I just bought a little beef jerky. Haven’t had any in quite a while. It was supposed to be spicy. What I got was something sweet, rubbery and gummy, with barely a hint of heat. (In the US) W.t.f.

When I was a kid, jerky was dry AF, thin, salty, tooth-rippingly tough sometimes, never sweet unless you specifically got a teryaki flavor or something. If you wanted spicy, it was covered in pepper and your mouth would be on fire after just a couple pieces. It was awesome.

Now it’s sugary and chewy. Why people gotta put sugar on everything? Can’t find that dry, thin, peppery stuff anywhere.

What food of yours has disappeared or been wrecked in order to appeal to more people?

  • cattywampas@lemmy.world
    3·
    18 hours ago

    Ice cream nerd here!

    Start by looking for “super premium ice cream” on the label. Super premium is a category of ice cream that will be 14-18% butterfat and no more than 50% air by volume (this amount is called overrun in ice cream manufacturing).

    You also want to check ingredients as with all foods - real cream, milk and sugar, high fat content, high calorie content. Fat and calories = good ice cream.

    Finally, pick the dang thing up. Is it heavy and dense? That’s a good sign. Is it expensive? That’s also a good sign. Good ice cream isn’t cheap and cheap “ice cream” isn’t good.

    Kirkland is a super premium brand. I also like Haagen-Dazs, Turkey Hill, Ben and Jerry’s, and great regional brands like Jeni’s or Chocolate Shoppe if you have them.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      18 hours ago

      This is my problem with American products. The standards are too low! Sugar is replaced with corn. The cream in ice cream is replaced with oil. Chocolate is replaced with unrelated fats. And it’s all legally allowed to be sold as what they’re a facsimile of!

      At best, there are names like “chocolatey”. Bullshit.

      My least favourite alternative that Nestle loves is just leaving what it is off the package. So here in Canada, it doesn’t say ice cream. It doesn’t say anything unless you look for the fine print.

      But it’s in an ice cream carton sitting a metre away from real ice cream. This is false marketing by omission. If I wrote the laws, this would be illegal.

      • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        15 hours ago

        To be fair, at least currently (until the government fucks this up, too), to be legally called “ice cream”, it has to have minimum milkfat and butterfat percentages. Otherwise it has to be called “frozen dairy dessert,” or whatever.

        Ice cream’s composition standards focus on dairy content, specifically minimum percentages of milkfat and total milk solids. The finished product must contain a minimum of 10% milkfat, also known as butterfat. This fat must be derived exclusively from milk; other fats are excluded, except for incidental amounts naturally present in flavorings.

        The product must also contain at least 20% total milk solids, which is the combined weight of milkfat and nonfat milk solids. Nonfat milk solids, such as proteins, lactose, and minerals, must constitute at least 10% of the total weight. If a manufacturer exceeds the 10% milkfat minimum, the required nonfat milk solids percentage may be slightly reduced based on a defined inverse relationship.

        The FDA allows for a reduction in these minimum percentages when bulky flavorings are added, such as fruits, nuts, or chocolate. In these cases, the milkfat content cannot fall below 8% of the finished weight, and the total milk solids must remain at or above 16%.

        Citation

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      12 hours ago

      Thanks for the pointers. I knew some of those, but the “super premium” is helpful.

      Edit: just went to the store. No “super premium” available. :(