Jellied salads. Spam and lima beans. Mayonnaise-based puddings. Glace cherries and pineapple rings. Why does dinner party cuisine from the 1970s seem quite so appalling by modern standards?
We attempted to find out… with a cooking class at New Town Cookery School in Edinburgh on the 19th of September, 2024.
During theis event, we put together several classic 1970s dinner party recipes, and enjoyed some delightful beverages and a short talk about why dinner parties in the 1970s looked the way they did, tasted the way they did, and involved quite so much gelatine.
On the menu was:
- Spam and Lima Beans
- Miniature Frosty the Slaw Ghosts
- Try and Guess Salad
- Banana Candles and Cranberry Candles
- A Crown Roast of Hot Dogs
- Harvey Wallbangers and Blue Hawaiians
- Hot Dr Pepper and 7Up with Milk
- A Cheese and Pickle Hedgehog
- A Betty Crocker “Mystery” Fruitcake
You can read more about how it went in this blog post… but the short version is: many of these creations were surprisingly palatable.
This was our first time hosting a culinary history event, but we’re looking forward to arranging more in the future!