The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Salisbury...
When you start exploring the world of frozen foods, TV dinners – call them what you will – one of the first things that you notice is that some entrees seem to take on a life of their own.
It’s the only way to explain why certain meals appear in virtually every brand of frozen food.
Take fried chicken. In one form or another, it’s carried by Swanson, Banquet, Marie Callender’s, Healthy Choice (as “breaded” chicken) and Swanson Hungry-Man product lines. Obviously America is fanatical about its fried chicken. Ditto lasagna. Lasagna, with or without meat sauce or with veggies instead of meat, is served by Amy’s Organics (seven different ways!), Marie Callender’s, Swanson and even Weight Watchers, among others.
But the big winner has got to be the ever-popular Salisbury Steak. With mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes or even grilled onions, Salisbury steak outflanks the competition (yes, that’s a pun). Served by no less than ten different food manufacturers in various combinations, America must have a love affair with the homely hamburger in its Prom dress: gravy.
What is it about Salisbury steak that moves us to eat it in droves? Does it really taste better than other beef dishes? This hardly seems likely. It’s not as if you stumble across a lot of foodie blogs waxing rhapsodic about the lowly Salisbury Steak.
Perhaps it is nothing more than an acquired habit… it would be hard to find an adult in the USA that hasn’t eaten a Salisbury Steak TV dinner as a kid, and for most people, choosing food tends to be “go with what you know.” It’s predictable, is old Salisbury steak. We may not like the potatoes it comes with or we may have a different preference for gravy but when we pick one up at the market, we know what we’re getting.
It’s a known quantity. It may not be fabulous, but it’s not dreadful, either.
Maybe our fascination with Salisbury steak is a “comfort food” decision: a burger with pot roast’s accessories of gravy and mashed potatoes without the hours it takes to produce an actual pot roast.
Of course, there’s the alternate theory… it’s just a good excuse for an adult to eat a burger for dinner.
Enjoy
It’s the only way to explain why certain meals appear in virtually every brand of frozen food.
Take fried chicken. In one form or another, it’s carried by Swanson, Banquet, Marie Callender’s, Healthy Choice (as “breaded” chicken) and Swanson Hungry-Man product lines. Obviously America is fanatical about its fried chicken. Ditto lasagna. Lasagna, with or without meat sauce or with veggies instead of meat, is served by Amy’s Organics (seven different ways!), Marie Callender’s, Swanson and even Weight Watchers, among others.
But the big winner has got to be the ever-popular Salisbury Steak. With mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes or even grilled onions, Salisbury steak outflanks the competition (yes, that’s a pun). Served by no less than ten different food manufacturers in various combinations, America must have a love affair with the homely hamburger in its Prom dress: gravy.
What is it about Salisbury steak that moves us to eat it in droves? Does it really taste better than other beef dishes? This hardly seems likely. It’s not as if you stumble across a lot of foodie blogs waxing rhapsodic about the lowly Salisbury Steak.
Perhaps it is nothing more than an acquired habit… it would be hard to find an adult in the USA that hasn’t eaten a Salisbury Steak TV dinner as a kid, and for most people, choosing food tends to be “go with what you know.” It’s predictable, is old Salisbury steak. We may not like the potatoes it comes with or we may have a different preference for gravy but when we pick one up at the market, we know what we’re getting.
It’s a known quantity. It may not be fabulous, but it’s not dreadful, either.
Maybe our fascination with Salisbury steak is a “comfort food” decision: a burger with pot roast’s accessories of gravy and mashed potatoes without the hours it takes to produce an actual pot roast.
Of course, there’s the alternate theory… it’s just a good excuse for an adult to eat a burger for dinner.
Enjoy
posted by Auntie's Food Life at 1:14 PM
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