Vintage Recipes – Page 2 – nachounderpants.com (2024)

There’s something strangely alluring about this fine recipe I found in my new 1965 Dinner in a Dish Cookbook. It’s macaroni & cheese mixed with ham and stuffed into green peppers. Maybe I’ve been staring at disgusting vintage recipes too long, but I think this sounds good for some reason. A hell of a lot better than Jello & Tuna Pie!

I guess it’s all relative.

I never thought I would find a disgusting vintage recipe to top the famous Liver Sausage Pineapple, but dang if I didn’t find one that is just as repulsive – and maybe, just maybe – a little bit more.

Voilàthe “Summer Salad Pie” – a concoction listed as “pretty as can be” in my 1965 Betty Crocker’s Dinner in a Dish cookbook. Um, not so sure “pretty” would be the word I’d use to describe it, but I’m not a cookbook editor – so what do I know? Basically this pie is made up of a lemon jello layer with tomato sauce, celery, olives and onion, in a cheese crust topped with tuna salad. Yes, tuna salad.

Don’t get me wrong – I love tuna salad. I just don’t love tuna salad on top of jello in a pie shell. What is the fascination with gelatin? Why must it be used in every other recipe in 1965? Was Jell-O thought to be space-age? Was it a favorite at Camelot? Were we using it to show the Commies who’s boss?

All I know is that this has got to taste like Barf Pie – summer or not.

Something’s wrong here. How can you have “Tiara” in your name, but be such a boring recipe? It’s basically chili mixed with canned green beans with a ring of canned biscuits. Big f*cking deal! I feel I have been misled, Mr. Recipe Name Maker-Upper.

Remember a few weeks ago when I blogged about the incompetent plumber who supposedly came to do maintenance on our appliances and instead started a leak that ruined all my vintage cookbooks? Well, I finally had a chance to go through them and figure out what’s what.

Out of my collection of about 50 vintage cookbooks, about 20 of them are ruined and will have to be thrown away. The only good news is that the two really old and rare ones I have, although damaged, were spared enough to keep – my 1930 Fannie Farmer Cookbook and my 1945 Joy of Cooking. The bad news is that most of the ones that were ruined were my Betty Crocker collection, which happen to be my favorites. Most of them can be replaced as they are in plenitful supply out there, but two of them, my 1956 Picture Cookbook and my 1961 Picture Cookbook were in great shape and I am sad to lose them.

Did I mention the guy who did this is a dumbass?

So we had a leak due to some dumbass that came to perform “maintenance” on our appliances. He managed to crimp the line and then leave the power on an icemaker that hasn’t worked in two years, so the water from the icemaker line leaked through the ceiling down to our butler’s kitchen where I keep all my vintage cookbooks. Needless to say, most of them are completely ruined. I was going to take a picture, but it makes me too sad.

Thanks a lot, asswipe. I’m still pondering whether I should post your name out here for all to see.

Well, he was – until I realized that I don’t think he likes girls. Or anybody, really. I think his one and only love is Macaroni & Cheese. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

When I was flat broke and living downtown by myself, I used to be too poor for the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I remember I used to have to buy the TownHouse brand, which really tasted like crap compared to the one-and-only blue box. But, the TownHouse was like 35 cents per box while the Kraft was like 75 cents, and when you’re literally buying a weeks worth of groceries with $10 it makes a difference.

Also, what up with people who make their Kraft Macaroni & Cheese all soupy? Follow the goddamn directions – it’s only a 1/4 cup of milk! It’s not f*cking soup – it’s Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner! They paid a boatload of Macaroni & Cheese scientists a bunch of money to come up with the perfect butter & milk ratio for their powdered bliss, and the least you could do is follow the recipe on the box, okay? And, while I’m on the subject – don’t buy the stupid shapes and stuff. Scooby Doo? Dinosaurs? SpongeBob SquarePants? No, no and no. Only the original elbow Mac & Cheese is the correct Mac & Cheese. Got it?

I wonder if this dweeb has a TownHouse brand box? And, does he eat all this Macaroni & Cheese? If I did, I would weigh about 500 lbs.

Yes, I’m jealous.

This single dish may have been the one that started me on my obsession with vintage recipes. This is the famous Woodchuck that my Mother-in-Law makes every Christmas morning at her yearly Christmas breakfast. Okay, yes – it does kind of look like someone threw up after drinking too much white zinfandel after a hard-boiled egg eating contest, but I promise you – it really does taste wonderful. It’s my favorite thing she makes on Christmas besides her cookies, but that’s for another day.

What is in this? Actually, I don’t really know. I have tried looking for a recipe for it and have never found anything called “woodchuck” that is even remotely close to this. I know it has hard boiled eggs, green pepper, pimento, canned mushrooms, tomato soup and maybe butter or cream. You pour it over store-bought toasted bread things that I have never seen any store I’ve ever been in, so I don’t know what the hell they are. All I know is I love the damn woodchuck!

If anyone recognizes this dish, please let me know what is is in the comments as I am on a quest to find out where it is from. My Mother-in-Law has been making it forever from a recipe jotted on an index card and can’t remember where she got it.

WOODCHUCK RULES.

I don’t know what it is about this photo that draws me to it. Perhaps it’s the gooey triangles of American Cheese atop the Corn Medley Casserole on the top right side. Maybe it’s the beautiful “wiener star” atop the lovely Skillet Supper at the bottom. Or, it could be the little puffy balls on the tablecloth – I think we had those!

Whatever it is, anyone who can fry hot dogs in a 1/2 cup of butter – as the recipe for Skillet Supper calls for – is either insane, or a genius. Oh yes, it’s June Roth – author of 1969’s Fast and Fancy Cookbook, who promises right on the cover to show you “glamorous gourmet dishes from inexpensive quick fix foods.”

Well played, June – well played.

Not that I am pandering or anything (cough) – but I actually got a request today that I could actually fulfill. A request for McCalls Baked Macaroni & Cheese from the wonderful and frightening McCall’s Great American Recipe Collection. Anything for a reader, and of course, anotheraficionadoof the sublime wonderfulness of that which we call Macaroni & Cheese.

BAKED MACARONI & CHEESE

1 pkg (8 oz.) elbow macaroni
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 cups milk
2 cups (8 oz.) cheddar cheese, grated
1 large tomato, thickly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until smooth. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to boiling, stirring. Reduce heat, and simmer mixture for one minute. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of cheese and macaroni. Pour into a 1 1/2 quart shallow casserole dish. Arange tomato slices over top. Sprinkle remaining cheese.
4. Bake 15 minutes until cheese is golden brown.

Makes 4-6 servings.

You’re welcome.

I found this cool video exhalting the beautiful clean lines and hip electronics of 1958 via one of my favorite websites, jezebel.com. The video orginally was produced as a documentary exploring the latest in technology asthetics in the post-war Eisenhower-era boom time. I find it stragely calming – like those movies from the same time where people go about their business just before the nuclear bomb hits.

Click here to see video.

Thanks, jezebel.