{"id":16785,"date":"2017-03-22T10:26:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T15:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burgersdogspizza.com\/?p=16785"},"modified":"2017-03-22T10:26:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T15:26:38","slug":"boston-market-country-fried-steak-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/?p=16785","title":{"rendered":"Boston Market Country Fried Steak Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Boston<\/a>Bear with me as I take you on this journey of magical heat and eat meals. Today’s example, “Boston Market” Country Fried Steak.<\/p>\n

A frozen entree, with mash potatoes and cream gravy. Boston Market, like many companies, does not actually produce this product, but licenses their name to\u00a0\u00a0Bellisio Foods, a company I know a bit about.<\/p>\n

Bellisio is the successor to Michelina’s, which in turn was the successor of two early heat\/fix and eat food companies, Jeno’s Pizza<\/a>, and Chun King<\/a> Chinese foods.<\/p>\n

Both companies were started on a shoestring in Northern Minnesota, by local son of an \u00a0immigrant entrepreneur, Jeno Paulucci. He built both companies to attain tens of millions in annual revenue, and sold them off, Chun King first, to RJ Reynolds, followed by Jeno’s, which was spun to General Mills to combine with their own “Totino’s” brand.<\/p>\n

Most of these foods were produced in my hometown of Duluth, MN, until Jeno had a hissy fit, threatened to move production out of state, and ultimately did – to Ohio. Jeno could be incredibly generous and civic minded, and meaner than moose piss other times.<\/p>\n

Years later, he starts a new frozen food company, “Michelina’s<\/a>,” also based in Duluth (including some production) which he builds up by acquiring other brands in the segment. \u00a0Jeno was successful in building another monster company, with production facilities around the country, and distribution around the world.<\/p>\n

A number of qualified buyers approached him during the last part of his life, but he rebuffed them all, asking far more than the company was worth. Finally, literally on his deathbed, a transaction was negotiated, but for less than the company was worth. \u00a0Fine tuning the operations, the principles flipped the company a few years later to a Thai conglomerate<\/a>, and made a bundle.<\/p>\n

So now you know where this product comes from – intellectually. Physically, it is produced in a factory in Jackson, OH, about a hundred miles east of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

“TV dinners” were introduced by the Swanson Company in 1953-1954. \u00a0Swanson was started in 1899 and is stilled around, owned by Pinnacle Foods <\/a>(formerly Vlasic). The dinners came in tinfoil trays, with separate compartments for entrees, vegetables, and starches. They were heated in a conventional oven – from frozen – for about an hour. They weren’t very tasty.<\/p>\n

Today, they are microwave friendly, of course, packaged in plastic, a few minutes from frozen to ‘edible’ tho I still use a conventional oven if the directions are on the box as an option. \u00a0Which is what I did today, about 45 minutes at 350, with a ‘potato stir’ in the middle.<\/p>\n

And here’s what I say about every single “heat and eat” fried thing I try. After sixty years, don’t you think they could have figured out the science to make crispy things crispy? There are few experiences worse than biting into something you expect to be crispy\/crunchy, and having it have practially zero texture.<\/p>\n

I like chicken fried steak for breakfast, so I prepped it that way, added eggs, toast. Usually mashed potatoes aren’t a breakfast dish, are they? But that’s how this meal is packaged. How were the potatoes? Better than fast food, not as good as those heat and eat tubs they sell nowadays.<\/p>\n

Tactile experience aside, the flavor of the meat was OK. \u00a0As was the gravy, but the plate (pictured) becomes one big mess, not at all (of course) like the corporate marketing image. It might help to put the gravy in a separate ramekin. Just sayin’.<\/p>\n

I’ve tried other brands of this same entree – \u00a0Banquet<\/a>, Claim Jumper<\/a>, Advance Pierre<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

They’re all about the same. At restaurants, you hit the jackpot when you find a cook that makes his own. \u00a0Would I buy this again? Nah. Just did for the novelty, and for the sake of YOU. LOL.<\/p>\n

\"Boston<\/a>
Frozen, out of the box<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Boston<\/a>
Corporate Publicity Photo<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Boston<\/a>
Out of the Oven<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Boston<\/a>
Plated as breakfast<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Boston<\/a>
First TV Dinner – 1954<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Boston<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Boston<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boston Market Country Fried Steak Review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bear with me as I take you on this journey of magical heat and eat meals. Today’s example, “Boston Market” Country Fried Steak. A frozen entree, with mash potatoes and cream gravy. Boston Market, like many companies, does not actually produce this product, but licenses their name to\u00a0\u00a0Bellisio Foods, a company I know a bit… Continue reading Boston Market Country Fried Steak Review<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,13,16,30],"tags":[975,1081,1722],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16785"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}