Before instant gelatin was invented, getting gelatin was a long, disgusting process involving cow/calf bones. Even after it started to be sold in premade sheet form, you still had to soak it and process it at home for a couple of days, and it made the house stink. It's no wonder people went wild for the clean, instant kind in little envelopes.

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OK, stuff I would never eat from the past:

Bananas and Spinach au gratin (Florence Greenberg's Jewish Cookery Book. 1947)

Salad of oranges, onions and apples "marinated in French Dressing" (Potluck Cookery - Beverly Pepper. 1955)

Curried Rabbit - i.e stew of rabbit, curry powder and sultanas. (Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium. 1955)

Hawaiian Ham Casserole - i.e. ham, pineapple, sweet potato, canned onion soup, lots of brown sugar. (Casserole Treasury - Lousenne Rousseau Brunner. 1970)

In general though, I would advise everyone who likes to cook to raid the kitchen shelves if elderly relatives. Ask nicely first!)

Salads aside, Beverly Pepper's Potluck Cookery, is actually really good for thrifty cooking, it's the culinary equivalent of 'shop in your wardrobe', with the contents pages laid out accordingly. It's also very cheap. ([www.amazon.com])

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It's a shame your mom can't see you know, deftly wielding those commenting skills honed at her expense.

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Time to get out of here and work on tomorrow's hangover.

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Ground beef, a pound or so of bacon, a shitload of different kinds of beans, ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard. You leave it on the stove on low for like 4 hours, then serve on styrofoam plates next to a non-Kosher hot dog. As a variation, you can cut up hot dogs at the end and throw them in, for pure Midwestern goodness.

As a Jewish kid, this horrified and fascinated me. Worthy of note: it tastes awesome.

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@doodley is not amused: I agree.

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