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I think, since most were either home (farm) raised or bought from a butcher freshly slaughtered, probably. I've rained corn fed pigs and the taste was so different from the pork you buy at the grocery store. Eggs I get from my chickens taste better, and local grass fed beef is SO much better tasting. Of course, fresh milk and cheese tastes different, much more flavorful, and home baked bread is remarkable. Vegetables from my garden have a strong flavor, especially tomatoes, and sweet corn. I would think it was the same back 100 or more years ago. Just simple, fresh meals. Things were stored in the root cellar and canned or dried. The addition of hormones and chemicals may make the chicken look like it needs a 44d bra, but sure doesn't taste any better.
Also, they didn't think raw fruit and veg were healthy for you. Things were often cooked within an inch of their lives. Things like tropical fruits/veg were nonexistent.
Fruit was for special occasions for the vast majority of people. An orange in the 1920's was the ONLY gift my grandfather would get for Christmas, and he was excited about it. (He lived on a farm, too.)
People had much less access to variety of foods and good food storage. The past was not some utopia of delicious food, unless you were fabulously wealthy and lived in an area with abundant crops or good food transportation.
I think, since most were either home (farm) raised or bought from a butcher freshly slaughtered, probably. I've rained corn fed pigs and the taste was so different from the pork you buy at the grocery store. Eggs I get from my chickens taste better, and local grass fed beef is SO much better tasting. Of course, fresh milk and cheese tastes different, much more flavorful, and home baked bread is remarkable. Vegetables from my garden have a strong flavor, especially tomatoes, and sweet corn. I would think it was the same back 100 or more years ago. Just simple, fresh meals. Things were stored in the root cellar and canned or dried. The addition of hormones and chemicals may make the chicken look like it needs a 44d bra, but sure doesn't taste any better.
I even bet pizza was better then too!
My family does raise crops/animals in rural Texas. Yes, some things taste better. Some meals are simple and fresh. They also supplement with things that are only available during modern times. Canning food at home does not make it taste that much better than the store bought brands.
One of my favorite memories is eating fresh peaches ripped on a tree. However, few people had access to that delicious fruit at the turn of the 20th century. Why is peach cobbler or peach desserts a "southern" thing? Because it was too expensive and difficult to get the ripe fruit up north.
Fresh sweet corn picked off the stalk is utterly delicious. Canned corn, even at home, is less delicious. The chicken you ring the neck of is usually older and not producing eggs anymore. The eggs are divine, the chicken is more stringy and tough. How often do you actually think a hog is butchered? Not very often because they are sold for profit.
. The availability and variety of foods today evens out the advantages of fresh, seasonal food that may or may not have been available in the past.
I would imagine that some things tasted better and other things didn't. Most of the raw ingredients were of a better quality, but I think people were much less educated about how to make a tasty meal in general (though it would likely vary from culture to culture) and things outside of their region or culture.
Because of my exposure to a wide variety of cultures, television cooking shows and just the fact that food is cheaper these days and I can afford to experiment, I cook with a wide range of ingredients. My grandmothers did not. They had very little beyond salt and pepper in the spice cupboards. I roast or saute veggies whereas they inevitably boiled them. I understand more about nutrition and how to make lighter fare.
My grandmothers could roast a turkey, make a pot roast, bake cookies or a cake, etc., and they could slap together a very basic meal or soup with pretty much anything. But they didn't know much about making a good tomato sauce (neither side is Italian), how to make a boneless skinless chicken breast into a delightful meal (rather than a bland slab of meat), how to stir fry an Asian-style meal, what to do with a butternut squash, etc. They both grew up poor and they didn't really try new things or know what to do with ingredients that were even slightly exotic. Because they grew up in a time when food safety was a concern, meat and veggies tended to be overcooked. (Two of my friends grew up with a mother who is older and had a poor and rural childhood, and she uses similar cooking approaches.)
if you could compare basic foods from back around 1895 -1900 to foods now, do you think some of the foods would still be about the same?
would a fresh cold glass of milk back in 1895 taste the same as todays milk?
how about bacon , ham & eggs, toast , butter? bowl of oatmeal
steaks would probably be tough and chewy back then? baked goods would probably taste richer from the lard?
Everything would have less salt. Things such as lamb would not need to come from New Zealand. Fewer preservatives in everything and maybe less cancer as a result. Have you ever had a chicken or turkey that was killed that day. It's what food should taste like.
On the other hand
There weren't standards to prevent bacterial contamination and no antibiotics once you got sick.
Fresh sweet corn picked off the stalk is utterly delicious. Canned corn, even at home, is less delicious. The chicken you ring the neck of is usually older and not producing eggs anymore. The eggs are divine, the chicken is more stringy and tough. How often do you actually think a hog is butchered? Not very often because they are sold for profit.
Thank-you- seems some don't quite get that. Corn right from the stalk is nothing like store bought corn. Nothing.
Peaches and tomatoes just 50 years ago were way better, even store bought. Steaks were more marbled just 20 years ago. 115 years ago? I couldn't say.
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