Bring Back These Forgotten Favorites
Fall cooking in the 1970s was all about hearty meals, seasonal ingredients, and making the most of your pantry. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded, and it was even tougher to pack all the beauty of autumnal flavors into an affordable dish. But where there’s a will (and a cookbook), there’s a way, and home cooks from the ‘70s knew exactly how to blend apples, pumpkins, squash, and warming spices. Before you think these recipes are a thing of the past, let’s explore which 20 deserve another spot at Thanksgiving!
1. Squash and Apple Bake
We have a 1970s Betty Crocker cookbook to thank for this one, and thank her we will! This autumn side dish combined sliced winter squash with apples, butter, brown sugar, and warm spices until the squash softened. The fruit then developed a rich sweetness that complemented the meat, and though it sounded weird, it actually went together pretty well.
Diliara Garifullina on Unsplash
2. Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
If you grew up in the ‘70s, there's a good chance somebody brought a pumpkin chiffon pie—even if you were too young to appreciate it at the time. Unlike traditional pumpkin pie, this one’s a lighter variation that typically incorporates gelatin and whipped egg whites into a pumpkin filling. It’s an airy dessert that won’t send you into a food coma later.
Arnold Gatilao from Oakland, CA, USA on Wikimedia
3. Chicken and Dressing Casserole
Instead of preparing an entire turkey, why not combine cooked chicken with seasoned bread dressing and condensed cream soup? That’s what home cooks in the ‘70s did! Don’t worry; you can still serve it with cranberry sauce and green vegetables to keep the traditional combos alive.
4. Frost-on-the-Pumpkin Cake
This might have been most popular in the mid-‘70s, but it deserves far more attention from modern bakers. Its pumpkin-flavored layers were finished with cream cheese frosting and chopped pecans, which not only looked good, but also brought a welcome change to Thanksgiving.
5. Pork Chops With Applesauce
Pork chops and applesauce, anyone? Don’t knock it until you try it! After all, this fan-favorite combo has been around for decades. Even back in the day, pan-fried pork chops were served with homemade applesauce, particularly during autumn when fresh apples were ripe for the plucking—literally.
6. Broccoli Rice Casserole
When cooler weather comes knocking, a bubbling pan of broccoli rice casserole is a welcome addition to the table. We know you’re probably sick to death of casseroles, but this one is a lot tastier than it sounds! It’s really just cooked rice, broccoli, condensed soup, and processed cheese for a creamy side dish that doesn’t even need that much effort.
7. Baked Acorn Squash With Brown Sugar
Before elaborate vegetable dishes became fashionable, baked acorn squash was a practical way to make the most of your autumn produce. Many home cooks simply halved the squash and filled each piece with butter and brown sugar before baking. Best of all, it’s naturally sweet, so kids didn’t fuss either.
Asha Pagdiwalla from United States on Wikimedia
8. Ham and Scalloped Potato Casserole
Leftover holiday ham rarely went to waste in a 1970s kitchen, especially when boxed scalloped potatoes could give it a second life. Sliced ham could easily be layered with spuds and a creamy sauce, then baked until everything was golden. It transforms inexpensive ingredients into a satisfying dinner, which is reason enough to bring it back now!
9. Apple Dumplings
For home bakers who wanted something more impressive than an ordinary pie, apple dumplings were the go-to. Whole apples were wrapped in pastry, flavored with cinnamon and sugar, and baked until the crust turned golden. Of course, it was also served with vanilla ice cream!
10. Sweet Potato Pudding
Sweet potatoes don’t get as much credit as they deserve, despite being just as good a base for sweet stuff as the savory! Traditional versions of this simple dessert combined mashed sweet potatoes with eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and spices for a smooth dish. You can also leave out the marshmallow topping if you just want the natural flavor instead.
11. Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Hey, you’ve heard of apples and pork, so why not apples and sausage? During the 1970s, it was pretty common to see recipes combining pork sausage, chopped apples, onions, celery, and seasoned bread! Make no mistake—sweet fruit balanced the richness of the sausage, so it was the perfect autumn recipe.
12. Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast
Although it originated much earlier, creamed chipped beef stuck around as a familiar comfort food during the ‘70s. How could it not? It’s just thin slices of dried beef warmed in a white sauce and spooned over buttered toast. Talk about an inexpensive, filling meal.
13. Zucchini Bread
By the ‘70s, zucchini bread had become a popular way to use up all that squash harvested from plentiful gardens. It was easy, too! All home cooks needed was grated zucchini with cinnamon, chopped walnuts, and sometimes even raisins for moist loaves best served with morning coffee.
14. Cranberry Gelatin Mold
Like it or not, gelatin desserts were all the rage in the 1970s! Before you ignore it, though, remember that recipes combined cranberry sauce or chopped cranberries with flavored gelatin, pineapple, and walnuts. Not a bad combination of flavors after a little Thanksgiving turkey!
15. Stuffed Acorn Squash
Some home cooks filled roasted acorn squash halves with ground meat, rice, onions, and herbs. Think of it as the ultimate savory dish, especially for the fall. The squash got tender in the oven while the stuffing developed a rich flavor, creating a complete meal with surprisingly little cleanup.
16. Pumpkin Bread
Forget about pumpkin pie for a second—pumpkin bread deserves a little limelight, too. Recipes generally used canned pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vegetable oil to produce a moist loaf that actually held up for several days. A thick slice with butter and a cup of coffee? Forget about it!
17. Hot Chicken Salad Casserole
There’s no reason to spend all your time on ordinary cold chicken salad; vintage recipes turned the familiar filling into a whole dinner! It was just cooked chicken mixed with celery, mayo, lemon juice, and seasonings, then topped with crushed potato chips. You got every flavor of fall in one little dish.
18. Apple Crisp With Oatmeal Topping
Apple crisp never disappeared, but the simple homemade versions of the '70s deserve some renewed appreciation! Tart apples were covered with a crumbly mixture of oats, flour, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon before going into the oven. Forget about a pastry crust or expensive equipment—it was just a few ingredients and a bit of patience.
19. Potato Goulash
Potato goulash might sound foreign to today’s home cooks, but retro chefs know it’s simply scalloped potatoes, ground beef, canned tomatoes, and celery. You just had to plop everything in a casserole dish and bake until the potatoes became tender. It was a practical dinner for families watching their grocery bills, and that’s something we can all stay excited about.
20. Apple Cider Doughnuts
Fresh apple cider and warm doughnuts? Now we’re talking! Homemade versions put reduced apple cider, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the dough before being fried and coated in cinnamon sugar. Sure, modern bakeries still sell them every fall, but preparing a batch at home is a nostalgic tradition that deserves a comeback.
Veganbaking.net from USA on Wikimedia
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