In these cold and rather depressing winter days, I love looking through my collection of old recipe books and pamphlets for inspiration and entertainment. While it’s often nice to see the recipes of a simpler time, when using local and seasonal foods was a given, there are also some great laughs to be found within those 1950’s pages. Below are a few hilarious (and truly frightening) recipes I ran across in a “Good Housekeeping’s Appetizer Book” from 1958. Please be forewarned — they’re not pretty, not healthy, and certainly not a part of American food history that we should be particularly proud of. But they are a gas…and might just be worth trying if you’re looking for a particularly adventurous Super Bowl Sunday appetizer.
Cress and Curry
Bowl of water cress
Bowl of mayonnaise, stepped up with curry powder
Dip water cress in curry-mayonnaise
Peanut-Ham Spread
1/3 cup chunk-style peanut butter
2 1/4-oz can deviled ham
1/4 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
3 tsb. chopped dill pickles
combine all in a bowl, dip toast, chips, whatever
Peanut Butter-Catsup Dip
1/2 cup peanut putter
1/2 cup catsup
corn chips
combine peanut butter and catsup, dip the chips
Speedy Tuna Dunk
1/2 cup soft butter
1/4 cup chopped stuffed olives
1 can chunk style tuna