4 ms·

Hit with hard times, American bakers turned to tomato soup

90 points by samclemens 5y ago

BaseballPhysics 5y ago
Man, every time I read an Atlas Obscura article I enjoy it. Fortunately, I just discovered they have an RSS feed (despite all the rumours that RSS is dead) so it's now in my reader!
- cactusmatt 5y ago
  Great tip! I just added them to my RSS reader. Long live RSS!
- aerostable_slug 5y ago
  For a while I worked on a news application that depended on RSS, and a client needed their number of news sources radically increased for their international customer base. I discovered quite a lot of news sites around the world apparently still had a dusty server in a rack (or on a shelf) somewhere spewing out a feed, completely untouched for a decade+. You wouldn't find any links to it in the current UI, but there it was running on its cron job like a good little piece of software. The problem was when the feed breaks, nobody remembers they had one in the first place...
hirundo 5y ago
A cup of Campbell's tomato soup has no fat, 4g of protein and 24g of carbs, with 16g of added sugar and just 4g of fiber. It's practically already a dessert before adding it to a cake.
- mywittyname 5y ago
  Right. Tomatoes are technically berries. Which makes condensed tomato soup a kind of compote. Another thing about sugar is that it holds onto moisture. Most of the fat in a cake is there to make the final product feel moist. This is why a lot of "fat free" cakes use a boatload of sugar and how it's possible to use apple sauce as a replacement for oil in most batters.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
usefulcat 5y ago
If you think that's odd, have a look at Velveeta fudge (nope, that's not a typo). When made correctly and kept chilled, you'd never know it has Veleveeta in it. Does smell a bit odd while it's being made though.
- tombert 5y ago
  There also exists Mayonnaise chocolate cake recipes, and they're surprisingly not too bad. I suppose it makes some sense; Mayo is basically just eggs and vinegar and oil, and I've seen all of those things in sweets recipes before.
  - henryfjordan 5y ago
    There's an upside-down cake recipe I like that starts with you essentially making some sweet mayo before adding the flour. See https://more.ctv.ca/food/recipes/blood-orange-and-olive-oil-upside-down-cake.html https://more.ctv.ca/food/recipes/blood-orange-and-olive-oil-... but if you like baking I really recommend buying the Dessert Person book by Claire Saffitz which this recipe is copied from.
  - enchiridion 5y ago
    Now Mayo is mostly just soybean oil.
    - nightski 5y ago
      We make it at home w/ olive oil (non-virgin). Takes just a few minutes and it's so much better!
      - enchiridion 5y ago
        Nice! What’s your favorite recipe.
- brink 5y ago
  I've had "chocolate cheese" before. Maybe we're talking about the same thing? I thought it tasted amazing.
MisterBastahrd 5y ago
There's a TikToker named Dylan Hollis (https://www.tiktok.com/@bdylanhollis?lang=en https://www.tiktok.com/@bdylanhollis?lang=en) who specializes in baking recipes out of old cookbooks to see how they turn out. Always interesting to see what he finds and if those recipes are palatable.
- srcreigh 5y ago
  Great channel. One of his fav recipes is potato chocolate cake
- throw0101a 5y ago
  You may be interesting in "Caker Cooking": * https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/p/the-caker-cookbooks.html https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/p/the-caker-cookbooks.html Where "caker" is (Canadian?) slang for Scots-Irish WASP. A fan favourite is "Lime Cheese Salad" which has as its main ingredients: 1 large package lime Jell-O, 1 ¼ cup boiling water, 8 oz cream cheese. * https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/2014/02/reader-recipe-lime-cheese-salad.html https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/2014/02/reader-recipe-lime...
  - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
    That seems to be a simpler riff off of Lime Jello Salad, which is famous in the South. Off the top of my head, it's lime jello, mayo, PET (evaporated) milk, cream cheese, crushed pineapple (and the juice), and pecans. You'll find it at any potluck church or family event. Similarly, a dish I absolutely adore is the following: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18140/shrimp-mold/ https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18140/shrimp-mold/ Shrimp mold. My favorite holidays recipe of all time, bar none. Eat it with crackers like a dip. My uncle used to call it Lulu Lip Dip to tease my sister.
- schwartzworld 5y ago
  moo juice!
Koshkin 5y ago
Trivia: in the US, people think of tomato juice as “cold tomato soup.” (I imagine in Europe it’s the other way around.)
- zdragnar 5y ago
  This must be a regional thing. Tomato juice is called tomato juice in the Midwest.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  Where, specifically?
prvc 5y ago
Does it taste different compared to a more conventional spice cake recipe?

90 points by samclemens 5y ago

Man, every time I read an Atlas Obscura article I enjoy it. Fortunately, I just discovered they have an RSS feed (despite all the rumours that RSS is dead) so it's now in my reader!

cactusmatt 5y ago
Great tip! I just added them to my RSS reader. Long live RSS!
aerostable_slug 5y ago
For a while I worked on a news application that depended on RSS, and a client needed their number of news sources radically increased for their international customer base. I discovered quite a lot of news sites around the world apparently still had a dusty server in a rack (or on a shelf) somewhere spewing out a feed, completely untouched for a decade+. You wouldn't find any links to it in the current UI, but there it was running on its cron job like a good little piece of software. The problem was when the feed breaks, nobody remembers they had one in the first place...

hirundo 5y ago

A cup of Campbell's tomato soup has no fat, 4g of protein and 24g of carbs, with 16g of added sugar and just 4g of fiber. It's practically already a dessert before adding it to a cake.

mywittyname 5y ago
Right. Tomatoes are technically berries. Which makes condensed tomato soup a kind of compote. Another thing about sugar is that it holds onto moisture. Most of the fat in a cake is there to make the final product feel moist. This is why a lot of "fat free" cakes use a boatload of sugar and how it's possible to use apple sauce as a replacement for oil in most batters.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

usefulcat 5y ago

If you think that's odd, have a look at Velveeta fudge (nope, that's not a typo). When made correctly and kept chilled, you'd never know it has Veleveeta in it. Does smell a bit odd while it's being made though.

tombert 5y ago
There also exists Mayonnaise chocolate cake recipes, and they're surprisingly not too bad. I suppose it makes some sense; Mayo is basically just eggs and vinegar and oil, and I've seen all of those things in sweets recipes before.
- henryfjordan 5y ago
  There's an upside-down cake recipe I like that starts with you essentially making some sweet mayo before adding the flour. See https://more.ctv.ca/food/recipes/blood-orange-and-olive-oil-upside-down-cake.html https://more.ctv.ca/food/recipes/blood-orange-and-olive-oil-... but if you like baking I really recommend buying the Dessert Person book by Claire Saffitz which this recipe is copied from.
- enchiridion 5y ago
  Now Mayo is mostly just soybean oil.
  - nightski 5y ago
    We make it at home w/ olive oil (non-virgin). Takes just a few minutes and it's so much better!
    - enchiridion 5y ago
      Nice! What’s your favorite recipe.
brink 5y ago
I've had "chocolate cheese" before. Maybe we're talking about the same thing? I thought it tasted amazing.

MisterBastahrd 5y ago

There's a TikToker named Dylan Hollis (https://www.tiktok.com/@bdylanhollis?lang=en https://www.tiktok.com/@bdylanhollis?lang=en) who specializes in baking recipes out of old cookbooks to see how they turn out. Always interesting to see what he finds and if those recipes are palatable.

srcreigh 5y ago
Great channel. One of his fav recipes is potato chocolate cake
throw0101a 5y ago
You may be interesting in "Caker Cooking": * https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/p/the-caker-cookbooks.html https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/p/the-caker-cookbooks.html Where "caker" is (Canadian?) slang for Scots-Irish WASP. A fan favourite is "Lime Cheese Salad" which has as its main ingredients: 1 large package lime Jell-O, 1 ¼ cup boiling water, 8 oz cream cheese. * https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/2014/02/reader-recipe-lime-cheese-salad.html https://cakercooking.blogspot.com/2014/02/reader-recipe-lime...
- MisterBastahrd 5y ago
  That seems to be a simpler riff off of Lime Jello Salad, which is famous in the South. Off the top of my head, it's lime jello, mayo, PET (evaporated) milk, cream cheese, crushed pineapple (and the juice), and pecans. You'll find it at any potluck church or family event. Similarly, a dish I absolutely adore is the following: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18140/shrimp-mold/ https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18140/shrimp-mold/ Shrimp mold. My favorite holidays recipe of all time, bar none. Eat it with crackers like a dip. My uncle used to call it Lulu Lip Dip to tease my sister.
schwartzworld 5y ago
moo juice!

Koshkin 5y ago

Trivia: in the US, people think of tomato juice as “cold tomato soup.” (I imagine in Europe it’s the other way around.)

zdragnar 5y ago
This must be a regional thing. Tomato juice is called tomato juice in the Midwest.
Ansil849 5y ago
Where, specifically?

prvc 5y ago

Does it taste different compared to a more conventional spice cake recipe?