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Saturday, February 11, 2017

My Milk Says I'm 36

Lately I've been thinking about how the time period we grew up in affects our eating preferences.  There are things like availability of ingredients and different methods of cooking but it seems like even more important are the food trends and just random circumstances that influence our preferences years later.

It all started with a gallon of milk.  You see I do about 99% of the grocery buying in the house and even when J picks something up it's usually with a specific list from me.  But I had had to unexpectedly go out of town for a few weeks and J and the Tornado were left to fend for themselves which required food which required a trip to the grocery store and the purchase of a gallon of milk.

Now I'm not much of a milk drinker but I do have a fairly serious Frosted Mini Wheats habit and after I'd been home a few days I made myself a bowl.  As I poured the milk in I knew instantly that something was wrong.  It didn't pour right and I knew as soon as I took a bite that it had ruined my bowl of cereal.  The flavor was weird and the milk coated the inside of my mouth.  I suffered through that bowl and checked the label of the milk as soon as I finished (I'd already checked the expiration date so I knew it wasn't that) and sure enough there it was - 2%.  I was born in 1980 and somewhere in the time I was developing taste buds and milk preferences everyone became afraid of fat and by the time I was 10 all the milk that could be found in my house and my friends' houses was skim.  To me milk is supposed to be colored water that wets the cereal and basically nothing more and for it to have flavor or texture is just plain wrong.  It tastes like drinking straight up cream.

To J a child of the 70s milk is supposed to have flavor and texture - he grew up on whole and only switched to lower percentages in his late teens.  His taste buds were well developed long before everyone became afraid of fat.  That being said he has his own fear - the casserole.  You see while I grew up in the fear of fat he grew up in the dawn of the Cream of Chicken Soup can and the rise of the casserole.  To him and his older brother it was a scary time.  Everything was casseroled and there was one particularly loathed dish that they both swear was made at least once a week called Hamburger Bean Pie.  This featured ground beef, some tomato paste, canned green beans, and little biscuits baked on top.  To this day both he and his brother are deeply suspicious of ground beef if not in hamburger, meatball, or meatloaf shape.  His brother won't eat food that is mixed together and J doesn't eat anything that is called a casserole.

My dad who grew up in an earlier decade will only drink "fresh" milk.  When he was a kid the price of milk was controlled by the state dairy board that kept the prices artificially high.  My Grandmother who had 4 teenage boys would use her Army widow status to go to the commissary on a nearby Army base and stock up on food - but especially milk.  What wasn't drunk in the first few days would go in the freezer to come out at a later time.  Apparently when frozen the milk fats separate and when you pour a glass from a half thawed gallon of milk you only get the skim as the fats are still solid and then because some of the skim is gone when the milk finally does completely thaw the texture is off.

How have eating trends and other circumstances of your childhood affected the way that you eat or think of food now?

I'm linking up with Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads

17 comments:

  1. This is a great topic! Milk - well, I laughed at your story. I grew up in the 60's and drank whole milk. Over time, I switched to 2% and now buy 1%. I can't do skim. Looks like light blue water to me. LOL

    And yes, casseroles. We didn't eat a lot of them because my Dad didn't like them. And what my Dad didn't like, we didn't have. I did grow up in a family that ate a lot of beef - a lot. This is Texas after all. My parents thought having a freezer was the best thing ever (grew up in the Depression) and bought beef by 'the side of beef' or basically, half a cow. Also bought extra hamburger meat and steak. I don't hate beef, but steak does not impress me and I don't really love it all that much. And I can take or leave hamburger meat except on an actual hamburger.

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  2. Great topic, I'd never analyzed that before. I was born in the 1950's and I was allergic to cow milk. My father had to drive to an Amish farm to get me goat milk. That was only a 45 minute drive from where we lived in Pennsylvania. Eventually I could drink cow milk. Now we drink almond milk!

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  3. Funny! I notice the difference right away because I'm used to 1% milk now, but I never could get used to skim milk (born in early 60s). My husband and I are the same age and he has that dislike of casseroles same as your husband! As a response to our childhood dinner menus (that's being generous!) we do almost all of our meal preparation from scratch or close to it. Our kids never ate Hamburger Helper or casseroles with canned soup, although I remember I quite liked them both as a kid, myself!

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  4. I grew up in the 50's too and loved my milk, drank lots of it. Now,not so much straight :) just made into kefir, which I make mostly for my husband to help with digestive issues. All I can say is "skim"? yuck. Sorry.

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  5. I grew up with whole milk too, but these days it's 2% for me. Can't abide skim milk, but will drink it in a pinch. I actually like casseroles but my mother didn't make them because my Dad didn't like anything dairy. I will make the occasional casserole now -- it's the best comfort food.

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  6. Interesting. I grew up whole milk too. I can do 2% but just can't go lower. I like casseroles, but my mom made her own sauces, so I spared cream of mushroom everything!

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  7. So true! I have seen within my own family the different preferences in milk fat. I am definitely one of those who prefers 1% and I can barely tolerate more than that. My sister, oddly enough, won't even go near a glass of milk. I am not a huge fan of casseroles either, but I do love a baked macaroni cheese. :)

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  8. Fun topic. My mom always bought skim milk so that's what I grew up with- whole or 2% is weird to me too. Although I'm not a huge milk drinker anymore, other than w/ cereal. And that's funny about casseroles! I like a good casserole but there are also I lot I wouldn't touch, and I can totally understand that. We also only had margarine because butter was "bad"- now it seems to have gone the other way.

    Hamburger bean pie just doesn't sound right. :)

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  9. That was interesting about the milk. I hadn't thought about it, but it makes sense. My parents always preferred whole, which I don't touch...I'm happy with anything from 2% to Skim.

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  10. PS I won't even mention how old my milk says I am. Grin.

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  11. I wouldn't eat eggs as a child and only eat them now if they are not runny! I've never liked plain milk - we used to have to drink it at playtime and it was warm and off smelling - now they still do milk in schools but it is refrigerated. Great topic. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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  12. I grew up on 2% milk and changed it myself to skimmed milk, but still don't mind drinking 2%, but I even like straight from the cow milk so I don't guess I have a preference as long as it's not spoiled or buttermilk...lol. :)

    I know I can't stand kraft mac and cheese and have a hard time with fish sticks cause I was a picky eater and so my grandmother just made those cause she new I would eat it, now I can't do it...bleck. Just looking at the box makes me cringe...lol.

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  13. I never really thought about it. I am a child of the 70's and grew up on 2% milk. My husband was born in the late 60's and was drinking whole milk when I met him. I switched to skim milk when I became an adult and made my hubby switch when I met him. My grandmother liked to drink buttermilk....yuck!

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  14. Oh funny. I was an 80s baby ad we did 2% milk. I'm not a milk fan, though. I'd do it in cereal or in recipes but never just drinking milk. Now I'm going more vegan so I do almond or cashew milk :)

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  15. Yes... I grew up in an era of whole milk - when we had free milk at school. And then in my 30s I discovered my dairy intolerance and felt a great deal better, as well as being able to successfully manage my son's EXTREME dairy intolerance. And this last year I've become vegetarian and I've never felt so well and full of energy in my life:). I eat lots of vegetables and salads and while the younger me would probably get up from the dinner table feeling very put upon and rather hungry, I love the food I now eat.

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  16. I grew up drinking 2% but for more than 25 years we've been drinking skim. Until recently when we started reading studies that said that the fat wasn't bad for you. Then we went back to 2%. So love having milk that tastes like milk again!

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  17. Wow, what an interesting post! The only thing I can think of is when my mother remarried my stepfather said that drinking anything other than water wuth your meal was bad for your digestion, but after growing up drinking milk, juice, kool-aid,/and soda with meals I wasn't having it. I had to eat my meals "dry" because I could not stand drinking tasteless water with my meals. I still cannot do it. :P

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