Having been born on Long Island and lived here all my life I know Entenmann’s products well. No longer eat this garbage that they produce. But since I was a child, my whole family on both sides consumed thousands of cakes, danish, and cookies over the many years. Always had Entenmann’s on all the holidays. In fact, not only that but my Aunt and mother would go to one of their outlets and buy trunk loads of the soon to expire products marked with a black slash at half price. Both had deep freezers in the basement and would load them full of cakes. Their whole enterprise was located right here on 5th Ave. in Bayshore. Went there many times. Well, those days are OVER. I no longer buy any of their products. And am starting to inform my families who are spread out across the States to avoid them as well.
You may know that Entenmann’s was sold by the family who had a mansion here as well. They sold out to a big conglamo named Grupo Bimbo. This big corp. destroyed all their recipes. Even their original chocolate chip cookies did not escape the quality reduction. I know what they used to taste like. When I was a teenager, I could eat half a box in one sitting. Chocolatey soft and delicious. No more. They taste awful. And the reason why like all their products is that they use artificial ingredients and chemicals now. No more simple ingredients of all natural pronounceable ingredients like sugar, cream, milk, eggs, flour, cheese, cocoa, vanilla bean, etc. Go read a box label and see. You will never even see the awesome Blackout cakes, Walnut Iced cake, or Chocolate Chip filled crumb cake that I used to eat back then. They were my favorite. Well greed strikes again. Entenmann’s rest in peace. You were wonderful and will be missed. P.S. why did they sell half price black marked cakes you may ask? Because back then they did not use PRESERVATIVES. So, they had to sell the excess products fast before they got old. Now you can probably just leave them out of the fridge like a Twinkie for 30 years and it will still be edible. Oh, and almost forgot, my multi-millionaire materialistic cousin who has 11 bathrooms and servants married the doctor of the family that supplied Entenmann’s all their eggs for decades. She also had her wedding dress made by the same Taylor who made Princess Diana’s wedding gown. She is a snob. And my former boss knew the Entenmann family. I know the whole story well. It was good while they lasted. But a name on a box does NOT make the product good. You are not eating real Entenmann’s anymore.
in the 70’s and 80’s they weren’t good (maybe before that they were). it was a sad day indeed when someone would show up to a function and drop some entenmanns on the table when they could have just stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts or something and get something fresh.
Thanks for that ! My father met Frank Sinatra and used to drink with him when he visited NY. He used to meet him at the Hunting Town House.
Well it was better than what it is now. That is for sure. Only way to get good cakes nowadays is to find a mom&pop shop that uses normal basic ingredients. Imagine that eggs, flour and sugar, etc. what a concept.
So they ruined that brand too. Thanks for the heads up. Now I know not to buy that brand either. Remember when foods were independently owned by the founding name ? I do. The downfall started picking up steam in the 80’s and then accelerated. Now 10 or so companies own them all. Makes the F word easier to achieve with partnership of government.
AJPeabody, read these posts about the topic. Apparently just as I thought - Europe does not allow chemicals, artificial ingredients and preservatives in many foods. Only America.
" I don’t know the situation in USA. But now in Europe there are a number of brands in Italy, Germany, France and Switzerland that make cookies and cakes for supermarket distribution but with the real whole ingredients of yesteryear. So butter and eggs and cream and nuts and real fruit. You just have to read the labels and reward them by buying their products. They aren’t even luxury products. I think there are enough average folks who care nowadays and got sick fo the crap in the industrial, cheap products. They just want an honest Linzer torte or sablé aux noix.
Have they gone down in quality? I don’t enjoy them like I used to, and figured it was a change in my taste or using a toaster oven rather than a toaster, but they don’t get that super crisp initial bite with the crisp tops anymore.
You are kidding about that, right?
I would venture that most locales do not have an abundance of bakeries and donut shops. Grocery stores are it for lots of folks.
But even in our small town, the Safeway has a bakery… with some of their stuff being quite good (donuts, danish, pies, and cheesecake), and their bagged french and sourdough is really good.
Plus we have a gas station that gets their donuts delivered every morning from a bakery northeast of here… possibly the best apple fritter I have ever had.
So I would argue that there are many places out there that have better stuff than big brand supermarket baked goods.
Some of the bakeries in our supermarkets aren’t half bad. And AFAIK, Dunkin & Starbucks are everywhere (not that I’m a customer at either) - their baked goods have got to be better than the shelf-stable crap
Hyperbole much? C’mon. I have multiple local bakeries near me in New England that are not owned by a conglomerate, because the supermarkets are deliberately buying from the local providers. The Piantedosi Baking Company and Jessica’s Brick Oven Bakery are two of them. Readily available in multiple grocery stores in New England.
Hannafords and Market Basket (both New England-based supermarkets) also have very good in-house bakeries for cakes, cookies, pies, etc.
So yes - while Entemann’s eventually did sell out to a larger conglomerate, that was a business decision on their part. That’s called capitalism. They’re not going to stay small and within a family if they’re looking to make a profit OR get out of the business entirely - perhaps follow-on generations didn’t want to work as hard as the original family did to start the Entemann’s business back in 1898 (few of us do want to work that hard!). You can call them a sellout - but perhaps those who sold were thinking of their families and provided them monetary capital to go do whatever they wanted to do outside of the bakery world.
I think the only reason they are “better” is because they heat them up for you (at least Starbucks does, not sure about Dunkin).
If you heated up an Entenmann’s cinnamon roll (for example) it would be in parity with a Starbucks danish. Not that I 'd care to confirm with real life evidence, however.
Ah so no independent or family businesses can make a profit anymore? Got it. And selling out to a mega corp is not “capitalism”. It is giving in to temptation or selling out for 30 pieces of silver. So nobody likes hard work ? Hmm. OK Opposite of what built this country. Up until 2020 independent businesses employed most working Americans. China has no mom & pop businesses, everything is owned by the State.
My mother was a very good cook/baker. Even so, a rectangular box of Entenmann’s strawberry cheesecake danish was always a special treat back in the 60’s - early 70’s. But for whatever reason I have no recollection of it after that.
