Clean Eating? Forget About It!

The 1960s were a weird and wonderful era for food. Julia Child was making a big splash with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking which elevated America's palettes and culinary sophistication. At the same time, however, Jell-O salads, canned, and instant foods reigned supreme. Everyone seemed to be experimenting with flavor combinations, mixing sweet, savory, tangy, and downright pungent. As exciting as it was, we hope never to have to endure some of these foods again. Here are 20 of the most baffling food trends of the 60s we're happy to say goodbye to.

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1. Fondue Parties

We like fondues as much as the next person. It's just the idea of a whole party of people dipping into the same pot of warm cheese that gives us the ick. In the 60s, these kinds of parties were all the rage and if you didn't own a fondue kit you were a nobody.

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2. Canned Asparagus Wrapped in Bread

A popular appetizer at dinner parties was canned asparagus wrapped in white buttered bread. Just the idea of canned asparagus is enough to gross us out but somehow picturing those limp morsels sogging up soft bread sounds so much worse. 

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3. Celery Stuffed With Peanut Butter

This polarizing snack originated in the 60s and somehow, is still popular today. Some people even add raisins for that extra sweetness everyone loves with their celery... not!

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4. Foods Set In Gelatine 

It wasn't just Jell-O desserts that caught on in this decade, but savory dishes called Jell-O Salads also came into vogue. One of the weirdest ones, the Under The Sea Salad used cream cheese, ginger, and lime Jell-O, some versions even featured shrimp, cabbage, or celery.

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5. Macaroni Salad

There's nothing more disappointing than biting into macaroni expecting something cheesy and instead getting a vinegar-y punch in the mouth. This bafflingly popular picnic dish was a mashup of elbow pasta, pickles, celery, mustard and vinegar.

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6. Meatloaf

Meatloaf became a popular weeknight dinner recipe in the 60s. It was a combination of ground beef and pretty much anything you could think of from eggs to peaches and even mashed bananas. Everything was mixed together and formed into a loaf, cooked in an oven, and served properly dried out.

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7. Canned Spaghetti

We don't know who thought canning cooked pasta would be a good idea but the resulting soggy, limp noodles swimming in red sauce are proof that it really wasn't. SpaghettiOs made their appearance in 1965 and strangely enough, you can still find them on grocery store shelves.

8. Mayo Jell-O Salads

If you thought Jell-O salads sounded bad, don't even get us started on mayo Jell-O salads. They were popular dishes at dinner parties and other gatherings and yes, they're exactly what they sound like. One of the most popular recipes even called for 7-Up.

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9. Tuna Casserole

Tuna casserole: some people love it, some people hate it. It's canned tuna with noodles, cheese, a can of mushroom soup, and usually some canned mixed vegetables. Indicative of the era, the recipe uses a lot of canned things and as a result, it's a salt bomb.

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10. Creamy Cocktails

Creamy, very sweet cocktails like "The Grasshopper" (crème de menthe, crème de cacao, and cream) were super popular in this decade. If it sounds like a bad idea to you to mix tons of sugar and cream with alcohol, we're with you; people in the 60s must have had stomachs of steel.

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11. Spam

Spam is a canned meatloaf of sorts created in 1937 as an inexpensive, shelf-stable protein during the Great Depression. Somehow in the 1960s it was still hugely popular despite being made from processed mystery ingredients with hardly any nutritional value. 

12. Instant Coffee

The 60s was the heyday of instant food, instant coffee being no exception. It's soluble in hot water, presenting a conveniently portable alternative to brewed coffee. In the 60s, people somehow developed a taste for it even though it tastes awful and there's nothing fresh about it.

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13. Canned Vegetables

In this era, it was common to simply heat canned vegetables and serve them as a side, giving people a no-fuss option to putting food on the table. However, what they gained in convenience, they lost in quality and flavor. 

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14. Candied Yams

If you live in the south, you may have had candied yams at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but in the 60s it was common to see them on the dinner table any day of the week. While tasty, adding syrup to already sweet potatoes makes for a cloyingly sugar-y side dish that's just confusing to the palette. 

15. Cheez Whiz

Cheez Whiz is a sprayable canned neon orange cheese introduced in the 50s that continued to be popular all through the 60s. If any "food" that comes in a spray can makes you dubious, rightfully so. This cheez tastes nothing like real cheese and is packed with artificial ingredients.

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16. Party Sandwich Loaf

The party sandwich loaf was a staple at dinner parties in the 1960s. It's essentially a giant sandwich molded into a particular shape and masked with cream cheese, like a savory layer cake. We can just imagine those slices of bread getting progressively more soggy throughout the evening as the sandwich fillings come to an unpleasant lukewarm.

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17. Fish Meringue Pie

While admittedly not as popular as some of the other dished on this list, fish meringue pie was a real thing that people ate in the 60s. It was a savory pie made from fish and topped with whipped egg white for that added fluffy texture we were all missing. 

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18. Hot Dr. Pepper

If you think soda is better chilled, you'd be correct. In the 60s however, people liked to destroy their enjoyment of these beverages by heating them, reducing the bubbles and pronouncing their syrup-y sweetness. 

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19. Fish Mousse

A popular party dip was made from canned tuna or salmon, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, and cream cheese. Oh, and it was packed into a fish-shaped mold. Personally, we think the word mousse should be reserved for chocolate. 

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20. Lipton Onion Soup Dip

The Lipton onion soup dip combined an envelope of Lipton instant onion soup mix with sour cream. The mix consists of a whole bunch of dehydrated ingredients, a load of salt, and the most authentic ingredient is the sour cream.

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