[Granny Bear]

I like to read/think about the origin of some of our more disgusting foods. Housewives in the 30s, 40s and 50s literally made something out of nothing when feeding their families. For example, take bread stuffing, or dressing if you prefer, that we serve with our turkeys. It starts with old bread that's close to molding. Since wasting food USED to be a sin, I imagine a housewife taking that moldy bread, adding spices, aromatics and chicken/turkey broth and turning that into something delicious.

Ever wonder why short bread is named as such, or what it may be "short" in the ingredients? Well, technically it is short on fat, i.e. butter, shortening, etc. But it also can be short on a commodity that was once quite scarce..sugar. So a housewife has flour, lard but little or no sugar. So they bake that up and add something that will flavor that shortbread, i.e. strawberries, honey, and you end up with strawberry short cake. Apple stack cake is another example of housewife ingenuity. You have these drab, thin cakes flavored with molasses or another substitute sweetener, but layer that with reconstituted dried apples, and you have a wonderful, stunning desert.

Pickled corn is not soured corn. "Soured" sounds like something is expired or going bad. We used to pickle (to preserve) a lot of things, even meat. Talk about disgusting!! My dad used to eat pickled pigs feet with crackers. LOVED them. I never developed a taste for them. Guess I saw pig's feet and where they walked around, too many times.

And how simple and bland is potato soup? BUT, add that heavy cream, scallions (which we used to harvest from our yards) and some cheese. Presto, a tasty, hearty, cold weather staple. And, if you like pumpkin pie, go a step farther and prepare a sweet potato pie. Yummm!!!

As far as beets are concerned, PICKLED beets are one of my favorite things to eat with beans.....of any kind. As far as their dirt tasting quality; think of truffles when you eat beets.
My mom used to encourage us to eat three bites of a food that we didn't think we would like. I ate three bites of hominy one time, and threw up. Never tried it again. I've watched it being made and it really is disgusting!!

So that's my take on strange and sometimes disgusting foods.