I'm so old I Remember when:

[LTAY1946]

I remember working in a meat department at a small grocery store in the 60's cutting up chickens for the meat case on a big maple butcher block. The meat cutters drug a side of beef out of the walk in meat cooler and laid them across that same block breaking it down in to roasts, steaks, and meat for grinding into hamburger. I remember how every scrap of lean went into the burger that was not prepackaged but on a large tray in a display case and customers would buy a 1/4 lb at a time or 10. Some people just made a single burger a week maybe. I remember one of the towns 2 doctors coming in and buying Porterhouse steaks and wanting all the fat trimmed off before they were weighed and then the fat that came with kidneys for free. The floor was sawdust. At night the butcher used a heavy wire brush and scraped a layer of wood off the block and uses something to put on the block to make it bacteria free. Very few places to buy dry aged beef now. It is mostly all chemically aged in a Cryovac bag in primal cuts.

 

[Brooks_]

I remember working in a meat department at a small grocery store in the 60's cutting up chickens for the meat case on a big maple butcher block. The meat cutters drug a side of beef out of the walk in meat cooler and laid them across that same block breaking it down in to roasts, steaks, and meat for grinding into hamburger. I remember how every scrap of lean went into the burger that was not prepackaged but on a large tray in a display case and customers would buy a 1/4 lb at a time or 10. Some people just made a single burger a week maybe. I remember one of the towns 2 doctors coming in and buying Porterhouse steaks and wanting all the fat trimmed off before they were weighed and then the fat that came with kidneys for free. The floor was sawdust. At night the butcher used a heavy wire brush and scraped a layer of wood off the block and uses something to put on the block to make it bacteria free. Very few places to buy dry aged beef now. It is mostly all chemically aged in a Cryovac bag in primal cuts.

Before my time, but from what I've heard. The market was "cleaned" once a week - Saturday evening. Closed Sunday. Fresh sawdust on Monday.

It is mostly all chemically aged in a Cryovac bag in primal cuts.

Not chemical, but, yeah, in the bag - called wet aging.

 

[tranquiliti]

Is that the one where you made your own gummy worms and spiders too eat?

That was “Incredible Edibles”
https://www.throwbacks.com/the-orig...ll-make-you-wonder-how-kids-survived-the-60s/

 

[LTAY1946]

I remember when meals you got at restaurants where always cooked at the restaurant. I have heard now that some name brand chains fix a lot of there meals a warehouse type cooking center and package it and deliver it to there stores. I think a lot of donuts are sold that way. I am glad to see that people who grow their own food can buy a metal can sealer for home canning. My grandfather who I remember well had one of those during the Great Depression. My mother and her sisters shelled black eyed peas that the boys had picked. Grandfather put them in the metal cans with water and salt then sealed them up with a hand crank lid sealer. He processed them in a 55 gallon drum of boiling water under a shade tree in his backyard. When done he wrote on the can with a marker what they were and they were delivered to a store about 20 miles away to a small store. That small store was the first store that the founder of Publix Supermarkets had. Those were survivalist times. Now cans are covered with labels telling everything imaginable.

 

[LTAY1946]

Before my time, but from what I've heard. The market was "cleaned" once a week - Saturday evening. Closed Sunday. Fresh sawdust on Monday.


Not chemical, but, yeah, in the bag - called wet aging.

Water is a chemical as is everything we touch, eat, drink, and even smell. Chemical is often only associated with a bad thing. The foods I eat are all chemicals actually. From high school science class a long time ago we were taught that the human body is a mass of about 100 different chemicals. Both elements and compounds. I've read that our bodies use nitrates or nitrates one and that is what keeps our tissues from rotting off the bones. I believe I read that from a book entitled "The Healing Foods" when it was discussing the rap the hot dogs get for having nitrates and nitrites in them. Need to look that one up.

 

[Brooks_]

And now the only thing Publix does well is subs and a couple bakery items.

Some years ago I bought a can of green beans from Safeway - had Limas inside.

 

[Folly's place]

Well limas are green, and beans. So not a lie...
Mary

 

[sdm111]

Was it Lays that said just that?

Should have done that to king size baby ruth too

I remember working in a meat department at a small grocery store in the 60's cutting up chickens for the meat case on a big maple butcher block. The meat cutters drug a side of beef out of the walk in meat cooler and laid them across that same block breaking it down in to roasts, steaks, and meat for grinding into hamburger. I remember how every scrap of lean went into the burger that was not prepackaged but on a large tray in a display case and customers would buy a 1/4 lb at a time or 10. Some people just made a single burger a week maybe. I remember one of the towns 2 doctors coming in and buying Porterhouse steaks and wanting all the fat trimmed off before they were weighed and then the fat that came with kidneys for free. The floor was sawdust. At night the butcher used a heavy wire brush and scraped a layer of wood off the block and uses something to put on the block to make it bacteria free. Very few places to buy dry aged beef now. It is mostly all chemically aged in a Cryovac bag in primal cuts.

I wanted to be a butcher when I was young for a long time.

I remember when meals you got at restaurants where always cooked at the restaurant. I have heard now that some name brand chains fix a lot of there meals a warehouse type cooking center and package it and deliver it to there stores. I think a lot of donuts are sold that way. I am glad to see that people who grow their own food can buy a metal can sealer for home canning. My grandfather who I remember well had one of those during the Great Depression. My mother and her sisters shelled black eyed peas that the boys had picked. Grandfather put them in the metal cans with water and salt then sealed them up with a hand crank lid sealer. He processed them in a 55 gallon drum of boiling water under a shade tree in his backyard. When done he wrote on the can with a marker what they were and they were delivered to a store about 20 miles away to a small store. That small store was the first store that the founder of Publix Supermarkets had. Those were survivalist times. Now cans are covered with labels telling everything imaginable.

At least a few big companies do that. Seen it with my own eyes.

And also there's a chain here called red lobster don't think they're still in business. They advertised fresh lobster. I woukd imagine "fresh" means not frozen. I guess technically they're right but the tails got to the restaurant individually vacuum sealed in plastic and frozen. A play with words

 

[LTAY1946]

And now the only thing Publix does well is subs and a couple bakery items.

Some years ago I bought a can of green beans from Safeway - had Limas inside.

Publix is not the Publix of the days of George Jenkins for sure. He wasn't a greedy man and maybe not the best in a pure sense of classroom smarts but he made an empire staying closed on Sundays, refusing to sell alcoholic beverages, and treating the workers well. There are several Publix store brand items we buy when we are near one. Outside of that and their by one get one free sales they are just to high priced on the staple items we buy the most. I do like to get 93% lean ground beef from them.

I remember when hamburger meat was just ground beef. Not 25/75 or 20/80 and such. You got whatever was the luck of the draw. I remember working for A&P and seeing boxes of solid boneless beef coming in from Brazil. The meat cutter used a bandsaw and cut it into strips about 2" square and put it through the big grinder while still frozen. It actually made some good hamburgers.

 

[Coffetym]

Well, we fixed that!

Yep, one of the earliest fixes was Peanut Carter & we America thought it couldn’t get any worse!