Grocery Prices 1953

[MarineMom]

As I recall, there was another use. Some people having large dogs would buy for a pet treat.

In England "dog bones" used to be free for the asking, I remember in the early 60's my Dad was not working for some reason and a couple of times we went to the butcher and asked for bones for the dog which my mum then turned into soup for us.

[W. Gray]

Today, I made a point of going to the produce section and look for tube tomatoes.

The tubes at King Soopers (Dillions to you flatlanders) were three in a clear stackable elongated plastic form fitting box, which enabled the tomatoes be viewed top, bottom, and sideways. They also had four tomatoes in square clear packs plus miniature tomatoes.  Blueberries, raspberries, etc., were in the same type of clear plastic boxes.

Amazing what I missed over the years without taking a specific look.

[kdfrawg]

That reminds me of how much I miss beef neckbones and ox-tails for stews and soups. I don't know where those have gone and am afraid to ask. I have also been nursing a hankering for beef heart, baked with dressing. Heart is not likely to be available ay Hy-Vee or Dillons, so I guess maybe a drive over to the meat market in Desoto is in my future.

[Jo McDonald]

Oxtail and soup bones are still available --- boiling beef was chunks of beef trimmed from the nicer roast - and could be roasted -boiled-ground up for beef patties or just about anything you wanted to do with beef.  John West used to give you bones for your dogs -- or your soup kettle, whichever way you preferred to use them.
The prices of groceries were cheap - and the wages weren't high, Janet girl, but there was not the added taxes on everything back in those days - so your money went just about as far as it does now.  I planned a buget each week and could buy all the things I needed to cook three meals a day -- I did not use any prepared items at all--- everything was from scratch... and I allowed $10 to $15 dollars a wek for groceries.  We never lost a pound -- so the food was good and plentiful.
  I love seeing all the prices of things "Way Back When"   
I bought a lot of things from A G Food Market

[kdfrawg]

Wow, Jo, maybe that's another difference between Elk and Douglas counties. I have asked about neck bones and oxtails everywhere and mostly just got blank looks. There used to be a meat market in Lecompton but it finally closed. Now I have to go over to Desoto (on the edge of the dreaded Johnson County) to Steve's Butcher Shop to get anything like that.

When I was in California, I could always get that sort of thing at the Chinese supermarkets, but never anywhere else. My daughter just looks at me funny when I say words like "oxtail." Well, to be honest, she gives me those look a lot.  ;o)  My wife has some very old memories of things like that. Her parents, who grew up in Germany after WWII, can hold a right proper conversation about the cheaper cuts of meat, though.

[Jo McDonald]

I love Baked Beef Heart w/dressing.   YUM ! Also we LOVE Beef Tongue.   I cook it w/bay leaves and garlic and salt -- we both love it sliced cold with horseradish for sandwiches.  I buy them from Deanna Jones - Elk County Treasurer - she and her husband have Steaks and More - and their meat is by far the best that we have had.  She may have beef hearts too -- you might call her and that would give you the perfect reason for coming to Howard.  See------- all this chit chat can be a wealth of info.  When I talk about the things that I have cooked not only do people give me funny looks - a lot of the time, I am looking at their back as they quickly walk away.   lol lol lol

[kdfrawg]

Jo, you are a woman after my own heart. I grew up pretty darned poor and when we had meat it wasn't KC Strips. We had heart and dressing, brains and eggs, shepherd's pie, oxtail stew, creamed chipped beef on toast, and a lot of salt pork and beans, just for a few examples. I guess whatever food you grew up with is the food you wind up with a hankering for.

Over the years, I have become a pretty good cook, including some elegant French and Italian dishes. But more and more, I find myself wanting the comfort food of my youth. I put dried beef on a grocery list just tonight so that I can have SOS some morning after everybody else is out of the house.

[MarineMom]

My mother could make a pound of meat feed 12 people, she cooked lots oxtail stews, stuffed hearts, liver and onions, boiled ham, stew made from bones not stew beef but she also made us eat tongue which I never liked but there our choices were to eat it for supper of get it back for breakfast. 

[MarineMom]

hold a right proper conversation about the che

usually the only time I hear anyone say "right proper" is when I am talking to someone from England

[kdfrawg]

I have spent enough time in Great Britain and Europe that I picked up some of the phraseology. I also tend sometimes to spell the British way, like "grey" and "thourough" which makes people look at me a little funny. Then again, I should be used to people looking at me funny by now.