Although many activities revolve around Thanksgiving, the mouth-watering dinner is something we always look forward to. On the other hand, there are some vintage Thanksgiving that we never liked, whether because of how it tasted or looked (or both). While we couldn’t be happier that these tacky recipes are gone, it’s good to remember these recipes and why we disliked them so much.
Savory Jell-O salads
In the 1950s and 1960s, these savory salads were a Thanksgiving staple. It was a festive dish made with scallions, radishes, and a few spoons of vinegar. As expected, these jell-O dishes were always savory.
Although savory gelatin isn’t something Americans like eating nowadays, it was the norm some decades ago. What makes us not want this dish is that we often stuffed our faces with it- then the savory taste begins to repulse us.
Turkey aspic
The idea of making meals with gelatin came from the 1930s, when it was seen as a more affordable source of protein. This explains why Thanksgiving Turkey leftovers were usually turned into aspic in the following decades.
The turkey aspic recipe required frozen vegetables, celery soup cream, ranch dressing mixed with gelatin, and, of course, turkey. We remember the taste of this meal being so-so at best- we don’t ever want to taste it again.
Hot Dr. Pepper
Have you ever reminisced about something you did a long time ago, and the memory makes you ask what made you do it? Well, that’s exactly the feeling most people experience when they remember drinking hot Dr. Pepper.
In the late 60s, it became a common thing to serve steaming hot soda over lemon slices, as per an advert that went viral then. Let’s just say each person took it because everyone else did. As for the taste? It’s as weird as you can imagine.
Spam Birds
While many people can’t think of stuffings serving any other purpose on Thanksgiving Day than filling the turkey, it wasn’t always like that. A few decades ago, Spam birds were stuffed instead of turkey.
Spam birds were slices of pure pork that were usually packed in 12-ounce tins. These slices were wrapped around stuffings and were fastened with toothpicks. Although this didn’t exactly replace turkey, we’re glad we don’t have to endure eating them anymore.
Turkey loaf
This was another vintage Thanksgiving dish that was very common back then. Again, this turkey dish makes us wonder why people couldn’t just serve the regular grilled turkey without trying to make it into other things.
These loaves were made by grinding turkey and ham and mixing them with soup, apples, peppers, and other ingredients. Then, softened gelatin was added to the mixture. We’d rather eat the parsley garnish and just go to bed.
