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Home Cooks Dig Up 14 Comfort Meals From The 1970s, From Tuna Casserole To A Quiche That Hides Half A Cup Of Mayonnaise And An Unreasonable Amount Of Cheese

Susan Parker

Ask a group of home cooks what they ate for dinner in the 1970s and you will get a parade of casseroles, canned soup and plenty of cheese. A recent Reddit thread on r/Old_Recipes asked exactly that, and the answers had people feeling hungry and nostalgic at the same time.

Upworthy pulled together 14 comfort meals from the 1970s that are still delicious and affordable, and the list reads like a trip to grandma’s table.

Source: Upworthy.

The Words Comfort Food May Have Arrived In 1970

The article notes that, according to JSTOR Daily, actress Liza Minnelli likely used the modern meaning of “comfort food” for the first time in 1970. Baby Boomers and Generation Jones grew up on these dishes, and younger generations are rediscovering them as cheap, filling meals.

The recipes come from Redditors’ memories, so they are home cooks’ recollections and not tested recipes.

One Quiche Recipe Hides Half A Cup Of Mayonnaise

The star of the list may be the quiche Lorraine shared by a Redditor who gave away the secret: half a cup of mayonnaise and “an unreasonable quantity of cheese.”

The ingredients are ½ cup real mayonnaise, ½ cup milk, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1½ cups cubed cooked ham, 1½ cups chopped Swiss cheese (about half a pound), ⅓ cup sliced green onion, a dash of pepper and one unbaked 9-inch pastry shell.

Mix the wet ingredients until smooth, stir in the ham, cheese and onion, pour it all into the shell and bake at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes, until it is golden and a knife comes out clean.

Every Dish On The List Came From A Real Kitchen

Here are the 14 dishes people remembered:

  1. Tuna casserole, which one commenter made the night before and ate as leftovers for lunch.
  2. Turkey or chicken tetrazzini, a creamy pasta with mushrooms and cheese.
  3. Liver and onions, served with mashed potatoes and an iceberg lettuce salad dressed with Miracle Whip.
  4. Quiche Lorraine, the mayonnaise and cheese recipe above.
  5. Cheese fondue, with cubed crusty bread, fruit, vegetables or sausage chunks for dipping.
  6. Meatloaf and baked potatoes, made with ground beef, onion, breadcrumbs, an egg and a squirt of ketchup, baked at 350°F for an hour, with a meatloaf sandwich the next day.
  7. Pork chops with rice and cream of mushroom soup, simmered in one pan for about 20 minutes.
  8. Salmon croquettes, made from canned salmon, saltine crackers and an egg.
  9. Mexican casserole, layered with browned beef, a sour cream and cottage cheese mixture, crushed tortilla chips and Colby cheese.
  10. Hamburger stroganoff, made with ground beef, a packet of onion soup mix, cream of mushroom or chicken soup and sour cream over rice.
  11. Shake ‘N Bake chicken, baked at 400°F for 20 minutes for boneless pieces or 45 minutes for bone-in.
  12. Grilled cheese and tomato soup, which for one poster meant Campbell’s soup made with milk and Velveeta on white bread.
  13. Pork sausage and rice, from Peg Bracken’s “I Hate To Cook Book,” simmered an hour with green pepper, onion, celery and bouillon.
  14. Sloppy Joes, a regular at one family’s table.

Why These Old Recipes Still Make Sense At The Grocery Store

The article’s argument is simple: these meals are cheap, filling and homey, and they need no fancy ingredients or techniques. A can of salmon, a box of crumb coating or a can of cream of mushroom soup can become a memorable dinner in about forty-five minutes.

Many of them also use up pantry staples and leftovers. Meatloaf becomes a sandwich the next day. A casserole stretches a pound of meat to feed a table of people. In a time of high grocery bills, that matters.

If you want to try just one dish this week, the hamburger stroganoff and the pork chops with rice are the easiest to pull off on a weeknight. Both use ingredients most pantries already hold, and both come together in a single skillet, so cleanup is quick.

For the cook who likes to plan ahead, the meatloaf is a fine choice for a Sunday. Bake it with potatoes, enjoy the first night, then slice the leftovers for sandwiches with a little mustard. One pan of food turns into two meals, and that is exactly the kind of stretch that kept budgets balanced in the 1970s.

Cook It Safely And Make It Your Own

The article passes along USDA temperature guidance for old-fashioned recipes: 160°F for ground meat and egg dishes such as quiche, 165°F for poultry and casseroles, and 145°F plus a three minute rest for pork chops. A simple food thermometer takes the guesswork out of every one of them.

A few ways to bring these dinners into a modern kitchen:

Food from the 1970s was not trying to be fancy. It was trying to feed a family on a budget and make the house smell wonderful, and on a cold November evening, that is a hard combination to beat.

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