BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Brian May
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 07:49 AM

I LOVE Spam - now that's PROPER canned food ;o)

Gross to me, is growing lovely green vegetables etc then murdering them all in the name of a cult called 'vegetarianism'.

Good old fatty bacon, porky scratchings, pork pie and dripping sandwiches (having delved underneath for the jelly), that's what proper food is.

You only live to 23 but what a life - simply, beyond 23 you're unable to get a wheel barrow to fit your belly . . . ask most Scotsmen or rednecks.

Have fun . . .

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 08:06 PM

Some votes for Canuck cheddar I see... but, beware, not all Canuck cheddars are the same. Kraft cheese is good. Indeed, consider this... Kraft havarti is to die for... Kraft "Cracker Barrel" havarti is good but not as good. Cracker Barrel old cheddar is what I use for mac and cheese and it is spot on. Decadent and seldom eaten, but, when it is eaten, it is a pig out treat.

I wish I could eat cheese. I LOVE it but I am prone to parotid gland stones and even though I have only 1/3 of one parotid left, I figure if I can get them, I can get kidney stones and gall stones, so... I am SOL on the cheese.

Gee, just talking about cheese gives me that sucking and sour feeling in the cheeks where my parotid glands used to be. I miss cheese more than the glands tho... >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 09:22 PM

Smoked beef tongue is exquisite. I like it in sandwiches (on rye, garlicky dill pickles on the side), but it's BEST in a boiled dinner. Problem is, you really need two in a boiled dinner because they're comparatively small. (Smaller than a corned brisket or smoked butt.) Alas, Tom won't eat the smoked butt, which I also really like. But, then again, Tom doesn't seem to want to make boiled dinner no matter what's in it. Sigh. I am really, REALLY hungry for boiled dinner!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 04:54 PM

I guess this is not a Velveeta appreciating group. If I am on death row and have a last dinner it will be macaroni and cheese made with Velveeta like my dear departed father used to make..and a real coke. Why do people put macaroni and cheese in the oven with crumbly things on it? mg

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 08:39 PM

How about Lamb fries? aka, Rocky Mountain oysters.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: frogprince
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 08:32 PM

Some folks like 'em

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 12:52 PM

Patsy, I used to adore tongue when I was a kid. Despite the name, I just thought of it as a word and didn't realise what it was (it was always served in sliced, unrecognisable portions) until one day I saw it -- whole -- sitting out on the counter before it was cooked.

After that, it was years before I could bring myself to eat it again, even though I had loved the taste of it before. Even now, decades later, I still don't have the same enthusiasm for it that I once did.

Another gross food story:
Went out shopping with my Gramma one afternoon. In the freezer of a small butcher's shop, saw a plastic-wrapped packet labeled "calf brains" and thought "What kind of monster would eat calf brains?" -- just as my Gramma noticed what I was looking at and exclaimed, "Calf brains! Your Daddy used to love calf brains when he was a boy!"

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 12:02 PM

Tongue makes you gag? Do you eat eggs? hehehe

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,maryrrf (lost cookie!)
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 11:08 AM

Guest above was me. I also used to like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with the powdered cheese but I don't care for it now. I'd rather just boil some macaroni,grate up some good quality cheddar and nowadays I'd probably add some broccoli or spinach.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 11:03 AM

I used to like the Chef Boyardee products - canned spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, beefaroni, spaghetti o's, etc. when I was a kid - but I'd have to be hard up and really hungry to eat that nowadays.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 09:02 AM

Well, kendall, gauche does mean 'left' in French. But I've never heard it used to describe something low class. My enormous Oxford Dictionary gives "lacking ease or grace; unsophisticated and socially awkward", so I imagine it's generally used to describe attributes of human beings, not food. But I enjoy words and am happy to read your different usage; it's how language evolves.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 08:31 AM

Tinned sliced tongue has to be among one of the most grossest of all foods. Despite how fancy it might be dressed up on a platter it still looks like what it is, makes me gag whenever it is served up.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 12:40 AM

Right?

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 07:40 PM

I believe that originally gauche' meant low class. It came from the Bohemian community on the left bank of the river Seine.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 06:11 PM

I think Velveeta isn't even legally "cheese"...it's "cheese food product" which means a bunch of chemicals, artificial stuff and sodium. There may be a tiny bit of something real in there, but it's not cheese and it's not enough to make a difference.

I grew up with Miracle Whip and I LOATHE it. My mother always said it was the same as mayonnaise, and I didn't find out any better until I left home, married, set up housekeeping on my own, and bought my first jar of Hellman's to mix into various sandwich fixin's. Different universe. Now I'm a mayonnaise abuser and eat it on french fries (chips), burgers, etcet etcet. Wish I had the time to make mayo from scratch -- that's what The District served when we took Jeri there for her birthday lunch. (Home made tomato ketchup, too.)

Spam is something else I can live very easily without.

There's a bunch of "food" out there right now that scares the crap out of me: meat glue (yeah, they "glue" pieces of meat scraps together to make steaks), HFCS, artificial sweeteners...not to mention a lot of the "frankenfood" that Monsanto is foisting on us and trying to make sure it's not labeled. And everything from chicken to beef that is fed everything from chicken shit ("chicken by-products") to corn -- cows were designed to eat GRASS, not corn. Corn fattens them up fast but it's a race to get to market weight before the corn rots them from the inside. Ugh!

I hate talking about this before dinner!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 09:01 AM

Gauche means awkward or clumsy, eg an embarrassed young man at his first formal dinner. I don't see how this can relate to food, kendall.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 07:58 AM

Yes, I know that gross has other applications, but I don't think it fits in this case.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 07:56 AM

For the uninitiated, American cheese is a type of yetch that tries to pass for the real thing. It looks and tastes like plastic.

Not to be pedantic, but why do we say "Gross" when the word, in this context,is actually "Gauche")?

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 08:14 PM

Cahill's Irish cheddar is good, but still prefer the Canadian.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bert
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 04:27 PM

Cheddar Cheddar is Cheddar, all the rest are imitations.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 04:21 PM

Kendall, Vermont isn't American?
Of course, Canadian chedddar is the best of all.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Musket
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 11:32 AM

Judge by the transfats. Then by the E numbers. Then by the disgusting taste. if it tastes OK, then ask yourself why it possibly can, being processed, tinned and / or concentrated. if it tastes OK, there's something in it to enhance the taste that will bugger up your manhood over time...

Mind you, I buy processed chicken shit pellets to manure my veg patch, so processing is a matter of relativity really.

The bloody dog digs it up to eat it, so not sure how much manures my leeks after all? The dog looks healthy though. (Mind you, have I mentioned in other threads, I think I have, how he can fart? He slinks into the room, lays down, gets up and leaves the room again. That's the cue for gas masks and ringing the vets if he doesn't desist. Jesus H Christ! Talk about butler's revenge...)

Dog fart? Processed food? I appear to be keeping on thread after all.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 09:00 AM

I like toasted cheese sandwiches too, but only if made with real Vermont Cheddar cheese, not that American plastic crap.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 06:22 PM

I love real cheese. I love grilled Velveeta sandwiches.
I think people can be better than to slag off others' tastes and just talk about their own... maybe?

Processed cheese food-like product... some brands are edible, but sometimes the cheap generic store brands taste like cheese-colored rubber. But there aren't many food products I wouldn't eat if I were hungry enough.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 03:25 PM

Q, a good toasted cheese sandwich is pure heaven. I use real cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,999
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 02:49 PM

Not too many foods are gross where yer hungry.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 02:41 PM

I remember back in my high school days (1930s) we would stop in the soda fountain (and primitive fast food source) in the drugstore and fill the booths. A toasted cheese sandwich and a malted milk shake (double coke if our pocketbooks thin) and lots of gossip before we headed home.

Turned 88 in October. My wife is 89. We still eat toasted cheese sandwiches occasionally. We have replaced the malted milks with good cows' milk, the best all-round food, which we have with all meals if wine is not served. The cheese was always processed but now we use aged cheddar.
The food police can go to one of the stages of Dante's Purgatory. I will request that this soul food be served at my wake.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 02:34 PM

Campbell's Tomato Soup Cake???? Oh, that's just wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:33 PM

Jim, this is very interesting. In some of the prisons I visited, the (male) inmates clamoured for cooking facilities, and on some 'landings' a cooker was installed, with saucepans etc. They actually did cook some nice things, and the various ethnic groups shared their recipes from home. 'My' inmate (a white Brit) at one prison learned from a Jamaican to cook with coconut milk, carrot juice and many different spices. None of this was junk food at all. They said they preferred to cook real stuff; the institutional food was well-balanced but too bland and plain. The ingredients were ordered in for them. But of course, the security risks were great, boiling water/hot fat, knives, bits and pieces to hide drugs in etc. It was a nightmare for the officers, and most of these innovative schemes had to be stopped. I think personally the inmates wanted more spicy flavour and variety. Prisoners are only allowed just over £2 per day for the Prison Chef to make meals for them, so they're pretty monotonous.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bert
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:23 PM

The worst has got to be Sea Salt, when you see how it is made.

They have acres of salt pans and flood them with sea water. Immediately thousands of sea birds swarm down and feast on the fish trapped in the shallow water. Most of them leave behind a nice little present of trace minerals.

This process is repeated until the salt is thick enough to harvest.

Think about that when you are sprinkling a thin layer of bird droppings on your dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:17 PM

I am reminded of a documentary I once saw about women's prisons. Apparently some of the women have a strong desire to cook—one could almost call it a need or a compulsion—even when they don't have access to a stove or to normal ingredients. They will find a way to cook something even when they are limited to a microwave oven and stuff they can buy out of vending machines. One of the women had invented a recipe that consisted mainly of—if I remember correctly—crushed cheese puffs and milk (and maybe some other ingredients I have forgotten) cooked in a microwave. The women prisoners all tasted it and pronounced it good—but I can only attribute this to their desperate desire to do something creative with food.

Maybe an impulse like that lies behind the creation of some of the recipes mentioned in this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:17 PM

If it is all someone can get to eat, I understand. To choose to use Velveeta in fudge just because it's a cheap way to make a big batch... well, I guess you have to like the taste of Velveeta to do that.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:09 PM

Dear Manuel, how lovely to read your greetings! I wish you too a very Happy and Healthy New Year! You're quite right, it's better NOT to be a cow just now, although I do like cows, there's something very calming about them.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:06 PM

That Velveeta Fudge Brownie recipe brings back fond memories of Kraft Theater on TV in the 50s. Every 15 minutes, the ad break included a recipe made with Kraft products that usually reduced us to fake gags and fits of giggling. Most of it looked as if someone had eaten it once before.Someone got paid to dream up that crap and every once in a while one caught on - hence Ritz Mock Apple Pie ( a WW2 invention, no?) and green beans with mushrooms and fried onions casserole.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:06 PM

Dear Eliza, this not like you. Start the New Year right by counting your blessings. Far better to have been a cow in a previous life than in this one!That said, best wishes for 2012 my friend.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 11:48 AM

I have to watch my pennies too but there's no way I'd make that Velveeta recipe. Is it that much cheaper? I understand that processed food seems less expensive, but in part it's because I think many people have forgotten how to cook. Back in the day people made big pots of stew, soup, etc that could be stretched to feed a hungry family and was still nutritious. I don't think families tend to eat like that much anymore. There are lots of ways to eat healthy and not break the bank.

I'm with you, Alice. Cheap food isn't cheap in the long run.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 11:44 AM

I don't gross out about foods, but if you are one that does, by all means avoid Asian Markets--My local one features such delicacies as Pig'd fallopian tubes, boneless chicken feet, lambs' tescticles and
fermented fish sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 11:17 AM

Yes, I'm sure it is a recipe that Velveeta's marketing dept created.

UPDATE
I suggested to the Velveeta fudge maker on the other forum to use cream cheese instead, and the responses were very stubborn. Huff, WELL, the idea of using something so expensive when you could use cheaper Velveeta!!! Aha! It's cheap!

I've been unemployed for two years, some months I get a box of food from the local food bank to get by, but I still don't think of quantity over quality when it comes to what I put in my mouth! No matter how cheap something is, if it is yucky, I'm not going to buy it.

This is one of the reasons poor people have such bad diets. Processed and fast food can be cheap. But in the long run, is it, really, when it ruins your health? It fills you up when you're hungry, if that's all you can buy. I understand that situation. But if you are going to make a big batch of fudge for the holidays.... would you use the Velveeta recipe?

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:59 AM

Pringles are just as dire, and those cheesy puff things

My son picked up a can of Pringles, with Roast Turkey flavour (for christmas, I think). I tried one. I did taste like slightly burned turkey.

Not great.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:52 AM

You're right, Dave. That's probably how Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie and Campbell's Tomato Soup Cake came about too.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:44 AM

The very idea is nauseating and I can't imagine who came up with this recipe - how does it occur to somebody to combine Velveeta with chocolate???

That's easy: Somebody working in Velveeta's product-promotion department went down a list of ingredients and/or recipes.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:32 AM

The first link didn't work - should be Paula Dean Chocolate Cheese Fudge

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:30 AM

Just out of curiosity I googled the recipe and http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chocolate-cheese-fudge-recipe/index.html . The reviews are mixed, some say it's the best fudge they've ever tasted, others say a rank processed cheese taste comes through and not even the cocoa and two boxes of confectioner's sugar can disguise it. I note another comment "because of the amount of butter in this recipe pat the top of the candy to remove some of the oil..."

The very idea is nauseating and I can't imagine who came up with this recipe - how does it occur to somebody to combine Velveeta with chocolate???

Some of the reviews went on about how easy it is to make, but there are plenty of easy recipes for fudge, especially those that use sweetened condensed milk, like this one .

Mind you after all the eating I did over the holidays I won't be making any fudge whatsoever for a while - off to the gym!

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 08:40 AM

Processed food is an oxymoron.

I like butter but my Doctor doesn't want me to est it. Triglycerides you know. I use Olivio margarine, made with olive oil. Not bad, but not butter.

There is an artificial sweetener called Truvia that seems to work for me.
Corned beef from Brazil tastes like carrion.

Jacqui and I eat very little processed food. I was a bit concerned when we married that she is English, and they are not known for their skills in the galley, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that she is a very good cook.

My main problem with processed foods is that they are loaded with salt. Just can't swallow them.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 07:19 AM

I hate crisps of any kind. Covered in artificial flavour-powders. In Spain they used to sell crisps called BUM! (It means 'boom!', but an unfortunate choice of name for export, I feel.) Pringles are just as dire, and those cheesy puff things. LH we are opposites, as I adore anything dairy, in sp[ite of the Health Warnings. Perhaps I was a cow in a previous life.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 09:59 PM

I've mentioned it before but any kind of boiled peanuts. And canned boiled peanuts are even worse. I wouldn't feed them to a dog. And recently I saw canned eggnog at the store.

Speaking of dogs someone is actually marketing "Old Yeller" dog food. I guess they never saw the movie.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 09:48 PM

We don't eat no processed food but I do remember Velveeta from a former life... Didn't seem like "real" food... Like eating the dashboard of yer car...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 09:06 PM

I find that eating much cheese of any kind is not too good for my digestive system. It tastes great, mind you...but if I eat very much of it, I might as well have swallowed some slow setting cement. Thus, I have learned to eat only small amounts of cheese on occasion and very little dairy products (milk, cheese, etc).

Asians have difficulty digesting dairy products. It might be that I have a system similar to the average Asian. It's not an allergy, I just don't digest the stuff well, that's all.

(cow's) Milk is also lousy for those who sing, because it causes a buildup of mucus in the bronchials and the digestive system. Add to that the fact that commercially sold cow's milk is full of various added chemical and hormones from not very healthy animals (in many cases), and you've got a very good reason to avoid drinking the stuff at all.

What people primarily need to drink is pure water, and lots of it. Remember that stuff? ;-) It's transparent, it's found in Nature, and it makes up a great deal of your body weight, and you can't live without it for more than a few days. You used to be able to get it everywhere for free not too long ago historically speaking, but that appears to be changing...

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 06:42 PM

Danish cheeses are full of the same stuff as Kraft slices.

What is in Kraft singles? Per slice-
Canadian nutritional data
60 calories
4.5 g fat, 7 percent of recommended daily intake
(fat-free version has 45 calories, 20 from fat.
15 mg cholesterol
250 mg sodium
1 g sugar
3 g protein
1 g carbohydrate
Good source of protein, riboflavin, zinc; good source vitamin A, Calcium, phosphorous.
Other 'goodies'-
emulsifiers, colors, sorbic acid, several items reconstituted.

The Mayo Clinic health diet includes processed cheese spreads as permissible. Feta, mozzarella, reduced-fat cheeses OK.
In other words, avoid quality cheeses, esp. aged. None of the good stuff allowed.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 06:07 PM

Vienna Sausages in the little glass jar. A co-worker used to eat them daily. Just the thought of the smell makes me gag.

A new horror has been introduced by Ragu - a cheesy sauce for making baked macaroni and cheese. It was a two for so I bought one and took a red sauce free. The "cheese" sauce was gross - salty, gummy, sticky and at best nasty. The red sauce can be doctored to cover pasta.