[akurtzhs]

Other fallen status symbols that come to mind, although lower costs were the reason over better alternatives.

Aluminum before better material science dropped the price. Dishes, utensils, the cap on the Washington Monument.

Pineapples before Dole setup plantations.

Gelatin had two phases: before refrigeration, it needed hours of work in the kitchen. Then the status came from electrification and owning a refrigerator.

[adolph]

And inversely, "Consider the Lobster"

Even in the harsh penal environment of early America, some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was through to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats.

http://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf

[nkrisc]

To be fair, the first person to look at a lobster and think to eat it must have been desperate.

[adolph]

For sure. Then that early gourmand saw a snail, and frog legs, the. Turned around and saw their own dog.

Afterwards was reincarnated as Anthony CookingShowEatAnythingDude Bourdain.

[RF_Savage]

Not grinding them into paste whole certainly helped sell them as suitable for human consumption.

[legitster]

The reverse often happens, too!

Anytime I see grits on the menu at a fancy restaurant for $15 I chuckle to myself quietly.

[xeromal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWC0sKCS5oA

[Loughla]

Oh man, that explains why every damned thing was gelatin in my 50's and early 60's cookbooks.