5 days ago
42 Now-Obsolete Cooking Methods Older People Miss
Think about the last time you took a bite of something that instantly transported you back in time — That's So Raven vision-style. This list of 43 forgotten cooking styles and dishes might do the same.
Recently, on the r/cooking subreddit, people are answering Patient-rain-9414's question: "What is a cooking method lost over the last 30 years?" From broasted chicken to single-use bread machines, these once-trendy food-making methods have mostly vanished from kitchens, but never from our memories.
"Microwave cooking. There were entire books where every recipe was cooked somehow in the microwave."
—thepluralofmooses"There's a really cool America's Test Kitchen video where the chef shows how to do a lot of things in the microwave. One I'd never thought of was using the microwave to fry shallots in oil as a crisp sort of thing for topping other dishes."—One_Win_6185
"There aren't a lot of broasters still running out in the wild anymore."
"The lost art of jello molds"
—jacobwebb57"Sunshine salad! Pineapple tidbits, shredded carrot, orange and lemon jello. Loved it growing up on Easter."—Chickenriggiez
"Shirred eggs used to be a common menu item, at least in the era when celery and olives were a gourmet appetizer. But, almost nobody shirs anymore."
"I don't know anyone who boils vegetables anymore unless it's to parboil or part of a soup. My parents and grandparents' generations really knew how to destroy vitamins AND make veggies really unappealing."
"It's not lost, but did fall out of fashion: Cooking en papillotte (in parchment). You used to have to go to a specialty place to buy parchment paper, but now, everywhere has it. I like doing the traditional heart shape; it puffs up so beautifully."
—Jazzy_Bee
"I don't know if it was just my family, but we used to glaze everything. Glazed carrots, glazed chicken, glazed squash, glazed salmon. Not all foods need to be sweet. Maybe why I lost my taste for sugar."
"Back in the early 1970's I loved our fondue set. What ever happened to fondue?"
—Patient-Rain-4914
"Making popcorn in a pot on the stove."
"Popovers in the US."
"Flambé. Used to see a lot of food on fire. Now hardly ever."
—Electrical_Mess7320
"More than 30 years ago, but both sets of my grandparents had electric roasters large enough to cook a medium-sized turkey. This would have been the 1940s–1970s, most households I know had electric deep skillets with covers."
"Tableside service. I cooked in an old school restaurant years ago that did bananas foster, steak diane, café diablo, crepes suzette, all tableside. Great front-of-house crew. Still miss the incredible competence of those folk."
"Are tunnel bundt cakes still around? How about poke cakes?"
"Pressure cooking was out of vogue for decades, and then the popularity of the Instant Pot has brought it back recently."
—Mo_Jack
"Casseroles! You'll find a few on recipe websites today, but really, they're just updated versions. Chicken and Quinoa Bake? GTFO. That's cheesy chicken and rice casserole from 1952 with a different grain."
"Baked Alaska! Somehow, my mother, who could not cook, made this and it worked."
"Using a broiler, apparently. The broiler on my brand new oven only has a small electric coil embedded in its 'ceiling' so the marketing team can list 'broiler' as a feature, according to two repair techs. It clearly was not meant to function as a legitimate broiler..."
"Why would they include an EasyBake Oven-caliber broiler feature on a brand new residential stove? Because 'nobody ever uses them anymore,' so there's no need for them to actually work."—writerlady6
"There are a few techniques I've found my younger friends don't know about or care to use. Starting a creamy sauce with a roux is a good example. Building a fond for a soup is another one. Cooking from scratch isn't dying per se, but 'from scratch' now seems to include using cream cheese in mac and cheese or bouillon cubes for soup, for example."
"Cooking in a double boiler: Custards, delicate sauces, melting chocolate, reheating leftovers."
"Not many cook directly over wood... grilling more than smoking... like a campfire."
"Aspics have fallen off hard — it used to be seen as very sophisticated high-end stuff. Now it's pretty firmly an 'ick.'"
"I'd say in general, a lot of classic techniques fell off due to refrigeration becoming commonly affordable. Stuff like salt pork, salt beef, salt fish, all used to be staple ingredients, and now they're generally quite rare to find. The amount of salt needed to preserve these made them a rough go as far as cooking went. The modern versions that survive are a lot milder."—throwdemawaaay
"Deep frying, for home cooks."
"Roasting or baking in a clay pot."
—Heyd388y"My grandmother would cook most of her casseroles in clay dishes, then set them near a window. Does the clay pot help with cooking, too? I thought the dish was more about letting moisture escape while resting."—Patient-Rain-4914
"Honestly, use of nonstick over the last 30 years has made cooking in a stainless steel or enamel cast iron without ruining the food a lost method."
"The whole style of salad that features large slices of high-quality meat. Haven't seen a good new steak salad recipe in a while either."
"Poaching foods like seafood and chicken."
—wandis56"Yes, poached chicken comes out so juicy and tender. And poaching fish in milk gives you soft fish, never dry, and a great starter liquid for a creamy sauce."—Imaginary_Bird538
"Canning."
"Bread machines — Go to any thrift shop and there will be stacks of them."
"George Foreman grills."
—c0ffeebreath
"Honestly, soups without just blitzing ingredients with a blender."
"As an Australian, I don't really use the grill much anymore (broiler for Americans). Having a subscription to NYTimes Cooking has reintroduced me to the art of broiling."
"Potted meat and fish (the kind sealed in an earthenware jar with a fat cap). Potted tongue is lovely but you never see it these days."
—PurpleWomat
"Soufflé."
"Blackened fish. It was the rage back in the '80s and '90s, now... Crickets. I still occasionally blacken fish or a steak on a dedicated cast iron pan, but it must be done outside due to the smoke. Also, grilling doesn't seem to be as popular as it once was. I don't just grill in the summer but live in the south, so it's not that difficult to grill 12 months out of the year."
"Not cooking... But I miss making ice cream in the old wooden bucket maker that we'd pack with ice and rock salt."
—MinutesOnAScreen
"My dad always asks for basted eggs whenever he's asked how he wants them cooked at a restaurant, just to see if folks still know how to do it."
"Not totally lost, but at least in Germany grilling over a charcoal grill or even over fire! Everyone has a gas grill now. I can understand the comfort, but I love the vibe of heating up the charcoal/wood and making food over it. Also, it tastes better. To everyone who is telling me there is no difference, what is wrong with you?"
—Alternative-Can-5690
"Maybe not in the last 30 years, since that's like 1995, but fire roasting feels like it's been lost. My grandparents would at least do a little when they were younger and I was tiny, but I've never really heard of it in a modern sense. It's all charcoal or gas."
"There is a dying art of making and rolling out Chinese noodles with a bamboo log. The noodles' texture is unmatched and is worth the effort compared to machine-made noodles."
"Jerky used to be a large slab of meat or slices of meat dried out. Today, jerky is more processed meat."
—Patient-Rain-4914
"Braising. We are in a hurry."
What cooking method have you notice fall out of vogue? Let us know in the comments or anonymously using this form!
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