How Carob Traumatized a Generation

kam26001

Bought carob chips once for a cookie recipe. They were right next to the chocolate chips and I thought, what the hey... let's go full hippie shall we.
Oof! A whole batch of freshly baked cookies ruined. I knew something was up when I tasted one out of the bag and it wasn't terribly chocolate-y. I thought it would work its magic when baked. That bag of carob chips stayed in my cupboard for years thereafter. If it can't make it in a cookie, what else can it make it in? Poor little Carob.

Sabine_Stroehm

I keep thinking of that episode of "Friends" with Monica’s job making “mockalate recipes”.

livingleanlivingclean

MarkusDarwath wrote: »

I'm confused by all these descriptions of carob. I always thought so-called "white chocolate" is carob. It too is a not-chocolate abomination.

White chocolate is a lot of cacao butter and sugar...

I went to school in an area with some slightly alternative people, and remember a mum handing out homemade carob shapes at her daughter's 5th birthday (this mum was particularly in to healthy eating, and there was no shop bought "junk" food).... I remember expecting chocolate, and it actually being revolting - as a little party guest, i was scarred for life!

I actually ate some for the second time last week - some carob coated licorice. I was surprised, it wasn't that bad, and I would eat it again.

I am more adventurous with food now, and understand more about what I'm eating. I like a lot of "alternatives", in their own right, not just for being alternatives. I don't try and force them on other people though, like often happens with kids - eg, if we serve spaghetti bolognese to friends, I don't expect them to eat zucchini noodles. I'll offer them and eat them myself, but also have pasta available.

estherdragonbat

WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'm posting this here instead of Chit Chat because in addition to hating on carob, I wanted to get people's thoughts on the part I quoted.

I've tried cauliflower "rice" and squash "pasta" and in the end decided to go with the higher calorie real thing, and just make room for it, usually by eating less of it.

(I realize that this is a valid option for people who need to reduce carbs for medical reason or because they feel more satiated with that WOE - what I'm referring to is subbing due to food demonization.)

My sister posted this link on FB - she's still triggered by thoughts of our childhood carob. To this day, Mom claims to like it. Mom was super earthy crunchy in the 70s.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/how-carob-traumatized-a-generation

...As adults, we make hundreds of carob-like dietary substitutions in the name of good health. We shave summer squash into long spirals and deceive ourselves that it’s anything like pasta. We tip coconut creamer into our coffee, ignoring the way it threatens to curdle, and project onto it the memory of café au lait. Grownups have mastered this acquired taste for the ersatz, but children have no ability to strike the same bargain. They taste not the similarities between the foods they are eating and the foods they really want to eat, only the thwarted desire for what is forbidden. No matter how much time passes, those objects of childhood dread are difficult to see anew.

I actually like carob but it isn't really like chocolate and if you need a low calorie dinner squash noodles are pretty good.

Our supermarkets are now selling spiralized vegetable noodles. It turns out I actually like the turnip ones in a stir-fry with sweet and sour sauce.

And, in keeping with the 'substitutions being turnoffs' vibe, I think the main reason I used to loathe turnip was because, as a kid, I'd keep getting cubes of it in my vegetable soup, mistake it for the potato cubes, get my mouth all set for potato-ey goodness and... ewwww! Turnip!

Once I started roasting turnips with other root vegetables, trying it in recipes where I knew what I was using, etc., I discovered that I actually liked it. So long as I wasn't expecting it to be potato.

CattOfTheGarage

That horrible feeling when you bite in expecting one thing and it's actually something else. Even if it turns out to be your favourite food, that moment is unpleasant!

Makes me wonder how Heston Blumenthal gets away with his nonsense.

Alatariel75

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

That horrible feeling when you bite in expecting one thing and it's actually something else. Even if it turns out to be your favourite food, that moment is unpleasant!

Makes me wonder how Heston Blumenthal gets away with his nonsense.

Like the meat manderine!

whitpauly

rybo wrote: »

I had a theoretical allergy to chocolate as a child and had to eat carob instead. Very traumatic.

Me too,my gramma took me to the doctor as a kid cuz I had a messed up stomach,he told her no chocolate only carob

AnnPT77

I just don't understand the whole thing about foods faking as other foods.

Why reject something you do like (apparently) in favor of a less satisfying fake version? If you don't want to eat some food you like for whatever reason, why not just eat other foods you do like? Foods are tasty in themselves (to any given individual), or they're not. Eat the tasty ones, for heaven's sake! Even if I had a medical reason to eliminate a food, I don't think I'd substitute an unsatisfying fake. Why?!?

That said, if I like a food for itself, I don't care if some people consider it a fake something-else. I like zoodles, I like spaghetti squash. I like pasta, but a little less, so I don't eat it very often. I guess I sometimes substitute one thing for another that better helps me meet goals, like yogurt for sour cream, but I like both: It doesn't feel like a sacrifice or fake, just an alternative, like choosing cinnamon vs. cardamom, say.

Carob is not chocolate to me - no, no, no. I don't see the point of carob. If I don't want chocolate for some reason, I'm not subbing carob. I'm vegetarian, and I find most fake meats Just Not Good At All: Not tasty, not sufficiently nutritious, not worth my time or their calories.

In the context of this thread only, I totally think there are "good" and "bad" foods: "Good" foods are the ones I find tasty, nutritious and satiating. "Bad" foods are the ones I find yucky, nutrition-void and unsatisfying, or that make me ill. What I judge "good" and "bad" is personal and idiosyncratic, and others are entitled to different judgements.

Fake/substitute food doesn't make sense to me. I find the quoted passage in the OP an accurate characterization of some people's attitudes and behaviors, but I find those attitudes and behaviors odd and nonsensical. JMO.

Strawblackcat

It looks like I’m in the minority here, but I actually really like carob. It tastes like a cocoa/caramel hybrid to me.

robertw486

MistressSara wrote: »

Carob covered rice cakes, cous cous, fruit leather, tofu smoothies. I will still eat two of those items from my childhood. I will never forget my disappointment when I cut open what I thought was a meatball to make a hero only to find it full of lentils.

I would have never cut it open, and suspect that the resulting hero would have not been what was expected!


As for carob, the only stuff I've had I thought was fairly tasty. We used to buy the carob coated peanuts and raisins now and then, and enjoyed it. And I also enjoy some of the Snackwells cookie flavors.

As for all the other food substitutions, I just try them and eat what I like. I never really see any of them as a true in taste "substitute", but still like quite a few of them. I enjoy quite a few types of well made veggie burgers, would probably occasionally buy zoodles if I could get them frozen in big bags, would still buy carob products of various kinds, and enjoy tofu in many forms.

Similar to @AnnPT77 I just don't get the whole "fake" or "substitute" part of the picture. I try it, and either like or dislike it. I also follow the same train of thought with good or bad foods. It's all in the context of how it's used.

stanmann571

I had certain sensitivities when I was younger, and the oatmeal/carob/honey drop cookies were permitted to me.

I was not traumatized. I was thrilled that there was a desert I could eat without triggering a behavioural episode.

Not quite chocolate, but with honey, close enough.

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stanmann571

MistressSara wrote: »

stanmann571 wrote: »

I had certain sensitivities when I was younger, and the oatmeal/carob/honey drop cookies were permitted to me.

I was not traumatized. I was thrilled that there was a desert I could eat without triggering a behavioural episode.

Not quite chocolate, but with honey, close enough.

I think "traumatized " is hyperbolic for effect.

As a few have said, it's not really the foods themselves that were a problem, but pretending they were something else. For me, it still feels like deceit, however well-intentioned.

I think a bigger problem was pretending it was a 1:1 substitution.

We're better at that on the whole than we were then. Almond milk, rice flour, etc can be used to replace milk/wheat flour, but additional Substitutions/adaptations were/are required. Just like Butter/Margarine/coconut oil/Shortening/lard. or Honey/sugar/molasses/Stevia/Sucralose/Aspartame. If you substitute/adapt well you get a 90-95% solution. IF you substitute poorly you get a 30-50% solution. Which can be very bad. Or very good. Or just very different.

For an example see Glutton free chocolate cake with granny(google/youtube it)