Posted on 11/26/2020 4:39:22 AM PST by mylife
The year is 1950. The Thanksgiving table is set, and before your growling stomach lies a cornucopia of show-stopping dishes: tomato aspic, jellied turkey vegetable salad, creamed spinach and whatever “cranberry surprise” is (yep, there’s mayonnaise in it).
Celia Sack, owner of Noe Valley’s 11-year-old Omnivore Books on Food, is a connoisseur of vintage recipes like these. Formerly a rare-books specialist at an auction house in San Francisco, both her personal collection and her in-store collection of antiquarian cookbooks are extensive.
So when I waltzed in one drizzly San Francisco afternoon with a strange request, Sack was more than prepared to help. I was embarking on a journey most would never choose to take: Instead of leaving the gelatinous monstrosities of ‘50s American home cooking in the past, I was determined to revive them.
With Sack’s help selecting a menu, I planned to test the boundaries of friendship by serving these dishes in an impromptu “Friendsgiving.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Wow!!!!!
My in-laws still serve ambrosia salad. With the cool whip.
—
One of my favorites, although I substitute real whip cream as Cool Whip is basically nothing but whipped hydrogenated oil and sugar.
I think that was an experiment where the Jello Cartel locked a bunch of Home Economics Teachers in a lab and wouldn’t let them come out until they ‘invented’ something! ;)
I think you're on to something...Jello company must have gotten fat and happy with all the government contracts for canned meats for Lend Lease, aid to Russian and of course for the huge US forces and looked to stay solvent after the war.
There was a store in Rockford, Illinois called “The Sweet Pans Shoppe”, that must have had the largest collection of extant plastic molds in the world. My wife had bought a bunch to make chocolates of every shape. We moved from the area in 2014, only to find this long-standing institution closed down in 2017. It will probably be replaced by another “Molly’s Slot Machines”.
https://www.wifr.com/content/news/Sweet-Pans-Shoppe-prepares-to-close-450333803.html
One of my favorite albums of all time
Lilek’s food website is a hoot!
You save the rum to make more pecan pie.
Bookmarking because I want to read this and time is very short this morning, laf!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I have one of those! My grandmother had several and so when I came across one in a rummage store, I bought it. And I do use it as decoration because of the memory of my beloved grandmother.
In the mean time, I still stuff my turkey and not with stovetop. Many of the recipes I use were strait out of the 50’s and 60’s if not before. But they don’t include anything with jello, marshmallows, or moulded tomatoe juice.
My gravy is made from the roast drippings and I don’t serve ham. And even though my family descends from Canada, peas aren’t on the menu either. Root crops are.
laf. Just noticed that this is from the SFGATE and is talking about ‘friendsgiving’. Yep. They do their best to destroy the family. Never learn forgiveness or true sharing and love. And knowing something is missing from their lives. They try as they might to imitate the things that makes life worth living. But they fail miserably. Because it isn’t the actions. It is the SPIRIT of God in those Actions!
YES!!! More please!
Nice post!
I “might” have eaten the salad if the cottage cheese had gone through a blender. The texture is awful, otherwise.
The whole bowl? Ewww
Sunshine salad. I love it. Yellow gelatin, shredded carrots and pineapple tidbits. First gelatin salad I made. Was in a kids’ cookbook.
No marshmallows. Some people added celery. Just no.
Christmas through the decades (YouTube)did a documentary type review of Christmas celebrations going back to the 1920’s. The Christmas dinners were amazing.
Never seen it with Lemon Jello Only orange. And yes, in the Midwest it often did have marshmallows. I forgot about the pineapple. With the tidbits it was ok. I never cared for the consistency of the crushed pineapple, but it was used often.
Agree-Celery is not a good idea
Remember the 50’s/early 60’s fad of the pineapple upside down cake?
Never heard of it, or forgot it, if I did.
(Probably better than using Mr. T’s ...)
Apparently distributed by Del Monte nowadays.
Walmart carries it.
I am in the midwest, no marshmallows, but mainly because the Betty Crocker recipe did not call for them.
I do not like marshmallows much anyway, except in Watergate salad.
Yes, my mom made pineapple upside down cake a few times. Child of the 60’s here.
What evil could come up with celery flavored fish salad for Thanksgiving?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.