Foods that are no longer in fashion!

[kijip]

My MIL gave us two boxes of cook books (reading them is a hobby for both my husband and me). Some are really old, like 50 years. Each 1940-50s recipe is a heart attack waiting to happen but some are actually appealing in some way. However, the ones from the 70s nearly all APPALLING.

Imagine chowing down on:

Macaroni Relish Loaf which is meat and macaroni in a loaf shaped savory jello.

Lasagna Pizza (with lasagna noodles instead of crust topped with canned creamed mushrooms)

Glazed Ham Balls in Noodle ring (made with ham based meatballs topped with fruit sauce in an oatmeal/breadcrumb crusted noodle ring??!!)

Pimento Noodle ring (which is a pimento containing pasta dough baked in a ring like a small bundt cake and filled with veggies and your choice of creamed meat or fish).

Every other recipe has gelatin and pimentos it seems like. Yumm-o!

[caleymama]

Deeeelish!

One of my grandmothers was a home ec teacher and then the dietician for a hospital as well as being part of the garden club type scene and had quite a collection of cookbooks. She gave me some of them about 10 years ago and then I got more of them after she passed away a few years ago.

My DH (the bread baker in our household) was reading everything he could on sourdough at one point this past winter. I requested a few books through the library system for him and one of them was from the 70s. I could not believe the things that were made using sourdough starter - pretty much everything! I will say that the sourdough donuts were some of the best I've ever had and we did keep that recipe and do make them regularly, but some of the other things (I wish I could remember them) were horrifying and we're pretty open-minded cooks.

Back to my grandmother - from "Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers - Salads Including Appetizers." My favorite part is that it has written in it that it's to my Mom for "selling the most cookbooks from the 1966 FHA." Just from flipping through, a few gems:

Grape-Cheese Ball Salad (cinnamon sticks, cloves, sugar, cider vinegar, syrup drained from grapes, white seedless grapes, lemon gelatin, salt, cream cheese, pecans or walnuts, spiced grapes)

Cherry-Catsup Salad (cherry gelatin, catsup, boiling water, celery, nuts, small ripe olives) :eek:

Coleslaw Surprise (crushed pinapple, shredded cabbage, mini marshmallows, salt, pepper, sugar, mayonnaise)

I have to put this book away .... ick!!!!

[gatorsmom]

This is a fun post. When my mom passed away 3 years ago, my dad said I could have her cook books. One of her favorites was a book that my dad found in a box some people were throwing away right after they were first married. It is one of the very first Betty Crocker cookbooks. I think it was from the mid to early 50's. I love looking through it because she has news paper clippings, coupons, and recipe cards strewn throughout the book. Some are recipes I don't remember her making, some she made a lot of. It's a funny book, though, because there are sketches throughout the book of women wearing aprons and headbands serving dinner-tables full of people, or women holding a roasting pan with the husband looking on smiling. So 50's! Some of the recipes that make me smile are the Ham Mousse ring (with pimientos!), Divinity candy, and Elegant Sandwich Loaf.

And oh my gosh! No wonder the baby boomers are walking heart-attacks in this country. This book says, "Dinner is an important time of day. Your meal should include juice or soup, Meat and potatoes, vegetables, salad, bread and butter, dessert and milk." They list 6 dinners with a different meat and potatoes combination. And breakfast always included meat or an egg in addition to the fruit and bread or cereal. They also insist that a "thoughtful mother of a growing family keeps a variety of foods on hand for snacks after-play, after-school, etc., such as chocolate milk and cookies, pie and hot tea, sundaes and snickerdoodles." Now I know why my dad is diabetic.

[overcome]

Grape-Cheese Ball Salad (cinnamon sticks, cloves, sugar, cider vinegar, syrup drained from grapes, white seedless grapes, lemon gelatin, salt, cream cheese, pecans or walnuts, spiced grapes)

Cherry-Catsup Salad (cherry gelatin, catsup, boiling water, celery, nuts, small ripe olives) :eek:

Coleslaw Surprise (crushed pinapple, shredded cabbage, mini marshmallows, salt, pepper, sugar, mayonnaise)


Oh my...I don't quite know what to say. My stomach is doing flip flops!

[kijip]

They also insist that a "thoughtful mother of a growing family keeps a variety of foods on hand for snacks after-play, after-school, etc., such as chocolate milk and cookies, pie and hot tea, sundaes and snickerdoodles." Now I know why my dad is diabetic.
I hear you on the dessert thing. My paternal grandfather ate pie with nearly every meal and saw it as his responsibility to make sure his kids all ate pie, his idea of healthy food, as much as he did. I still recall going to visit him right before he died. I was 16 and off to build hiking trails in the Rio Grande National Forest for 6 weeks (they lived in Denver, so I visited them on the way to and from). I was deemed too thin to be healthy, especially after 6 weeks of labor, by my grandfather and every time he saw me eating he would say "Bea, where's that pie you bought? This girl needs pie." I ended up eating a lot of pie just to appease him and every time he saw me eating pie he would smile approvingly and say "That's good eating". Good eating by 1945 standards. :ROTFLMAO:

[overcome]

This book says, "Dinner is an important time of day. Your meal should include juice or soup, Meat and potatoes, vegetables, salad, bread and butter, dessert and milk." They list 6 dinners with a different meat and potatoes combination. And breakfast always included meat or an egg in addition to the fruit and bread or cereal. They also insist that a "thoughtful mother of a growing family keeps a variety of foods on hand for snacks after-play, after-school, etc., such as chocolate milk and cookies, pie and hot tea, sundaes and snickerdoodles." Now I know why my dad is diabetic.

Makes you wonder what our kids will say about our cookbooks 50 years from now!!

[kijip]

Makes you wonder what our kids will say about our cookbooks 50 years from now!!

Maybe they will be discussing how they can't believe we ate so much olive oil and chicken. :) And asking themselves WTF "broccolini" is. :ROTFLMAO: Hopefully they will be shocked and amazed that we ever bottled water and sold billions of dollars of single serve packages for daily use in plastic. :):)

[MontrealMum]

My stomach is churning from some of those recipes and I'm not even pregnant! I don't think I've had many of those 60s/70s recipes - thank goodness my mom can't cook - but my MIL definintely has that 50's version...and she's still using it! Sunday dinner at the in-laws is a heart-attack waiting to happen. I don't think it's possible to eat more meat, starches, and dessert at EVERY meal than they do. We served them ice cream tonight and fruit and I think they were waiting for more :)

[caleymama]

My stomach is churning from some of those recipes and I'm not even pregnant!

I know! After I posted I was hoping I didn't send Katie running to the bathroom! Thankfully, my grandmother didn't cook anything like that in the time I knew her. She was actually a very healthy cook. I think the cookbooks were just relics of that era, and had some sentimental value.

[kijip]

I know! After I posted I was hoping I didn't send Katie running to the bathroom! Thankfully, my grandmother didn't cook anything like that in the time I knew her. She was actually a very healthy cook. I think the cookbooks were just relics of that era, and had some sentimental value.

The sheer comic value that anyone would ever combine cherry jello and ketchup and call it FOOD saved my tummy. And I was cramming cheerios at the time, my tummy saving food. I am finding so many gems in these old books...I wish I could post the pictures here, they are hilarious. :)

[elephantmeg]

Someone sent me this link years ago, here are some creations complete with PICTURES. (warning don't read if pregnant!)

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

[MontrealMum]

mackerel pudding!?! What's up with cooking in the 70's? These recipes are just bizarre. Did they just have too much time on their hands, or was it the drugs? :p

[Puddy73]

This thread is hilarious! My mother was a perpetrator in many of the aforementioned crimes. In addition to various wacky jell-o mold creations she made something called "Rack of Spam." Yes, rack of SPAM, the nasty "meat" in a can. It involved slicing the spam and arranging it in a fran shape with slices of Velveeta, if I recall correctly.

[kijip]

This thread is hilarious! My mother was a perpetrator in many of the aforementioned crimes. In addition to various wacky jell-o mold creations she made something called "Rack of Spam." Yes, rack of SPAM, the nasty "meat" in a can. It involved slicing the spam and arranging it in a fran shape with slices of Velveeta, if I recall correctly.

You can slice Velveeta? You learn something new everyday! :ROTFLMAO: My mother's family used a lot of spam, now I can't look at any formed of canned meat unless under duress (need to eat to live).

[bethie_73]

Someone sent me this link years ago, here are some creations complete with PICTURES. (warning don't read if pregnant!)

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

OMG I am crying. That was the funniest thing I have seen in ages. Not just the cards, but the commentary, priceless.

[caleymama]

OMG I am crying. That was the funniest thing I have seen in ages. Not just the cards, but the commentary, priceless.

:yeahthat: Same here - wiping the tears away right now! How did I miss that link before? Too funny!! :ROTFLMAO:

[niccig]

Deeeelish!

Grape-Cheese Ball Salad (cinnamon sticks, cloves, sugar, cider vinegar, syrup drained from grapes, white seedless grapes, lemon gelatin, salt, cream cheese, pecans or walnuts, spiced grapes)

Cherry-Catsup Salad (cherry gelatin, catsup, boiling water, celery, nuts, small ripe olives) :eek:

Coleslaw Surprise (crushed pinapple, shredded cabbage, mini marshmallows, salt, pepper, sugar, mayonnaise)

I have to put this book away .... ick!!!!

I have a friend that still cooks like this. We do pot luck for play group and I'm always surprised at what she brings. And I can't eat any of it.