Boomers couldn’t get enough of their gelatin “delights”, sweet, savory, anything jelly-like was welcome on the dinner table. In this case, we have a jellified assortment of mostly unidentifiable canned vegetables. Dinner is served, ladies and gentlemen!
The beauty of this dish lies in its ability to mystify even the most discerning palates. Can you identify every single vegetable within? Probably not. That is part of the charm. Baby boomers and their undying love for all things gelatinous — living their best culinary lives, one gelatin mold at a time. Excuse us while we make a beeline to the bathroom.
Tuna Upside-Down Casserole
The people at Mid-Century Menu actually had the guts to taste this eerie-looking dish. Their courage deserves applause, even if their taste buds might not agree. Fun fact: this recipe came courtesy of a canned vegetable company called Veg-All and consists of canned vegetables (of course, because why use fresh...?), mayonnaise, cheese, and tuna.
Who needs fresh food when you can crack open a can, right? We're sure this would look the same coming out as it did going in, if you catch our drift. Not all recipes from the past should be resurrected. Some dishes are best left in the depths of obscurity.
Blue Cheese "Mousse"
Culinary experiments such as this should never see the light of day. This...this is horrifying on a number of levels. It's literally gelatinous blue cheese, cottage cheese, and sour cream - with nothing else included. No additional flavors or fancy ingredients to redeem it.
Just a slimy mix of dairy products that somehow managed to find its way onto a plate. And to make things that much more unsettling, the dish is naturally blue. Talk about a visual assault on the senses! We dock our hats to the brave souls who dared to taste Blue Cheese "Mousse" and lived to tell the tale.
Frozen Cheese Salad
This recipe for Weight Watchers is just the kind of recipe you need to lose a few extra pounds. Mainly because no one would be able to stomach more than a teaspoon of this cheese blob. Don’t get us wrong. We love our cheese. But this so-called salad is enough to turn even the most fanatical cheese lover into a vegan.
Making this frozen delight even less appealing is the baffling uncooked broccoli as garnish. You know, just in case you forgot it was a salad. Nothing says "appetizing" like a raw vegetable topping. We’ll stick to more traditional salads, thank you very much.
Jelly Soufflé Salad
Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse, enter the Jelly Soufflé Salad. This oddity is a forgotten gem from the '60s that will make you grateful for the evolved tastes of the present. What is it? An unfathomable fusion of fish, gelatin, and citrus.
Yes, apparently, someone thought that was a good idea. It’s one of those trends that belongs to a bygone era and will (no, MUST) forever remain there. You’ve got to hand it to baby boomers and their kitchen experiments. Were they creative geniuses? Audacious? Or just plain loopy? The jury’s out on that one.