My guess is going to be more that they overcooked everything to holy hell back then… (and, really, even today in home kitchens for the most part, since most people like to play it overly safe.)
Oh yeah. Great for a good read, not so much for cooking out of. Although a lady friend once baked me a “Milky Way Cake” (yes, made out of candy bars).
When young Banjo was in his early teens, I believe he went through the “Soda Fountain Treats” section and tried every sundae. Making the “Golden Marshmallow Sauce” was a real pain in the ass.
Yes. The Wiki article says that most P/C/T home cooks just put it in the oven. And bake until thoroughly desiccated.
My Mom was SUCH a crappy cook…
I don’t hear much about people eating long-pig since the Donner party.
Braunschweiger
Deviled Ham
Have to admit that I made tuna casserole for my kids night before last. They liked it.
I actually had to look up what deviled ham was. I don’t think I’ve ever actually had it. Braunschweiger I have and still do. Was it ever really mainstream, though? It just strikes me like something some folks in the Midwest or Great Lakes states ate and nobody else.
I’ve eaten, still eat, and enjoy most everything mentioned. In a world of kale nibblers and $18 organic rotisserie chickens, I guess I’m just an old fashioned peasant…I LOVE chicken a la king, I buy the little Swanson cans once in a while and doctor it up with mushrooms and sherry, over rice…Bought Square Meals years ago, have given several copies as presents, and have cooked quite a few of the recipes, too. Which brings me to my contribution, does anyone bake Indian Pudding any more, or even know what it IS? I always cook a big pyrex casserole on the coldest days since it takes so long to bake, delicious stuff hot or cold, with vanilla ice cream. … Oh, and oyster stew, does anyone eat, buy, or make oyster stew any more?
Braunschweiger? Jah! und Liederkranz cheese. (I’m not German, but I do live in the Great Lakes area. Liverwurst is all over, there are lots of brands. I don’t dare buy it often, I love it too much.
I picked up a can of Underwood’s Deviled Ham just a few hours ago. I always try to have a can or two on hand for rainy day snacking. Makes good sandwiches and a kiss-ass dip, suitably doctored up.
Back in the late '60s I had a part-time job setting up luncheons and fashion shows in an upscale department store. Our typical menu consisted of:
Shrimp cocktail
Chicken a la king, beef stroganoff or chicken chow mein
Tomato aspic or Waldorf salad
Fruit cup
Scoop of ice cream or sherbet with lady fingers
Coffee or Sanka
And of course an ash tray and imprinted matches by every place setting.
See what happens when you don’t let your kids play with their food? That’s what I blame Nouvelle Cuisine on too.
My 2 cents: Beef Stroganoff, or Beef Bourguignon, or any kind of meat with sauce over egg noodles.
Fondue or appetizers that had toothpicks stuck in 'em.
Fondue I agree with. As for toothpicked appetizers – I mean, for passed hors d’oeuvres at a dinner party or wedding/ecent cocktail hour, I still see those a lot. As an appetizer order in a restaurant, yeah, not so much. Haven’t noticed the meat over noodles thing, though.
Anything served " Picasso" so, with a serving of canned fruit. Fish Picasso, for instance, was a popular dish in upscale restaurants.
Canned fruit in general. A bunch of orange and yellow sweetish chunks with round thingies dyed red - cherries maybe ?
Sucade: one or two colored sugared firm berries served on top of grilled meat.
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Porringers.
Liver actually IS good for you if you’re physically active - lots of good minerals and the fat/cholesterol wasn’t much of a problem for people who did physical labor and might not always have sufficient calories. Back when getting a nutritionally complete diet was a much more difficult task than today people might have craved things like liver, particularly if one’s diet otherwise was composed mainly of bland stuff like bread, peas, and cabbage.
We had that served for our company Christmas party a couple weeks ago.
On the menu everywhere around here in “family diners” and the like.
One thing about Salisbury Steak - it’s soft, being formed of chopped meat. People with few or no teeth, or other dental issues, might prefer that over steak and the like because it’s a lot easier to chew (or gum, depending on how bad off you are). Tooth loss used to be much more of a problem, which might be one reason why chopped/creamed meats used to be much more common in the past.
The mock apple pie, from what I understand, was a Depression-era recipe - that generation probably had memories of it as a childhood food but these days people can easily get apples for real apple pie, and it’s perceived as better or healthier than a plate of Ritz crackers, so…
Have a family recipe for chopped liver that uses beef liver and it’s yummy - I’ve encountered the same or similar thing at Jewish delis. Basically a variation on pate, though.
Liver is pretty strongly flavored in a “gamey” manner, I think that whole genre of food is out of fashion. I run into a lot of people who don’t like things like dark meat chicken or turkey, or duck but prefer the blander white meat. Given tastes like that I can see where liver isn’t as popular as it used to be. These days folks get strong flavor from capsaicin-based sauces it seems, not so much “game” flavor.
I think the canned fish and vegetables have fallen out of favor due to fresh versions being perceived as healthier/upscale/better. Also, you can get fresh fish and vegetables all year round, and in places like the center of a continent which wasn’t the case when my parents were kids. You ate preserved fish (like canned) because often that’s what was available, particularly for ocean fish (they lived in St. Louis, pretty far from the sea, and you probably didn’t want to eat anything that had been swimming in the three big rivers of that city). You ate canned vegetables in the winter because that’s what was available.
The elaborate cocktails have gone out of fashion partly because heavy drinking isn’t as tolerated as it once was. Having several drinks a day was seen as normal in my parent’s generation (once Prohibition was repealed), and prior to Prohibition people started drinking pretty early in the day by our standards. We just consume less alcohol. That category has been replaced by fancy coffee drinks, smoothies, juice bars, and so forth. Also, stuff like craft beers and an explosion of wine offerings, which you purchase ready-made instead of concocting yourself, just as people no longer make meals from scratch as the default.
Yeah - I started making tuna noodle casserole with the potato chips on top because the spouse requested it. I find crushing the chips to be the most annoying part of the whole process.
“City chicken” is also a euphemism for pigeon, which, apparently fed quite a few people during hte Depression days and allegedly some of the homeless these days. Also, I think rabbits have occasionally served the same role, but pigeons being birds and all fit the “chicken” part of the term better.
Veal used to be cheaper than chicken because veal was the unwanted male diary calves - farmers ate them rather than letting the meat go to waste. Then veal got trendy and/or popular and suddenly veal calves were valuable in their own right, leading to people trying to grow them as big as they could before they lost “veal” qualities, which of course cost money and drove the cost up.
This has been true of certain other foods that were regarded as “garbage” foods that became popular for whatever reason. Lobsters famously used to be fed to prisoners because they were so cheap, and at one point in New England prisoners demanded to be fed lobster no more than three times per week. Now it’s a luxury food.
[quote=“Arizona_Mike, post:65, topic:775472”]
Braunschweiger[/qupte]
Mmmmm… Braunschweiger! Had it for lunch yesterday. Think it’s in the category of German food which used to be a lot more popular. German-Americans have sort of melted into the background in the US but they used to be much more distinct as an ethnic group here and German food used to be much more popular in the past.
My mother had a collection of cookbooks from the 40s and 50s. Boiled? lettuce was a recipe. I see it in stir frys now.
Funny how macaroni and cheese is still popular.
With fish and chips is the best way.
For everyone’s information: My “Ritz Salad” joke was a reference to Fawlty Towers. Until yesterday, I had no idea there really are such things (though I had, of course, heard about mock apple pie, which was once given a good send-up on Frasier). 
That’s where I assumed you were coming from …
MSN’s home page this morning (12/24) features an article from The Atlantic that offers insight on the hows and whys of America’s mid-century love affair with foods in gelatins, as well as thoughts on how the Great Depression changed the way Americans eat.
Worth a read.