They stopped selling it!!!

One of my biggest peeves with food stores is that they suddenly stop selling an item. This irritates me to no end.

My biggest "lost" item has to be the tri-tips that Costco has "discontinued", according to the butchers at the Glenview Costco. I had learned about tri-tips from this Shopping and Cooking forum several years ago and they sounded so wonderful that I was quickly on my way to Costco. They are exactly as described by LTHers, all fantastic tender meat, boneless, no grizzle or fat, really versatile. They became a staple at our house because the chances of success of a recipe was always very high with tri-tips. Now they are no more! arrrghh. Can anyone suggest a source of this elusive cut?

This winter season, Sam's Club decided it was not selling the six-pack of Philly cream cheese bricks it has had for the past decades. They eliminated the item right before the thanksgiving and Christmas baking seasons. Smart, eh? Maybe they thought that someone wanting to make a cheesecake or Toria's Olive Crack would just buy the six-pound cream cheese loaf and sort of eyeball how much they needed to carve off for the recipe. What is the thinking? At least in this case those standard bricks are available everywhere else. But the six pack was very handy in my toasted bagel-loving household. These things have a very long freshness date.

Memories of items eliminated haunt my shopping list. Costco's list of eliminations includes wonderful lavash crackers, a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread that had sort of an almost fondant layer of white sugar glaze frosting (my family continues to ask for this and will not believe that it is no longer available), and, very recently, a two-pack of sour-doughy breads loaves with rosemary and garlic. "Discontinued" says the baker. I think she is plotting with the butcher! Jewel has a similar item that is just not as good. You can't fool these eaters in my family.

This forum saved me when the "brains" at Sam's Club's marketing department did away with the Bakers and Chefs brand of plastic food wrap in the world's best-designed packaging ever. The Costco product suggested by LTHers is similar enough to stop the craving. Thank you so much.

So tell me, have the stores you frequent surprised you by eliminating some wonderful item you have come to rely on?

And do you know who else might sell tri-tips?

Thanks for letting me rant! I feel a little better now. --Joy

While no item is immune to discontinuation, particularly if others don't love it as much as you do, you are really torturing yourself by getting attached to items at buyers' clubs like Costco and Sam's where temporary items are the norm. I know that's probably not very helpful but it's the unfortunate truth.

Ye I agree about not getting too attached to something that Sam's Club or Costco is selling. When I was at Sam's Club a few weeks ago to pick up a prescription, I wanted to look at the printing paper. They used to have some made partially out of recycled paper, and it took me 15 minutes to figure out where they had moved the office supplies to, and then they had no recycled paper products. I probably wasn't going to buy it there, but I was just curious as to how much it was. I was also looking to see if they had any mouse wrist rests, which I suspected they did not, but I thought I would look. I ended up getting a mouse wrist rest at Amazon's, and I love it. I just wish I had spent the few extra dollars for the nonsliding one. Cream cheese is one thing that you can always get cheaper on sale at Jewel or some place like Meijer's. Some things are cheaper at the warehouse club, but the majority of things are not. I never buy cereal there, and I see people with it in their carts all the time.

Jell-O Egg Custard....gone forever. I used this to make German Stollen.

Treasure Island always has tri-tips on hand. I'm a long-time big fan of TI's meat department in general. You won't be disappointed.

I believe Trader Joe's also carries tri-tip.

THANKS very much for the...tips about the tri-tips! Glad to hear the suggestions. I am now back on the hunt.

And it is not only the warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's that stop selling items. I am also frustrated that regular old grocery stores stop carrying items. To be fair to the stores, often this is because the manufacturers stop making the item.

For example, Kraft had a product called Fresh Takes that was a duo of bread crumbs and shredded cheese in separate pockets that you mixed together and coated your fish or chicken or pork chops with. We found the Chile Lime Panko flavor and used it on some baked cod. This fish was so delicious (and easy)! The panko crumbs made a crunchy topping that seemed to keep the fish moist and the Thai-ish Vietnamese-ish spice mix was right on target. After a few months, this disappeared from the stores.

There was also a Kraft Fresh Takes that was called Savory Four Cheeses. Forget breading a piece of meat. If you had a pound of ground turkey and an egg, this mix made the best lightning-fast turkey meat loaf ever. Or roll the mixture into meatballs and bake in the oven. Quite soon, that mix was also gone and now the entire product has been cancelled.

Kraft put a lot of money into developing and rolling out and promoting this product line but apparently my little household was not enough to keep the line afloat.

I remember those Kraft Fresh Takes packages. A relative pointed them out to me a year or so ago and I tried the Chile Lime and Four Cheese varieties with, I think, fish and chicken breast, respectively. Convenient and tasty (and I live with a hugely picky eater, so the fact that he liked these preparations was a pleasant surprise). Wasn't there some kind of bbq or buffalo breading/seasoning one too? Doesn't matter now, I guess, if they're gone.

I don't recall every seeing any TV commercials, magazine ads, newspaper coupons, or store sales for the Fresh Takes products. Maybe that should have been a sign that Kraft was willing to put some of it out there to see if the fish would bite but wasn't willing to spend money promoting the product.

Thanks for mentioning the olive spread. Brings back memories of mom. I must make it soon.

razbry wrote:Jell-O Egg Custard....gone forever. I used this to make German Stollen.

Have you considered Bird's Custard powder? It is an English import, which I am sure Jell-O was emulating.

It is quite unpleasant when you use a product as part of recipe. Finding like products is a pain in the butt.

Regards,

Kraft made up a bunch of substitute recipes for Fresh Take. If you go to their site, they list the ones they have. It's not all, but it should help you get started

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/kraftcheese/freshtake.aspx

Hi,

I would inquire again about tri-tips when it is close to summer grilling season. I believe I saw some over the summer at Costco.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I would inquire again about tri-tips when it is close to summer grilling season. I believe I saw some over the summer at Costco.

Regards,

Costco does rotate through items seasonally, so I wouldn't be surprised if they make an appearance again.

Cathy2, I did try the Birds Custard. It was too heavy, the bread would not even rise.

The butcher at the Glenview Costco tells us that he does not believe that Costco will bring back tri-tips next summer because, he says, the tri-tips were cancelled in the summer. I sure hope he is wrong.

Meanwhile, the six-packs of Philly cream cheese bricks were back at Sam's Club! Maybe they heard me howling at the moon? Or maybe we are coming up on creamy dip season with all these playoff games?

Why not write on those comment cards your wish for tritips? It certainly cannot hurt.

Regards,

Almond Sunset tea by Celestial Seasonings was an integral part of the Jasmine-Almond iced tea that was in my arsenal for years, until they d/c'd it 2-3 yrs ago. With notes of chicory, no one has anything close. I walk the aisles of the NRA show every yr in hope of something similar. Not to be.

Almond Sunset tea by Celestial Seasonings was an integral part of the Jasmine-Almond iced tea that was in my arsenal for years, until they d/c'd it 2-3 yrs ago. With notes of chicory, no one has anything close.

I was a big fan of their Emperor's Choice tea, a herbal blend containing red roobios tea, eleuthero root, cinnamon, roast chicory root, orange peel, blackberry leaves, ginger root, lovage root, and Asian ginseng. It tasted like cinnamon toast. I assume that the ginseng root made it prohibitively expensive to produce, ergo they discontinued it, too. Bummer, man.

It looks like Pepsi One is gone and not coming back. I am the sole American that cares about this. But it was my favorite.

Love this conversation.
I have long lamented the disappearance of items from store shelves.
I do not recall it being that way when I was growing up.
The popularity of Trader Joe's and the warehouse clubs certainly solidifies this.

Something that has really irritated me recently:
The packaging seems to literally get smaller and smaller every time I go to the store. I think that is much of the reason the warehouse clubs are as popular as they are - so people feel like they are getting value in large sizes. But recently - it seems the manufacturers are tinkering with that segment.
Take Sam's Club, for example, the toilet paper package gets smaller each time we buy another package (they last awhile, so it is not like we are purchasing every other week.)
I went to buy the Tone's seasoning at Sam's the other day and saw they have begun to cut the size of the seasoning bottles in half.
In the regular grocers, Everything is smaller and less quantity, When I pick up packages, it often feels like there is next to nothing inside. Crackers, cookies, ....whatever - it takes two packages to achieve what one used to. I understand the inevitability of this, but more and more - it seems to be happening right in front of my eyes. One week I buy something - the next it is replaced by something much smaller. Downright scary.

Every time I see this thread title, I think wistfully of my all-time favorite discontinued food product: Stouffer's Noodles Romanoff. I've mentioned this long-lost love before. Fortunately, some kind LTH soul pointed me to a website with the reverse-engineered recipe, which is the next best thing. But still, I can't pass the Stouffer's section of the refrigerator cabinet in the grocery store without casting an eye to see whether they might possibly have decided to bring back my beloved Noodles Romanoff.

:: sigh ::

Meanwhile ... tri-tip is not necessarily out of our reach (as it was here in the Midwest for nearly all of my life). I bought tri-tip at Sunset for $9.99/lb for Valentine's Day*.

(* Now, you may think that's cheap for a Valentine's Day dinner, but we shared it with a few kids, and we had king crab legs too, which it turned out the kids didn't like, even though we told them it was basically "big shrimp," so we got to eat almost all of that ourselves. And the tri-tip turned out great too.)

I agree with Cathy2 (and a friend who works at Costco) that a comment submitted at your nearest Costco saying you hope they'll keep selling tri-tip would improve the odds that it continues to be available there, even if only occasionally. I believe the same goes for Sunset.

I think wistfully of my all-time favorite discontinued food product: Stouffer's . . .

. . .Frozen Fruit Salad. Great on a hot summer night, next to a pork chop grilled on an outdoor bbq grill out in the burbs.

(Also, another reliable source for excellent tri-tip: The Grand Food Center, in Winnetka or Glencoe. Stick with the Winnetka store -it's twice as big as the Glencoe store, and has a ton of parking. GREAT place for virtually anything you need - and the cheapest and freshest squeezed-in-store OJ anywhere.)

The Grand Food Center
606 Green Bay Road
Winnetka, IL 60093
847.446.6707
Hours Mon-Sat 7am-9pm
Sun 7am-8pm

Katie wrote:Every time I see this thread title, I think wistfully of my all-time favorite discontinued food product: Stouffer's Noodles Romanoff. I've mentioned this long-lost love before. Fortunately, some kind LTH soul pointed me to a website with the reverse-engineered recipe, which is the next best thing. But still, I can't help passing the Stouffer's section of the refrigerator cabinet in the grocery store without casting an eye to see whether they might possibly have decided to bring back my beloved Noodles Romanoff.

I'd completely forgotten about this dish. Loved those noodles "way back when."A favorite dinner was Stouffer's spinach souffle topped with Stouffer's Welsh rarebit as veg, the noodle Romanoff as starch, and a nice steak off the grill for the protein.

So where did you find the retro-fitted recipe for the noodles?

I do always wonder if any of it would taste as good as I remember. Amazing how easily impressed one can be at age 10. But there are some things that I learned to love early that I still consider to be mighty fine. So tempted to try the noddles.

When I lived in Atlanta, I shopped at Kroger more often than anywhere else (Publix was nicer, but more expensive). They had a product in the juice aisle titled, 'Red Grape Juice.' It was the same price as any other store-brand grape juice, but was less sweet, more grape-tasting, and generally yummier than any other normal (as in not a premium product or anything like that) grape juice I've ever had. I have since moved, but I also think Kroger has since discontinued the product, and I haven't come across anything really similar.

AaronSinger wrote:When I lived in Atlanta, I shopped at Kroger more often than anywhere else (Publix was nicer, but more expensive). They had a product in the juice aisle titled, 'Red Grape Juice.' It was the same price as any other store-brand grape juice, but was less sweet, more grape-tasting, and generally yummier than any other normal (as in not a premium product or anything like that) grape juice I've ever had. I have since moved, but I also think Kroger has since discontinued the product, and I haven't come across anything really similar.

Welch's still makes red graph juice (and white, as well). Maybe ask whatever store is no close to you if they can get it in for you.

The list of Celestial Seasonings discontinued products.

Cynthia wrote:I'd completely forgotten about this dish. Loved those noodles "way back when."A favorite dinner was Stouffer's spinach souffle topped with Stouffer's Welsh rarebit as veg, the noodle Romanoff as starch, and a nice steak off the grill for the protein.

So where did you find the retro-fitted recipe for the noodles?

Cynthia, here is the LTH thread, and here is the web page that Geo pointed me to with the recipe (two, actually; the Stouffer's one is the second one). Note also that in the LTH thread, webdiva proposed some good modifications to the recipe.

I'm off to the store for some ingredients...

Ms. Ingie wrote:The list of Celestial Seasonings discontinued products.

Along the same lines: Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard. (And a more complete list here.)

My favorites: Coconut almond fudge chip, bovinity divinity, and coffee biscotti.

I too was frustrated when Costco stopped selling Tri-tips. I asked at 2 different locations and the meat guys in both locations told me that Costco had decided to pull the item from all midwest costco's. They both suggested I complain to the corporate office, which I did only to receive a standard corporate response that didn't respond to my particular complaint.

And now my go-to Costco (Bedford Park) is being changed to a Costco business center that won't particularly meet my needs.

Katie wrote:Cynthia, here is the LTH thread, and here is the web page that Geo pointed me to with the recipe (two, actually; the Stouffer's one is the second one). Note also that in the LTH thread, webdiva proposed some good modifications to the recipe.

I'm off to the store for some ingredients...

I loved this quote: "In any event, do not replace the onion powder with something less offensive like freeze-dried chives. It won't taste like Stouffer's if you do."