Food, Peculiar Food! Finding the Funny in Vintage Recipes

On my other blog, The Thrift Shop Romantic, I occasionally do humor posts featuring some of the terrifying, comical, and virtually inedible recipes found in vintage cookbooks. And I realize that many of the folks here are not actually the same folks that visit there. Which makes sense because why would you guys care about grandma-chic decorating? I see your point.

On the other hand, why should you, my dear Cabbages friends, MISS OUT on all the gag-worthy unflavored gelatin, the added MSG, the impractical, gravity-defying food arrangement and the hot dogs which do death-defying stunts?

Why should you miss out on the culinary masterpieces (and mania) associated with dishes like The Meatloaf Train? Or Sea Lion Salad?

Why should you, readers who I care about, be prevented from seeing housewives from the 1940s lose their marbles over trying to create interesting meals for their family with just cream cheese, Worchestershire sauce, a can of pears and some pimiento?

Why shouldn't you see how EASY it is to hollow out an artichoke and make candlestick holders out of them to impress family and friends?

WHY, WHY, WHY? I asked myself.

Well, no reason really.

So I've compiled a few of the links here. NOTE: Management of Of Cabbages and Kings and The Thrift Shop Romantic is NOT responsible for any digestive problems, vomiting or sudden bursts of laughter you might experience as a result of these posts. Any eruptions of any sort are your own issue.

And here we go!

  • Whatever Happened to Baby Greens? or Strange Salads of 1940. My latest post, sharing inspirational (and insane) ideas like The Bunny Salad, Sea Lion Salad, Salads that stare back and "perky" salads that look like they might need a surgical reduction. Says the book, "Tra-la!" Click here.

  • Artichoked Up over Befuddling Vintage Vittles. Artichokes aren't just for dinner anymore. Didn't you know?-- they're also a DECORATOR ITEM. See this, Tahitian cuisine straight from Oscar Mayer, and so much more. Click here.

  • Dubious Dinners and Riotous Retro Recipes. What can you make with irradiated Pet milk? The disembodied head of a 1930s radio star tells us! Are those peas or does that pie have acne? Why are those sausages doing an Esther Williams imitation? These questions and more will be answered. Click here.

  • Horrors of Home Cooking: Recipes of Yesteryear. Ah, the thrifted cookbook that started it all. Here we look at 101 Ways to be Original in All Your Cooking, every single one of which use Lea and Perrin's Worchestershire sauce. All aboard the Meat Loaf Train! Click here.

Or you could see what's cooking over at Humor-blogs.

7 comments:

Da Old Man said...

Tahitian weenies.

MMMMMMM.

Unknown said...

Heh- Betcha didn't know Tahiti was famous for its hot dogs, did you? :)

Anonymous said...

Jenn I'm beginning to worry about you. what is this fasination with the macabre?! Freaky clown bathrooms, gelatin salads that stare back at you, wearing mismatched shoes at K-mart. Do we need to do an intervention? LOL

Unknown said...

Chyna- Well, you try intervening, but the scary salads will still be out there, waiting... :)

Anonymous said...

Not sure I'm going to look at a potluck the same way again. ;)

Unknown said...

Chyna- Sorry to send you off your feed. :)

Celia Pleete said...

These are terrifying!!!!!

I've got some over on my blog, too...I found a salad book from the 1940s that suggests making a nice meat salad out of sweetbreads. I had to look that up...and after the initial horror, I've never been the same since.

http://www.madvortex.blogspot.com