I remember back in the 90's Hambrger Helper had "Chicken Helper" and Chicken Tetrazini was one of the varieties. I used to love it. So now as an adult with culinary skills, it's time to bring back a childhood favorite, from scratch.
I still crave most of these dishes, especially the tetrazzinis--but I never recall that rabbit dishes were popular, and I never even heard of that "Hawaiian" horror. Someone said liverwurst should be eaten on rye or pumpernickel which I will not disagree with, but back then the most common was white bread, smeared with mayo and topped with a slice of onion. The soft mouth feel was important, so Wonder Bread ok, a sourdough would be an abomination. To the palates of the time I think the fat in the mayo enhanced the creaminess of the liver, while mellowing its assertive flavor--the vinegary sharpness of mustard I think was unnecessary and only needed now to counteract the flavors of rye or pumpernickel. I still have occasional fond memories of baloney and swiss, or olive loaf, or head cheese--but passing nostalgia, mainly. Roast goose seems either Victorian, or Mitteleuropa to me, not '70s. I love chicken a la king, sloppy joes, eggs and corned beef hash, Salisbury steak, etc. but I guess these became popular well before the '70s even if no one eats them now. I think you forget both the cheese and beef fondues still popular in the '70s, although I guess they also date to maybe the '60s or even late '50s.
My mom's favorite dish was turkey tetrazzini. I made it for her for her 80th birthday. It was so rich that we couldn't eat more than a small portion. That was her last birthday. I made Broccoli Green Rice Casserole and Boston cream pie for her. She was so happy to enjoy her favorite dishes on her last birthday.
Our Mom always made turkey tetrazzini with the leftover Thanksgiving turkey! I can still taste it and now that you've mentioned it, I will look up her recipe and make some! 😋🥰
I just lost my mom this year, I wish I could remember what we ate on her last birthday. She was such a good cook and she loved to eat(though you wouldn't know it with how skinny she was) I don't think I could name her favorite dish she liked everything but chicken was her favorite meat.
As someone whose teen years were in the 70's, I can say that about 90% of these dishes never were a part of any family's table I ever saw or heard about.
Me too. Born in 70 and we weren't earing most of this stuff. I've never heard of some of them (like that celery thing,, or that revolting looking sardine salad).
None of this was on our Midwestern dinner table in the 70's. Mom made meatloaf, baked chicken, beef stroganoff, corned beef and cabbage, scalloped potatoes with ham, occasionally breakfast for dinner, frozen fish sticks and Kraft Mac n Cheese,and lots of Chef Boyardee, Mary Kitchen, Hormel, and Campbell soups. Spaghetti at Grandma's on Sunday.
this! i had this really weird split of lower and upper middle class due to a divorce but on either side the staples were the same. Fried/oven baked taters, cornbread, beans, and chilli.
Stephen, to you I say, "amen brother". Growing up in San Antonio, Texas in the 1950's, pinto beans, fried potatoes and cornbread was a very common meal for my family several times a week. I'm 71 years old and at least once a month I will make a huge pot of pinto beans. My wife, who is from East Texas makes the cornbread and fried potatoes. She too grew up poor and fried potatoes and cornbread was a staple in her diet as a youth.
@@jpwantland2960 I cook my pintos the way my mom thought me. Fried potatoes same way...the cornbread I've changed up a bit. I fry out some bacon, 3/4 of the pack..lol. I then shred up some sharp cheddar cheese and add both to the cornbread. I find myself at times...just eating the cornbread. ...lol. When I was young, it was a piece of cornbread into a glass of milk and then 😋. Thanks for the kind words and you folks have a great week.
We even had a pot of pintos on the Thanksgiving table, we had all the usual stuff too we all just liked beans. And don't forget homemade biscuits and jam.
@@itsjustme7487 My mom’s had a hard cover that was falling apart too, but I thought that book was a food bible!!! I could just sit there and read through it and feel like I was watching a cooking show. The ones with pictures from the 60’s and earlier were like magazines of history for me. Great memories. Never got any of the updated newer editions, just kept the classic ones.
@@larrysmith2638perhaps but they aren't the same. My mother bought me a new copy of Better Homes and Gardens in the late 90s. Hated it, none of my favorites from her older edition were in the new one. I traded with her for the old edition. Still use it regularly. I've compared editions of Joy of Cooking and much prefer the older (50s and 60s) ones. I assume Betty Croker has similar changes.
My Mom made Polish style pancakes a lot in the 50s and less often in the 60s. She would have a potato pancakes supper every couple of months and invite my brothers but not me.
Absolutely.. and Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Cacciatore.. and my mother even tried a Baked Alaska once.. I still remember that feeling when all that ice cream went into the oven! 😂 😂 It was fine. I guess all that meringue shields most of the heat.
@@chriswallace9113 60% of Americans don't have to funds to cover a unforeseen $1000 expense that is not the middle class experience of past decades. In the 70s which was a stagnant economy the average American was able to put away 12% of their income into savings and retirement today it's less than 6.
@@TheAtkey The bottom 90% of income earners have never saved at a rate above 10%. Ever. I sure don’t expect them to now with such easy credit and 401Ks, which aren’t savings. People used to save FOR things. Now they get them on credit. People prepare for retirement differently now. I have very little in savings but my 401K and IRA look pretty good, all things considered. I’ll have a nice retirement but, by the stats you use, I don’t save much so can’t possibly be middle class. Not that it matters because socioeconomic status isn’t determined by the rate at which one saves.
I grew up in the South in the 50's. We had corn fritters frequently at dinner, cooked by both my mother and my grandmother, so they have been around a while! I continued the tradition by making several types of fritters for my family - corn, zucchini, tuna. All are delicious.
Most of these recipes were out of reach for the poorer people like my family. Rabbits, frogs and others meats were what We lived on. Because they didn't have to be bought.
Actually our (US,) economy is fantastic just around 3 years after a generational plague.... really, honestly, it really going to get better...in fact young people will probably have more opportunities than even us Boomers.... it's just going to be different sadly people are terrified of change
Me too. However my mother did make Turkey Tetrazzini and Chicken Cacciatore (they didn't mention). The rest came from Better Crocker or Better homes and Gardens cookbooks or magazines is where my mother got her recipes. Oh! They left out tuna casserole!
@@LAWandCoach bsolutely false and unlikely that this tetrazzini style stuff comes from Italy, a bit like Alfredo: they don't exist, they are probably Americans or Italian Americans who invent a scary cuisine and then say it's Italian, Italian cuisine is much healthier and lighter of that horrible food!
I didn't eat middle class meals in the 70s and 80s. I ate poor mans meals. I was in my early 30s before i could afford to make middle class meals at home. Thanks to that sacrifice i now own a house.....well, i own 25%, my wife owns 25% and the Bank owns the other 50%.
When you have to pay property taxes , you never really own your home. It’s doubly worse when you have a mortgage. I paid off a 30 year mortgage in 12 years. It was a struggle , but the thought of having a 30 ton stone on my back was unbearable. But anyway , all the best to you, and do try to payoff your mortgage as soon as possible.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 hey bigger dog it's not owning if it can be taken at anytime you don't pay your yearly rent. Taxes on land should and have been on initial purchase. Now it's a rent. Maybe they can start doing every 6 months of the tax collecting to really feel the freedom of owning land. How about a right to bear arms tax to? You think the government pays a tax to the IRS on any of its own land?
@TheMinnie1468 oh yeah, that's how my Grandma did fancy. My sister and I coveted the little jars for some reason, too. Don't know why, other than that they were little and cute and there was only ever one available. I remember using them to hold those pesky barbie shoes that were forever getting lost.
I remember when I was about 8 years old, I was spending the night at a friends house and her mom served us frogs legs. At the time, she made us think they were chicken. Once we tried them, we cleaned our plates. After dinner, she told us what we had eaten. My friend got sick, but I liked them so I told her mom I can’t wait to eat them again!
I was about 8 when we had a family dinner at my grandparents farm. We kids were told we were eating fish from their pond that they had caught. Turned out it we had eaten mountain oysters (young bull testicles).
I was born in the early 1960s. By the end of the decade and into the mid 1970s, we ate every one of these foods. Often, because we LIKED them, and I still do!
Come on Klaus no southerner would ever have Liverwurst on the table. It might be good but if it is not chicken, ham, or beef likely I would have missed that dish. Shrimp and fish were also good.
I was a child of the seventies. I've never heard of most of these. My mother did make fried potato cakes (she never called them rissoles) and turkey tetrazzini was a staple of cafeterias in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I've had steamed pudding and boullabaisse, but not in the 70s, and never made it at home. I'm sure you can find all these things in 1970s cookbooks, but I don't know if you can call them classics.
I grew up middle class in the 70s, and I've never heard of most of these, let alone ate them! Middleclass people couldn't afford frogs legs, rabbit, and the other stuff this guy is prattling on about. Try again, with more hot dogs and hamburger, and less frog legs and rabbit!
White and Red Hering Salad is a classic dish of the traditional German kitchen . You find it in every supermarket. The white salad is prepared with onions, apples some herbs and the red version adds beets for colour. Potatoes are not added though (that is the Eastern European tradition). We would eat this salad with rustic / artisan bread or fried potatoes. The earthy flavour of the beets is not that present because the Hering”s dominant flavour overshadows it. In fact if prepared with a light mayonnaise, it is quite healthy as the components contain so much iron, minerals, good fish omega oils etc. With fresh apple pieces it also has a nice crunch to it. So taste wise you get many different flavours: the slightly salty , soft texture and fish taste, the slightly acid and fruity and sometimes even sweet taste of crunchy apples, some sharpness from the the onions and the more firm texture with the cooked beets. If you ever come to Europe, give it a try. Well prepared it literally activates so many different taste sensors, it is in my humble opinion surprisingly good (though maybe not the best looking ...) 😊
I make something similar for a Julbord, a traditional Swedish Christmas feast. My kids are half-Japanese (distantly, my wife’s family has been here for a long time) so they get some dips of Japan and I figure I might as well add some of my own heritage as well.
Growing up in the 1970s, sharing cooking duties with my sister, we may have heard of many of these fancy dishes, but made very few of them. Most nights were some version of hamburger or ham, usually in Hamburger Helper. Occasionally we would make oyster stew for our father. Given the higher prices of meat in the '70s, a budget of $25 a week for food, and two inexperienced young cooks in the kitchen, we were lucky not to burn the tuna noodle casserole.
I love Oyster Stew my Father used to make at least once a week He was a great cook and I miss Him so much. He passed away Labor Day Weekend in 2016 He had both of his knees replaced and the last one got a blood clot He went to the hospital and they put Him on Blood Thinners and they wanted Him to stay but my Step Mother didn't want to be bothered with going to see him. The Dr said that he would have been ok if he had just stayed in the hospital. We found out that He passed away in Facebook and she remarried with in 6 months my Father left a Farm with Black Angus Cattle and her and her drug addict son sold everything they could her son burned the barn down with his Harley Davidson in side it and his guns we live in Avondale, AZ the only good thing she can't sell the Farm, land, House because it goes to Me and my siblings !!
So many dishes from my youth I haven't had in ages, not the least of which are fried bologna sandwiches on toasted bread w/ Gulden's mustard. I also loved ants on a log, which my mom packed in my lunch during my school days, which were celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter and small raisins dotted across the top.
I loved liverwurst! So creamy! Great sandwiches, Especially with sliced tomatoes! Turkey tetrazzini was popular after Thanskgiving! Heard of all those dishes but very few were cooked in my home in the seventies!
I grew up in the Deep South in the 60’s and 70’s. We were middle class and ate mostly liver and onions, fried potatoes and eggs, navy beans and corn bread, steak and french fries, various hamburger or chicken casseroles, chili in the winter, fried catfish, fried chicken, and roast beef. In the summer Dad grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, and any fish we caught at the lake. The first time I had Ratatouille was in the ‘80’s. I had a freeze dried turkey tetrazzini backpacking meal a couple of times in the late ‘70’s. Sometimes Dad would go exotic. I’ve eaten pork brains and egg scrambles, steak and kidney pie, head cheese. He was always experimenting with unusual foods so I’m sure I’ve missed some of his less successful dishes. Side dishes were mostly greens, green beans, spinach, corn, potatoes, and stewed tomatoes and butter beans. Dessert in the summer was peaches, baked peaches, peach cobbler, and homemade peach ice cream. Year round, it was ice cream, ice milk (hate it to this day), bread pudding, custard pie, baked apples. Breakfast was bacon and eggs with toast and jelly/honey mixed with butter, or cereal. We drank gallons of chocolate milk and sweet tea. These are the foods I remember. I’m sure I’ve missed some. Oh, we had simple salads and when Mom felt fancy, a pineapple ring with a dollop of salad dressing with a Maraschino cherry on top resting on a lettuce leaf. Always had a dress-up formal Sunday dinner in the afternoon usually fried chicken or roast beef, sometimes ham. Simple meals made with fresh food from the garden, lake, and farmers market. Dad didn’t hunt so wild game was sporadic. Mom didn’t know how to cook it anyway. Happy days.
You can still buy liverwurst at any grocery store deli. Oyster Stew is still very popular here in Eastern North Carolina. Rabbit stew (and rabbit cooked in any way you cook chicken) is also very popular with people who hunt, and you can buy rabbit in grocery stores in many places of the country. Same thing with goose, but it’s very expensive in stores. Frog legs are also still popular in many places….especially the south.
Did you know that over 5% of the Union Army were Germans that immigrated from Germany? Most of them lived above the Mason Dixon line. I guess that is why us southerners missed out on the liverwurst.
My father was the only one who made and ate Oyster Stew in our house and rabbit only once since I was so upset at 5-6 yrs.. but had they not told me it looked like chicken.
1:10 every Thanksgiving aftermath would feature a huge pan of turkey tetrazzini, covered in cheese and french fried onions. We would buy an extra can of the French fried onions for the tetrazzini. Absolutely freaking delicious.
Oooo! Liverwurst lotsa mayo on white bread....nothing else . It's an indulgence for me, and liverwurst is on my grocery now 😊 Everytime I watch these things I end up wanting so much more on my grocery list
Liverwurst & Braunschweiger were how I learned to like liver. For some reason, Christmas Eve, in pre- Vatican II , was a day of fast & abstinence, so no meat
@@robertsteele474 I love chicken livers too. I live where there's a Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken restaurant, and they have fried chicken livers, and I order them from time to time
@@marylist1236 A local sandwich shop used to make chopped chicken liver sandwiches. Rye bread, Chopped chicken liver, Sour cream, Cucumber slices, Red onion, and Dill.
@@robertsteele474 That sounds delicious. I live in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where do you live ? I ask, because that sounds like it's straight out of a delicatessen
You want some frog legs. I saw a RU-vid video where the guy put a small mouse fly on the end of his fishing pole line. He would dance the fly in front of bullfrogs and catch them for dinner. I guess it beats wading in the pond with a gig to get them. it worked. Now I just have to find the mouse fly. it even has a string tale. Can't you just buy chicken at the store?
It's not a class system like UK has. It's an economic designation. No one thought all that much about it 'til the media began yammering on about it in a political sense.
Stick pineapple in it and it becomes Hawaiian. People are simple creatures 🤷🏼♀️ We still eat corn fritters, Steak Diane, and half the other recipes you mentioned.
My mom made a version of chicken tetrazzini all the time. Only she boiled the chicken, cut up in pieces. When the chicken was almost done she added spaghetti noodles, broken up into pieces and cooked that. She sauteed onions, bell peppers and celery. Then she added cream of mushroom soup and/or cream of celery soup with the veggies to the pot of chicken and noodles and broth. Add salt,pepper, garlic powder and onion powder and you have Southern chicken spaghetti. I didn’t know about chicken tetrazzini until after I got married and moved to New York with my Air Force husband. I found it in a Betty Crocker cookbook that my husband had bought. I’ve made it a lot for my husband and children. But I have always called it chicken spaghetti. I have traveled a little throughout the Southern U.S. and have been served it by other southern housewives. They cooked it the same way Mother did.😊
I grew up in the 70s and never had ANY of these dishes. Probably because we were dirt poor. Acorn squash was a luxury (that's what I was told anyway; I hated it). Canned tuna casserole was a feast. We ate out once a month. Hamburger and onions was a favorite. Tetra-whatta?
Liversausage, Braunschweiger, Liverwurst, whichever you call it--is best on Rye bread or Pumpernickel. Not white bread. *I'm making this edit to my comment, in that I should have said: "I've eaten it on white bread and brown breads, I just think I like it best on the brown." No offense to anyone, or to white bread. I eat that a lot. 🙂
I learned to like Braunschweiger on soft white bread with butter or margarine. My mom liked to have it occasionally and we kids would have it too also in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
I grew up in a middle class American family where my Mom cooked every night and the entire family sat down at the dinner table thru the 1960's and 70's, I've never eaten any of these meals.
Hahaha I eat some of these things and I never had them in the 70s at all. I remember in college in the early 90s our cafeteria served Tettrazinni once a week. I had a liverwurst sandwich the other day.
The enormous amount of liver sausage on the sandwich is unimaginable! 😱 I'm German and like to eat bread with liverwurst. But I only use 1/4 of the amount of sausage shown. Also, I wouldn't dream of putting mayonnaise or other sauces on it. nice dark, moist bread, liverwurst and pickled cucumber or fresh cucumber or tomato and onions. fills you up, but has a lot fewer calories.
Begging everybody's pardon here who likes this stuff.... I'm glad most of it's not around today. My favorite memory from those on this list, though, is taking leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving or Christmas, adding a bit of flour, an egg, and maybe some chopped onion and frying them up into potato pancakes. Mom grew up in the PNW where they had a huge Scandinavian community and she said they'd serve potato pancakes with applesauce or sour cream. I liked mine with a touch of ketchup.
I’m a boomer, and the only one of these foods I’ve ever eaten was the corn fritters. We made them in Girl Scouts when we were learning about Native American food. I didn’t know anyone who cooked these foods. Maybe because I grew up in the southwest?
My family is Greek and when I was young we would have rabbit stew but done like a Stifado, which is a tomato based sauce with about 5 billion pearl onions in it. If you let it sit overnight the meat softens up so much and takes in so much flavor, it's just ridiculous. 7/4 stars, would recommend! Great with venison too, or other really lean meats.
My father tells the story of how his dad, my pappou, once brought home a live rabbit, and my uncle Emmanuel, Dad's little brother, made a great pet of the bunny and named him Oscar. Little did he guess that Oscar was destined for the stewpot. So one day, a dish of stifado appeared on the dinner table. Coincidentally, Oscar was nowhere to be seen... Where in Greece were your folks from? Pappou was from western Asia Minor, a village so close to Chios they could hear the church bells ringing across the strait, and a lot of our extended family are from the island.
