Probably so. He was Bohemian by ancestry and his wife was Polish, both most likely second or third generation. They also used to make potica and a rolled pork roast called “porchetta”, which was terrific.
Ah hah!
Potica is Slovenian, and the Slovenian word for aspic is “žolca,” pronounced “zholtsa.”
Huzzah! I’m not crazy after all!
My mother made her specialty for all ‘pot luck’ gatherings: lime jello with pineapple chunks and cottage cheese. :eek:
Bill Cosby would have been proud.
Really.
And I lived to tell the tale.
I’ve been wondering what could be more disgusting than cold chicken in meat flavored Jell-O…
Oh god. That would be it.
hork
Hey, I’ll have you know that green Jello with pineapple and cottage cheese (don’t forget the sour cream!) is an honored dish at our family holiday table. It really is the old 50’s recipe, and I think my mom and I might be the only ones who like it (and now my daughter, ha). But it just ain’t Thanksgiving without green Jello stuff!
You folks have never been in the kitchen when proper Bohunk head cheese was being made and have never encountered a recipe that begins with, “In a large pot place one hog’s head, cover it with water, and bring to a boil.” The cheek meat is the best and there’s plenty of bone and connective tissue to give you plenty of gelatin without additives, though I had friends who lived down the street from Grayslake Gelatin and know that it may be disgusting but it is natural and not likely to be kosher.
Man, if I couldn’t do with a cream cheese and olive sandwich right now. 
I think the answer is that yes, people did eat this stuff sometimes, although I suspect that some of the cookbooks were also serving as their era’s lifestyle porn in a now-amusing effort to convince newly-middle-class housewives that they could add a touch of elegance to their dinner parties by making canapes out of somewhat-revolting combinations of the new canned/processed wonder foods.
But some of it was just that tastes differ over time. I was reading a book about obscure/arcane English words, and was struck by just how many of them were arcane because they were names of foods/drinks that no one in their right mind would consider eating/drinking today, mixtures that sound puke-inducing to the modern ear: think milk punches, spiced wines, frumenty.
Well, consider this: In several of the recipes in those Lileks books, they ain’t using Knox Unflavored Gelatine. Or any of the meaty flavors mentioned above. They’ve got meat and vegetables jelled in Lime or Cherry or some other bright-coloreed, artificially fruit-flavored Jello. It looks disgusting.
I’m low-class – I LIKE Jello*. But my stomach rises at the thought of fruity Jello mixed with meat and vegetables.
*I didn’t realize that Jello was low-class until I encountered the indispensable Encyclopedia of Bad Taste by Jane and Michael Stern Amazon.com
:eek:
Wow.
I see what you mean, but A) no one in the thread has come out in defense of those recipes and B) I don’t find meat/fruit flavor combinations automatically off-putting. I could see chicken or pork and cherry or lime being quite tasty together. It’s meat flavored gelatin, or aspic, that makes me queasy, and vinegar on top of that just sounds even worse!
I’d try it if I was served it, but it just sounds icky. I’m picturing something like a good homemade chicken stock out of the fridge, all gelatinized and wobbly, and eating it cold. No thanks!
It should be remembered that while your mom was making Cream of Mushroom Soup in Aspic, at the same time Mastering the Art of French Cooking was introducing bazillions of Americans to new foods, spices, preparations, etc.
It’s very interesting to look at it now - it’s still a fantastic cookbook but it’s got a lot of stuff you just wouldn’t use now because you don’t entertain in the same way. A lot of cold marinated vegetable dishes, for example, for entertaining.
But now I really, really want some green bean casserole with cream of soup and them onion things on top.
I poked through my array of cookbooks from the mid-century- here’s a few to try:
Ham Filled Buns
1 can SPAM, 1/2# Velveeta, 1 small onion, 1 dill pickle. Put through a meat chopper, adding a little pickle juice to thin down. Spread on hot dog buns. Wrap in aluminum foil, place in 350F oven for 20 minutes.
Here’s a few appetizers from “The Calvert Party Encyclopedia”, published in 1960:
Hot House" Mix limburger cheese with a small amount of butter. Add finely minced onion and salt. Serve as a cracker spread
Tongue Treat Combine ground cooked tongue, cooked mushrooms, and a chopped dill pickle with a liberal helping of Thousand Island Dressing. Spread on unsalted crackers
Salami Savories Mix a condensed can of Cream of Celery soup with cream cheese until creamy. Add finely ground salami. Spread on toast squares. Heat in broiler until browned.
Perfect Party Foods from the same cookbook include:
Baked Chicken Mousse (to be served with canned mushroom sauce)
Frozen Fruit Salad (cream cheese, mayo, whipping [sic] cream, bananas or grapes, pineapple, and cherries. Mix together, freeze in a mold. Serve on lettuce)
From the cookbook that came with my stand mixer (1948 - and yes it works like a dream) there are recipes for coffee mousse, ice cream made from ‘gelatine’, and Liver Loaf (mmmm liver)
You’ve pretty much got it. I’d say it’s the vinegar that makes it more palatable, not less.
Oh, and it’s one thing to like pork & lime, and quite another to like pork & lime-flavored Jell-O.
We have that cookbook also, maybe from 1975, and we used to make a cube steak dish from it when we were first married.
Remember that back in the 1950s you were pretty much stuck with canned vegetables, in the east at least, or some small choice of frozen. Even in New York you pretty much had Chinese food, Italian, and Jewish, at least in our neighborhood. No microwaves. No one but beatnik fruitcakes would ever have a vegetarian meal.
Plus,. women were supposed to make fancy stuff and love doing it. That’s why Peg Bracken’s “I Hat to Cook Cookbook” was such a revolution - it allowed women to make simple stuff.
I don’t remember any gelatin travesties, but we weren’t midWesterners and my father grew up in the restaurant business, and was a better cook than my mother when they got married. He actually taught me.
Would you mind sharing the title of this cookbook? I know someone who has been looking for this book (or something very similar) for a few years. She doesn’t remember the title or much of anything beyond it being a book of recipes from the back of cans, jars, boxes, etc. I’m hoping yours is the one she’s looking for.
My favorite part of the LILEKS site is the Jello Confronts the Depression section…