There was a time when bananas were considered a perfectly reasonable option for a dish’s main component. Food in loaf form was also popular. Cookbooks with names like McCall’s Great American Recipe Card Collection and Betty Crocker’s Dinner in a Dish Cookbook trotted these dishes out as quick and easy ways to feed your family and impress your guests, and similar recipes were also featured in magazines like Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens.
We’re not sure if dishes like these were all some sort of prank orchestrated by the editors of these magazines, or whether Betty Crocker and Better Homes were getting serious kickbacks from the mayonnaise, gelatin, and banana industries. But believe it or not, everything here was published with complete sincerity, and, presumably, some people actually cooked these recipes and fed them to their families or friends.
Here are 17 recipes from the 1971 Betty Crocker card catalogue, a collection of dishes we should be glad we’ll (most likely) never be forced to eat.
1. Glamorous Grapefruit
The fruit salad cups themselves look great, but the sad, gloopy yogurt seems a little too pink. It does win a few Fergie points for being G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S tho.
2. Fonduloha
This so-called “American Classic” starts off with potential, with what looks like a tropical chicken salad. Could be a total win. But once the recipe calls for peanuts, bananas, and a pineapple boat, it’s just too much.
3. Round Steak ‘N Ravioli
Zucchini, mushroom spaghetti sauce, and canned ravioli. Imagine this kind of thing being put on the table in the ’70s with the warning, “You’ll eat it and you’ll like it.”
4. Curried Fish in Rice Ring
Dive right into this above-ground swimming pool of curried fish. No takers besides that simple garnish of… kumquats?
5. Cheese-Egg Bake
It’s like the photo was taken by someone who Instagrams their food in all the worst ways. Or like Martha Stewart’s food tweets.
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