Cro posted this morning about his love of Heinz Sandwich Spread. It is a love that I share. However, Cro, eats it spread on toast. Yuk. It has to be on bread - preferably home made - and, to be really decadent, with vintage Cheddar or Red Fox cheese on the side.
The mention of Heinz Sandwich Spread made me think of Heinz Vegetable Salad and that made me think made me think of the Heinz products that have disappeared since my youth. The only one I really mourned was Heinz Vegetable Salad followed by the Potato Salad. For some reason the consistency of bite and the flavour are completely incapable of replication.
Heinz obviously stopped it because they were no longer making it profitably. I wish that they had sold the recipe to a niche market delicatessen company so that those mad enough to pay premium prices for it could still savour it.
We have come to the conclusion that as soon as we find things we like and start buying them regularly, they discontinue them. Sainsburys are the worst.
ReplyDeleteTasker, it's many years since I shopped in a Sainsburys. I've been trying to think if discontinued items has been a problem but confess that it's not something I noticed in Tesco or Coop in recent years.
DeleteSorry Graham but that sandwich spread is totally vile. I hated being given that on my sandwiches as a child. It may have been cheap but... yuk.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tasker that many of our favourite foodstuffs seem to regularly disappear from the supermarket shelves after a while, never to be seen again.
Oh dear, JayCee. I don't really recall it as a child but my love probably does go back that far.
DeleteI agree with Tasker.
ReplyDeleteLocal stores I shop at here in Vermont do the same thing.
Frozen dinners, (a treat instead of sweets), numerous pasta based dinners over more nutritional foods is the worse.
Maywyn, as I said to Tasket it's not something I've found a general problem.
DeleteThe disappearance of Heinz Vegetable Salad was significant. Often known as Russian Salad it was a constant for decades for my parents generation and into the late 1990s and suddenly Heinz withdrew it. There have been internet forums on it but no change of heart from Heinz about bringing it back. It is puzzling as to why they stopped making it but continued with the sandwich spread which is similar in taste and ingredients. I miss it greatly.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I didn't realise it was also called Russian Salad. It certainly seems to have had its devotees though.
DeleteI don't think Heinz ever sold any of those products over here in the US. I remember Oscar Mayer sandwich spread that I liked as a kid but I don't think they make it anymore. It was chopped up bologna with pickles and mayo and I liked it but I don't think it was very healthy. It came in a tube shape.
ReplyDeleteEllen, I'm not au fait with the US food market.
DeleteI too, have never heard of these products. Perhaps it is not too late to write the company and get the recipe.
ReplyDeleteDebby, there has been a lot of lobbying and, as Rachel said above, even internet forums on the subject but Heinz are standing obstinately firm.
DeleteHow To Make A Simple Heinz Vegetable Salad
ReplyDelete6,125 views Oct 6, 2017 Ingredients
120g baby salad potatoes(waxy potatoes)
107g carrots
106g garden peas
18g spring onions(only the top part)or ordinary onions
2 hard boiled eggs) without the yolk
Boil all the ingredients until tender and chop/dice
allow to cool
Dressing
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar(Any vinegar of your choice)
1 tablespoon white sugar
3 tablespoon Miracle whip or mayonnaise or salad cream
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or olive oil
Optional Herbs, Black or White Pepper or Spices
Method
Combine everything in a large bowl and add a pinch of salt
Whisk the Dressing ingredients together and add it to the vegetables, potatoes and eggs
Mix very well and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour before serving or Serve immediately.
Please feel free to add more or less ingredients and adjust to your tolerance. Thanks For Watching
Thank you Debby (I've just found your comment in spam - a problem to be addressed in my next post).
DeleteI'm not sure how exactly one might replicate the texture never min the flavour without a huge amount of trial and error. I tried a few times in the early days but never managed the correct bite in the vegetables. The difference between using mayonnaise and salad cream would affect the taste a lot too. I may have another go some time though and perhaps I will enjoy it even if it's not exactly the same.
107 g carrots? 106 g peas? 18 g spring onions? I would never be able to get these measures right with my old-fashioned, mechanical kitchen scales.
DeleteNeeds sour cream/ mayonnaise mix, and some finely cubed cornichons to give it the authentic flavour. Then leave it sit for a few hours. I loved the Heinz Veg salad.
DeleteI have never seen these products.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I don't recall seeing them in New Zealand either.
DeleteThe Vegetable Salad was really a chunkier version of the Spread, and it had a very particular flavour. Yes, a shame they scrapped it.
ReplyDeleteCro, the Vegetable Salad certainly had a distinctive flavour and consistency.
DeleteI never thought that Heinz Vegetable Salad tastes anything like Heinz Vegetable spread. The dressings were very different so the spread has been far more acidic than the salad. Of course everyone tastes it differently. I love Sandwich spread in a sandwich with slices of cucumber to soften the acidity of the spread. Trying to reproduce the salad is really difficult - there must be a “secret” ingredient!
DeleteAnonymous - are you just not signed in? - I agree the two were very different. To me the texture was important too. I have a poor sense of taste but there was something about Heinz Vegetable Salad that I really loved.
DeleteIt might not surprise you that I never tasted any of these, spread or salad. They were probably not sold here, and even if they were, I guess my parents would not have bought them; spuds salad etc. was always home-made, and apart from butter or margarine, the only other kind of spread I was familiar with in my childhood and youth were remoulade and mayonnaise, and these only for special occasions, not as part of our everyday meals. But I know the disappointment of finding a well-liked product being discontinued.
ReplyDeleteNo, Meike, it doesn't surprise me. My Mum also made potato salad but we all still loved the Heinz.
ReplyDeleteI never knew such stuff existed so will leave this thread to the experts.
ReplyDeleteGood thinking, Batman Adrian
DeleteNot a huge fan of the sandwich spread--but then I rarely eat a sandwich anymore. I do remember (and know it is still on the market) Heinz salad cream. Growing up in the UK back in the 1950s, that was usually the only kind of salad dressing on the table way back then whether at our house or my relative's homes. Tall glass bottle (now in plastic, I gather). Always seemed as slow as Heinz Ketchup coming out of the bottle, but like the ketchup--you had to be careful for surges.
ReplyDeleteMary, I never ate it in sandwiches as it happens. I spread it on bread and then eat it with cheese. The plastic bottles are easier to extract it from but, of course, they are less environmentally friendly.
DeleteI have tried, but I simply cannot imagine having salad in a can :)
ReplyDeleteMargaret, it's not what we would normally call salad. It's just a vegetable mixture treated in some way, diced in a salad cream.
DeleteGB, I was hoping you would give a detailed description of exactly what was in the "vegetable salad" (my imagination is doing horrible things, all to do with cookbook photos of the fifties which made everything look like a science project gone wrong)... those of us who never saw or ate this product have nothing to go on... was it various vegetables chopped up and put in one can, or was it mayonnaise-based, or ... ??? What kind of vegetables were in it? Were they shredded, chopped, or whole? Was the flavor tart, or sweet, or savory? I cannot imagine what this product would have been like, and the cans look positively tiny. What was it intended for, a sandwich, or a side dish alongside a dinner?
ReplyDeleteEnquiring minds want to know!
Marcheline, it was a mixture of diced vegetables (unknown to me now) in a sauce between mayonaise and salad cream. Basically if you haven't tasted it then describing it is impossible. It was used as a side dish alongside a cold meat salad (in the UK conventional sense of the word). That may or may not help.
DeleteIt does ... as far as giving me an idea of what it was. It does not ... as far as making me desirous of partaking. I am sorry (for you) that it is no longer in existence. 8-) It's possible that my many years of restaurant service work have ingrained in me the belief that all "salads" should be freshy prepared, and never eaten canned or stored over long periods of time. When mayonnaise and other such substances are involved, there's just too much that can go wrong.
DeleteI never heard of these and can't really imagine them either... Nothing really ever beat plain cheese (and butter, or nowadays margarine) on bread (or toast) for me - and I prefer my salads fresh! :)
ReplyDeleteMonica (sorry my original comment disappeared wit some others) this wasn't really a salad in the conventional sense. If you read the recipe above you'll get an idea of what it was.
DeleteI don't know those products, but the taste of Heinz Salad Cream takes me right back to my childhood. X
ReplyDeleteJules, it's a very difficult food to describe if you've never experienced them.
DeleteI'm pretty sure we have it here but it's under a different brand name, I've never tried it though.
ReplyDeleteAmy it would likely be in the Wattie's brand but I was never looking for it so don't know if it's still available. I can't find it on the internet.
DeleteI hadn't thought of Heinz Veg salad for years. But when I did, my memory was that it tasted very similar to the sandwich spread, which was a favourite of mine. (Different texture, though). I now wonder what on earth was in it, apart from peas, not that I ever thought to check at the time. In fact, not sure they had lists of ingredients in those days!
ReplyDeleteJenny, I don't recall it being as strong as the sandwich spread but I agree that it was it was of the same ilk.
DeleteGraham, I have never seen or heard of these Heinz products before reading this post. And, I can honestly say that is a good thing because none sounded the least bit appealing.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice, I can understand why you might not find them appealing but half a century ago the Vegetable Salad in particular was really scrumptious compared with the relatively bland fare of the time.
ReplyDelete