# Did people in the 1950s really eat that food from the cookbooks of the era? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290 "2008-07-30T22:27:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/41 "2008-07-31T17:38:17Z")
[QUOTE=villa] The exception being my Betty Crocker cookie book, which you can have when you pry it from my cold, dead, flour covered fingers. Seriously - in the property division of my divorce, I think that was the only thing we fought over. [/QUOTE] Sweet llama of the Bahamas! You have that? Is it spiral-bound and the front covered with pictures of cookies dyed in lurid 70’s era vivid colors? If so, I have that, too, and it contains the recipes of several cookies I (used to when I ate carbs) made regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/42 "2008-07-31T17:43:07Z")
I have the Betty Crocker teen cookbook from the early '60s. It tells you how to make canned spaghetti. Open can, empty can into saucepan, heat over low heat, serve. Yes, those instructions were on the can, too. I do enjoy the Riceland Rice brochure from the mid-'50s, which is quite nice. And I very much recommend Jane and Michael Stern’s \*Square Meals \* and \*American Gourmet \* for a lot of these great recipes. \*American Gourmet \* is out of print but not too expensive when you can find it, and well worth looking for. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/43 "2008-07-31T18:01:19Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] My former father-in-law (northern MN) used to make this stuff, but called it szoltsa or soltsa: basically a Polish head cheese. It was absolutely ghastly. [/QUOTE] Perhaps you’re thinking of [_salceson_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salceson)? It would be pronounced approximately as “sal-TSE-sohn.” Salceson and galareta are slightly different–salcenson contains more meat, is sliceable and usually eaten on bread. Galareta is more jello-like and eaten on its own. [Picture of galareta](http://www.proryb.com.pl/repository/products/wgalarecie/galareta.jpg) [Picture of salceson](http://www.sekwens.com.pl/zdjecia_news/1110270430_1_.jpg) [Closer shot of galareta](http://www.kwestiasmaku.com/kuchnia_polska/kuchnia_mamy/files/page120_15.jpg). [Detail of salceson.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Salceson..jpg/800px-Salceson..jpg) I can understand why most people don’t find either of these palatable. Well, more for me! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/44 "2008-07-31T18:02:21Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] “Spread cheese spread on a slice of balogna. Fold decoratively and secure with a pick.” Yuck! [/QUOTE] What’s wrong with bologna and cheese? ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/45 "2008-07-31T18:09:48Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] What’s wrong with bologna and cheese? [/QUOTE] I think the problem is that is it being presented as a party snack…Folded meat and cheese isn’t my idea of an hors d’oeuvres. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/46 "2008-07-31T18:12:05Z")
[QUOTE=Skara\_Brae] I think the problem is that is it being presented as a party snack…Folded meat and cheese isn’t my idea of an hors d’oeuvres. [/QUOTE] Oh, I see - that’s true. I don’t throw parties, though, and certainly not ones that would require hors d’oeuvres. ETA: But then what is the difference between that and those little cubes of cheese and circles of sausage or whatever they present at parties? ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/47 "2008-07-31T18:19:18Z")
Oh god, every meal at my mom’s aunt Esther’s was something that they got the idea for back when you could still get war bonds. Lots of Jell-O with stuff in it. Sometimes good (like marshmallows) and often quite horrid (beets, carrots, _kohlrabi_). And yup, these were northern Lutheran folks. Well Missouri Synod, but Cleveland fabulous. She did make up for it with awesome cold chicken and the best fruit pies of all time though. And they had one of those old timey bikes with the giant front weel that they let us ride. But those Jell-Os and the canned stuff. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/48 "2008-07-31T18:29:14Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] Sweet llama of the Bahamas! You have that? Is it spiral-bound and the front covered with pictures of cookies dyed in lurid 70’s era vivid colors? If so, I have that, too, and it contains the recipes of several cookies I (used to when I ate carbs) made regularly. [/QUOTE] I think it is more recent than that. Now you have made me want your version. Give it to me! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/49 "2008-07-31T18:30:40Z")
Here’s the thing, though - bologna used to have a lot more flavor than it does now. Think of mortadella, which is its immediate ancestor. Where I grew up, too, there were variants like German bologna (very garlicky) Lebanon bologna (spicy, smoky and more like salami than bologna) Polish bologna (which could sometimes be found pickled and was generally sold in a half-ring) and the insipid American stuff. My mom generally bought the garlic bologna along with good old fashioned Pittsburgh style chipped ham. The reason bologna tastes like kids food is that most manufacturers make it for kids - lots of chicken and sugar, no good meats or spices. The bolognas I mentioned are different, and most members of the board would have no issue either eating them for lunch or serving them at a party (though likely in cold-cut form) ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/50 "2008-07-31T18:31:25Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] What’s necessarily wrong with Cream of Mushroom soup? Other than the idea of eating it straight out of the can? You haven’t lived until you’ve had Venison and Wild Rice Casserole with a CoMS base. Damned good stuff. Even better with bits of Morel in it. [/QUOTE] And what’s wrong with eating it straight out of the can? Yes, add me to the growing list of people who enjoy CoM as a soup, but I grew up popping open a can, grabbing a spoon and sitting down in front of cartoons on a saturday morning. Always had a sleeve of crackers too. That was good eatin’. As to the chicken jello - is it supposed to be eaten cold? Wouldn’t that make the chicken greasy? If it were heated to dissapate the grease, wouldn’t the jello melt? Is the coolness part of the point (like ice cold tuna salad with ice cold tomato and ice cold cottage cheese for a hot summer afternoon’s lunch)? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/51 "2008-07-31T18:41:35Z")
[QUOTE=nd\_n8] As to the chicken jello - is it supposed to be eaten cold? [/quote] Yes. We eat it with vinegar poured over the top and rye bread on the side. > [@](#): > > Wouldn’t that make the chicken greasy? I’m not quite following. Why would it make it greasy? ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/52 "2008-07-31T18:47:23Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Yes. We eat it with vinegar poured over the top and rye bread on the side. I’m not quite following. Why would it make it greasy? [/QUOTE] Chicken fat? The yellowish crusty stuff in the cans of processed chicken and in the roasting pan after putting baked chicken in the fridge? Also an alleged component of hot dogs as many of them leave the same greasy film on the roof of my mouth when eaten cold as the cold chicken does. Does the vinegar cut some of this fat and keep it from sticking to the roof of your mouth? Note - I’m not thinking that this is gross or anything, it actually sounds good, just a little weird even for me. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/53 "2008-07-31T19:02:19Z")
It depends on how you make it. The aspic my mother makes is not very greasy. She makes a broth with skinless chicken breast. When the chicken breast is cooked, it’s shredded, added to the broth with gelatin, and gelled. You can also make it with pig’s feet as the gelling agent. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/54 "2008-07-31T19:06:14Z")
[QUOTE=Skara\_Brae] Folded meat and cheese isn’t my idea of an hors d’oeuvres. [/QUOTE] Think of prosciutto wrapped around melon, or asparagus. Same concept. As for the chicken being greasy, many of the recipes I’ve seen call for using a boiled chicken breast, which presumably will be quite dry. I’m intrigued by the chicken jello idea. I suspect I may have to subject my wife to it as an experiment soon. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/55 "2008-07-31T19:45:22Z")
[QUOTE=Tom Tildrum] Think of prosciutto wrapped around melon, or asparagus. Same concept. As for the chicken being greasy, many of the recipes I’ve seen call for using a boiled chicken breast, which presumably will be quite dry. I’m intrigued by the chicken jello idea. I suspect I may have to subject my wife to it as an experiment soon. [/QUOTE] Jello had a wide range of flavors designed for salads at one time - Italian, seasoned tomato, mixed vegetable and celery among them. The only survivor of this period is lime. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/56 "2008-07-31T19:52:08Z")
You don’t use Jell-O for these dishes. You use [Knox Unflavored Gelatin](http://www.kraftfoodservice.com/productsandbrands/ProductSpecific.htm?option=product&id=1443). All the gel, but none of the flavor. Thus, if you made it with, say, chicken broth and water, you’d get chicken-flavored gel, which is fine for chicken dishes. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/57 "2008-07-31T20:19:08Z")
[QUOTE=villa] It seems like many of the cookbooks that survived were produced by food companies, and were thus pushing their products. The books put out now by food companies are atrocious too - pick up a Kraft cookbook and take a look. [/QUOTE] There are plenty of those books in the Lileks collection; off the top of my head, the print version of **The Gallery of Regrettable Food** contained books by Heinz Ketchup, Planters peanuts, A-1 steak sauce, Swanson’s, and my favorite, Campfire marshmallows. That book (probably a pamphlet, really) was “How Famous Chefs Use Campfire Marshmallows”. As the author put it, “This was an attempt to convince people that their product wasn’t just for campfires. You would think the first step would be to not use the word ‘Campfire’ in your product’s name.” And the dishes were quite pathetic, usually normal desserts with a few marshmallows scattered on top. It was pretty obvious that that wasn’t the way the chefs normally made them. > [@Mr. Moto](#): > > This isn’t hard and fast either, as you mentioned - these food companies had test kitchens and home economists and cooking contests - and some of the dishes that emerged from these were amazing. The legendary “Green Bean Casserole” came out of the Campbell’s Soup Test Kitchen in 1955, and from what I understand it was considered the best thing they’d ever created. To this day, people apparently get all faint and woozy just thinking about it. To me, it’s another cream of mushroom soup-laced pile of blah, but to each his own. And there are loads of mushroom soup eaters here, so it looks like I’m the outsider on this one. I’m not against the eating of mushroom soup, mind you, I’ve just never seen it happen, being from the Land of Bland White Food where CoMS is used strictly as an adhesive. I probably should get out more. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/58 "2008-07-31T20:25:26Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] You don’t use Jell-O for these dishes. [/QUOTE] _shudder_ It didn’t even occur to me that somebody might think of using Jell-O instead of unflavored gelatin. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/59 "2008-07-31T20:25:53Z")
You just need to get the right ones. Most of the online recipes at the Tabasco site, for instance, look pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290/60 "2008-07-31T20:28:09Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] _shudder_ It didn’t even occur to me that somebody might think of using Jell-O instead of unflavored gelatin. [/QUOTE] Aunt Esther serves supper at 5:30. Come on by. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1950s-really-eat-that-food-from-the-cookbooks-of-the-era/458290.md?page=4)