Does reptile meat mixed with fortified wine sound appetizing to you? If not
then you'll absolutely understand why these old-school comfort foods aren't very popular anymore
The 1950s were a time of some truly weird food creations. Some of them never quite made it out
of the decade, while others have managed to hang around in some capacity. Tuna noodle casserole
wasn't invented in the 50s, as the recipe first appeared in 1930 in a magazine published in the
Pacific Northwest. It was popular in the region well into World War II, where it gained popularity
as a cheap, quick dish. By the 50s, it had spread to the Midwest, where it became a mainstay on many
dinner tables for decades to come. That is, until the late 90s and early 2000s spelled its downward
trend. It was the primary ingredient that spelled this casserole's end. After decades of continuous growth, sales of canned tuna began to see a decline in the 90s
due to growing concerns about its healthfulness and sustainability. "'A tuna casserole.
"'Yes.' "'May I serve?' "'Please.'" Many comfort foods today are pretty much ubiquitously popular across much of the United States
But in the pre-Internet era, it wasn't uncommon for comfort foods of decades past to never
spread outside a particular region. That was the case for chicken a la King
At the turn of the 20th century, it was both a comfort food and an upscale dish popular at
restaurants. It features diced chicken with mushrooms and peppers served in a cream sauce
and poured over toast. While the name may sound a little French, it was likely born and bred in the
Big Apple. -"New York!" Between 1910 and the 1960s, Chicken a la King appeared on more than 300 menus and restaurants
around the city. But by the late 70s, it had already begun to fade
Long before a bowl of cereal became a breakfast table staple, another simple dish held a similar
place. Milk toast traces its origins at least as far back as the 1800s. It starts with a
slice of toast, spread with butter, torn into pieces, and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar
Then it's topped with milk that's been heated on the stove and seasoned with salt
It's tough to say exactly where this simple dish got its start, but it is known that as late as the
1930s, recipes for milk toast were included in cookbooks. While you may not hear about it much
these days, a similar recipe is a popular childhood lunch item in Hong Kong. It's called
condensed milk toast, and it consists of toast spread with condensed milk and butter
In the 1990s, Sloppy Joe's were a staple of lunchroom cafeterias and potluck dinners
But this messy creation was actually invented decades earlier. Some think it was created in 1930
when a cook named Joe from Sioux City, Iowa mixed loose meat with tomato sauce and served it on
on bread Others claim that it originated at Sloppy Joe Bar in Key West Florida And still others believe that it was originally a take on a classic Cuban dish either picadillo or ropa vieja and that it was being served in Havana as early as 1917
In any case, Sloppy Joe saw a rise in their popularity at the end of the 20th century
but then they all but disappeared elsewhere by the end of the 90s. While the culprit behind its demise isn't exactly clear, it likely made its way out
cafeterias due to campaigns to perform school lunch programs. I made them extra slobby for this
Fondue first appeared in cookbooks in the 18th century in France and Belgium
but the term has its origins in Switzerland from around the same time
when it was used to refer to a meal made from bread that was often stale
dipped in cheese to make it soft, and helped stretch rations during the winter
Fondue exploded in popularity in the United States in 1964 after it was featured in the
Alpine-themed restaurant in the Swiss Pavilion at the World's Fair. Then Switzerland's cheese makers banded together to create a union and prevent competition
They launched a marketing campaign in the 70s that featured actors dressed in skiing outfits
dipping bread, meats, and more into creamy pots of melted cheese. Home fondue pots then grew
in popularity, and soon fondue house parties were also a growing trend. But like most trends
it faded away by the end of the decade, though it popped back up in the early 2000s
You can still dip all manner of appetizers and creamy cheese at many fondue restaurants
but DIY kits have once again disappeared from most store shelves. Do you... fondue
White gravy was already a popular cheap military ration by the time of World War I
when chipped beef made its way into the recipe. These thin slices of smoked
salted beef were served on a slice of toast and then smothered in gravy
to make a hot, simple dish to fill soldiers' stomachs. While it was gaining new and alternative
ingredients, like parsley for flavor or tomato sauce to thicken the dish, chipped beef also
made its way into the mainstream. Variations were a cheat meal for families during the Great
Depression and later as a popular breakfast dish at diners in Pennsylvania. Some national
chains have even offered it on their menus. But while chipped beef lives on primarily as a military
dish, even they've altered the recipe to make it healthier, usually treating the chipped beef for
very lean ground beef or ground turkey. Long before door dashers were racing through the street
TV dinners were a mainstay for American families short on time and looking for simple solutions
Frozen dinners as a concept were actually created before households had a microwave to heat them in
In the mid-1920s, Clarence Birdseye developed a machine that could freeze packaged fish to
help it stay safe longer. A couple of decades later, frozen dinners hit the scene, but only
as meals served on airlines. It would take until 1953 for 260 tons of frozen leftover Thanksgiving
turkey to inspire a Swanson salesman to create partitioned aluminum trays filled with turkey and sides to freeze and sell to the public And thus TV dinners were born The frozen meal industry saw rapid growth from the mid until the turn of the 21st
century, but 2008 marked the beginning of the end of this comfort food's reign, as frozen
dinners saw their first decline in almost 60 years, a trend that's continued with only
brief pauses since then. While the name might say egg, you won't find any yolks or whites in an egg cream — or
any cream, for that matter. Instead, it has just three ingredients — whole milk, soda water, and chocolate syrup
What did you say? An egg cream? This sweet comfort drink is thought by some to have been invented in the 1880s, when a
Yiddish theater star by the name of Boris Tomaszewski decided to recreate a Chocolat
et Cream drink that he'd had in Paris. But most historians seem to agree that a Jewish candy store owner named Louis Oster actually
invented the drink. He's also rumored to have regularly sold some 3,000 of his creations in a single day
The creator of the original egg cream took the recipe for his syrup to the grave, but
most Brooklyn natives swear that the only way to make one today is Fox's You Bet Chocolate Syrup
While you can still find egg cream served in Brooklyn, they began to fade in popularity
by the 60s and are largely unheard of outside of New York
Long before Army soldiers dug into piles of creamed beef on toast, they were eating baked
beans. This canned food staple first emerged around the Civil War. Then, sometime around
the 1890s, someone had the idea to add chopped sausages to the mix, and thus a new comfort
food was born. By 1980, beans and franks were widely available pre-made in cans. This combo
was at one time such a staple of the American diet that it even had a holiday dedicated in its honor
as National Beans and Franks Day comes around every July 13th. But both of the main ingredients
have taken a hit in recent years. The healthiness of hot dogs has especially been called into
question many times in the past couple of decades. For example, in 2021, researchers at the University
of Michigan estimated that a single hot dog can shave 36 minutes off your life
You probably wouldn't consider eating turtles in any form to be comfort food
but not so long ago, turtle soup was considered a delicacy for the upper crust
It was so popular, in fact, that it practically wiped out an entire species
The diamondback Terrapin was the turtle of choice for hardscrabble diners, until it shifted from a subsistence food to an upper-class menu item in the mid-19th century
Sherry was a key ingredient, and when Prohibition hit, turtle soup went the way of the dodo
The terrapins eventually recovered, though more than half of all turtle and tortoise species
remain endangered. Turtle soup eventually made a bit of a recovery, as it was found on menus
as recently as the mid-20th century. But it's not exactly the easiest dish to prepare
owing in part to the difficulty of removing the shell and separating usable parts from the less desirable elements Nowadays it seen as a strange delicacy in much of the Western world
rather than anything resembling a comfort food. Am I not turtly enough for the turtle club
Is it steak, is it hamburger, or is it a little of both
Salisbury steak remains one of the lasting mysteries of 20th century comfort food trends
though it originated long before that. As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, Dr. James Salisbury believed that his chopped steak could cure chronic diarrhea in Civil War
soldiers. By the time processed foods were becoming a staple of the American diet
Salisbury steak had found its way into TV dinners. But when TV dinners began waning in popularity in
the mid-1980s, so too did the Salisbury steak. Since then, it's never regained its place in the
world of comfort food. With much better fare available, a pulverized meat substance formed
into a patty doesn't exactly scream comfort. Here's hoping it never makes a comeback
Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Jell-O salad, an odd combination of name-brand gelatin and just about anything you can find
in the refrigerator, was a comfort food standard when Jell-O ruled the processed food world
There were variations for just about every taste or lack thereof. Onions, peppers, tuna, green olives, shrimp, carrots, spinach, and other various vegetables
all somehow managed to get mixed together with this classic gelatin. With all these creative combinations circulating around domestic dining rooms, it's not too
difficult to see what might have knocked Jell-O salad off the comfort food buffet
day. As it turns out, fish, vegetables, and meat suspended in reconstituted connective
tissue ultimately aren't all that appetizing. Once cooler heads prevailed, Jell-O jiggled
back to its previous self-proclaimed status as America's most famous dessert, and Jell-O
salad became nothing more than a distant memory. Almost as controversial as the infamous Washington, D.C. hotel it's named for, Watergate salad
salad was a picnic and potluck staple in the not-so-distant past. This combination of pistachio
pudding mix, marshmallows, whipped cream, and pineapple topped with chopped nuts and cherries
charmed visitors to the Watergate Hotel before making its way to deli counters and grocery
stores across America. But now, it's disappeared just as much as a certain portion of former
President Nixon's White House tapes. Well, I'm not a crook." If you think of Watergate salad as Ambrosia salad's hipper, younger sibling, then you
can get a sense of why it had its moment. The name itself may be partly to blame for its downfall
The Watergate scandal made a mess of the American presidency that still reverberates to this day
But also, the waning popularity of Jell-O pudding mix and Jell-O salads is what really
did this fluffy comfort food in. As a culinary relic that's best left in the past, Watergate salad is now a kitschy reference
to the days when government conspiracies were just reserved for the tabloids