Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Rural, midwest farm upbringing with a large family (six of us). 80s and 90s.
Steak was cost-prohibitive at the time, especially for a large family, so it wasn't a norm, no. Our meats were typically roasts, hams, ground beef and stew meat in various incarnations, pork chops, sausage, etc. Poultry was fairly rare, outside of Thanksgiving, because it wasn't a big parental favorite. We did have chickens, but they were layers.
Overall, large cuts that could be used in a couple of ways over the course of several large, family-style meals were more common.
I eat steak fairly often, now, with my family, but it is a smaller family.
My father was a production worker. He had three priorities - eating well, sending us to good schools, and having one vacation together a year.
We would have steak a couple of times a week no matter what the cost. Why not? He had a two acre garden and we rarely needed to BUY fruits and vegetables. My father would pick up an extra shift each week that would cover those costs. He still has a steak every week at age 88.
We had it once in a great while growing up, but it was definitely the exception rather than the rule, and feeding three growing boys in any generation steak will get expensive in a hurry. I'm 30 later this year, so a child of the 90's.
Similarly, my mom seemed to have a repertoire that she was comfortable with and made often. It was mostly good. Meatloaf, breaded fish baked in the oven, a lot of chicken dishes, pork chops, for awhile there was a frozen foods fundraiser sold through our school and she would get that, for awhile Sams Club always sold frozen breaded veal cutlets, we ate that a lot I remember.
The one thing I do remember being very different from my early childhood to my later childhood was vegetables. Bagged or canned veggies was it. I don't know if fresh veggies were harder to get, too expensive, or what...But I hated them now and the sight of canned peas still makes me gag.
My idea of steak growing up was the Shoney's ground round patty. This was in SE Virginia. I don't really remember having steak at home, but we could have and I didn't care enough to remember. I remember disliking meat in general, especially pork chops, which we had pretty frequently. I hated dealing with bone-in meat and having to gnaw around the bone. Money was scarce so any cuts of meat we had were not quality. Our grill was used for burgers and the occasional fish caught by my dad and brothers. The Company dish was roast, ham or turkey.
My mom never fixed steak, but my dad insisted that steak was almost the only meal worth eating and at times he would drive halfway across the world to go to the only Ponderosa where he was willing to eat -- there were closer ones, but even though they were all identical only that one would do -- or some other restaurant where he would order steak for us no matter what we wanted. My mom always hated meat so it was sort of a silent war between them.
I just googled Ponderosa steak house and it looks like they are alive and well - no locations west of the Mississippi river it seems. Its good to know those free steaks I ate as a kid didn't drive the entire company into bankruptcy
Yep, there are few Ponderosa(and Bonanza, it's the same parent company) locations left nowadays. Hate to say it but it's just as well, since the last few times going to Ponderosa I didn't have good experiences eating there. I always quietly say PonderGROSSa, since unfortunately I must be hitting all the horribly run locations. Or maybe that chain is just that low grade and quietly cutting corners, just to survive? I know that's what has been occurring with Old Country Buffet and Ryan's(same parent company). I finally got to the point where I was no longer excited to go to either place, since the food quality had dipped so much at OCBs and Ryan's all over whenever I traveled. No wonder very few Ryan's/OCBs remain, today.
Yep, there are few Ponderosa(and Bonanza, it's the same parent company) locations left nowadays. Hate to say it but it's just as well, since the last few times going to Ponderosa I didn't have good experiences eating there. I always quietly say PonderGROSSa, since unfortunately I must be hitting all the horribly run locations. Or maybe that chain is just that low grade and quietly cutting corners, just to survive? I know that's what has been occurring with Old Country Buffet and Ryan's(same parent company). I finally got to the point where I was no longer excited to go to either place, since the food quality had dipped so much at OCBs and Ryan's all over whenever I traveled. No wonder very few Ryan's/OCBs remain, today.
I have not ate there since 1977 or so - I hope they have improved since then.
Besides being FREE ... what I recall the most was this overwhelming taste of seasoning like a steak tenderizer on all the steaks I had there. Was not sure at the time what I was tasting... but a year or 2 later as I grilled my own steaks and used this product called Adolfs meat tenderizer. I eerily recognized the similar taste as the Ponderosa steaks my buddy and I ate all the time.
These days nearly every steak I eat is grilled myself or at a friends place.
maybe 1-2 times every couple years I go to one of the local nice steak places and order a steak: Ruth Cris - El Gaucho or The Metropolitan - all very spendy places. Close to $70 for a 12 oz NY steak served ala carte. I am pretty sure they are all serving dry aged beef so well worth the cost for a rare treat
growing up we would often get a very cheap steak that either my mom or dad would tenderize like crazy and then serve it cut up so 2 steaks could feed the whole family of 10 (6 kids, 2 parents and 2 grand parents). I never saw a rib eye until I was feeding myself after graduating college and eating out at a chain restaurant.
I recall an uncle visiting us every couple of weeks and he would bring a bag of pork trimmings from the restaurant where he worked. I recall the bag of meat always smelled a little off from not being refrigerated all day but it fed the family that night and nobody complained.
No.. I was loved as a child! Haha! (I hope none of y'all non-childhood-steak-eaters get offended, but I seriously can't imagine never having eaten steak for dinner. Steak is delicious! No one makes it like my mama, either!)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
(I hope none of y'all non-childhood-steak-eaters get offended, but I seriously can't imagine never having eaten steak for dinner. Steak is delicious! No one makes it like my mama, either!)
