I refuse to believe people actually ate this shit in the 60s

[Blue_Tires]

http://www.midcenturymenu.com/2011/09/shrimp-aspic-mold/

If anyone is thinking about admitting they ate this, ask Skinner to ban your account and please proceed to throw your desktop/laptop/tablet/smartphone into the nearest river or lake...

[The Second Stone]

1. We we barbarians back in the day

now when I make something like this, I use pre-packaged Jello.

[hlthe2b]

2. Just the word, "aspic" makes me nauseous...

Last edited Fri Aug 22, 2014, 03:38 PM - Edit history (1)

But, heavens, gelatin was the lifeblood of cooking it seemed back then..

[GoCubsGo]

18. It gags me, too.

I remember my mom once made a tomato aspic. We all hated it, and I think she did, too. Even my dad, who eats just about anything, and is loathe to waste food couldn't bring himself to eat more than as serving or two. It wound up in the trash.

But, my mom did make one gelatin dish that I still love. She used to throw unset lime Jello into the blender with a block of cream cheese. After whipping it up, she'd add crushed pineapple. It was pretty darned tasty. I'm generally not a big fan of Jello, and lime is my least favorite flavor excepting this preparation of it.

[hlthe2b]

19. my Mom did a salad with strawberry jello and cream cheese & some kind of fruit, I think...

Not sure I remember what else, but it was likewise delicious...

[GoCubsGo]

20. Frozen strawberries, maybe?

They were pretty big back then. I remember them being packed in a can similar to what Spam comes in.

[hlthe2b]

22. yes probably.... I should ask my sister what else was in there.

[Boomerproud]

45. In my family we call it "green salad" or "lime salad"

and it is delicious.

[trof]

49. ass pick

snicker

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Similar things, only without the shrimp

We called them "jello salads," and many of them didn't have even that many fruits and vegetables.

[politicat]

4. I didn't (not born yet) but great and grandparents did. Reason: no AC.

In July, calories are still needed, but when it's 90 with 80% humidity and the work is all outside in the sun, cold, hydrating food is about the only thing that tastes good, and it was something my great-grandmother could make at 8 in the morning when the kitchen was cool, and have ready to serve for lunch.

Tomato aspic with peppers, cucumbers and celery on a bed of greens with is tasty -- think V8 crossed with gazpacho or really good salsa.

[amandabeech]

66. That sounds tasty, actually.

But then, I was alive in the '60s, and mom did jello with canned pineapple and sliced bananas. Yum, yum!

[Art_from_Ark]

95. We also had Jello with canned pineapple and sliced bananas

In fact, our Jello *always* had something it. Just once, I wanted to see what Jello tasted like *by itself*

[amandabeech]

98. "By itself" wasn't so good,

except for the black cherry variety, at least in my humble opinion.

[Xyzse]

5. Don't knock it till you try it.

Heck, I'll be adventurous and try it.

Thing is though, I am way way too brave on food for my liking.

[hifiguy]

6. The internetz are a veritabe treasure trove

of horrifying old recipes. Viz:

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck/2010/02/20_unholy_recipes_dishes_so_aw.php

http://www.badanduglyofretrofood.com/

ETA - forgot this doozy of a site, one of my favorites on this fascinating subject: http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/

Hours of fun! And those are just a starter. An appetizer, as it were.

[mackerel]

24. Omgeeeee! I almost vomited looking at those pics! I've never seen so much beige food.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

84. Here's another one, the poster said he got his inspiration from Lileks

http://www.flaneur.org.uk/html/food.html

[spinbaby]

92. Here's some modern bad food

http://someoneatethis.tumblr.com/

[lunatica]

7. I feel the same way about people who eat liver

[RebelOne]

30. I am a vegetarian now, but in my meat-eating past,

I loved calves liver. I used to broil it with butter. It was delicious then.

[Blue_Tires]

72. Yeah, my mom and grandmother could eat it by the bushel

I guess the family "taste" for it skipped my generation

Still have a lot of mental childhood scars from not being excused from the table for not eating it

[lunatica]

74. Maybe it's a genetic thing

You may just have the recessive one.

I'm actually half serious here. Most humans agree on what tastes good or bad, but there is absolutely no agreement when it comes to liver. It must taste different to people who like it, because most times they'll say they love it. For the rest of us it is a major puke assault on our taste buds and a horrible texture on the tongue and chewing it is also unpleasant. Every aspect of our mouth recoils from it. All this must be felt as pleasant to people who like it.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. Those Jello salads were very popular back in the 60's as well as these:

I have to confess. Not only have I eaten these things, I have actually prepared them.

[In_The_Wind]

9. I love what you've done with that pear.

I've eaten aspic also. It's been nice knowing you

[Arkansas Granny]

10. So does that mean that we both have to ask Skinner to ban us and throw all of

our electronic devices in the lake?

[In_The_Wind]

16. Skinner is reasonable.

Maybe he'll let it slide.

[orleans]

41. omg! he won't be reasonable when he sees this picture you just posted!!!

i'm not feeling reasonable as i look at it.
gazing at that photo makes me want to.....go boil up the shrimp i have in the fridge and eat it with cocktail sauce like a normal person!!!

[hifiguy]

12. Those pears (?) have a decidedly

Lovecraftian - as in Great C'tulhu - look that can't be unseen.

[OriginalGeek]

21. I think those mouses

just crapped a cloud.

[orleans]

42. best comment EVER! n/t

[lululu]

78. Ark Granny

I love that pear salad!

[LynneSin]

11. I love it - the shrimpy are swimming in the green sea

[Turbineguy]

13. On the other hand...

we did not have....

[jmowreader]

67. Someone REALLY needs to redesign the lower-right corner of that box

It looks more than slightly like they're recommending you serve this particular delicacy still frozen stiff.

[dawg]

14. Gross. But, in the 70's, Lark's Tongues in Aspic totally ruled.

[dawg]

15. and ...............

now I know what "aspic" means.

[hifiguy]

25. One of the Ten Great Prog Albums Of All Time.

And it still holds up today,

[Manifestor_of_Light]

31. Oh yeah!!! Saw them live in '74.

[hifiguy]

32. That Crimson never came to Minneapolis

AFAIK. "The Great Deceiver" box set is an amazing collection of that era's live shows. Essential for any Crim-head.

Saw a live solo Frippertronics show in '79, the Discipline-era band and the Double Trio though.

[SCantiGOP]

17. outrage

Who would do that to shrimp?

[mackerel]

23. My Grandma did an orange jello with shredded carrots

I thought that one was ok.

[hifiguy]

26. I have seen that

and probably ate it in my childhood. That's the kiddie pool version of Really Unbelievable Food,

[mackerel]

27. She actually served it at Thanksgiving.

[kcass1954]

40. i put crushed pineapple and chopped pecans in mine.

The former Mr k's mother didn't much like it when l made it for Thanksgiving dinner, and she made a big stink. The current Mr k's mother doesn't care for it either, but she's at least polite about it.

[logosoco]

69. My mom did lime jello with shredded carrots.

I think we actually liked it, but l could not see myself doing that today. It may be fun to do that for a family dinner and see what my adult children would say.

[hunter]

28. That's weird stuff my grandmas made to distinguish themselves from our great grandmas.

Great grandmas would kill something, cut it up faster than your eyes could see, cook it, and toss it on your plate along with some boiled vegetable. Beats, turnips, cabbage, random "greens," and on a good day potatoes.

Or, worse than that, great grandmas would serve up stews or home preserved meats with recognizable animal parts in them. Chicken or pigs feet, fish heads, tongues, necks, various entrails... that sort of thing.

Shrimp aspic and other goodies like those in the photo distinguished you as an urban woman, not some hillbilly granny.

[hifiguy]

29. Chicken fried possum and pickled owl gizzards

were more the rural granny style. Like Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.

[lunatica]

33. Didn't she serve vittles too?

What are vittles anyway?

[hifiguy]

34. The possum and the owl gizzards WERE the vittles,

which is a backwoods rubdown of the word "victuals" a/k/a food.

[hunter]

35. My great grandmas grew up north of the 'possums.

Their families had immigrated to the U.S. from Scandinavia and a few of the the more desolate British Isles; places not known for fine cuisine.

[hifiguy]

36. My mom's family was German

but her sisters all married Scandihoovians - a mixed marriage Minnesota-style back in the day - and had to learn how to cook that stuff. I gotta say that my Aunt Edna's homemade lefse and Swedish meatballs were delish.

Let's not get in to lutefisk, however. My Uncle Cliff used to eat cold lutefisk for breakfast. H was a great guy but that was one of those moments.

[grasswire]

48. haha!

My dad used to say "Scandihoovians" and I've never heard it anywhere else.

[hifiguy]

56. It is a MN, Dakotas, Iowa, WI thing, I think.

[grasswire]

57. north of the possums?? LOLOL

Are we cousins?

My distant family members ruled the Orkney Isles, having rowed there from Scandihoovia.

Do you have Viking ancestors? I was so stunned to learn that many of my ancestors were Vikings. When you learn of an ancestor nicknamed "Skull Splitter", it's a jolt!

[hunter]

64. Possibly.

My ancestors didn't come to America for the opportunities; generally they were dodging trouble. I can picture any of my great grandmas splitting skulls. I never met my great grandfathers but I gather they were the quieter gone fishing types.

As kids we ate a lot of fish (rye bread and pickled fish were kitchen staples), our families are strongly matriarchal, and casual nudity isn't a big deal. (I used to think it was weird my schoolmates hadn't seen their own parents and other family members naked.)

My last immigrant ancestor arrived in the U.S.A. as a mail order bride from Denmark to Salt Lake City, escaping a bad relationship with an alcoholic and abusive man. But she didn't like sharing her husband with his other wives, or being subservient to men in general, so she ran off again, this time with a government surveyor. They established a homestead in the Idaho Territory, which my mom's cousin still holds, raising cattle.

[grasswire]

65. none of my ancestors came directly from Scandihoovia

The ones with Viking lineage settled in British Isles, then migrated in the 1600s to the New World as English people. Then everyone stayed in New England, some for near 400 years, some until the American Revolution at which point they escaped to Canada so as not to be hanged.

So I have no recent family heritage of fish, nudity, etc. Just New England customs.

I recently learned that Orkney Island Brewery bottles a beer named after my ancestor. The label is "Skull Splitter"!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

37. There were also these:

They were called "candle salads." My mom made them once in awhile. One day, though, when my brother and I were teenagers, she served them for dinner and my brother and my dad and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. Mom took a bit of offense, said we had dirty minds. I don't think she served candle salads after that.

[hifiguy]

39. Hifiguy backs away quietly.

Nope, not gonna go there.

[monmouth3]

91. I am sitting here crying from laughter so hard I can just about breathe. I cannot see

for the tears. Your OP was the cream on the.....

[orleans]

43. candle salads??? never heard of such a thing. n/t

[In_The_Wind]

44. It looks yummy.

I've never heard of a candle salad until now.



It looks like they need to shorten these bananas a bit.

[3catwoman3]

53. OMG. Those are really creepy.

I better stop eating my late dinner or I am going to aspirate from laughing so hard.

[NJCher]

59. this has...

to be one of the funniest posts I've ever read on DU.

Sounds like something that would happen to David Sedaris.


Cher

[Arugula Latte]

86. That is actually his sister, Amy Sedaris, in the Jimmy Fallon clip.

She wrote a book that features all sorts of these retro culinary delights:

[adirondacker]

81. LMFAO!

Thanks for that much needed laughter!

[intaglio]

38. Aye, let's get back to real food

Black Pudding

Tripe and Onions

Brawn - also called Head Cheese

Sweetbreads

Pigs trotter

[OriginalGeek]

46. I really want to try haggis

but stupid, freedom-hating America won't let us make it with sheeps lung. Damn gubmint.

[RebelOne]

94. I had in Scotland while I was on a tour to Loch Ness.

That was many years ago before I became a vegetarian. But it was really quite tasty.

[onecent]

47. I still try to find sweetbreads. Best meat on the planet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LiberalElite]

50. I didn't eat this shit -

I never saw it before now. When my mother made Jello, there was never anything inside it.

[valerief]

51. Yup. We actually ate Jell-O. That was before the mad cow prion scare. nt

[drm604]

52. We had some of those jello salads when I was a kid.

Mostly fruit, I don't think they ever made them with fish or meat. I ate it but I was not crazy about it.

[3catwoman3]

54. My high school cafeteria...

...used to serve this obnoxious Jello thing with shredded carrots and disgustingly flaccid canned peas in it - really vile.

[mackerel]

55. My mother makes soup with a pound of chicken feet. We used to call

it Dragon Claw Soup behind her back. She'd take the feeet out before serving it. It didn't smell great but the flavor was actually there. She said that her mother made that during the depression and also during rationing. Apparently they didn't ration chicken feet. It makes a real nice gel and has a lot of protein. My kids can't believe we were raised on stuff like Dragon Claw Soup and liver.

[840high]

63. Our mothers were related - loved

that soup.

[grasswire]

58. this is a great thread

Made me laugh a lot, thanks.

[Doc_Technical]

60. This thread reminds me of a song, want to hear it? Goes like this.

[hifiguy]

61. !!!

[whistler162]

62. WHy do you think there are so many people

who are anti-religion these days. Number 1 on the church dinner menu.

[jmowreader]

68. I make a damn fine jello salad, thank ye very much

Get out your four-quart glass bowl and follow along:

To make my Infamous Jello Salad you will need:

One week.
A fresh box of baking soda.
One box each of five different flavors of Jello. They all need to be different colors for reasons which will soon become very apparent.
A quart of vanilla-flavored Greek yoghurt.
Five different kinds of fruit, preferably fresh.

First step is to prepare your refrigerator to hold this food of the gods by removing the lutefisk, sliced onions, half-smoked cigars, completely-smoked salmon, the green thing in the back that wasn't that color when you put it in there, and everything else that's stinking up the place. Then put your fresh box of baking soda in and go away for five days.

Now that your fridge no longer stinks (two days before you need the jello salad), go buy fruit and jello. I tend to pick two yellow jello flavors, a green one and two red ones - and yes, they all need to be different, so you get the explosion of multi-flavored fruity goodness in yer yap when you dine on this masterpiece - but if you dig on red, clear and blue ones, go for it.

Once home, pair up the fruits with the jello flavors. For maximal effect be absolutely sure you don't put matching fruit and jello in the same layer...if you have strawberries and strawberry jello - and you probably will - put the strawberries in a different flavor of jello. Prepare the fruit for use.

Now make your first flavor of jello...and for argument's sake you are going to put bananas in strawberry. Make your jello, put it in the bowl, refrigerate it until the gelatin is just kinda slow-moving but not completely set. This keeps it from all floating to the top. At this time you add the fruit and put it back in the fridge until it's completely set.

Your second flavor is a little different: instead of a cup of boiling water and a cup of cold, use a cup of boiling water and a cup of Greek yoghurt. You can stir the fruit right into this one. Gently layer it on top of the first flavor and let it set up nice and hard. It will. It's great.

The third layer is done with water and no yogurt. This one you must cool to close to refrigerator temp before you put into the salad, and you don't pour it on - you very gently ladle it on top of the second layer. Add fruit when it's getting thick.

The fourth layer is yoghurt again. And the fifth is clear. Let it chill overnight to get good and firm before serving.

[Generic Brad]

70. I ate things like that in the 1960's

The only thing that is missing is a big dollop of Miracle Whip in the middle.

[pinboy3niner]

71. Obviously, you didn't see our 'TV Dinners'

We got out our Green Stamp tray tables to enjoy our dinner-in-an-aluminum-tray in front of the TV, which may have still been black & white--or color, if you were extra lucky.

[hifiguy]

85. Gads

that's where MY parents got our TV trays from, too. The early 1960s were a strange time in some ways.

[PasadenaTrudy]

73. We had astronaut food, too

These nutrition sticks like the astronauts ate, lol

[caraher]

75. Reminds me of this video

Here's a still from Santigold's "The Keepers" and the full video link below...

[mackerel]

76. That is a fantastic song & video!

[caraher]

80. It's a favorite of mine

I became aware of Santigold thanks to Steven Colbert (yes, there really is a Colbert bump!).

[lululu]

77. I love Jello molds.

Vegetarian ones, that is.

I couldn't find the one I especially liked, but Sangria Jello, what's not to like:

[mackerel]

82. I thought gelatin was from animal hooves?

[lululu]

93. animals

You're right. I think it's from stomachs, though, but whatever. There is vegetarian jello, I should not have used the brand name Jello.

[kwassa]

79. Fried baloney sandwiches.

Now, that was real food.

[Paladin]

83. Leaving the tails on the shrimp is a nice touch...... (nt)

[Arugula Latte]

87. We ate this stuff when I was a kid:

Creamed chipped beef on toast:


Also, a Campbell's soup casserole that had lots of cream of mushroom soup and ground beef and rice.

[mackerel]

88. I remember seeing something like that at the school cafeteria.

[Arugula Latte]

89. I believe it might have first been served by the Army in WWII, where it was known as

"shit on a shingle."

Mmmmm, appetizing.

[Burma Jones]

90. Uh, as a veteran of many Midwestern Church Suppers of the sixties to the early eighties.....

I ate quite a bit of this sort of odd stuff.......

And I had the audacity to have once considered Sushi as "gross"

[Manifestor_of_Light]

96. I've had a different form of that.

Pistachio pudding mix and jello, marshmallows and pineapple. At Thanksgiving. And I LIKED it!! Call me a troglodyte when it comes to food. Dare ya!!

I don't eat things I cannot spell.

My tastes in food are not exotic. I'm a very picky eater. There are several reasons for this.

I will admit I eat macaroni and cheese with extra cheese, extra butter and a can of tuna to make it good.

[Xipe Totec]

97. It makes head cheese seem like ambrosia nt