1950s fine dining

[PamNY]

Since some of you are too young to remember these days:

42 weird meals from the 1950s (http://www.buzzfeed.com/violas94/42-meals-from-the-1950s)

[Biciclista]

With one of my husband's cousins and her son, we have spent HOURS guffawing over old cookbooks with recipes like these.
1 lb margarine
1 pound canned peas
when a recipe starts like that you know it's going to be good! (not)

[jessmarimba]

Darnit, blocked domain.

Many of my cookbooks are from the 60s and 70s. All of my family Christmas cookie recipes come from one of them...but there are a good percentage of recipes in there that have something to do with Jello. :)

[Owlie]

Meat and jello should not go together...except on the cow. Urk. I must say that the photography/illustrations do nothing to enhance their appeal.

Also, spam. Lovely spam.:rolleyes:

My mom has a cookbook from when she was in college/grad school (late 70s/early 80s). Lots of recipes for things in aspic. Where's the barfing smiley when you need it?

[Eden]

You may also enjoy The Gallery of Regrettable Foods - http://lileks.com/institute/gallery/
(caution - if you are drinking milk you may snort it from your nose while reading this)

[Owlie]

You may also enjoy The Gallery of Regrettable Foods - http://lileks.com/institute/gallery/
(caution - if you are drinking milk you may snort it from your nose while reading this)

+1. It's hilarious and stomach-turning at the same time.

[trista]

Some of those are hilarious.... my favorite is ring-around-the-tuna.

I'll admit though, my kids LOVE Spam!

Although looking at those pictures, I can't but wonder what people will be saying in 50-60 years about some of the things people are eating today.

[shootingstar]

Although looking at those pictures, I can't but wonder what people will be saying in 50-60 years about some of the things people are eating today.

True. They just have flip on Food Network show which some shows focus heavily on interesting/but junk like food.

I was amazed/appalled in Hawai'i, spam sushi is pretty popular when I was there.

But maybe some people feel better having it for awhile (especially if there are concerns of radioactive leakage infecting the sea life after nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan during earthquake earlier this yr.).

[withm]

Fortunately my mother was a good cook. We never saw anything that even resembled some of this ersatz 'food'. I can probably count on one hand the times I have eaten jello. Well tomato aspic not withstanding, but I don't make it with jello either.

[channlluv]

What is aspic?

I love that little hotdog man-thing. My grandmother used to slice hotdogs up the middle for us so we didn't choke on them, but she never made a little man out of one.

I used to love my mom's Jello molds. My grandmother used to make this great Jello salad she called Ambrosia. One of my favorite things about holiday dinners.

But seriously, look at some of the stuff we eat today. Turducken, anyone? And those nuclear-spiced Cheetos? I can't even stand to be around someone eating those, they smell so bad.

Roxy

[malkin]

The little hotdog man is Frankie Doodle Dandy!

Funny!

[Owlie]

What is aspic?

I love that little hotdog man-thing. My grandmother used to slice hotdogs up the middle for us so we didn't choke on them, but she never made a little man out of one.

I used to love my mom's Jello molds. My grandmother used to make this great Jello salad she called Ambrosia. One of my favorite things about holiday dinners.

But seriously, look at some of the stuff we eat today. Turducken, anyone? And those nuclear-spiced Cheetos? I can't even stand to be around someone eating those, they smell so bad.

Roxy
Aspic: Basically, gelatin, with broth/stock as the liquid, with various things embedded in it.

I'm pretty sure they had a forerunner to the turducken in medieval Europe if they were exceedingly rich and had to show off...

[trista]

But seriously, look at some of the stuff we eat today. Turducken, anyone? And those nuclear-spiced Cheetos? I can't even stand to be around someone eating those, they smell so bad.

Very true! And how about deep-fried twinkies, Bloomin' Onions, or 90% of the Denny's menu.

[bmccasland]

I have you know that Cajun Turducken is wonderful!

Debone 1 turkey, 1 duck, 1 chicken. Season the outside of the chicken and duck. Stuff the inside of the chicken with sausage dressing. Stuff inside the chicken, which is then stuffed inside the turkey.

Easy method: order from a Cajun market. :D

[marni]

back in the 60's in college I had a cookbook called "the impoverished Students Guide to Cookery, Keepery and Drinkery". It covered everything from finding a roommate and setting up a housing, food, chores, utilities, drinks, and laundry budgets to how to make fake kalua, a spread sheet for casseroles, another for stir fry, hints for mending, how to do laundry etc. It was actually useful and had only pen and ink illustrations, mostly humorous.

marni

[Sardine]

What a wonderfully amusing thread. Thanks especially to PamNY for starting it and Eden for 'The Gallery of Regrettable Foods'!

Edit: On Spam, just be grateful you didn't have an aunt who made a curry with it and processed canned peas, then served it up with rice. I'm from Southeast Asia originally where we got a lot of processed Western food which was often given a local twist - a bit like the sushi mentioned earlier. That was a long time ago though. I still steer well clear of Spam. And processed cheese in blue boxes.

[Crankin]

I grew up in the 50s and 60s and rarely ate any of that awful looking stuff! I never had a jello mold until I was in college and ex MIL made one. Never even heard of Spam until same ex-MIL had it in her kitchen. I think this was a regional and cultural difference. This woman also had a can of lard on the kitchen counter, which made me gag when I looked inside.
We ate lots of broiled chicken, steak, pork, baked potatoes, pasta, a lot of fruit, and salads. Sandwiches for lunch. Sure, maybe the pastrami wasn't so good for you, but at least it was real food. My mom was a really good cook and really explored ethnic foods as she got older, after I left home. Both my brother and I love to cook.
I do get amused at the breakfasts I had sometimes. Sugared cereal with a danish :eek:. But we also had french toast, oatmeal, and pancakes.
I do remember having Twinkies and Devil Dogs, cupcakes in the house all of the time. Never drank soda with meals, just as a treat for Saturday deli sandwiches or lunch.

[smilingcat]

Aspic is gelatin made from meat, fish... The connective tissue. Sounds awful but its not. It's the stuff that makes soup stock as well. If you slowly cook/simmer real stock it will get thick. Then when you chill it, the stock will gelatinize (is this a word?) and you have aspic of sort.

Typical English dish with Aspic would be Eel in Aspic. Also found in Germanic/Nordic countries.

Sounds awful but not as bad as Lutefisk. Of course you would have to drink Akuavit, then anything tastes good. :p

I actually love reading some of the recipe from back then. It's interesting how our taste has changed. It used to be flank steak was for poor people and who would have ever thought of eating skirt steak. And today WHAT??!!! YOU PAID HOW MUCH FOR A FLANK STEAK??!!!

Today, some foodie wants skirt steak/butcher steak/hanger steak. Years ago, people would turn their nose. It's a very tough cut of meat.


OH we can't forget about salisbury steak seasoned heavily to clog your artery. Did it come before SPAM??

But somethings are still good deviled egg for one. Another dish that seems to make a bit of a come back but I just can't wrap my head around is string bean casserole topped with crisped onion.