Horrific recipes of yesteryear

[Myrnalene]

Ok, let's talk about food quality from the post- WW II era through about the late sixties. Why were there so many crazy recipes? Why was everything so horrible looking? I'm sure part of it must have been the lack of variety of fresh, healthy foods that we have access to today. Spam and canned peaches were cheap and available so the housewives of the day had to make do with them, I suppose. I can't quite figure out the obsession with Jell-o*, though.

These recipes are from Found in Mom's Basement which is a fantastic archive for vintage ads.

We'll start with a California Peach Fiesta!



Please take special note of recipe number three. If perfect cubes of cream cheese layed on peach halves aren't enough for you, what about the "lettuce cups of Kraft Miracle Whip Salad Dressing"?

Why don't you give your child some 7UP and milk? It's a delicious blended food drink!





Here is the recipe shown above, paraphrased:
"Take some PET evaporated milk and mix with parmesan cheese and onion salt. Arrange some canned biscuits in a cookie pan to facsimilate a pizza crust. Pour catsup and evaporated milk over "crust", top with tuna and bake! Mmmmm, pizza!

Hot Buttered Tomato Juice!



Since you are oohing and aahing and asking for the recipe, I will give it to you. Combine tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, oregano leaves and butter in a saucepan, heat and enjoy!

*My colleague AllWalker informs me this is called "jelly" in Australia. The more you know.

[What Exit?]

Myrna that was scary and gross.

On Jello, it was still at the time considered some sort of new wonderful wonder food. I do not recall why though.

[Inner Stickler]

Because before the invention of the jello packets, it was a labor intensive and tricky thing to make so having jello whenever you want it was a sign of high social status. Then it became low class because it was so common.

[Myrnalene]

This post is about Jello salads!

Jello Salad featuring chicken stock, chicken chunks, asparagus, and peas:



A Jello Salad featuring olives, celery and Velveeta cheese?



One can of mixed vegetables combined with lemon Jello, chilled in a pie plate and served with tartar sauce on top??? *HORK*

[Zuul]

Myrna, that last post actually made me say "the fuck?" out loud and I earned a frightened look from the cat. Well done.

[Inner Stickler]

Because jello's not terrifying enough.

[OtakuLoki]

I think you're right, Myrna, to point to the difference in availability of foods as a major factor.

While there are exceptions, in the immediate post WWII era fruits and vegetables were either fresh, or canned. Frozen foods were very much an invention of the post WWII era, and took a while to catch on, AIUI. (I'm not sure, but I think that the frozen TV-style dinners were more common at first than the regular frozen veggies.) So there was a real lack of what most modern people would consider to be palatable vegetables.

A couple of years ago my parents were talking about this, and I remembered their conversation, because it struck a chord with me. They were talking about how the revolution from canned veggies to frozen had been seen as such a boon because the general taste and feel of the canned veggies was not that good. When the frozen veggies became readily and dependably available, people cut back on buying the canned veggies. The ones you see in stores, today, seem a lot more narrow a range of choices than you see or hear of in old cookbooks, or magazine adds. When was the last time you saw VEG-ALL, or even canned spinach? Then again, starting more or less in the 80s it seemed to me that suddenly we were seeing fresh versions of veggies that I'd never seen fresh before - and these were as much better than the frozen varieties as the frozen varieties had been compared to the canned versions.

Similarly, the menu of spices and seasonings that are commonly available has expanded. I can remember when finding soy sauce was a challenge, now I can get oyster sauce at the local supermarket.

[Exy]

This is what Myrnalene and I are going to serve at our wedding.

[Myrnalene]

Thanks, Loki. The last time I went grocery shopping I was thinking of how lucky we are today. To a 1940s housewife, canned pineapple would have been exotic but to us things like bell peppers, bok choy and ginger are commonplace.


What the hell is going on here?



"Consomme Tongue Treat

1 cup unflavored gelatine
1/2 cup cold water
1 can condensed beef broth or consomme
2 teaspoons vinegar
dash "Tobasco" sauce
1 cup cubed cooked tongue
1/2 cup celery
2 tablespoons pickle relish
2 tablespoons minced green onion

Sprinkle gelatine on cold water to soften. Place over low heat, stir until gelatine is dissolved. Remove form heat, blend in soup, vinegar and "Tabasco" sauce. Chill until slightly thickened. Fold in remaining ingredient, pour into 3-cup mold. Chill until firm. Unmold. Serve on crisp salad green. 4 servings. "

[Zuul]

This is what Myrnalene and I are going to serve at our wedding.

I'm going to be cooking--and eating--this one for the front page. There shall be pictures of the entire bizarre process.

[Myrnalene]

Hurray Zuul!

Hurray Soup Pizza!



Ok guys, help. This one doesn't come with a recipe but if you could tell me what the.....substance.....that is not cottage cheese or bread is in this picture, I would feel a lot better. I think.

[OtakuLoki]

Ok guys, help. This one doesn't come with a recipe but if you could tell me what the.....substance.....that is not cottage cheese or bread is in this picture, I would feel a lot better. I think.

It looks like some variety of tuna salad to me. I may be cold, or hot, I can't say.

[Zuul]

Yeah, looks like tuna salad and peas.

[artifex]

If you like this sort of thing, by all means visit http://www.lileks.com/institute/index.html

[Zuul]

The spam 'n' peach balls have been made and eaten. Further information will be available when I can process it.

[Sarahfeena]

Please please please tell me you took pictures.

[Zuul]

Pictures and video. It shall be an extravaganza of pain.

[Exy]

Yet another "salad" of canned crud embedded in gelatin.

Imagine an era in which the height of elegance was dumping shit out of tin cans into a Jell-o mold. What the fucking hell was wrong with these people?

[vison]

Even in this day and age, people, if you live in the north or some other remote spot, it's hard to get fresh fruit and veg. Hell's bells, I grew up on home-canned peas and carrots. My Mum canned chicken and beef. Actually, home-canned meat is yummy, and I'm not joking. It's good. Mind you, everything my Mum cooked was good. She was a good cook and still is at the age of 85.

Before we had a freezer at home, we rented a locker in town and once a week Mum and Dad went there and picked out the coming week's meats. We had our own beef and pork and chicken, but it was wonderful to have it frozen - although Mum did do some canning for convenience's sake. Frozen strawberries!!! They were a revelation, I tell you.

We are so lucky nowadays. But you know what? More and more people eat at restaurants - if you can call Mickey D's a restaurant, more and more people buy convenience foods. Some of us are thrilled with the variety available, but an awful lot of people never leave the centre aisles of the stores.

[Johnny]

An aunt gave my mom a recipe back in the '50s, which she'd gotten from a women's magazine. I've never made it myself, and it's too late to ask mom for the recipe; but I think it went like this:

1 box Lemon Jell-O
1 box Lime Jell-O
Green apples
Red apples
Walnuts
Miracle Whip
Cottage cheese

Mix the Jell-Os together, and make as directed. Dice the apples and chop the walnuts. Mix everything together. Put in the fridge until the Jell-O sets.

If Pepto Bismol were green, the salad would be that shade. And lumpy. It looks pretty gross. But it actually tastes pretty good.

[Zuul]

Even in this day and age, people, if you live in the north or some other remote spot, it's hard to get fresh fruit and veg. Hell's bells, I grew up on home-canned peas and carrots. My Mum canned chicken and beef. Actually, home-canned meat is yummy, and I'm not joking. It's good. Mind you, everything my Mum cooked was good. She was a good cook and still is at the age of 85.

I've had home-canned meat and it is quite good. I've had beef and venison, no chicken, but it was very tasty. Unfortunately, it had been given to my mother, not me, so after I got a bite she promptly threw it out because she thought it was "gross."

I weep for unappreciated food.

[Hatshepsut]

How did I miss this thread for so long? It's gold! If I may be allowed to define "gold" as "exceptionally nauseating."

I've never understood the appeal of jello, but all by itself it is bearable. However, once you add nuts, olives, grated carrots, or other inappropriate flavors and textures it is an atrocity. My mother used to make a salad of - read carefully here, I want you to fully imagine the culinary horror I had to endure - lime gelatin made with mayonnaise for some of the liquid, with walnuts, grated onions, and cubed cream cheese mixed in. Served on a leaf of iceberg lettuce, of course.

Now, let me admit to what I would eat that is in this thread: I am pretty sure I could stomach the very first dish (the layered cake, canned peaches, and whipped cream). With a good homemade cake and fresh whipped cream, you're talking 2 out of 3 ingredients being pretty tasty. And canned cling peaches, while nothing I'd ever seek out, are pretty innocuous.

I would also eat the "pizza" made with ground beef and tomato soup. Although I sure as hell would try harder to make it look edible. Those three slabs of cheese on top in the picture suggest a lifetime of despair. I'm pretty sure the food stylist that assembled that went home and overdosed immediately afterward.