Vintage Recipes – Page 4 – nachounderpants.com (2024)

So, I decided to make my very own Sandwich Loaf. I guess since I seem to be a little obsessed with them, I should at least have the experience of making one myself, right? (And, yes, I know that my sandwich loaf is hideous, and it’s not due to the poor photography.)

First off, who knew this would take an entire f*cking day to make? With all the little layers inside, hard boiling eggs, slicing the bread lengthwise and chopping of all the ingredients very finely – it literally took all day. The one I made had a shrimp and onion salad layer (BTW: I have never before this day opened a can of ‘tiny shrimp’ that the recipe calls for. WTF are those things? They look like little Sea Monkeys!) a chicken, egg and bacon layer, and a cream cheese and parsley layer. Then, the whole thing is frosted with cream cheese.Even though it looks like a five year old made it – it actually tasted pretty good. But, I won’t be making another one – it takes too damn long!

This loaf-tastic item was part of a menu that I made for a Mother’s Day dinner for 20 we had at my house. The entire menu was made out of my 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook and was in honor of my Mother In Law since she is the Queen of 50s cooking. I’ll post the rest of the menu tomorrow, and if anyone wants me to post any of the recipes, let me know.

This gorgeous photograph is courtesy of The Betty Crocker Dinner for Two cookbook, 1964. I love how dinners in the 60s seem to be made of completely random dishes thrown together to imply some sort of “texture” and “color” composition. Like, what the hell kind of dinner is this?

Meatballs, Au Gratin Potatoes, Beets in Orange Sauce, Green Peas & Cheese Salad and Pineapple Marshmallow Creme, that’s what!

I think we had these Corelle dishes when I was a kid. Or at least something like them. These would have gone perfectly in our Harvest Gold and Avocado Green kitchen.

Yes, this is my Mother’sactualMeatloaf recipe. Again, I thought that this was an old family recipe handed down for generations, until I found it in the 1964 Betty Crocker’s New Dinner for Two Cookbook. I love this meatloaf. But, it’s not traditional meatloaf at all – it’s very sweet and does not slice but rather crumbles all over your plate. Since this is what I grew up on, all other traditional meatloaves mean nothing to me. This is the one I crave.

Also, our table never looked like this. We never had a plate of squash and daisies as a side dish. We certainly didn’t drink coffee with dinner. We used to drink out of McDonald’s Collector Glasses. (Grimace was my favorite.)

Here is the recipe – try it – it’s yummy.

MOM’S MEATLOAF (via Betty Crocker)

1/2 lb. Ground Beef
1/4 lb. Ground Pork
1 ½ slices Wonder Bread, torn in pieces
½cup Milk
1 Egg, beaten
2 tbs. Minced Onion
½ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Pepper
¼ tsp. Dry Mustard
¼ tsp. Celery Salt
¼ tsp. Garlic Salt
1½ tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
Ketchup

Heat oven to 350°. Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Shape into two loaves in a shallow baking pan. Spread ketchup over top. Bake one hour.

Courtesy of 500 Delicious Salad Recipes, by Consolidated Book Publishers, 1951. I wish I could identify the salads for you (like what the hell is that in the upper left corner?) but they don’t have an id page, and I can’t really figure it out from the other 496 recipes in this classic booklet. I’m especially partial to that pink mold with the veggies. I bet it’s nasty, but I want to know what’s in it anyway!

Enjoy – I’m on vacation for a week to somewhere warm, thank God!!!!

Courtesy of 500 Tasty Sandwiches, 1949.

Actually, this centerfold doesn’t look too bad – I’m all for anything broiled with cheese. What I thought was interesting was how good the tomatoes look. These are real, actual tomatoes – you know – the kind that seems to have been extinct for the past 30 years.

My mom used to always tell me that tomatoes were different when she was a kid – they actually tasted good, were red, blah blah blah. Since all I ever knew were the grocery store tomatoes of the 70s, I didn’t know what she was talking about. Then, I had a real tomato from an actual garden and it all made sense.

Those things you find in the grocery store or on top of your Whopper are not a tomato. They are grey, mushy tasteless specimens of year-round produce gone bad. It’s sad that some people, like I was, don’t even know what a real tomato tastes like.

The only way to get a real tomato these days is to grow it yourself. Even those Farmers Markets are suspect – most of the “farmers” seem to be the same crowd that may sell you two designer sunglasses for $10 at the local flea market the next week. ( I think they just go to the grocery store, buy some tomatoes there, put them in a crate and pretend they farmed it themselves. )

Now, those asparagus are a different story…

Voila the Swordfish Mirabeau from the Gourmet Menu Cookbook, 1963. I would tell you what’s in it, but there’s no recipe in the book. I looked for twenty minutes – it’s not there. It looks like it’s just a couple of flattened-out swordfish steaks with a very time consuming geometrical pattern of anchovies and olives. (A quick Google search seems to show that if you throw some anchovies and olives on pretty much anything it’s “a la Mirabeau” – something I learned today.)

Hopefully you won’t produce Vomit Mirabeau when you drink too many glasses of wine because it’s so f*cking salty!

Behold the Elegant Clown Hat of Lobster Salad Heligoland – Courtesy of the Gourmet Old Vienna Cookbook, 1956.

This odd recipe is lobster, potatoes, artichokes, dill pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup, crawfish, truffles and tarragon. How’s that for some random ingredients? It sounds like they scooped out the contents of my garbage disposal and made a salad out if it. And what’s with the stupid cucumber cupcakes?

That champagne looks good though. Liquid lunch for one, please!

Braised Sweetbreads Parisian – courtesy of the Gourmet Cookbook, Vol. 1, 1965.

I know, I know… I promised not to post any more ring mold recipes, but this one technically isn’t a mold since there’s no gelatin – and… it is so…. pretty. I got mesmerized by it and couldn’t help myself. I need to share beauty when I see it.

This gorgeous dish is Creamed Shellfish in a Rice Ring, which compared to myother barf-inducing vintage recipesI’ve posted, doesn’t sound half bad. It’s made of scallops, shrimp and crab with a flour, cream and wine sauce, with buttered rice as the ring. I think I have lost my mind studying all these recipes… this one is actually making me hungry. Plus, it looks like some sort of Seafood Easter Bonnet, along the lines of Homer Simpson’s Nacho Hat.

Mmmmm… nachos.

To bring us to the end of 2007 and ring in 2008 right, I am posting one of my favorite recipes from my famous McCalls Great American Recipe Card Collection. This wonderful meatfest is called Chili and Meatball Casserole. Now, maybe it’s just me, but isn’t adding meatballs to meat-based chili a bit of meat overkill? Yes, the recipe calls for 4 lbs of ground beef – 2 for the chili and 2 for the meatballs. This recipe really should be called Meat with MoreMeat and a Li’l Chili.

Then again, we do have theXL Meat Lovers Pizzaover at the Hut, which is a best seller….

Anyway, I am away on vacation until after the first of the year – so Happy 2008!