Big Time

Tags

3 cents, Big Time, caramel, chocolate, chocolate bar, Food, Frank Mars, Hershey's, Hollywood Brands, Mars Incorporated, Milky Way, nougat, Peanuts, Zero

Big Time

Another candy bar produced by the Hollywood Brands company was the Big Time bar. It was a bar with peanuts in a nougat center topped with caramel and chocolate.

The Hollywood Brands company was notable because they discovered a method of making fluffy nougat for candy bars that Frank Mars copied for his Milky Way bars. (Frank Mars founded the Mars, Incorporated company which makes Mars, Twix and M&M’s among others.) In the beginning as well, by using real and quality ingredients, company founder Frank Martoccio was able to sell his candy bars for 3 cents, undercutting Hershey’s 5 cent bars at the time. (This was back in the 1930s until 1955.) He sold the company in 1967 and the quality standards were not continued. Today, Hershey’s retains all the brands owned by Hollywood. The only bars that still exist today from Hollywood’s line are Zero and Milky Way.

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Big Pay

Tags

almonds, Big Pay, caramel, chocolate bar, coconut, discontinued, Food, fudge, Hollywood Brands, nougat, PayDay, peanut roll

Big Pay

The Big Pay candy bar was a circular fudge coated, peanut rolled with a caramel center chocolate bar that cost a whopping nickel to buy! It was distributed by Hollywood Brands, Inc. Another variation was almonds, coconut and nougat. Did the Big Pay morph into the Payday candy bar? Both bars were manufactured by the Hollywood Brands and do look similar. PayDay bars are bars of salted peanuts rolled in caramel surrounding a nougat-like center. So essentially a Big Pay bar just without the chocolate. While you can still buy PayDay bars (now owned by Hershey’s), you are not able to purchase Big Pay bars and most information about them has disappeared.

Bird’s Nest Soup

Tags

$3000, Bird's Nest Soup, China, cliffs, delicacy, dissolve in water, Food, gelantinous, good health, hardens like glue, saliva, skin, swiftlets, white

Bird’s Nest Soup (China)

The bird whose nest gets stolen is the swiftlets, who nest on precipitous cliff faces, making the nests very dangerous to obtain. This doesn’t deter anyone at all though. Swiftlets make nests out of their own saliva which hardens like glue when it’s exposed to the air. Chinese chefs soften the nests simply by dissolving them in water. Afterwards the nests have a gelatinous texture. Why? Bird’s nest soup is a delicacy in China who believe the soup promotes good health, especially for the skin.

They are prized in China too. (Remember how they are dangerous to obtain?) The soup may be “nutritious” but it is a rare delicacy. The nests are among the most expensive animal products that humans consume and can cost up to $3000 U.S. dollars per pound (depending on grading). Grading looks at the type of swiftlet as well as the shape of the nest and color. Usually nests are white but a red version exists, known as a “blood” nest.

Slovenian Sour Milk

Tags

Alps, curdle, delicacy, Food, kislo mleko, Slovenia, sour cream, Sour Milk, Velika Planina, yogurt, zganci

Slovenian Sour Milk (Kislo Mleko)

At the foot of the Alps, on the Velika Planina, farmers leave milk out for a very precise amount of time so it can curdle into a yogurt crossed with sour cream like “treat.” It is then topped with sugar or zganci (buckwheat crumble and pork cracklings). Only the right amount of fermenting, souring and rotting preserves the food to increase the taste.

Whole Sheep’s Head

Tags

brain, delicacy, eyelids, Food, Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Sheep's Head, smoked, Soup, tongue

Whole Sheep’s Head (Mediterranean/Northern Europe)

Sheep’s head is a traditional delicacy in many parts around the world. There are various smoked versions and a soup that always presents the head whole and intact as the eyelids and tongue are particular delicacies. Sometimes the head even contains the brain (which is actually risky to consume).

Ham and Bananas Hollandaise

Tags

1970s, Food, Great American Recipe Card Collection, green salad, Ham and Bananas Hollandaise, lemon juice, McCall's, mustard, vintage recipe

Ham and Bananas Hollandaise

This recipe came from McCall’s Great American Recipe Card Collection from 1973. To create you sprinkle bananas with lemon juice, wrap them in ham, smother them with mustard and bake for 10 minutes. Then you poured a hollandaise sauce mixture over the bananas and bake for a further 5 minutes or until slightly golden. This dish is recommended to be served with a green salad. Taste testers say that the dish isn’t as terrible as it sounds, but it does leave a terrible aftertaste.

Palolo Worms

Tags

blue/green, coral reef, delicacy, Food, Palolo Worms, pink/brown, Samoa, Southern Pacific Islands, spread

Palolo Worms (Samoa and the Southern Pacific Islands)

Palolo are worms that range from pink/brown to blue/green in color. They swim up out of their reefs a few times a year when atmospheric conditions are right (October and November). Palolo are a delicacy for residents of Samoa and the southern Pacific islands. They are usually served as a spread on bread.

Soda Bread

Tags

baking soda, cake flour, Food, Ireland, no kneading, no yeast, pastry flour, quick bread, soda bread, soft wheat, yogurt

Soda Bread (Ireland)

Soda bread is a variety of quick bread. Baking soda is used as a leavening agent instead of traditional yeast. In Ireland, the flour is made from a soft wheat and is often made with cake or pastry flour. They sometimes also replace the buttermilk with yogurt or stout. Bakers recommend a minimum of mixing and to not knead the dough.

Taco Pizza

Tags

1970s, Food, Pizza Hut, Taco Pizza

Taco Pizza (Pizza Hut, 1970s)

This pizza was introduced in the late 1970s. It was exactly what you would expect from the name: a pizza made up of taco ingredients. A Facebook page was created to convince Pizza Hut to bring the menu item back. Otherwise, there are a multitude of recipes online that you can recreate your own taco pizza in your kitchen.

Priazzo

Tags

1980s, Chicago deep dish, double pizza, extra prep time, Florentine, Food, Milano, Napoli, Pizza Hut, Priazzo, Verona

Priazzo (Pizza Hut, 1980s)

Introduced in the 1980s, Pizza Hut’s Priazzo pizza was very similar to the Chicago deep dish style pizza, but this version took way too long to prepare and Pizza Hut quickly nixed the item from their menu. The Priazzos were made of a cornmeal crust and a very thick dark, rich, spiced sauce. Since they took extra time to make, the pizzas were to be made ahead of time so they were ready to be put into the oven when ordered otherwise the kitchen would quickly get behind. When they caught on (and they did have fans) and corporate decided to expand the flavors and incorporate different sizes (originally Priazzos came in 12″), Priazzos were done. The restaurants just weren’t able to keep up with the demand.

The Priazzo was a double pizza as in a regular pizza was then topped with another pizza. They were cooked on pizza pans featuring disks of spikes to allow the metal to conduct heat to the inside of the pizzas. Versions of Priazzos were Milano (by today’s standards would be labelled a meat lovers); Verona (meatball and mushrooms); Napoli (four cheese); Florentine (spinach and ricotta cheese). Each Priazzo cost $12 to $13.