17
  Sylvia France: About 60% of its sales, about 60% of its sales in South Korea come at Lunar New Year and Chuseok.
• 49:26
  It came in as an army ration after World… It came in as an army ration after the Korean War
• 49:36
  Nancy May: I guess it's kinda like our fruitcake, but one professor there says people give it because it's something
• 49:42
  you'd never buy for, because it's something you'd never buy for yourself.
• 49:46
  Like I said, the fruitcake.
• 49:49
  Sylvia France: Well, as you know, my mom would.
• 49:51
  She loves fried Spam sandwiches.
• 49:54
  Ugh
• 49:55
  Nancy May: I agree.
• 49:56
  Yuck.
• 49:56
  Also, fried bologna sandwich is another one.
• 49:59
  Disgusting.
• 50:00
  Sylvia France: No, count me out
• 50:01
  Nancy May: Yeah, but Spam is pork with ham, salt, water f- salt, water, modified potato starch, sugar, of course, 'cause
• 50:09
  that's gonna w- because that's gonna make you wanna like it, and sodium nitrate.
• 50:14
  And that's it
• 50:16
  Sylvia France: That's it.
• 50:17
  They seal the can and cook it right inside
• 50:20
  Nancy May: Again, another disgusting thing.
• 50:22
  But Hormel also runs a free Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota.
• 50:28
  Of course it's free.
• 50:29
  Who would pay to go to a Spam museum?
• 50:32
  So you know who's telling the story, obviously.
• 50:35
  Them.
• 50:37
  Still not buying it, though.
• 50:38
  My aunt and your mom, however, I'm gonna guess, can tell that and have that one to themselves
• 50:45
  Sylvia France: Actually, when I went to the Lodge Museum, they charged me 10 bucks,
• 50:49
  Nancy May: Ooh
• 50:53
  Bad marketers at Hormel.
• 50:58
  Okay
• 51:12
  So note that, a meal kit company.
• 51:15
  Hmm, kind of suspicious
• 51:25
  Because of the price.
• 51:27
  Yeah
• 51:37
  That's pretty sad, but that's what a casserole was for, at least in our generation.
• 51:42
  Pantry staples, one dish feeds everybody and lots of it
• 51:50
  And cream of spinach and cream of celery and cream of corn and
• 51:54
  cream of pearl onions and yes, tuna casserole on anything and everything.
• 51:59
  Anything with Campbell's Cream of something on it, baby vomit in my book.
• 52:04
  Ugh.
• 52:13
  Just that term mouthfeel alone is kind of disgusting.
• 52:17
  But at least, Sylvia, we finally agree on something
• 52:34
  All right.
• 52:34
  I think we're still on that round today, but more green bean casseroles, uh, for sure.
• 52:39
  And my made one, and my mom made one once in a while with the long French-cut string beans.
• 52:46
  You know, the kind that are slit and s- the kind that are slit and sort of skinny?
• 52:52
  The fancy schmancy ones, right?
• 52:54
  Although they're frozen.
• 52:55
  And then she always topped it with French's… Was it French's fried onions on top?
• 53:00
  The little, little crispy things?
• 53:01
  Just give me that and I'll forget the string beans.
• 53:05
  Yeah
• 53:14
  That's disgusting.
• 53:15
  Soy sauce in 1955.
• 53:17
  All right, that's ultra salty in my book
• 53:26
  Oh, we gotta go find a copy of that one and share that for sure, right?
• 53:38
  And if you're hosting your first Thanksgiving and you try it, and if
• 53:42
  you're hosting your first Thanksgiving, tradition says you have to try it.
• 53:46
  But how does anybody get, uh, but how did it get onto anybody's table to begin with?
• 53:55
  Of course
• 54:02
  And then Campbell says it's on more than 20 million Thanksgiving tables today.
• 54:08
  Wow
• 54:16
  Well, that was very sweet, but Tom also reported that it was so
• 54:19
  simple, even I can do it, kind of like Shake 'N Bake, and I helped.
• 54:35
  And then what do you do when you put it on the table if it's not, uh… And then what do you put on the table if not her recipe?
• 54:46
  Of course
• 55:01
  So does it all go together in one dish?
• 55:05
  And what do you remember from Grandma Spivey
• 55:13
  Hmm.
• 55:19
  I'm not surprised, but I love the fact that you remember the sound of the presser coo- pressure cooker, that chhhh, right?
• 55:27
  My mom was always afraid of pressure cookers, that they would explode, but those were the old ones.
• 55:31
  And the snap of the beans, right?
• 55:36
  Aw.
• 55:46
  Well, uh, so of course your mom doesn't cook.
• 55:59
  And Bob and I are bringing our fondue bar… And Bob and I are definitely bringing our fon- And Bob and I are
• 56:05
  definitely breaking out our fondue set now that we're in our new house, just
• 56:10
  as soon it gets cold en- just as soon as it gets cold enough here in Florida
• 56:18
  Yeah, January
• 56:23
  So I'm not a fan of Jell-O salad, although the only one that I will absolutely devour is my friend Diane and her Jell-O salad.
• 56:31
  That stays.
• 56:33
  Anything with canned cream of something soup in it, dead in my book
• 56:53
  Yep.
• 56:54
  Family Tree Food Stories Journal and Amazon.
• 56:57
  Okay, little plug.
• 56:59
  But five things, but five things and then you can go raid your gra- And
• 57:05
  then, but five things and then you can go raid your own mom's recipe box
• 57:21
  Two, feeling nostalgia is ok- Two, feeling nostalgic is okay.
• 57:26
  It's in the snack, blah.
• 57:29
  Feeling nostalgic in the snack aisle is exactly when you're gonna
• 57:33
  pay a lot more, like through the nose, and ask who's selling it.
• 57:37
  But you know what?
• 57:38
  I think feeling nostalgic is still okay
• 57:52
  I love finding those old ads.
• 57:53
  But four, cook the old recipe instead of buying the old package.
• 57:57
  My aunt made ham- my aunt made ham, uh, my aunt made a ham dinner out of, yes, one can of SPAM.
• 58:06
  That's pretty creative in my book
• 58:16
  I'm gonna host a dinner party next time.
• 58:18
  Uh, a- and my suggestion, if you l- and if you like nostalgic food, my suggestion is h- my suggestion is
• 58:27
  host a dinner party where everybody brings one retro food from their childhood that they absolutely loved.
• 58:33
  You might be surprised of what they consider restro- well, you might be surprised of what they
• 58:38
  consider retro and where their fav- and what their favorites are.
• 58:42
  Or you might just be disgusted.
• 58:52
  Well, first of all, I'm gonna bring a little grilled cheese with a buttered bread, you know, the kind that gets
• 58:57
  really toasted and soggy and just tastes like butter and American cheese.
• 59:01
  American processed cheese, of course.
• 59:03
  Split hot dogs on a cast iron pan cooked so there's crust on it, and Fluffernutter.
• 59:09
  Remember that?
• 59:11
  Oh, okay.
• 59:13
  Go look on the shelf.
• 59:14
  It's come back in pink and white.
• 59:16
  But you take that, you put it on a hot chocolate, and it's delicious.
• 59:21
  But the adult beverage, just add a splash of Bob's Santa Secret Flying Sauce in it.
• 59:27
  Little boozy.
• 59:37
  To Mrs. John E. Cook.
• 59:40
  Somebody out there knows your first name
• 59:45
  Thank you for your support.
• 59:53
  I think so.
• 59:54
  I have to do that one.
• 1:00:00
  And so next week we're talking about food that you might think is real, but eh, might be faking you out on that one.
• 1:00:06
  Nyah.
• 1:00:11
  Now where's my Fluff and Boozy Boujee to put in my hot chocolate?
• 1:00:15
  Yum.
• 1:00:17
  Bye-bye
• 1:00:23
  Actually, I think that was pretty good