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50 Cursed Recipes From Vintage Cook Books To Leave Your Stomach Confused (New Pics)
Cookbooks have come a long way... They're shiny, sleek, minimalist and some even tell a whole, captivating story between the recipes and food pics. Talking of modern food pics, those often come with their own glam team in the background, styled and photographed to perfection. Even something as simple as a cheese sandwich might look as if it's spent over three hours in hair and make-up.
It's a far cry from the food pics in the cookbooks our parents and grandparents once perused. Grainy, ambitious, structurally unsound, and bizarrely hilarious. Back then, vegetables appeared in neon hues that nature never intended, and Jell-O reigned supreme. Moms would get lost in creativity, attempting eggplant penguins, nappa cabbage angels or bridal meat dolls. Why be basic when you can create chaotic, culinary art?
If today's recipes bore you, or you're just looking for a good belly-laugh, head over to and Instagram account called Cursed Cookbooks. It's a gallery of gastronomical offbeat delights. More than 56,000 people gather in this corner kitchen of the internet to laugh and cry about the absurdities of vintage cookbooks. Bored Panda has put together a compilation of the page's best posts for you to feast your eyes on while you contemplate what to cook for dinner tonight.
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#3
Huddo's sister 11 months ago
To be fair, I would eat some of it, the salmon and prawns look okay
#5
Daya Meyer 11 months ago
Why has it been so popular to put food in aspic? Neither does it look nicer nor it tastes better.
#6
Huddo's sister 11 months ago
I am definitely my mother's daughter-my first thought was 'what a waste of food'!
#10
Rose the Cook 11 months ago
I remember these cakes. I always wanted one as a child, never got one of course.
#13
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#21
Huddo's sister 11 months ago
About 2014, I saw so many people carving watermelons into things and filling them with fruit salad. All I've ever done is cut one in half, eaten the fruit, then filled it with jelly.
#26
Powerful Katrinka 11 months ago
I love sardines. And I squeeze lemons on them. Providing this recipe doesn’t involve Cool Whip, it might actually be good.
#32
Blue Bunny of Happiness 11 months ago
Is it bad that I’m starting to want to make all these vegetable decorations for Christmas?
#36
#40
#43
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#48
Huddo's sister 11 months ago
So it's a sweet jelly? I know carrot cake is sweet but nice, but I don't think this will be as nice.
#57
#61
#63
Huddo's sister 11 months ago
Did anyone regularly make all these decorative things for their dinner parties? Looks like a lot of effort for something you can't even eat.
#75
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#79
Multa Nocte 11 months ago
I would escort you firmly off the property if you ever brought that to my house.
#85
Multa Nocte 11 months ago
They had something like this earlier on the list that they called a milk chicken. It was similarly unappetizing.
#94
Daya Meyer 11 months ago
The origin of this is germany but it definately looks different and some of the ingedients are strange. Bacon drippings, for example.
#98
#101
Huddo's sister 11 months ago
We used to make 'ribbon' sandwiches (three pieces of bread) each year for my church's fashion parade fundraiser. One of the favourite fillings was ginger and cream cheese. I didn't always like the combinations (the different fillings in each layer often clashed) but if they go well together, this would be nice.
#102
Huddo's sister 11 months ago
If you are serving one per person, that's a lot of celery leftover, after using only the bottom piece. I hope they have a good soup recipe or something.
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Multa Nocte 11 months ago
The current article title (although these change a lot) is "102 Disturbingly Creative Vintage Recipes That Kind Of Explain Why Gen X Is The Way That It Is." In defense of Generation X, most of these recipes were actually published in cookbooks and magazines in the early to mid 1950s, which means that even Boomers would not have been old enough to be submitting these hideous recipes.
bkwrm636 11 months ago
Thank you! This stuff is clearly pre-Gen X. I've never been served anything in aspic or some random meat made into a "cake" in my life.
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Mike F 11 months ago
Lucky you, I got to 25 and got tired of the "aspic for all occasions" and quit.
Load More Replies... Daya Meyer 11 months ago
The funniest thing here (germany) is an ad between those cooked nightmares with the title 'The art of not reacting to everything'. But that is hard. Very hard.
Multa Nocte 11 months ago
The current article title (although these change a lot) is "102 Disturbingly Creative Vintage Recipes That Kind Of Explain Why Gen X Is The Way That It Is." In defense of Generation X, most of these recipes were actually published in cookbooks and magazines in the early to mid 1950s, which means that even Boomers would not have been old enough to be submitting these hideous recipes.
bkwrm636 11 months ago
Thank you! This stuff is clearly pre-Gen X. I've never been served anything in aspic or some random meat made into a "cake" in my life.
Load More Replies... Mike F 11 months ago
Lucky you, I got to 25 and got tired of the "aspic for all occasions" and quit.
Load More Replies... Daya Meyer 11 months ago
The funniest thing here (germany) is an ad between those cooked nightmares with the title 'The art of not reacting to everything'. But that is hard. Very hard.
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