Foods that taste like 1974

We are the Freakies. We live in the Freakies tree.

Fruit Roll Ups maybe?

I just know they were gross as hell, but it seems like all those kinds of “Saturday morning” foods with tons of artificial dyes and God knows what else were at its peak of popularity back then .

I'm surprised some discredited homophobic quack doctor hasn't claimed that shit makes you gay, R2.

I am not sure what 1974 tasted like.

quiche Lorraine

[quote] I am not sure what 1974 tasted like.

It tasted like the dust I bit.

coquilles St. Jacques

Pittsburgh's Turkey Devonshire

Stuffed peppers

Whoops. Stuffed peppers. I still make them sometimes.

The queen of 70s foods

Tuna Casserole. With cashews on special occasions.

Shake and Bake for chicken or pork chops.

Tang!

Garlic powder, mustard powder, powdered soup, powdered coffee (I didn't see a real coffee bean until I was about 20), and of course powdered mash potatoes.

Harvey Wallbangers

Cheetos, then and now.

I haven’t thought about shake n bake in forever. Do they still make it?

R2 That nasty shit wasn't around in the 70s. I think that was more of an 80s thing.

Chicken Kiev

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Twice baked potatoes

Green beans almondine

Fruit cocktail

Sole almondine

Creamed spinach

Baked Alaska

Although many of these go back further, they were still in vogue in 1974

R18 Yes, and I haaaalped!

Quisp

Whip ‘n Chill

It’s deluxe.

Pudding In A Cloud

Cheez Whiz

Chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake. A 1970s bake sale staple.

Tab

Your dinner guests will applaud your showstopping 1974 dessert.

In the UK it has to be Vesta Curries. Freeze dried curry reconstituted with water. They seemed very exotic at the time. Not now.

Carob-coated raisins

It's like chocolate, but healthy! It's good for you! Go ahead, you can eat as much as you want!

Anonymous ass.

Carob tasted kind of awful if you were expecting chocolate. I wonder if carob can be used in other ways.

Crepes Suzette

Classy!

Swanson's tv dinners!!!

1974 was before I was born, so your question is unfair.

[quote]Crepes Suzette. Classy!

I adore it!

Powdered potato puree is very popular in Germany.

General Food's International Coffees, all the flavors of Europe in individual tins!

The champagne Ted Kennedy drank when Nixon resigned.

Kraft Mac and Cheese

Tang. Real orange juice was a luxury in my house.

Pillsbury Food Sticks!

Just like the astronauts eat!

Had a tangerine tree at my old house w/a surfeit of tangerines. Mom squeezed a ton and made juice. Tasted like Tang. Point is: Tang does taste like a real tangerine.

Chicken à la King.

Boeuf Bourguignon (as attempted by housewives inspired by Julia Child)

Stuffed peppers were old fashioned in 1974. Ditto fruit cocktail.

More on point: Green Goddess dressing, mint chocolate chip ice cream (still around but crowded out by 'Cookies & Creme" which emerged at the end of the 70s. Spinach Salad

Bundt cakes, especially those with powdered sugar sprinkled on top

Wilted spinach salad, or spinach salad with hot bacon dressing

Creamed corn

"Better Than Sex Cake," which was very confusing

Jello 1-2-3 dessert

Anything made with Cheez Whiz as an ingredient, such as that rice-broccoli-cheese casserole (which still tastes good)

Lobster Thermidor (sp.?).

Cheez Whiz was old fashioned in '74, also chicken ala king---that had become "institutional" by the 60s.

Carob was common in '74. It tasted like soap. Thank God, it's mostly gone.

Americanized Italian food

The 1974 menu from the legendary Chez Cary, in Orange, California, the best restaurant in Orange County while it was in business.

R51 That spaghetti monstrosity...ack!

How many of your mothers fed you stuff like that and said you were eating Italian?

Frozen yogurt for the somewhat avant-garde eater. Specifically, in my memory, the frozen yogurt at Forty Carrots in Bloomingdale's at 59th & Lex.

And speaking of yogurt, the Dannon yogurt in the waxed container with the detachable cardboard round on top. Boysenberry flavor.

Manwich

The Stella D'Oro variety pack.

r37 #MeToo

Strawberries Romanoff.

Bacardi rum cake

The Magic Pan (crepes)

Whitman Sampler box of chocolate.

The blue tin of Danish butter cookies.

Dip made from sour cream mixed with Lipton onion soup mix, and served with Ruffles potato chips

Denny's Grand Slam breakfast. Very 1974.

Which also tastes like 2020, but that is beyond my control.

Powdered milk

Grape Or Orange soda like Fanta Cactus Cooler Cracker Jacks Dr. Pepper Red Shelled Pistachios from a gum ball machine Devil Dogs and a peanut butter sweet called Funny Bones American Chop Suey Cream Chipped Beef Tiny thin mints in a green metallic wrapper Pepperidge Farm Gingerbread Men

Fruit Float.

Or the U.K. version, Délia Smith R45. ( or was she later?)

Whip n chill must be the same as Instant Whip in the U.K. I think it’s still available.

Pineapple and cheese hedgehog.

Disgusting Paxo chicken stuffing. Reconstituted

Orange ‘breadcrumbs’ sprinkled on grilled fish. Reconstituted too.

Salad cream

Tinned salmon, cos lettuce with a slice of cucumber and tomato, doused in vinegar.

Icee frozen drink.

Wonderful menu, R 52. The only dish I really paused over was the strange combination of chicken, orange, artichoke and avocado... Everything else classic.

Lemon Coolers

Since that’s the year I was born, gonna have to go with breast milk.

Ewwwwwwww!!

Starburst and Skittles.

"Diet Platters" that consisted of Atkins-friendly items like cottage cheese and tuna, sometimes with dry "diet" toast. I never could figure those out. I would see them on coffee shop menus and shudder.

Any recipe from a Julia Child cookbook.

Chocolate icebox cake, made with whipped cream, Nabisco's Original Chocolate Wafers, and shaved semi-sweet chocolate. For a kosher meal, it was made with that non-dairy topping substance, and yes, I could tell the difference.

Diet toast? Anyone who falls for a scam like that deserves to be fat.

Fluffernutter.

R77: If my shit looked like that, I'd call a doctor.

[quote]In the UK it has to be Vesta Curries. Freeze dried curry reconstituted with water. They seemed very exotic at the time. Not now.

Please put your hands together and welcome to the stage: the mildly spicy multitalents of MISS VESTA CURRY

Strawberry Pretzel Salad.

[quote]Denny's Grand Slam breakfast. Very 1974. Which also tastes like 2020, but that is beyond my control.

A lot of places that are Denny's now were Sambo's then. And the food probably was less likely to be swimming in high fructose corn syrup and vegetable "oil".

Fondue!

Fresca.

Meat-filled Spaghettios Popsicles!

r74 One night I was having company, so I made the Turkey Prince Orloff from Julia Child and Company. It was one of the most disastrous dinners of my life. I was overly ambitious those days, just learning to cook, and I attempted that and this multi-layer genoise, ganache, meringue chocolate cake on the same day.

The cake turned out great.

For the turkey dish, Julia had you chop the onions in the Cuisinart, which released so much onion juice, dinner was basically inedible.

So we had more cake. And I never put an onion in a Cuisinart ever again.

r83 As disgusting as that Strawberry Jello Pretzel thing sounds, I have a feeling I would absolutely love it. As long as I used real whipped cream, of course.

Ambrosia.

r89

I still make it occasionally and it's delicious. Everyone loves it.

TV Dinners

Rice Krispee treats. Michelob. Surf and turf restaurant. Incredibly tasty local pizza parlor pizza (at least in tri.-state area). Really tasty French fries almost everywhere (LARD). Tasty soft serve ice cream the actually has CREAM in it. Roadside farm stand vegetables, fruits and baked goods. Fresh pressed local cider. Bland tacos.

R76 -- and yet, fat women were still an anomaly in 1974. Today, slim women are an anomaly. I don't know if "diet toast" had anything to do with it, but I think it was a combination of portion control, 3 meals vs constant snacking, black coffee instead of "frappuccinos," and perhaps smoking and "diet pills."

The diets of the day were Atkins and Stillman, both keto-adjacent. Maybe that helped too.

hippie / lesbian collective restaurant dishes - quiche, black bean chili, white rabbit salad, carrot cake, tofu burger, tempeh salad, hummus and baba and avocado dips, nut loaf, spinach + something in quiche/risotto/casserole ,

[quote]the Dannon yogurt in the waxed container with the detachable cardboard round on top. Boysenberry flavor

This loss emblematizes all that has gone wrong in the world in the past half century.

R66, Delia Smith was later. I think her first TV show was in 1978. I have a lot of her books, and I still use them, especially the Winter Collection and the Christmas editions. Delia’s Christmas Lunch is still a big hit.

R78, yes, we know from the other three times it was posted

[quote]the Dannon yogurt in the waxed container with the detachable cardboard round on top. Boysenberry flavor

I didn't know this had passed.

I would kill for a Dannon Dutch Apple yogurt right now.

[quote][R78], yes, we know from the other three times it was posted

OK, I'll try to be more original

I practically lived on this stuff in the 70 as a young teenager: P.S. I was an exceptionally active/thin teenager but somehow this food never left an ounce on me...)

Caesar Salad (the real stuff made with eggs, tiny bit of anchovies, not the bottled imitation salad dressing)

Filet Mignon

Chocolate Milk Shakes

Black Forest Cake (pictured below)

Other food we ate/drank::

Melba Toast

Bratwurst sausages (BBQ'd outside)

Singapore Slings

Sabayon

Gin & Tonic

Grapefruit (for breakfas - (adults ate this)

Danishes (for breakfast - (adults ate this)

Jujubes (like gummies)

Canada Dry Ginger Ale

Cottage Cheese

Watermelon

Raspberry Pie (homemade of course)

Deviled Eggs

Alpha Bits cereal

Fluff (ice cream topping)

Nestle chocolate syrup

Mashed turnips (homemade)

Pork Chops

Cauliflower and cheese sauce (homemade again)

Shepherd's Pie (...yup homemade)

There are probably other items which I can't remember right now. I didn't drink milk - not ever. I only drank water from a well drug in our backyard. I only had Ginger Ale if I was feeling sick.

Diet toast I remember as "melba toast". It came in cellophane packets and came on "diet plates".

They had this stuff at Friendlys'.

My mom loved Fresca and so did I. Coca-Cola ruined it when they reformulated it and took out the saccharine.

Marathon Candy Bar.

Can someone post Tab again?

The Peignot typeface makes me long for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The Watergate Salad. My mom made it occasionally. It was very green.

Do Vienna Sausages still exist? If so, why? (I liked them on Ritz Crackers as a kid. Wouldn't touch one now.)

R96, no shit! Not just the boysenberry, but I've also mourned for their apricot and lemon yogurts for years now.

Plus, in the 70s, Haagen Dazs (sp?) made a boysenberry sorbet that was wonderful.

Thanks R97, thought I might be wrong there. I have lots of her books too, but don’t use them much these days (obviously !) something offputting about her tone when I was a young and inexperienced cook. Which is odd, as they were meant to be foolproof.

I know this is sacrilege ;)

I still make Watergate Salad at Christmas. The green with some halved red cherries on top, very Christmasy and everyone likes it.

Here, miserable bitchcunt r98....

Chile relleno burrito

[quote]Can someone post Tab again? The Peignot typeface makes me long for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

It makes me want to make a call on one of these.

Rum Babas! God, I loved those.

Surprise anal for r98.

Thanks for standing up for me against, meangurl R98. Much appreciated.

But actually he made me laugh.

Thai stick!

My pleasure, R116. Those "R739, see R 622" twats should be locked in a room with no food, no water, no internet, no phone, and no toilet, and just ignored until they die. A grease fire is too good for them.

Je suis La Vache Qui Ri.

Now I want a Rum Baba r114.

Two all-beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun

La vache qui rit is still around. See also Apéricubes, which I rather suspect is the same stuff, but in tiny cubes, with erbz. They are unaccountably popular.

[quote] For the turkey dish, Julia had you chop the onions in the Cuisinart, which released so much onion juice, dinner was basically inedible. So we had more cake. And I never put an onion in a Cuisinart ever again.

A food processor (Cuisinart) is good for chopping onions as long as you stick to pulsing it.

Me too R121 ! There should be a Rum Baba Revival.

Canada Dry Collins Mixer

Malibu Chicken

Clove Gum, Blackjack Gum

Homemade clam dip & Ruffles potato chips / crisps.

R109, Delia is foolproof if you follow her recipes to the letter. I know that to my cost! Madhur Jaffrey is the same. No short cuts and everything will turn out perfectly.

Salad bars with blue cheese dressing.

Pistachio Cake.

This thread needs some Muzak.

[quote] My pleasure, [R116]. Those "[R739], see R 622" twats should be locked in a room with no food, no water, no internet, no phone, and no toilet, and just ignored until they die. A grease fire is too good for them.

Yeah, why waste perfectly good grease that could be used to facilitate buttfucking?

Yes, R73, most restaurants and coffee shops had that "diet plate" that was usually a plain beef patty, cottage cheese and sliced tomatoes.

Koogle Peanut Spreads. Came in 4 flavors...Vanilla, Banana, Cinnamon and Chocolate.

Don't worry R105. Some fat whore will come along and post it again in 20 entries or so.

The "diet plate" referred to upthread

^ Oops, sorry for the duplicate

I love any 70s thread on DL.

You gurls come alive.

So do I.

More examples to my post at r102: - All homemade

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Rhubarb Pie

Nanaimo Bars

Pea Soup

Beans

Mumms Champagne

Courvoisier Alexander (adults drank this)

Irish Coffee

Scrambled eggs (plain - no cheese, no spices)

White bread

Carnation Instant Breakfast (chocolate)

Roast Beef

Butter Tarts

Mashed Potatoes

Malted Milk Candy Bars (Halloween treat)

And that pineapple upside-down cake was made with Bisquick.

Jell-O poke cake made with lime Jell-O, box mix yellow cake, and I forgot how we made the frosting. (It could have been instant Jell-O pudding, vs. the one you had to cook on the stovetop.)

Doritos taco salad made with 1/2 to an entire bottle of "French" salad dressing.

R141, my grandmother used Cool Whip as the topper for her Jello cakes.

Rice-A-Roni, if you add "taco seasoning" and announce that it is Arroz Surprise.

R134 Koogle!!! I'd completely forgotten that stuff existed, and I recall really loving it as a kid. I think the banana flavor was the one I liked. I can still remember what it tasted like.

These I REALLY miss.

Funny, gays don't seem to love gum the way I do/did. I guess I'm butch in this way.

People keep unearthing stuff that's way earlier than 1974, often fading before then, like Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

More 1974-ish: Haagen Daz, just beginning to sweep the country. Those waxed containers of Dannon mentioned upthread in flavors like Boysenberry.

I was into gum. My favorite was the Felix the Cat Japanese bubble gum. It really was a superior product.

I'm a rock-hard, dusty rectangle of chewing gum from a packet of Wacky Packages, or "Wacky Packs," as everyone called them. Attempting to chew me may cause gouging of your gums. You'll do it anyway, and regret it every time. Schmuck.

Just so you all know, food is for fatsos!

Oink oink, piggies!!!

After you've enjoyed all this mid-70's fare, don't forget your Dynamints!

It tasted like Monsignor’s cock.

What was that bubble gum that had a liquid inside - you bit and it came in your mouth? That was very big then.

I'm Kool-Aid sweetened with cyclamates. Enjoy me in moderation, or barf your guts out. I learned this from experience.

R153 Freshen Up and Chewels

La Choy chop Seuy from the can, with those dried crunchy noodles. My mom loved making that crap and I dreaded dinner on those nights

[quote][R153] Freshen Up

That's it! LOL.

Cinnamon flavor was my flavor of choice.

Rumaki

Not technically a food, but after eating and/or smoking, you must follow up with a Binaca blast.

OMG! Binaca!

The Dynamints reminded me.

R139. I suddenly got a craving for pineapple upside down cake in early lockdown, so made one. It was fabulous. R128 and R121- perhaps I should see if Delia has a Rum Baba recipe. And follow it to the letter.

Tic Tacs. were BIG then.

They were horrible, in fact.

Serious question: what do people like about the baba au rum cake? How is it better than a Bacardi rum bundt cake? I've had the BAR one time. Maybe a bad iteration, but was not impressed. I do like the rum bundt cakes, though.

I was in junior high when Freshen Up came out.

We thought we were SO clever and edgy by referring to it as "Cum Gum".

I also liked but did not love, Bubble Yum.

Bubble Yum was pretty good. Forgot about that. Almost as good as the Japanese bubble gum. IIRC, the watermelon flavor was good (Bubble Yum).

Does anyone round here remember these big slabs of bazooka? They were as big as your hand. God I loved them.

They were quite hard to find. Only classier places sold them.

Figurines. My dad was in the wholesale grocery business and always bringing home samples so we got a case of Figurines one time. They’re just chocolate coated wafer bars. Same with Koogle. We got a free supply of all the flavors another time.

This might be just me, but Howard Johnson's fried clams. I can smell and taste them as I write. I'm sure I would hate them today, but back then I lived for them.

And their photo on the menu inspired "The Clam-Plate Orgy," a popular book about subliminal advertising.

That really good "toast" at Sizzler's. (I think it would be described as "Texas toast.")

And a year later, r170, the Figurines song would be re-re-cycled as disco song "Tangerine."

R173: That song is older than that.

Yes, r174. That's why I said "re-re-cycled." Thanks for the link, though.

175 posts and no one has mentioned the ill-named, appetite-suppressant AYDS candies. My mom and my aunts bought these. I tasted them and they just tasted like caramel chews, IMO.

Here's the commercial that actually uses "Tangerine," which wasn't one of the flavors available.

These may have been local...anyone else remember them?

No one mentioned them, r176, because they'd been around for decades prior to 1974.

Maxwell's Plum menu.

I remember Freshen Up gum. The bullies in our school teased any boys who used it & called them a f*g because it was like the gum came in their mouth

Hmm, maybe link to menu doesn't work. He's more

[quote]I shit you not

I believe you.

The thing is, the asshole bullies were kinda right. It was all of the FMA's (Future MARY!s of America) that even took gum to school.....

Table Talk Pies. I know they were around well before the 70s, but my childhood friends and my brothers and I ate the single serving versions all the time back around that time. Those pies coupled with bottle of Cumberland Farms brand ginger ale...mmmmm good...for a 16-year old.

yes the table talk pies and the drakes fruit pies. Both made with lard. The drakes fruit pies were deep fried in lard and sugar coated. all that stuff was tasty for growing boys and it didn't go downhill until the 80s.

Dentyne was YUUUGE then.

Powdered milk and corn flakes, boiled hot dogs and fried potatoes and onions, grilled government cheese sandwiches, SPAM, FOOL!

Does anyone remember these Frango mint chocolates? They might be a west coast thing. They came in a cylindrical box like what I posted below.

I liked them and they were more like a Christmas treat than a year-round thing.

My mom had this exact round box in the bedroom, coins kept inside.

Frango was sold at a lot of the May Company stores. I remember the boxes but never had one!

I miss Frederick & Nelson, r189. You can get Frangos at Macy's still, but it's Macy's. I don't know if they've changed them or not.

R190, have you had Andes mint candies? Very similar to those Frango mint chocolates.

Marshall Fields in Chicago originated Frango. They still sell them at the Macy’s on State Street there and have a mini shop devoted to them. The place was a ghost town when I was there in February though.

Maxwell Plums is interesting but doesn’t look 80s at all. That’s pure out of the 60s or early 70s.

I’m ICE MILK!

No, r193. Marshall Field got them from Frederick and Nelson when they bought that company.

Anyone remember "Thrills"? The most incredible (sweet soapy) flavour. I spotted them in a "candy nostalgia" shop a couple of years ago and they did not taste at all like the old Thrills. It was more of a metallic, sugary taste. Awful.

Again, R178, I think we're both from around the same tristate area. I loved the Coconut Creme pie.

R194, this isn't a Let's Be thread. Lol.

This is straight outta '74...

Hostess O's

I didn’t realize that the food was supposed to be trendy or new in 1974. I thought we were supposed to contribute foods that remind us of 1974, something we ate then that we don’t eat now.

Some of you bitches are such wet blankets.

Better than R92"s TV dinner, Swanson made THREE course ones (being it included soup)

The TV dinner that had turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potato, and fruit cobbler was my favorite.

Doritos remind me of being at the pool in the early 70s, listening to The Carpenters on the radio through the speakers.

Fondue and watergate salad

drink enough riuniti on ice and everything tastes like the seventies

Pop Tarts

Perfect for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Fruits ablaze!

Cherries Jubilee

R200: So some of you already were old farts in 1974?

And R193 your point is? The thread is about 1974.

Any blue frozen treat. Popsicles, Freezees.

Lime Starburst

R157 We used to call that the cum gum since it shirts in your mouth.

squirts not shirts^^

As long as it didn't shart in your mouth R212

Sandwiches with alfalfa sprouts.

[quote] As long as it didn't shart in your mouth [R212]

Too bad they didn't make a chocolate kind.

Alfalfa sprouts. I used to buy them to put on salads because they were “healthy”. They tasked like dirt though. You don’t see them much anymore as I think they’re very susceptible to salmonella or something.

Nabisco Mystic Mint cookies

Martini & Rossi Vermouth

Swanson TV Dinners.

Gross, OP.

My mother was born that year.

You are sick.

King Vitaman.

Breakfast squares. Another supposedly healthful food that was just a sugar bomb.

My tenth grade history teacher's sperm

You mean semen, R225.

Were you sucking his dick during health class?

R224 I still crave those after 45 years. That picture is torture.

Salmon Croquettes.

Tangential question:

Does US Kraft Mac and Cheese taste different from Canadian Kraft Dinner?

Rollos. They're such a '70s candy.

The Fluff alternative.

Anyone remember the Hershey's Milkshake shaker? Can't find a pic online.

Strawberry Quik.

[quote]Rollos. They're such a '70s candy.

Rollo is the "rich kid" in the Nancy comic strip. The candy was called Rolos.

R226 No, but I wanted to. He looked like David Duchovny with a little gray.

R224 I remember being at a friend's house where those were being served and his brother yelled at his sister "It's not a diet food if you eat the whole box, you fat cow!" She immediately burst into tears.

[quote]Anyone remember the Hershey's Milkshake shaker? Can't find a pic online.

I don't remember a Hershey's version, but I remember a Nestle's Quik version that came with a plastic shaker. It was introduced in 1967.

Yes, exactly like that, R237...but Hershey's.

I remember great big bags of Dubble Bubble.

(Dubble Bubble tasted a bit like Pepto Bismol).

Screaming Yellow Zonkers remind me of 1974 food fads, even though they are still available today in limited editions at Walgreens and online.

They were delicious but the real entertainment was the box they came in, with jokes and fun facts all over it.

[quote][R224] I remember being at a friend's house where those were being served and his brother yelled at his sister "It's not a diet food if you eat the whole box, you fat cow!"

And 21 years later, both you and he would become charter members of The Data Lounge.

R241 And eventually, "you fat cow" morphed into "You FAT WHORE!"

Morton Great Little Desserts. My dad owned a garage and we wound up with a freezer full of these when the truck wrecked and he got called to tow it.

These little chocolate footballs.

I never knew who made them, there was never any brand written anywhere on them, but the chocolate was delicious. They had baseballs too, but the footballs were more common.

Bubble Gum Cigars.

Zotz were my favorite candies of that era. They were imported from Italy and were hard to find. The only place I knew that sold them was the 7-11 convenience store. Nowadays I think they are more widely available. They are a hard candy with a center of powder that fizzed up in your mouth when you reached the center.

Speaking of fizzing, Fizzies were available in 1974 and you were supposed to dropthem in a glass of water, but we just let the tablets fizz in our mouths.

Fizzies were barely around in the 70s. they were more of a 60s thing.

Morton was the cheaper competitor to Swanson's and also had a line of pies. Brands like Stouffers that actually had flavor and didn't seem so intitutional crowded tehm out of teh market.

No one on DL ever seems to remember Reed's - I do and I'm not even American.

I remember Reed's. I loved the root beer variety. In fact, I ordered a resurrected version of them from the Vermont Cunt Store (Yes, I'm OLD) but they were not nearly as tasty as I recall the originals being.

Carnation Instant Breakfast.

R250, thank you. I will forever more refer to the Vermont Country Store as "The Vermont Cunt Store."

I've always wanted to splurge on a bottle of their "Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific" reissue/knockoff. But I fear being disappointed like you were.

I loved Reed's, R249, especially the clove, cinnamon, and root beer flavors. They were so much better than Life Savers.

A few other 1974 edibles: Fruit Helper, Rip Van Lemon Otter Pops, Pizza Spins, and Dolly Madison cakes with Peanuts characters...

[quote]I remember Reed's. I loved the root beer variety. In fact, I ordered a resurrected version of them from the Vermont Cunt Store (Yes, I'm OLD) but they were not nearly as tasty as I recall the originals being.

I didn't know they were resurrected - I got some too (Cinnamon) from somewhere, I can't remember, and no, they weren't as good - they were softer and chewier than I remember them and smaller.

Harvey Wallbangers !

Does anyone still drink Galliano?

[quote]I loved Reed's, [R249], especially the clove, cinnamon, and root beer flavors. They were so much better than Life Savers.

I liked Reed's Butterscotch. I also liked that they didn't have that damned hole.

Annie Green Springs!

Almost as bad as the loss of the vast array of Dannon flavors (boysenberry, lemon, apple, etc.) is the loss of the generous waxed cup with the cardboard insert in the lid. Now they're down to 5.3 oz and made with hfcs.

Oh, and you guys, you know Bubble Yum was made with spiders' eggs, right?

Fruit Brute!

Real quality dairy products!

Choc-ola. Chocolate soda...

[quote]. In fact, I ordered a resurrected version of them from the Vermont Cunt Store (Yes, I'm OLD) but they were not nearly as tasty as I recall the originals being.

All of the "vintage" knock-offs sold by the Vermont Country Store are pale imitations, including their colognes.

Pale imitations indeed...

[quote]Morton was the cheaper competitor to Swanson's and also had a line of pies

Morton sold frozen glazed and jelly doughnuts that were like crack.

R264 The earlier incarnations were racist!

Violets "candy." Medicinal-tasting. This was an adult-type of candy or breath mint.

I was a little, little kid in 1974, but I remember Twinkies as the perfect snack. I don’t know what that mess is that they call Twinkies now, but it is not the same snack cake. I also remember Franco American Spagetti Os with hot hogs cut up in them instead of meatballs.

Chestnuts Kevin

I heartily recommend that everyone try that marvelous new miracle product, Bisquick, which was introduced three years ago, in 1931. Land sakes, it certainly is a timesaver, allowing me to whip up a batch of golden biscuits in a jiffy. Now I have more time to boil my laundry in my copper tub before scrubbing each piece on a washboard and letting it soak overnight in a mixture of bluing and naphtha before running it through my hand wringer.

^^ I guess I needn't explain that this was meant for the "Foods that taste like 1934" thread.

My mother originally made Bisquick pancakes, which tasted like shitty flavorless bricks.

I praised the gods when she switched to Aunt Jemima mix circa 1984.

Dolly Madison Zingers, especially raspberry coconut

[quote]I was a little, little kid in 1974.

[quote]My mother originally made Bisquick pancakes, which tasted like shitty flavorless bricks. I praised the gods when she switched to Aunt Jemima mix circa 1984.

We heard you, dear.

R75, R76, "Diet toast" was usually "melba toast" and comparable to crackers rather than bread.

There will come a time in your life when you almost gag at the food of the seventies. I was around then, and now I eat no meat, some chicken, fish now and then, veggies and fruits. Just evolved, not a choice. I am a fit and slender elder with fairly good health. I allow chocolate chip cookies and biscotti in as a treat. Just preference, not part of a diet plan. Best advice I could give is to remain slim. Helps with pressure on bones and digestive issues.

wine coolers

Honestly, R271, Bisquick pancakes, biscuits, and dumplings taste like 1974 to me anyway!

The Magic Pan! I was a kid during the end of its reign (I’m 42), and it was on either East or West 57th street and in malls everywhere. (I think the Riverside Mall, not sure). I so wish they would bring it back!

I once found a sample menu online from I think the early 80s and not only did it sound so good I can’t get over how cheap all the crepes were — even knowing things were a lot less expensive then I was still floored.

And thanks for that Maxwells Plum blog post, r182, it was scarily accurate!!

[quote]now I eat no meat, some chicken, fish now and then, veggies and fruits.

The seventies were the first time I heard the un-word "veggies."

Look, there's poison on the menu!

Does anyone remember these?

[quote]The Magic Pan! I was a kid during the end of its reign (I’m 42), and it was on either East or West 57th street and in malls everywhere.

57th between Lexington & Third

You could see it (the top floors) from the place I used to stay and I took a pic back in 1980.

Does anyone remember these? They were sort of like poptarts, except for the shape.

R270: Bisquick makes everything taste like crappy biscuits.

R234 Then I shall 'Mary' myself. *clears throat* MARY!

How dare you R274!

[quote]Rollo is the "rich kid" in the Nancy comic strip.

Rollo was my first pet, a tuxedo cat. I wonder if my mother named him after Rollo in the Nancy comics.

[quote]I was a little, little kid in 1974.

Probably a total dollface.

Bisquick pancakes are horrible.

Fuck Bisquick!

It's not so hard to make pancakes from scratch and they taste a ton better and even taste like 1974.

Food Sticks

Betty White for Tastycake

[quote]People keep unearthing stuff that's way earlier than 1974, often fading before then, like Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

People are actually just posting the foods they remember eating in 1974, or foods that were popular in the small towns/suburbs/families they grew up in.

No one is claiming to be a food historian or implying that these food originated or even peaked in popularity in 1974. You should probably unclench a bit. It's a fun thread. For most of us, amyway.

Ann Blythe for Hostess, 1974 She was a good-looking MILF!

The Magic Pan? Oh, please. There were Magic Pan restaurants in Indianapolis. That's how pedestrian the damned chain restaurant was. The Applebee's of 1974.

[quote]She was a good-looking MILF!

Your gayness is evident from Mars.

[quote]r297 “You know, for several years I’ve been telling you about Hostess snack cakes...”

Yeah. We know, ANN.

An’ your a big, stinkin’ BORE!

R298 as opposed to Bisquick and Tasty Cake and all the other “gourmet” treats that are being posted on here? The thread isn’t “name the NYT four star restaurants of 1974” but “food that tastes like 1974,” geez!

And thanks for that, r285! That block makes sense since it’s right by Bloomingdales. My Aunt was a head buyer there (I’ve mentioned this before) in the early 80s so we often went with her (there was one in either Paramus or Short Hills too). It might well be where Le Colonial is now (not sure if that’s still open actually).

I liked Bisquick pancakes. Bisquick is just flour with some fat and leavening already cut into it. Yes, plenty of other chemicals as well.

Yes, Log Cabin syrup was involved.

I'm more of a savory breakfast person (eggs, omelets), anyway.

Boo Berry, Count Chocula, and Franken Berry

[quote]I was around then, and now I eat no meat, some chicken, fish now and then, veggies and fruits. Just evolved, not a choice.

But not so evolved as to realize that "veggies" is pure frauspeak.

[quote]Pillsbury Food Sticks! Just like the astronauts eat!

In fact, they were originally called Space Food Sticks. Maybe NASA warned Pillsbury that the name was misleading.

Tying together two things: My mom used to make pineapple upside-down cake with Bisquick's "Velvet Crumb Cake" recipe.

The "I hate veggies" and "veggies is frauspeak" poster is more sensitive than a frau with fibro. Seriously, Mary, get over it already.

Many posters on DL loathe "veggies," R307.

R302: Bisquick is always going to sound pathetic as an ingredient and that that way, too.

r307 thinks only one poster hates "veggies." Isn't she hilarious?

R308 and R310 are Extremely Tender to the Touch!

Maybe Miss Warwick can regail us with an anecdote about her being one of the primary investors in Famous Amos cookies. Wasn’t that around this time?

The three of you can probably get over it, R308.

This place is so fucking stifling.

Hisss. HISSSS!

Some people can be so touchy!

[quote]Maybe Miss Warwick can regail us

Oh, dear.

She can reGayle us.

These were for company ONLY.

R317, YES! But... after the shrimp was gone, the glasses were kept for us kids. For orange juice.

Or Tang.

They were also occasionally pressed into service as a bud vase!

r54, FROGURT!! They so were ahead of the times.

[quote]R318 after the shrimp was gone, the glasses were kept for us kids. For orange juice.

Not the 1970s..... but my friend has a big array of glassware they packaged Big Top peanut butter in throughout the 1950s.

I had never heard of such a thing.

There were a lot of ways to get free glassware back in the day.

I knew they gave away dishes and Depression Glass at movie theaters etc. in the 1930s, but I never knew packaging was created specifically to be reused!

I was going to add Pop Rocks, but they didn't come out until 1975.

Skittles debuted in 1974.

Glasses and dishes used to even be included inside boxes of laundry detergent.

The prices on that menu R52!

Everything is under $10

[quote]I knew they gave away dishes and Depression Glass at movie theaters etc. in the 1930s, but I never knew packaging was created specifically to be reused!

Welch's jelly jars doubled as drinking glasses for years.

My mom used to buy the Kraft cheese spreads that came in jars and then repurpose them as juice glasses.

[quote]R328 Welch's jelly jars doubled as drinking glasses for years.

Those are tacky as hell. Only Big Top’s exclusive Early American glassware for me!

“Bring new glamour to your table!”

[quote] My mom used to buy the Kraft cheese spreads that came in jars and then repurpose them as juice glasses.

Kraft cheese spreads were delicious!

I actually like these glasses. Very old timey.

I have some similar glasses but with a white/grey/blue transfer featuring bunches of grape. I wonder if they’re the same promotional thing.

I actually like mine a lot. They’re really battered but that’s their charm. Will post pic tomorrow (like it OR NOT!)

Gosh, imagine carrying 8 of the filled glasses out to your patio party in their little holder... and you drop the whole thing : (

There was a “health food” restaurant on the UES, called Zucchini, that closed sometime in the early 90s but opened and was popular in the 70s and part of the 80s (it may have opened in the late 70s, admittedly). It had the type of food you expected in a health food restaurant of that time ; pita bread, alfalfa sprouts etc. My mom loved it but we all thought it was pretty disgusting.

I’ve tried googling it to see if ANYTHING would come up but no such luck. It was on First or Second Ave and I believe 71st Street. Maybe someone else here remembers it.

Jelly glasses were made to be reused and into the 80s. I have a large collection of such glasses for the German Swiss and French market. 20 years ago these were adored kitsch but today's youth has zero interest in such things.

Except for these Mason / Ball jar mugs.

Well that's just it. Those mugs are new. The didn't exist decades ago.

I had a large stocks of German and Swiss canning glass but it's whittled down. For decades I gave bouquets in them. It was stacked up everywhere in any junk shop or flea market for a buck a piece.. The stock has disappeared - you see it on the auction sites now for 10 bucks a bottle or more. Ah, no. I doubt anyone is buying it.

The frosted glasses date from the early 60s. I had some of those from my mother. Also some gold painted ones that were a supermarket promotion. Silver Dust was one of Lever Brothers many crappy detergent brands--they were big on these promotions. Surf came with place settings of silverware.

Choc-ola wasn't a soda, but Canfield's is.

While we're on beverages.... Yoo Hoo.

You could decorate your entire home with laundry detergent. This one give you a free English Rose bath towel.

On another note, looking at R341, how many people sliced their lips off on those cans?

No one sliced their lips off.

Many people opened the can and tossed the pop top to the ground. Many others came along and cut their feet on the goddamned fucking things. It was a huge change for the better when they made them a permanent part of the can.

But very little lip damage, if any at all.

Ho Hos. Although I was a fan of Ding Dongs and Hostess Cherry Pies. Sometimes my mom would try to fob off the Little Debbie versions to me because they were cheaper. Nope.

Here's a food commercial that sounds like 1974.

Beware. Ear worm at the link below.

[quote]Sometimes my mom would try to fob off the Little Debbie versions to me because they were cheaper. Nope.

How tacky.

I miss Tastykakes.

[quote]You could decorate your entire home with laundry detergent. This one give you a free English Rose bath towel.

A bath towel in a box of laundry soap? There couldn't have been much room left for the detergent. I guess it wasn't a "thick and thirsty" bath towel.

Dolly Parton and Porter Waggoner used to do commercials for Breeze detergent, where you could get things like towels and glasses.

"But you can only get them in boxes of Breeze!"

^^ I was too mesmerized by Dolly's hair to even look at the design of the towels.

Hostess powdered donuts and the fruit pies as well.

I remember DUZ detergent ... it had glassware or dishes. Years later, Mainstay dog food came with yellow plastic cups and plates.

Underwood Deviled Chicken and Ham. There were other flavors, but those were the ones I liked. I'd make sandwiches by spreading them on thick Wonder bread. I was always fascinated by the paper wrappers around the can, and the somewhat menacing devil on the label. I didn't know what "deviled" meant so I thought it was an odd and sinister choice of a name and logo, but I loved the meaty glop so I went with it.

I know the stuff's been with us since Dame Olivia was in knee pants, but at least among my family and people I knew, I only ever saw people eating it in the mid-70s.

Go for it, R355.

Mateus

I'll see your Mateus and raise you Riunite!

On ice!

R312 "Regail us"

Oh Dear!

Tyrolia wine? Spañada?

Mateus steadily improved over the last 15 years and its quite good now. Will wonders never cease.

Fried ice cream was a big deal dessert offered at restaurants then. It was actually delicious! Also, zucchini was a thing. Stuffed zucchini, zucchini bread, etc. Lender's bagels and Triscuits were also big.

Never allowed to try most of the above as my mother said they were over priced. When I finally tasted the following I was so disappointed, Hostess products, Bisquick, kids' dry cereals, cake mixes, most sweets & bakery goods, frozen dinners, packaged anything. Did you really like these "foods?"

Tater tots is the one food I loved when eating at a friend's house.

My father split when I was very young and I was raised by a single working mother. She was great and she never waivered in devotion to raising me as well as she possibly could. And she did a good job, except for cutting every goddamned corner on pre-made, frozen, dried, canned or otherwise tortured "food" products. I understand why she didn't have time or energy to fresh squeeze orange juice before rushing off to a long day working as a nurse. My anger is at the disreputable people who foisted Tang on the world.

No, Mom. Frozen green beans are not just as good as fresh. But she was so tired, how could she notice?

[quote] When I finally tasted the following I was so disappointed, Hostess products, Bisquick, kids' dry cereals, cake mixes, most sweets & bakery goods, frozen dinners, packaged anything. Did you really like these "foods?"

R364 when did you try those things?

R366, Some I tried well after 1974, over a period of time. Did the formula change? Even the smell was revolting. This was long before product labeling so I actually knew what each product contained.

House mates and coworkers bought many of them for lunch. No thanks. Sometimes I had to eat them at potlucks. Bacardi cake is delicious IF it's made from scratch, inedible IMHO if from a cake mix.

Others like kids' dry cereals I just saw in a bowl at other's homes. No way would I eat Lucky Charms after seeing what they actually looked like in real life.

[quote]No, Mom. Frozen green beans are not just as good as fresh. But she was so tired, how could she notice?

Actually, frozen is pretty damn close to fresh--and in some cases even better. Now CANNED vegetables, on the other hand ...

Velveeta "cheese" has changed for the worse!

Pineapple upside down cake

Swedish meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes

Canned peaches and canned pineapple in syrup

Pearl onions

Thick, unsweetened shredded wheat cereal with sliced banana

Foods that contain marshmallow Fluff. Such odd content.

Vienna sausages

Ladyfingers

Watergate cake with cover up icing

[quote]When I finally tasted the following I was so disappointed, Hostess products, Bisquick, kids' dry cereals, cake mixes, most sweets & bakery goods, frozen dinners, packaged anything.

Wow, all my favorites.

[quote]I know the stuff's been with us since Dame Olivia was in knee pants

Even longer than that, R355. The William Underwood Co. began selling cans of deviled ham in 1868. And the original devil on the label was even more sinister than the one used today.

I can't remember ever having the Underwood stuff but we often got the ham salad from the deli.

Mom varied our sandwiches between ham salad slathered with mayo and braunschweiger with mayo, always on Wonder Bread.

[quote]Some I tried well after 1974, over a period of time. Did the formula change?

I can't speak to everything you've mentioned, but yes the formula changed in several of the things you mentioned. So much so, that a lot of those things are inedible now.

R370, "Thick, unsweetened shredded wheat cereal with sliced banana "

"Shredded wheat" tasted like sawdust. It was the start of the push of healthy dry cereals.

Canned fruit was a dessert to some, healthy alternative to pricey, out-of-season fresh fruit to others.

WINE CHEDDAR CHEESE which my mother would serve when company was over.

R377, that stuff is really bizarre. I was a kid in the '90s and '00s and always spotted it at family gatherings. Totally vintage and musty.

Liverwurst is 70s. I'll also add canned corned beef hash, Salisbury steak, candied yams, beef Wellington, pudding of any kind, and sweet potato casserole with browned mini-marshmallows all over the top.

I saw something above about Deviled Eggs but really since the whole pseudo Southern /comfort food trend of the past 15/20 years they’ve become popular again.

So glad because they’re one of my favorite things in the world.

Has anyone mentioned Hamburger Helper yet?

[quote] I know the stuff's been with us since Dame Olivia was in [bold]knee pants[/bold]...

I thought this said [italic]knee pads

R379 you’re the gourmet around here, Ed!

Remember when ice cream came in a flimsy paper box?

I remember the Neopolitan ice cream w/the stripes.

R385 strawberry ice cream is one thing I will NEVER understand.

Thank God it’s fallen way, way, way, out of favor.

I guess not everything older is better.

[quote] [R385] strawberry ice cream is one thing I will NEVER understand. Thank God it’s fallen way, way, way, out of favor. I guess not everything older is better.

What is there to understand? It’s not a calculus problem. It’s ice cream that is flavored to taste like strawberries. Some like it. Some don’t.

R388 you fucking know what I mean (I hate when DL people do this — take a statement literally in what they think is some clever way to mock people).

It’s disgusting and I’ll never understand how enough people loved it to make it one of the 3 basic flavors.

Mmmm...strawberry ice cream.

We'd've made perfect brothers, Xennial. You could have had the chocolate, I'd've had the strawberry, and we could have fought over the vanilla. Later, along came H-D, my favorite strawberry ice cream.

R368, I cannot agree. Freezing works well for some vegetables, but not all. There are probably some legitimate uses for frozen green beans. But they are not a substitute for fresh green beans unless they are chopped and stewed into a dish of which they are just one component. An Indian dish, perhaps.

Once frozen, they are not good to simply saute.

[quote]What is there to understand? It’s not a calculus problem. It’s ice cream that is flavored to taste like strawberries. Some like it. Some don’t.

And some have no curiosity for the vast array of things happening in the world around them.

I loathed strawberry ice cream.

And I loathed neapolitan, too. Chocolate was the only flavor anyone wanted but my father would insist we buy it anyway.

I don't [italic]hate[/italic] chocolate ice cream, but if I were the only Neapolitan eater, it would be the last to go.

I remember Sealtest ice cream. There was an even a Sealtest store in my town.

r391 I like frozen peas, spinach, and corn. That's about it. Frozen green beans and carrots are the worst. They retain too much water.

R27, that is a very delicious cake, my family has been making it FOREVER and we all love it. It might be a little working class in how it looks and is presented but it’s all decent ingredients and tastes lovely. Obviously, my working class family would refrigerate it and pick on it for days, sometimes carving a slice right there in the fridge, and sometimes dunking our slice in our coffee. We weren’t fancy people.

You're just not living if you don't get some of this shit and pour it over some good Vanilla iced cream with some nuts of some sort

R398 have you ever tried Mrs. Richardson’s?

I have not, R399, but perhaps I will now. Thanks for the suggestion, pal.

Not a fan of strawberry ice cream, either. However, the Haagen Dazs version is (or used to be) good.

Guys, try the Mrs. Richardson butterscotch caramel topping. I admit, I'm a long-time caramel fan. But try it.

homemade strawberry with fresh...oh, yes...

even peach homemade. i hate peaches but fresh...oh, yes...

True, R402, one summer, we made some fresh strawberry ice cream and it was good.

R367, high fructose corn syrup started being used in foods in 1975, which greatly affects the taste and texture of food for the worse.

Fruit juice made from concentrate. It came in paper cans with metal ends that you opened like those biscuit tubes (kind of). You kept them in the freezer.

You finagled the frozen cylindrical juice block out of the can *plop* into a pitcher, poured several can-fulls of water in, and then stirred and stirred and stirred.

It was usually impossible to resist tasting the frozen concentrate, for a bitter, intense taste that made your face wince up. It’s like the acidity kept it from completely freezing. It was like soft ice. Very chemical-y.

Orange juice, but also grape and apple and others. Lemonade and punch. As a little this was the only way I understood how to make juice. It’s the only way we did it in our household in the 70’s at least. I would see orange juice for sale in glass containers (like Tropicana) at the store and thought it seemed weird. Fresh squeezed? Huh what’s that?

*little kid, not little this

R405 I had no idea juice could come fresh from the fruit until I was an adult!

The orange juice we had at home when I was a kid in the '60s was always from frozen concentrate. Ready-to-drink orange juice in cartons didn't seem as popular back then.

R405 Ditto here. I also vividly remember when and where the first time I tried real fresh squeezed orange juice, it was so delicious I couldn’t believe it. It was a fancy hotel restaurant we were staying in on a family vacation, still in the 70’s and I was still in grade school. My mom was like, “Try it, it’s fresh squeezed orange juice you’ll really like it!” Frozen concentrate never tasted the same again.

We had fresh-squeezed orange juice at home occasionally, and it was always a real treat. But most of the time it was from frozen concentrate, which is also where our lemonade came from.

[quote]r397 that is a very delicious cake ... my working class family would refrigerate it and pick on it for days, sometimes carving a slice right there in the fridge

I think this is a Canadian thing...They were the rage in the 70s. Don't know if they make them anymore. I never ate them but I remember they were pretty popular.

Bacos!

Came in a small jar of shakable little bacon bits. My mom would put them on peanut butter sandwiches for us. I remember liking them but wouldn’t touch it now. Seems so odd to me.

Tip-Top Frozen Drink Concentrate was my favorite, especially Black Cherry, Grape, and Limeade.

Frozen orange concentrate has a cooked taste that you don't notice until you compare it to fresh-squeezed.

I seem to recall pineapple in cottage cheese (already mixed in with the cheese). There was also salt pork that you would buy in a block and start spaghetti sauce with the renderings of it.

I also recall sleeves of thin shiny crackers that were darker than others, possibly with sesame seeds on them.

We had powdered mild, margarine, canned cranberry sauce, brown bread that came in a can. All this changed in 1980, when we moved to the Berkshire Mountains and joined a food co-op. We switched to dried pineapple, carob, whole walnuts. Bulk food that was packed in brown paper. Our Mom had to volunteer at the Co-op, and they were very strict about the rules. I remember the first time I saw peanut butter separate into layers.

Not exactly 1974, but the 70s. My Mom would stock up because they were like 6 for a dollar. My fave was Sparkling Punch. I also like the Root Beer.

Minute Maid frozen lemonade concentrate. Good until they changed the formula.

Strawberry ice cream had very few real berries until premium ice cream was created.

R416, Canned Boston baked brown bread in a can was more like a wholewheat raisin bread than what's normally used for sandwiches. It contains molasses and was typically served with Boston baked beans.

Any of the delicacies mentioned in this thread could be washed down with a nice glass (or mug?) of Champale.

Ritz crackers. A very under-rated snack.

Chicken in a Biskit crackers. Yum.

Wacky Packages...

[quote]Ritz crackers. A very under-rated snack.

Everything's better when it sits on a Ritz!

r412, that's a Moon Pie down South.

Shake a Puddin

Mixed nuts with the shells on. My grandparents always had a bowl of walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, et al around for the holidays, accompanied by the nut crackers and meat hooks . . . pickers? I don't know what they were called, properly. My grandmother also used to tell us about the other name for the brazil nuts.

R424 I have to say I’m glad I grew up with Carr’s. Always detested Ritz crackers.

There was another brand (more like wafers) that when I was a kid were made with lard and were SO good; then they changed the recipe and they sucked. Maybe it was Brenmer (sp) Wafers? I’ll have to look it up.

Yes, r428, Bremner Wafers were made with "Animal Shortening (Lard/Beef Fat)." Here's an old can. I used to buy these in the '70s and '80s, and then they disappeared. I see they can still be bought online, but yes, the recipe has changed. Partially hydrogenated cottonseed or soybean oil is used now.

They were my favorite cracker for eating cheese.

Balogna sandwiches. I think very very 1974.

Apologies if this has been said already. Love this thread btw.

Yet another "diet" food: Figurines.

And Alba 77 diet shakes. Our house always seemed full of these diet foods. Most of them tasted pretty good, because most of them were high in sugar.

[quote]My grandmother also used to tell us about the other name for the brazil nuts.

Cousin!

Hi-C. In order to access the sugary nectar within, you had to use old-fashioned can openers and pierce the top on two sides with the sharp edge, then pour the juice from one of the triangular holes.

By the 80s, this had been supplanted (at least in our house) with Juicy Juice.

What was the other name for Brazil nuts?

R430, yes, you're right, bologna was a huge staple in the 70s, and seems rare today. The ultimate 70s "baloney" sandwich is, of course, created by frying the bologna until it warps into a sombrero shape, then putting it on Wonder bread with mayo.

I'm kind curious about the other name for Brazil nuts too. I'm also a little scared to find out.

Ni**er nuts

for the gurl who has everything...

R438 Oh, dear!

Wow, okay, best to refer to it as the "other name!"

Jesus Christ. They even found a way to make party nuts racist. My gosh.

And Bubble Gum (in England)

& Black Jacks were REALLY popular....they've taken the face off now

The racist term for Brazil nut that is referenced above is "nigger toe."

This term was not limited in its use. It was wide spread, commonly known, frequently used. It was the only name for the nut that I knew as a child. No one in the midwest ever was confused by my request when, as a child, I used that term. No one was shocked, either. It was common slang.

R444 You're right. I remember my parents calling Brazil nuts by that name. When I was young, I didn't understand what it meant. Then as I got older, I was horrified.

I finally had to tell my parents to stop using that term. My mom got it, but my dad never did.

Interesting, r425. In Canada, Joe Louis was only ever chocolate. No other flavours. Sorry I posted this....I have this sudden terrible urge for Joe Louis. Hmmmmm.....Seriously.

A friend who visited Jamaica years ago brought me back a packet of this.

Bugles! (Although I looked them up, and they were introduced in the 60's). Everyone had to put them on their fingertips, wiggle their fingers either menacingly or fabulously, then ate the Bugles off their fingers one by one.

Along with Bugles in the '60s, General Mills introduced two variations, the same snack but in different shapes: Whistles and Daisy*s. Both were discontinued in the '70s.

Different shapes for the same product were reminiscent of Cap'n Crunch, Quisp and Quake.

Tuna casserole with green beans, friend onions and Campbell's mushroom soup:

Somehow, r450, the addition of tuna makes that GBC seem a little more bearable. I'd probably substitute potato chips for the onions, though.

My mouth is watering at R448!

I am in love with Pavlova and it's my favorite dessert but friends of mine have told me it's retro and very '70s. Confirm/deny?

I remember being kind of addicted to "black balls" - licorice tasting candy. I can still taste them just thinking about it.

R448, I remember Bugles, and haven't eaten any in forever.

After a break General Mills reintroduced the snack in 2016, and they're now sold in several countries around the world.

Bugles were the only substitute available to me at 10 years of age for the Lee's Press-On Nails I needed when I sang along to Barbra Streisand on my parents' Hi-Fi.

I am absolutely confident I am not alone in this.

[quote]I remember being kind of addicted to "black balls"

#MeToo

Pizza rolls and toaster pizzas. They both came out a few years earlier, but as teens, we gorged on those.

Now you've got me wondering, R453. It's certainly not retro in New Zealand and Australia. It's something that has been around since the 1920s and we have a pavlova for every season/occasion, and even as birthday cakes.

Chocolate Sundaes. The real stuff - real cream, real chocolate sauce.

[quote]Bugles were the only substitute available to me at 10 years of age for the Lee's Press-On Nails I needed when I sang along to Barbra Streisand on my parents' Hi-Fi.

How delightfully gay.

Kmart hot fudge sundaes on our own while mom shopped. Felt so grown up.

Mr. Submarine was a Friday night ritual in high school. After consuming lots of beer, pot, etc.

R453, I've hardly ever seen pavlovas on restaurant menus at any time in my life in America, and I've also never had one served as a dessert in a family/friend situation, either. They do show up on cooking shows every now and then, which is the only reason I even know what they are.

Farrell's Ice Cream

r464 - Canadian here, I had never heard of Pavlovas either until I moved to Australia. It's a BIG deal down there. I personally don't care for them. They look nice but not for me.

R465, Have you ever seen a copy of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor famous weekly diet?

Pavlova recipe and description linked. Takes well over 2 hours to make and much more difficult than a standard dessert.

Voila, R467--this was probably necessary after indulging in their Pig Trough.

And of course you had to eat your TV dinner on your fold out Tv table.

Fuck me, R470. My mother had those EXACT tv trays.

[quote] Pavlova recipe and description linked. Takes well over 2 hours to make and much more difficult than a standard dessert.

It’s fucking merengue.

[quote]My mouth is watering at [R448]! —Constance McCashin

Your mouth would water for a bowl of Chuck Wagon.

r472 A merengue is a dance.

[quote]Bugles were the only substitute available to me at 10 years of age for the Lee's Press-On Nails I needed when I sang along to Barbra Streisand on my parents' Hi-Fi.

They would certainly work as nails, but I hope you didn't try using them to dial the phone.

WHY ARE THERE GOD DAMN CRUMBS ON MY PRINCESS PHONE???!!!

Pudding cake--you poured the dry part on top of the batter and then a little hot water. Surprisingly, the pudding migrated to the middle of the cake and tasted great.

Ellio's Frozen Pizza.

It's even more delicious in the expert hands of Simply Sara, R477.

Great thread. I recall a frozen food called Steak-Ums, thinly sliced beef between white sheets of paper, a sort of make-at-home Philly Cheese Steak (you would add white American cheese).

When I was very small, I remember brown bags of penny candy, including edible cigarettes and edible lipstick. And some wax tubes of sweet colored liquid, and flavored wax lips that you would chew up.

Lipton Cup a Soup

Orange, red and purple soda that came from those big, clear plastic dispensers at Woolworth’s lunch counter. All the flavors tasted the same.

^ I remember those well. My Mum used to take me to Woolworth's lunch counter often when I was in Kindergarten, before the afternoon class session - bought me a hot dog with grilled split end bun, ketchup, and lots of sweet relish - 1975 baby!

R482 Are you sure those were "sodas?" Everything I've ever seen in the large clear dispensers was non-carbonated.

Underwood Deviled Ham on White Bread with French's Yellow Mustard.

The "diet plate": Cottage cheese on a bed of iceberg lettuce, garnished with 4 wedges of tomato.

R484, They might have been non-carbonated. Either way, the dispensers were more interesting than the flavors.

these were getting ready to exit in the 70's/80's. They have made a limited comeback but what use to cost $1 now costs over $30

Eating a Fudgie the Whale at a Birthday Party at Shakey's Pizza

i remember pastrami sandwiches were a big thing for a while in the 70s. Rye bread, mustard, and pastramai. LOADS of pastrami. Lots of good take out restaurants,made incredible deli style pastrami sandwiches. I think maybe "healthier" eating came on the scene after the 70s which might account for the downswing in popularity. No cheese, no lettuce, just pastrami on rye. So good....

This. I loved Vichyssoise back in the 70s. Wouldn't touch it now due to cream, potatoes...but at the time was like crack. Sprinkling of chives, fresh pepper and that was it.

I'm always making Vichyssoise. It is my favorite soup. I eat it hot and cold.

R491 and r492 They still serve Vichyssoise in some country clubs and places like that. It’s delicious chilled with snipped chives. It’s like a creamy savory potato leek milkshake. So good!

Dacquiri ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

I think Vichyssoise had fallen out of favor by 1974, after a man died from botulism and his wife became seriously ill after they both consumed part of a can of this stuff in 1971.

LOL, R495! My parents would never touch vichyssoise after the Bon Vivant incident! It was banned entirely in our house.

Good Earth teas. Delicious, spicy, from a west coast vegetarian restaurant that was huge in the 70s but faded by end of 80s.

Pork Chops and Apple Sauce

Pork Chops and Apple Sauce

The restaurants are gone, but the tea lives on, R497.

Cling peaches in heavy syrup

God, how lazy are some of you? Canned vichysoisse? Make your own. It's delicious.

Edible Keith Partridge

No one was recommending canned Vichysoisse, R502. It was mentioned as a famous vehicle for botulism. But you still leapt at the chance to be condescending.

Deviled eggs.

Jiffy Pop in the stove top container.

Mung Bean soup and lentil loaf.

FWIW Steak-Umms have a fabulous twitter account now.

Moosewood Cookbook.

r491 here. Without sounding too snooty, the Vichyssoise I usually had back in the 70s was served icy cold, even maybe on ice, the bowl set on a bed of ice if I remember correctly. I would never dream of eating this soup from a can. Not ever.

I just came across this fascinating article titled: Vichyssoise for Anthony Bourdain. A trip down memory lane for those who also miss Anthony Bourdain.

I had the Moosewood Cookbook and loved it, but rarely made anything out of it. I wasn't into cooking and didn't have time. Did anybody else have it and cook from it?

Rice-a-Roni and Stove-Top Stuffing.

I have a vintage copy of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook 12th edition that’s published in 1979. I’ve made a few recipes from it but mainly I just read through my vintage cookbooks. I also have the 11th edition from1965. Grew up in the 80s and 90s but I’m always interested in 70s culture.

Question for those who know, around what years were lard not used? In the 11th edition of FF Cookbook lard was still mentioned as an ingredient in some recipes but by the 12th edition it’s not mentioned as much. Also, was therd a meat shortage in the 70s, hence why some recipes featured ways to “stretch” the amount of meat you have on hand? I’ve seen it with meatloaf recipes that have oatmeal, mushrooms almost as equally as ground meat. I actually preferred the less meat versions.

Moosewood: I made their pesto which was awesome. Some of their recipes looked too challenging to make.

[quote]Also, was there a meat shortage in the 70s, hence why some recipes featured ways to “stretch” the amount of meat you have on hand?

Inflation in the '70s greatly increased the price of meat. Hence the shot of Mary Tyler Moore rolling her eyes as she throws a package of meat into her shopping cart in the opening of her show.

I was a busboy turned waiter at a country club from 1976 to 1978. Here's what was offered for banquets and parties:

Appetizers: 6 oz. glass of tomato juice or fruit cocktail or shrimp cocktail or Vichyssoise

Salad: garden, Caesar, or wedge of iceberg with asparagus, tomato and bleu cheese dressing

Entree: Chicken Kiev or Cordon Bleu, roast beef or pork with gravy, whitefish almandine. The sides were usually mixed vegetables, green beans almandine, stuffed tomatoes, roasted or mashed or double baked potatoes or rice pilaf

Dessert: vanilla ice cream with creme de menthe. I can't remember the rest of the desserts, though!

Voici une vichysoisse. Delicieuse.

Exactl, R512, unless you're running a restaurant, who has time?

That made me laugh r514. It's a lot of food - imagine eating a shrimp cocktail, followed by a salad, followed by plate of 1 or 2 chicken breasts with a portion of vegetables, followed by dessert (ice cream and syrup or alcohol on it). Not to mention coffee, cocktails, etc

I'll bet the desserts were items like apple pie and vanilla ice cream, black forest cake, coffee cake, strawberry rhubard pie, etc

R517, Yes, pie a la mode and Black Forest cake!

[quote]I'll bet the desserts were items like apple pie and vanilla ice cream, black forest cake, coffee cake, strawberry rhubard pie, etc

Coffee cake would never be served at dinner or lunch.

In a less formal setting, desserts would've included pudding (chocolate, vanilla, or tapioca), Jell-O, or sherbet.

Going by memory of eating or shall we say, more correctly dining at the TD Bank top floor (exclusive restaurant in Toronto back in the 70s). I would order things like filet mignon, singapore sling cocktails, and gorge on ice cream sundaes. Parents would start off with at least 2 cocktails (pre-dinner), like courvoisier alexandre, some scotch drink, but it was always hard liquor. Dessert could also be sabayon for parents, and Black Forest cake for me. I remember seeing things Steak Diane on their menu which I may have ordered once. They also made incredible crepes suzette flambed at your table. Those were the 70s. Also, I was a teenager then, with a ravenous appetite (stick thin) and it would not be unusual for me to sometimes eat what remained on their plates - leftovers. I had no shame, I could eat a horse back then.

Orange Julius.

Why is that cat talking to us about its memories of the 70s?

r318, those SauSea Shrimp Cocktail glasses in r317 were so small, how did you stir the Tang into the water, with the handle of the spoon?

My favorite jelly jars-cum-drinking glasses were from Welch's, and they featured The Flintstones.

Billy Bee honey or as a high school friend of mine used to call it William Bee.

Nine lives, r522.

R453 Pavlova is fucking delicious so if people think I'm a throwback for loving it oh well. Never seen it here in Canada, first exposure was a British aunt serving it to me in the early 90s. It's basically Eton mess with more fruit variety and not all smashed up. I genuinely don't understand how people can dislike either dish.

Granola recipe from The Whole Earth Catalog...

Steak Diane and Steak au Poivre. My mom and dad actually recreated these successfully at home.

Duck a l'orange was also popular in the 70s as well.

Lots of fatty, high-calorie foods back then, but no one was fat.

And as r520 stated, I was a rail thin, ravenous teenager that wouldn't gain weight no matter how much I ate.

Anything on the menu at Friendly's.

[quote]Granola recipe from The Whole Earth Catalog...

1/2 cup bran (I omit)

I initially read this as "1/2 cup brain," and certainly understood why you would omit it.

1970-80s school lunch pizza

Onion dip made with sour cream and Lipton dry onion soup mix.

A modern-day dessert miracle. One powdered mix turned into three layers!

Hamburger Helper

Anything made in a crock pot. Crock pots were very popular in the '70s.

Koogle

I think crock pots really took off the 80s, r536. In the 70s, women were still by and large "housewives" and cooking the old fashioned way. The 80s saw more women pursuing careers, working long hours and needing kitchen gadgets to help out. My mother still made soup from scratch, used the fondue kit if you were really daring, BBQ'd simple meats outdoors, but crock pots - not so much.

But crock pots first became "a thing" in the 1970s, R538. Hence the avocado green Rival edition seen above, which is from the early '70s. Rival introduced the crock pot in 1971. And I don't think it took until the '80s for the culture to start to recognize that women were no longer expected to spend all of their days slaving over a hot stove.

Crock pots were a 70s craze, and a holdover in the 80s. Women worked in the 70s and also women who didn't still liked crock pots for their convenience. I use my crockpot all the time on weekends and almost never "set it" and leave for work. That's not it's only selling point. You can prep a whole meal in the morning and not think about it until dinner time. That doesn't mean you need to be an 80s Working Girl to appreciate it.

How'd ya like a nice Hawaiian Punch?

McDonalds individual pies. They were delicious with thick, blistered shells that were probably so tasty because they were fried in lard or tallow. But you could always be sure the filling would be a few degrees hotter than molten lava. I got burned so motherfucking badly a couple times, mouth blisters and all, that I stopped even asking for them, which was a sacrifice, because I loved them. I suppose I was just a fat WHORE, Jr, without the self control to wait half an hour to take a bite.

Crockpots were established by the 80s, but definitely around c. 1974.

R542 I forgot all about those molten hot pies.

Anything from this place, which peaked in 1973.

Thank you for all of these memories. They are, to me, a fascinating read.

I came across this funny video a few months ago and was cleaning out old emails and thought I'd post her for shits 'n giggles.

[bold]Back in Time for Dinner 1970s.

Indeed, R546, me too. I was born in the mid-70s, so most of my very early childhood memories border on the beginning of the 80s, but a lot of this thread has triggered some very early memories that I'd mostly forgotten.

I re-peat, I have never been a sponsor, investor in anything associated with Famous Amos. I'll bet you little people do not even know the origins of that hideous product.

Yes, it all started with jokes about something that sounds like the name, and with a bet that they could get white people to eat anything ass-ociated with their guilt and a stereotyped happy fat African American. This was in 1975, my mama told me.

You just better check the fine print on those mother fucking packages, is all I'm going to say.

And I do not condone.

MY favorite food from circa 1974, when I was a wee baby diva with more #1's than anyone else in history, is cheese fondue with my very special seasoning. You have to use spoons, though, because after the first bite those little forks can be dangerous.

Now fuck away. I'm busy. Shit.

You know how hard it Is to be robbing convenience stores with two masks on?

Your mom.

Triscuits. Dry AF!

SARA LEE frozen crumb cakes, brownies, cup cakes. You can still find the pecan coffee cake but it’s tasteless now.

I couldn't resist buying Entenmann's Apple Puffs when I went to the grocery store and they were staring at me. In the 70's, they were delicious, fruit-filled, iced goodness. I swear, that although these are still "puffed", they are virtually empty, with a smattering of apple preserves inside. Plus they taste of chemicals.

Red River Cereal. Best cereal I've ever had.

The Bobo Brothers bought Entenmann’s & it hasn’t been the same since. I miss their Brownie Crumb Ring, which was a buttery vanilla Bundt cake, mocha frosting with crumbled brownie cake on top, dusted with confectioners sugar. It sounds super sweet, but it wasn’t.

Their current single pan layer mocha cake isn’t even close.

9 Lives

Wasn’t Angel Delight a kind of Whip N Chill in the UK?

Wasn’t Angel Delight a kind of Whip N Chill in the UK?

Gravy Train

Gravy Train

How do you handle a hungry man?

The Manhandlers

Pine tree.

Many parts are edible!

Cheesecake.

I always feed my pussy Fancy Fist.

VERY 1970s.

^^^[Mr Humphreys faints]