"retro recipes" news and stories

1. Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book - This has to be first, because it's one of the classic cookbooks, still in print since being published in 1950. The recipes and how it looks at life are a must-see.

 2. Esquire Drinks: An Opinionated, Irreverent Guide To Drinking - If I were to pick the best books on drinking, this would definitely be in the top 5. And writer David Wondrich gets extra points for really getting into the history of certain drinks, giving recipes for long-forgotten drinks, and just an overall great tone. Very much recommended. 

When I first jumped on the interweb back in the mid 90s, one of the very first sites I bookmarked was www.lileks.com, the home page of writer James Lileks. I had read his books and did a search for him when I got online (using that then-mysterious search engine thingie, "Yahoo"), and was happy to see that he had a site. And now that site is one of the more popular sites around, in part because of The Gallery Of Regrettable Food (GORF), which he has since turned into a book.

What follows are some of the more hideous awful vomit-inducing delicious recipes covered at the GORF site. Enjoy!

When I was focusing on slow cooking last week, I picked up a couple of 1950s and 1960s cookbooks. Immediately all we could talk about on the Slashfood chatline was retro cookery, casseroles, and fifties recipes. We were tittering about "Oriental cookery" and the overuse of canned, condensed soups. We were waxing eloquent about tuna casserole. (Well, I was waxing eloquent about tuna.)

Tuesday, then, we'll be taking you back to the 1940s, 50s and 60s. We'll be making tuna casseroles 20 ways. We'll discuss MSG - then a miracle ingredient called for in nearly every cookbook - and we'll reprise our favorite meatloaf and macaroni & cheese recipes.

We'll take you through a few more vintage cookbooks, we'll explore the wonders of 50s-style Chop Suey, we'll delight in frozen peas & carrots, we'll put "hidden surprises" in everything we can. We'll bring you back 50 years to the era where "housewife" was a designation of pride and little boys wore sailor suits. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have Chicken Pie De Luxe to start baking...