In today’s internet age, we’re accustomed to seeing an endless stream of delicious food photos. But if we had the internet a century ago, the food scene would look quite different. Old recipe books often feature some rather unusual dishes, like banana salmon salad or liver “beehives.”
These bizarre vintage recipes have found a place on a Facebook group aptly named “Disgusting Vintage Recipes.” With nearly 6,000 members, the group’s focus is on sharing and discussing these strange culinary creations. Here are a few examples from their collection:
1. Kiwi Slices as a Garnish
2. No Recipe Here, but Imaginations Can Run Wild – Lettuce Pray
3. Appears to Be Cat Food
Many of these dishes would likely surprise modern food bloggers. Historian Samuel Brown, founder of the group, notes that ingredients like gelatin were once considered upscale. He suggests that many of these recipes date back to the Depression and wartime when new, affordable ingredients led to some curious culinary experiments. Companies often promoted their products through cookbooks featuring these unusual recipes.
4. A 1960s Recipe for “Ring Around the Tuna” from The Joys of Jello Cookbook
Included lime Jello, salt, vinegar, grated onion, celery, Spanish olives, and tuna fish. The result wasn’t as horrifying as expected, though it wasn’t a hit. The taste was odd, but not as terrible as anticipated. A homemade pina colada cupcake served as a peace offering afterward.
5. Squab Dressed as Toads
Historically popular cookbooks, like Fannie Farmer’s ‘Boston Cooking-School Cook Book,’ often featured recipes like Potted Pigeons or Mock Turtle Soup. Farmer, known for her precise cooking methods, sold around 360,000 copies of her book by 1915.
6. Bologna Cake
7. “Make Sure You Set a Place for All of Us”
8. Gross Vintage Food Recipes
Earlier recipes, long before precise measurements and modern cookbooks, were often quite basic. BBC Travel highlighted ancient recipes, like one for lamb stew from around 4,000 years ago. This recipe, found on a Babylonian tablet, included meat, water, salt, barley cakes, onion, Persian shallot, milk, leek, and garlic.
9. Shoes or Fish?
10. A Vintage Recipe for “Party Potato Salad” from Hellmann’s involved shaping potato salad in a mold and coating it with a mayo “luscious glaze.” Despite the unusual texture of the glaze, the dish turned out to be better than expected.
These vintage recipes offer a fascinating glimpse into past culinary practices, often revealing how historical contexts shaped the foods people ate.