The decade that taste forgot! Hideous 1970s recipes revealed (2024)

FAQs

What was the food trend in the 1970s? ›

People were all about finger food in the 1970s, and cheese balls were especially popular.

1970s Dishes

But there's more; prawn co*cktail served with salad cream and tomato ketchup for a dazzling party snack; sherry trifle, soggy jelly-fruit flan, cool-whip, spam, stroganoff, steak and chips, egg and chips, fondue and frozen wonders.

The cuisine that the counterculture took to in the late 1960s, and then helped introduce to the mainstream in the 1970s, embraced whole grains and legumes; organic, fresh vegetables; soy foods like tofu and tempeh; nutrition-boosters like wheat germ and sprouted grains; and flavors from Eastern European, Asian, and ...

People ate eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, cereal, milk, and juice. Breakfast bars and breakfast burritos weren't a thing then.

Quiche, vol-au-vents, chicken wings… Part of a sketch from the famous comedian Peter Kay, pair this list with other 70s recipes such as blancmange and cheese and pineapple sticks, and this line-up of pick and mix buffet food is no longer just a part of a joke.

By the end of the Seventies, even small grocery stores had installed chest freezers to hold Birds Eye fish fingers, McCain oven chips and Wall's ice cream, with Vesta curries, coq au vin and chicken a la king for the adventurous.

1978: Croissants

In the '70s, "Americans went wild for flaky, buttery croissants," Lovegren writes in Fashionable Food, and they would either buy them from croissant shops or make them at home using refrigerated Pillsbury Crescent dough.

What were the basic 4 food groups from the 1956 to 1970's? ›

Popularly known as the “Basic Four,” the guide recommended a minimum number of foods from each of four food groups—milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, and grain prod- ucts (Page and Phipard, 1956). This food guide, with its focus on getting enough nutrients, was widely used for the next two decades.

The first Wendy's opened in 1969 and dominated fast food into the 1970s. It was unique thanks to its square hamburger patties and the introduction of a salad bar in 1979. The famous Frosty was one of the original items on the menu in 1969, and is still one of Wendy's best-selling products today.

Consistent with dietary and health recommendations, Americans now consume a half more grain products and a fourth more fruits and veg- etables per capita than they did in 1970, eat leaner meat, and drink lower fat milk.

1975: Pasta Primavera

People were really into creamy pasta in the '70s, when fettucine alfredo and spaghetti carbonara supplanted red sauce dishes that were no longer cool.

Popularly known as the “Basic Four,” the guide recommended a minimum number of foods from each of four food groups—milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, and grain prod- ucts (Page and Phipard, 1956). This food guide, with its focus on getting enough nutrients, was widely used for the next two decades.