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30 Disgusting Vintage Recipes That Prove The Dishes Of The Past Were Really Bizarre
Interview With Owner
Whoever said you can't time travel clearly has not stumbled upon Jess's Instagram page, "Weird Old Food." With a hefty collection of vintage cookbooks at her fingertips, Jess takes us way back, serving up photos of rather interesting recipes that might make you go, "Wait, people actually ate that?"
The charm of "Weird Old Food" lies in the mystery, with Jess sharing just enough to keep her followers intrigued and staying tuned for more. Each post reveals a scanned snapshot of a dish from the vintage cookbooks she owns, and the bare essentials—just the name of the dish, the year, and the cookbook it's pulled from. However, looking past all that, this page isn't just about the food itself, rather it’s a collection of the strange and quirky culinary trends of the past.
Also, don't forget to scroll down and check out an interview with Jess, the owner of the 'Weird Old Food' page!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Shrimp Cucumber Aspic (Southern Living 1983 Annual Recipes)
Bored Panda reached out to Jess, the curator of the "Weird Old Food" Instagram page. As you might've guessed, Jess's unique hobby involves exploring vintage cookbooks and sharing particularly unusual or intriguing recipes with her audience.
When asked about how her interest in vintage cookbooks began, Jess shared, "I have always loved paging through cookbooks. I was very interested in vintage illustrations and I began collecting vintage cookbooks that had beautiful mid-century line illustrations. Now I collect any books from 1990 or earlier." The oldest books in her collection date back to the late 1800s.
#2
Salmon In Bladder Of Pork (Loving French Cuisine, 1995)
#3
Ham Buffet Mold (Campbell’s Great Restaurant Cookbook, U.s.a.)
Regarding a recipe that genuinely surprised her, she revealed a peculiar one, 'Salmon in Bladder of Pork' (also mentioned in the post) from the book 'Loving French Cuisine, 1995'. She commented, "It’s from the nineties, which is very modern for my collection, but the photography is horrifying. It looks so anatomical."
#4
Rice And Salmon Mould (Gelatine Home Cooking Secrets, 1975)
#5
Ducklings Afloat On A Pond Cake (The Wilton Way Of Cake Decorating, 1979)
The most challenging dishes in her collection, she explained, come from classic French cuisine. She mentioned recipes such as "Galantine of Duck" from "Classic French Cooking, 1971", and "Chicken in Chaud-Froid Sauce" from "The Creative Cooking Course, 1975", admitting, "As a home chef I wouldn’t ever attempt those... I don’t see myself ever attempting chaud-froid sauce."
#6
Molded Egg Salad (Betty Crocker’s Smart Cook, 1988)
#7
Spaghetti Ring Florentine (Better Homes And Gardens 1988 Best-Recipes Yearbook)
Discussing her process for selecting which recipe to feature next on "Weird Old Food", Jess noted, "My process is very casual. When I’m looking through my collection and I see something odd or interesting I take a photo of it... My photo library looks wild- old cookbook pictures, cat pictures, and pictures of my niece and nephew. It’s mostly food pics though." She picks something that amuses her at that moment, demonstrating a light-hearted and spontaneous approach to her unique hobby.
#8
Chutney Aspic (Trader Vic’s Pacific Island Cookbook, 1968)
#9
Shrimps In Aspic (Grand Diplome Cooking Course, Volume 8, 1972)
#10
Soup On The Rocks (Campbell’s Soup Ad, 1956)
#11
Sugar Cube Castle (Holiday Cookies, Sweets, Appetizers And Meals, 1986)
David Paterson 1 year ago
That'd be fun. How many battalions do you intend to serve with that?
#12
Frankfurter Crown With Kraut (34 Selected Recipes For Delicious Dishes And Dinners With Kraut)
#13
Stuffed Flank-Steak Roll (Time Life Illustrated Library Of Cooking: Appetizers, Beef, Breads And Rolls, Breakfast Quick Breads, 1969)
Hippopotamuses 1 year ago
I had a nightmare, where I was being chased (very slowly) by one of these.
Šimon Špaček 1 year ago
Hard boiled eggs, carrot and what, caramelized onions in beef? I would add mashed potatoes or fresh bread and eat it whole.
Shankshaw Redeemer 1 year ago
I thought the carrots were strawberries at first.
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#14
Piped Clown (The Wilton Way Of Cake Decorating, 1979)
#15
Lemon Dill Shrimp Mold (Wilton Entertaining Appetizers To Desserts, 1994)
#16
Lobster Salad Heligoland (Gourmet’s Old Vienna Cookbook, 1959)
Tiny Dancer 1 year ago
We're gonna need a banana here, people. Either those are teeny tiny lobsters or the rest of the meal is gigantic!
#17
Shrimp Tree With Curry Sauce (Great Recipes Of The World)
#18
Whole Fish In Aspic (Gelatine Home Cooking Secrets, 1975)
#19
Lettuce-Wrapped And Stuffed Fillets Of Fish (Victory Garden Cookbook, 1982)
#20
Fruit-Salad Linguine (Better Homes And Gardens Pasta, 1983)
#21
Rag Doll Cake (The Wilton Yearbook Of Cake Decorating, 1978)
#22
Sea Dream (Joys Of Jello, 1963)
#23
Brain Salad With Cream Dressing (The Good Cook Salads, 1980)
Ample Aardvark 1 year ago
My mum actually like boiled cow brains. Nothing like coming back from school and see a brain in a pyrex bowl in the fridge. No wonder old horror movies never scared me.
#24
Golden Gate Saucy Burgers With Spaghetti Topping (Family Circle Illustrated Library Of Cooking Volume 3, 1972)
#25
Cold Glazed Salmon (Gourmet Magazine, 1964)
#26
Hard Sauce Clowns (How To Have The Most Fun With Cake Mixes)
#27
Summer Day Salad (Holiday Cooking For Kids, 1982)
#28
Noodle Ring (The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, 1980)
#29
Fun At The Fair Cake (Wilton Yearbook 1977 Cake Decorating)
Brittania Kelli 1 year ago
Why were these cake people so obsessed with clowns? I get serious Gacy vibes from these cakes.
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What do you think ?
JoMeBee 1 year ago
Agreed, The cakes are fugly but wouldn't taste bad. Now the fish/jello pairings on the other hand.. 🤢
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Corvus 1 year ago
Most of these aren't bad at all, just unusual (from a modern perspective). In fact, we've probably eaten something like the shown foods when we were kids (I know for sure we had quite a few jelly-based desserts at home). I'd love to sample many of these dishes.
Šimon Špaček 1 year ago
Yes. And gelatine or aspic is great thing for your hair, nails, skin and joints. That reminds me that I should get some pork skins and make something amazing once again.
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Paul Rabit 1 year ago
Yeah we get it - anything with aspic or gelatin is vile and clowns and dolls on cakes are creepy.
Tyranamar Seuss 1 year ago
These are great bc I'm trying not to eat after 7PM. This totally killed my appetite.
LillieMean 1 year ago
Sandwich cakes don't really belong on this list. Still popular at least in Finland and Sweden, and if you haven't been able to taste one, something is missing in your life. Most of the decorations on the cakes were perhaps a bit outdated, but apart from the clowns, they were really cute and skillfully made. Those gelatin monsters do make me nauseous...
Ample Aardvark 1 year ago
Smörgåstårta is one of the best things I've eaten in my life!
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Ugh_What_Now 1 year ago
This... let's see... without trying to be too negative; good idea poorly executed? Aspic is still popular in some eastern European countries so while most of us may recoil at the idea it's not revolting as a general concept. Nothing wrong with the cakes except maybe demonstrating that OP has a fear of clowns. The JELLO ones are tried and true for the "old gross dishes" trope... but unfortunately, all we had were pictures and titles. It would have been nice to have some sort of short description, in the OPs own words... (not just listed recipe) to make this feel more engaging.
Drinking my Covfefe 1 year ago
So much work put into these. Some are great but other's are definitely not.
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
A few of those do look tasty, and there's à lot of effort in decoration. Too much jelly is yucky, but I don't discard aspics altogether. The French " œuf en gelée", à poached egg in à small oval mould with a bit of ham and à slice of tomato, is very tasty.
Cydney Golden 1 year ago
I never ate any of this in the 50s and 60s, in the magazines but most women never cooked these.
Lauren Wilder 1 year ago
I love this. It's reminds me of childhood holiday potlucks and all of the guessing games you would have to do just to decide what a dish was.
majandess 1 year ago
Bless the Mormon congregation members who brought our family food after my step-dad died; they were trying. But that period of my life left me with severe post traumatic jello disorder. When we got to the point where we were sick of eating it, we had 22 various jellos left in the fridge. Every couple of years, I try a jello-something to see if I can handle it, but more than 30 yrs later, I still can't handle jiggly gelatin.
The Original Bruno 1 year ago (edited)
Gasp all you want, but it ALL beats whole, stinky dead fish, bones and all, on a pizza. Back in the 1980s, half of all pizza had whole, salted-not-cooked, disintegrating, stinky, long-dead, bone-filled fish on them. Nobody ate them, but everyone always ordered them, so if you weren't bright and early to the church basement, your pizza would be covered in what may as well have been walrus vomit.
Jennifer Clark 1 year ago
Jelly/jello came in different flavors then, it wasn't all sweet or fruit. Like celery flavor for a 'salad mold jello'.
detective miller's hat 1 year ago
Several years ago, a guy did a video of himself making and eating a bunch of the "just put everything in aspic" recipes, and it was freaking hysterical.
Holly Stevens 1 year ago
I loved my mum's Wilton cake book from the 80s growing up. Everything in it looked so magical. No she never made anything in the book lol.
JoMeBee 1 year ago
Agreed, The cakes are fugly but wouldn't taste bad. Now the fish/jello pairings on the other hand.. 🤢
Load More Replies... Corvus 1 year ago
Most of these aren't bad at all, just unusual (from a modern perspective). In fact, we've probably eaten something like the shown foods when we were kids (I know for sure we had quite a few jelly-based desserts at home). I'd love to sample many of these dishes.
Šimon Špaček 1 year ago
Yes. And gelatine or aspic is great thing for your hair, nails, skin and joints. That reminds me that I should get some pork skins and make something amazing once again.
Load More Replies... Paul Rabit 1 year ago
Yeah we get it - anything with aspic or gelatin is vile and clowns and dolls on cakes are creepy.
Tyranamar Seuss 1 year ago
These are great bc I'm trying not to eat after 7PM. This totally killed my appetite.
LillieMean 1 year ago
Sandwich cakes don't really belong on this list. Still popular at least in Finland and Sweden, and if you haven't been able to taste one, something is missing in your life. Most of the decorations on the cakes were perhaps a bit outdated, but apart from the clowns, they were really cute and skillfully made. Those gelatin monsters do make me nauseous...
Ample Aardvark 1 year ago
Smörgåstårta is one of the best things I've eaten in my life!
Load More Replies... Ugh_What_Now 1 year ago
This... let's see... without trying to be too negative; good idea poorly executed? Aspic is still popular in some eastern European countries so while most of us may recoil at the idea it's not revolting as a general concept. Nothing wrong with the cakes except maybe demonstrating that OP has a fear of clowns. The JELLO ones are tried and true for the "old gross dishes" trope... but unfortunately, all we had were pictures and titles. It would have been nice to have some sort of short description, in the OPs own words... (not just listed recipe) to make this feel more engaging.
Drinking my Covfefe 1 year ago
So much work put into these. Some are great but other's are definitely not.
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
A few of those do look tasty, and there's à lot of effort in decoration. Too much jelly is yucky, but I don't discard aspics altogether. The French " œuf en gelée", à poached egg in à small oval mould with a bit of ham and à slice of tomato, is very tasty.
Cydney Golden 1 year ago
I never ate any of this in the 50s and 60s, in the magazines but most women never cooked these.
Lauren Wilder 1 year ago
I love this. It's reminds me of childhood holiday potlucks and all of the guessing games you would have to do just to decide what a dish was.
majandess 1 year ago
Bless the Mormon congregation members who brought our family food after my step-dad died; they were trying. But that period of my life left me with severe post traumatic jello disorder. When we got to the point where we were sick of eating it, we had 22 various jellos left in the fridge. Every couple of years, I try a jello-something to see if I can handle it, but more than 30 yrs later, I still can't handle jiggly gelatin.
The Original Bruno 1 year ago (edited)
Gasp all you want, but it ALL beats whole, stinky dead fish, bones and all, on a pizza. Back in the 1980s, half of all pizza had whole, salted-not-cooked, disintegrating, stinky, long-dead, bone-filled fish on them. Nobody ate them, but everyone always ordered them, so if you weren't bright and early to the church basement, your pizza would be covered in what may as well have been walrus vomit.
Jennifer Clark 1 year ago
Jelly/jello came in different flavors then, it wasn't all sweet or fruit. Like celery flavor for a 'salad mold jello'.
detective miller's hat 1 year ago
Several years ago, a guy did a video of himself making and eating a bunch of the "just put everything in aspic" recipes, and it was freaking hysterical.
Holly Stevens 1 year ago
I loved my mum's Wilton cake book from the 80s growing up. Everything in it looked so magical. No she never made anything in the book lol.
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