Strange Vintage Recipes

June 30, 2016

FullSizeRender (45)

Another little time bomb…. This book, published in 1955 to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the supermarket, has some of the stranger recipes I’ve encountered. There is, for example, this “Mexican” salad.  I suppose it’s the addition of chili powder that provides that south of the border slant?

FullSizeRender (40)

And here’s a “Japanese” appetizer that would startle most people in that nation.  Most people in any nation, come to think of it. Where on earth did this come from?

FullSizeRender (38)

Then there is this Finnish way with hot dogs…

FullSizeRender (39)

And finally, a truly strange American salad.

FullSizeRender (41)

I also found some unexpectedly intriguing recipes in this odd book.  I’ll post those tomorrow.

Categorised in:

5 Comments

  • Amy says:

    My grandmother made something like that frozen salad once in a while. It was the oddest little loaf, kind of like a savory Popsicle. Haven’t thought about it in a long, long time…..

  • Lois Rosenfeld Urkowitz says:

    The Mexican recipe is truly strange! Never had any salad with bread or carrots in it or string beans. Maybe the bread is a substitute for tortilla strips. I’ve actually seen the frozen salad in some cookbooks I have from that time period.

  • Mary Uhrina says:

    We did live in an insulated little world back then. My mother was big on congealed salads.

  • Moe says:

    I am afraid that I will not be preparing any of these. Can’t wait to see the better ones tomorrow my dear. And by the way, have a great Fourth of July weekend.

  • Joy Kramer says:

    Oh, yum (not). Maybe the pimento made the salad Mexican, sort of sounds Spanish, doesn’t it? And maybe the persimmons were exotic enough then to be considered Japanese fare? I can’t speak for the Finnish hot dogs though. And the frozen salad, that does sound vaguely familiar. In fact, I just printed a receipe called frozen tropical fruit salad that is similar but it sounds better to me than this old recipe. Amazing what people either ate, or tried out. We did a lot with canned fruit.

Comment