What was popular in 1968?

[MarieinLA]

I'm hoping you can help me out. I've decided to throw myself a 40th birthday party and think it would be fun to serve food (appetizers) and drinks that were popular in 1968. I've googled a bit but would appreciate any ideas on where I can find more information/recipes. Thanks!

[Candy]

My mom wasn't into so called convenience foods except for Kraft Mac & Cheese, the stuff with the powered cheese. For special occasions she would make beef stroganoff, lamb curry a la Vincent Price, with all of the condiments that we've never seen offered in Indian restaurants. She had the Gourmet cookbooks, vols 1 & 2 with her name printed in gold on the front. She'd often turn to them for inspiration. I have copies of them two and some times look at the recipes and think what she could have been thinking about. Some were fine.

You might go to your public library and check out some cookbooks from that perion. James beard's book, especially his menus for entertaining. Any of the older NY Times cook books. They will be eyeopeners.

[alkapal]

i saw that vincent price cookbook at a vintage bookstore in manassas, virginia last july!

[HollyDolly]

Wow,trying to think here.Well there was Swanson TV Dinners and also Pation Tv Dinners.That's when they had their factory in San Antonio and the food was really good.
I used to like their tv dinner with the little tacos in it.
Frtios cornchips and the Fritos beandip.
Whip and Chill dessert mix,Lawry's tamale pie and taco pie mixes. Tuna Helper.Bugles,,,Chicken in A Biskik,,Sugar Daddy's ;Sugar Momma's and Sugar Babies candies.Turkish Taffy.Rumaki;Angels on Horseback.;sausage cheese balls.You could serve Lobster Newberg or Lasgana;cheese crackers and fruit; layered sandwich loaf.You take long slices of bread and put different fillings on each and stack them up.Put in the frdige and let sit.You can slice it and serve it.Think there are recipes for it. Someone mentioned Fondue which was a bigger then.

[alkapal]

Tuna helper? That early?

[JMF]

Hamburger Helper came on the market in 1971. Tuna Helper in 1972.

[JMF]

OK, chiming in on an old thread that resurfaced. I was only five in '68, but I remember Nestles Quick, both chocolate and strawberry, Fizzies, Tang, and all the deli's in Park Slope Brooklyn sold baked spaghetti, and bologna was a very big seller. I hated it, but all my friends had only bologna on white bread with eirther mustard or mayo, or PnJ's for lunch EVERY day. (By the way, why is bologna pronounced baloney?)

Check out this 40th Anniversary of New York Magazine's food list of what was being eaten in 1968.
http://nymag.com/anniversary/40th/str...

[sueatmo]

Harvey Wallbanger Cake.

Green Bean Casserole

[Bill Hunt]

For me, Hugo's pizza (Biloxi, MS), Fried Flounder from Bennie's (Handsboro, MS), Fried Shrimp from Magnusen's House of Seafood (Gulfport, MS) and Bali Hi wine (well, sort of wine... ).

Of course, one must have a lava lamp somewhere in the room.

Enjoy,

Hunt

[grampart]

Hunt, Are you talking about Hugo's Office Lounge? Can't say that I remember the pizza, but the veal parm was my pay-day go-to treat. And maybe a Golden Cadillac at the bar? ;-)

[grampart]

For me, the ultimate munchie memory of the late 60's and early 70's is the Pu-Pu Platter. Egg rolls, spare ribs, chicken wings, chicken fingers, beef teriyaki, skewered beef, fried wontons, crab rangoon, fried shrimp, shrimp toast, among other items, surrounding a small hibachi grill. Are these things still around?

[FriedClamFanatic]

I think they survive in some NE Chinese/polynesian places........somewhere there is a thread on it

[hill food]

oh it still exists, albeit w/o the grill, just now it's under the name "appetizer combo" (I mean pu-pu? really?) or it can be assembled off the app menu. often the sort of place that uses cornstarch red sauce on so much. and delivers. I hear it still exists in its feral state at the Trader Vic's in London.

[coll]

I can still get it served on the little hibachi with the sterno flame in my neck of the woods. Anyplace that has full service and a bar anyway. Takeout of couse just comes wrapped in foil but still....it's called Pu Pu Platter! Always followed on the menu description by "(for 2)". So romantic!

[emu48]

Crab Rangoon has gone mainstream. In the U.S. Midwest, at least, it seems to be on the menu in just about every Chinese restaurant. Millions of Americans now grow up thinking there is cream cheese in China. Another '60s pupu-plate classic (rumaki, aka devils on horseback) turns up occasionally too. Egg rolls, of course, are everywhere. Sixties nostalgics can still get shrimp toast. It's a dim-sum standard.

[Georgia Strait]

what fun to read all above

as a younger person, i was a big merv griffin fan - do you remember the "reunite on ice" sponsorship of his program --- i don't know how to spell it correctly - some sort of fizzy wine beverage from what i recall (never tasted it)

blue nun, cheap calif wine, it;s fun to read old gourmet or bon appetit or sunset mags to see what was popular ---- i collect old cook books (one of my favorites is the "i hate to cook" cookbook by Peg Bracken - one of my rummage store finds.)

i think vintage food varied by region and family chef background - my school friend's mom was from midwest so that defined her household - and we had friends from London UK and also we lived out west so we had a much diff approach - think vintage Sunset magazine cookbooks.

[emu48]

I remember one of my worst college drinking experiences, circa 1968. I was a very poor student, both in terms of grades and income. One time I bought a bottle of Gallo so-called chianti. It cost less than a dollar. It was awful, and it turned my mouth black. It's a wonder I'm still alive.

[Perilagu Khan]

Heh heh. Now that's what I call "Gallo's" humor. ;)

[alkapal]

Bravo!

[marymac]

Jello, with carrots or fruit folded in.

[laliz]

My family moved from PA to CA in 1968; it was an entirely new world.

Yogurt, Alex Tamales, A & W still had drive ins, fish sticks, meatloaf, Chef Boy ar dee pizza and spaghetti dinners in a box, Blue Box Kraft dinner, Rice a Roni, Mateus (its so grape), Sloe Gin, Southern Comfort, Manhattans, Orange Julius, cheese quesadillas, cole slaw w/mini pastel colored marshmallows in it, 7 layer jello, German Chocolate cake, bundt cakes, things made with pouches i.e. Sloppy Joe Mix, Spaghetti sauce mix, meatloaf mix.

Colonel Sanders (not changed to KFC yet), chocolate covered frozen bananas (new to me then), chocolate covered cherries, Carnation Instant Breakfast, Fresca (Diet Coke was years away)

[KaimukiMan]

Tunnel of Fudge Cake.

It originated a couple of years before that, but it was still very popular in 68.

http://www.midcenturymenu.com/2011/06...

[C. Hamster]

Shake-A-Puddin !

[Bob W]

Just saw this great thread. I was 8 in '68, so my memories naturally tend to junk food and other crap.

Maypo
Olive loaf
Fresca
Tab
Cheeze-Whiz
Melba toast
Chips Ahoy
Bugles
Spaghetti-Os
Pop-Tarts
Nestles Quik
Hi-C
Kool-Aid

etc

[marymac]

Howard Johnson's frozen entrees. I remember chicken and shrimp cakes with some kind of sauce poured over them.

[INDIANRIVERFL]

On the Great American Summer Vacation of 1969, we ran across a new MacDonald's sandwich that was being tested in San Diego. Wrapped in paper with a stiff paper collar to keep the towering mass in place, it was a gustatorial delight.
We were disappointed that it hadn't got to San Francisco yet, and seemed to take forever to get home to Pittsburgh. The Big Mac was awesome.

I do realise that it was invented in Pittsburgh a few years earlier, but we sure didn't see it at our MacDonald's for a while.

[hal0012]

Hibachi BBQ, fondue and pretty much most of what's still eaten today. Difference? No Microwaves, nu wave or convection ovens. Many things were still made from scratch. Very few brands of things like frozen pizza, but Pizza box kits by chef boyarde were popular.

[flavrmeistr]

Pizza in a box was actually pretty good. Haven't seen it in decades.

[hill food]

go to a rural grocery store with no pizza place for miles. rare, but does exist.

[Perilagu Khan]

Not just rural grocery stores. I'd say any really large grocery store is likely to stock Chef B pizza kit, which, as JC says, is pretty dang good. I still make it occasionally.

[James Cristinian]

I got it at my HEB, which is a south Texas chain, the one near me in Houston is awesome, always Gulf shrimp, prime beef, and anything else you can dream of. The pizza box is where they sell the pizza crusts and sauce. Khan, not sure if you have HEB in your neck of Texas, but you obviously have the pizza kit. We add mozzarella, Canadian bacon, turkey pepperoni, and jalapenos.

[Perilagu Khan]

No HEB up here. There's some sort of gentlemen's aggreement between United Market Street (the local biggie) and HEB for the latter not to move north of Abilene or some such.

I put salami and minced garlic on my Chef B pie.

[James Cristinian]

Pizza in a box was the first thing I learned to cook as a kid in the 60's. It still exists and I made one a couple of weeks ago and will be making another this week. Chef Boyardee is pretty darn tootin'.

[marymac]

Hawaiian Punch

[alkapal]

i heart hawaiian punch.

is there a cocktainl/mocktail that tastes like it? i'd like to have something like hawaiian punch as it tasted back in the day…with no aftertaste.

[shaogo]

Here's a drink that's very popular with my bar customers -- I'll hand over the secret recipe for alkapal (no he's not holding a gun to my head):

"Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red"

1 oz. Ciroc Red Berry Vodka
1/2 oz. Stolichnaya Orange Vodka
1/2 oz. Stolichnaya Raspberry Vodka
1 oz. Peachtree Peach Schnapps
1 oz. Stirrings Pomegranate Liqueur
2-3 oz. Pineapple Juice
1 oz. Lemon-X or equivalent sour mix
Squeeze of fresh lemon
Shake with plenty of ice and serve in icy-cold martini glasses.

This was the house signature drink (next to the Scorpion Bowl with the flame in the middle) at our old Chinese restaurant.

[chicgail]

I think we used to call that -or something very much like it - jungle joy juice.

[alkapal]

just saw this shaogo! muchas gracias, or however you might say it in your venue.

[James Cristinian]

Delaware Punch

[Sinicle]

Steak Diane. Salmon mousse ring.

[Passadumkeg]

'68, from C-rations in 'Nam to binging on Greek food in Queens, NYC. I was in physical rehab at a VA hodpital in Queens, Dad came to visit and took me out to a Taverna (Big Greek area then.) for beers and Greek food. I got carded, but was only 20 and couldn't get served! Months earlier the US Gommerent was flying me pallets of beer slung under a chopper. Since then I feel anyone w/ a military ID should and served and whenever I'm in a bar in an airport, I buy a beer for every serviceman I see.

ps Gallineo was popular, so was sloe gin, add tequilla and you had a Soe Mexican Screw Against the Wall.

[James Cristinian]

' Kegger, didn't know you were a Vietnam vet, thanks for your service. In Texas they changed the drinking law to 18 in the 70's for what I understood was the returning vets couldn't buy a beer after getting shot up in the Mekong Delta, Cambodia, or a zillion other places. Again, thanks for your heroic service. One of the "beneficiaries" of the new law was that we could drink at 18 in high school, me being 18 and graduating in '75, just missing the war. Did I mention thank you for your service?

[Perilagu Khan]

What JC said.

[Passadumkeg]

Funny, '68 is a lost year in the foods world for me. All of '68 I was either in "Nam, VA Hosptials or eating college cafeteria food.

[chicgail]

Not to go off on a political sidetrack, but there is a distinction between supporting the troops and supporting the wars.

Plus most of us don't drink Lancers or Mateus any more, demonstrating that there is also a distinction between alcoholic soda and actual wine.

Although I admit that I do sometimes miss Wishbone Italian salad dressing - the answer to all your iceberg lettuce questions.

[masha]

Chicgail, you were a gourmet if you were using WB Italian in '68. In those years, I was still eating Kraft's "French" - the orange stuff that no Frenchman would ever recognize.

[chicgail]

It's what Mom always served.

[Perilagu Khan]

Heh. My dad loved that "French" dressing, and as a wee bitty bloke who didn't know any better, I pounded down my fair share of it. That was until my mom turned me on to Roquefort dressing. Alas, both French and Roquefort dressing are virtually things of the past. Particularly in restaurants.

[hill food]

chic - agreed, I can disagree with the deployment, and still have deep respect for those deployed.

they still make the Wishbone Italian packets (and bottles, but the packet is better), it's a great marinade for grilled chicken (and Northern hemisphere Spring is just around the corner...)

"a distinction between alcoholic soda and actual wine"

heh, tell that to the folks behind Zima and hard lemonade.

[coll]

I get the gallon size Wishbone Italian packs and often sprinkle the dry spices on chicken before cooking, that works well too. It's a great mix.

[pine time]

The Mr.'s favorite chicken wing recipe begins with a packet of that dry Italian mix. Blurgh. I eat pasta when he wants me to make those wings for him!

[coll]

I only do it on whole chicken, not sure if I'd like it on wings.....

[glennl20]

Where can you buy the dry spices? I have never seen them. Has anyone else noticed that Wishbone Italian changed a couple of years back and no longer has the "bite" that it used to have? The new taste has ruined many of my recipes.

[hill food]

sorry, my mistake, the dry isn't Wishbone, but rather Good Seasons. usually found on the same aisle as pre-made dressings, just towards one of the ends. or over by gravy packets in oddball stores (don't ask me why).

[coll]

Whoa, just noticed I said Wishbone instead of Good Seasons, Sorry!

[HillJ]

I recall a good deal of Jello. Until Jello 1-2-3 came along I didn't think Jello was edible.

I recall having frozen root beer ice pops often.

And I was well into my PB&J obsession by '68.

[EM23]

I can remember my folks having cocktail hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. The cocktails were usually Whiskey Sours or Manhattans with maraschino cherries – we would get to pick the whiskey-soaked cherries out of my Dad’s cocktail. Sometimes my Dad had a Rheingold or a martini instead.
Happy hour nibbles would be any of the following: Sau-Sea Shrimp Cocktails (I loved those glasses); a relish plate with olives, cheese, celery and Stella D’oro bread sticks; Ritz crackers with Philly cream cheese; Matlaw’s frozen stuffed clams; or pigs in a blanket.

Many of my other food memories have already been mentioned, but I’ll add Ho Jo’s hot dogs on the buttered, toasted top-split hot dog buns, London broil with mushroom gravy and Swanson’s Salisbury steak TV dinner – I loved the mashed potatoes and brownie and my dog loved the Salisbury steak and gravy. And, with dinner, we always had a slice of white bread with butter, folded over, with the crust cut off and a glass of milk in the big orange-tinted glasses that they gave away at the gas station.

[Mike R.]

On our weekly '68 menu rotation:
-Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks
-(something) Farms Turkey Roast (a formed brick of 2/3 white meat on top, 1/3 dark on the bottom)
-Weaver's Fried Chicken (Drumsticks & Thighs!)
So yum, so healthy.

[alkapal]

oooh, i vaguely remember that "turkey roast" thing! was it some ground and reconstituted "loaf"? ah, what WAS the brand name?!

was it armour? came in the foil loaf pan, right?

anyhow, look at this little ditty (more 70's but funny) http://image.spreadshirt.com/image-server/v1/compositions/4261041/views/1,width=280,height=280,appearanceId=97.png/men-s-jive-turkey-retro-sports-tee_design.png

my dad would call people turkeys when they ticked him off driving! LOL

~~~~
go check out these vintage food photos!! http://pinterest.com/theatomichouse/f...

[zin1953]

Pepperidge Farms

[Mike R.]

Not Pepperidge Farms, unless they made turkey white bread...and not Hillshire Farms.

Dang, that name is on the tip of my tongue...

[marymac]

Jennie-O ?

[mamachef]

Appears Butterball makes one currently, but you may be thinking of Maple Leaf farms, who I think got absorbed by that company Paula Deen shills for.

[Mike R.]

Not Maple Leaf nor Shady Brook Farms...but "Jennie-O" appears to be the succcessor company, as the product looks nearly identical.

http://www.jennieo.com/products/99-Wh...

[alkapal]

it sure does look like the same product, indeed. seeing if i could find more info on this product (which i did not), i came across this interesting business article about "big turkey." http://www.businessinsider.com/everyt...

[Mike R.]

SHENANDOAH Turkey Roast...that's the name!!!

[wincountrygirl]

I do remember that turkey thing..........wow.

[coll]

My grandmother always told the story of my grandfather (her husband) hosting a group of friends, big drinkers. She didn't drink but enjoyed eating all the leftover cherries. She was the only one with a hangover the next day!

[EM23]

Cute story:) I don't recall any hangovers, but then again, I had to share the cherries with my brother.

[ellabee]

As an only child, I had the bourbon-soaked maraschinos all to myself. Considering what we later learned about red dye #2, it's just as well that my parents' friends soon moved on from cocktails to straight highballs...

[coll]

My parents didn't have too many wild parties (not with six kids all about a year apart!) but when they did we'd get up early and watch Farmer Gray and eat every last cherry out of the jars left in the fridge. Rarely use them now but always always have to have a jar on hand, for some reason.

[Querencia]

1968 was the year my children thought that the most elegant treat was cheese spread that came in an aerosol can. It was their choice for Christmas Eve.

[FriedClamFanatic]

and.i just realized this a 5 year old post...............LOL.hope you had fun

[flavrmeistr]

But it references 1968, so it was already old when it was new. Therefore, it's as relevant as it ever was.

[FriedClamFanatic]

lol.well in 1968 I was a freshman in college...and there was this one gal that..........oops, I digress

Popular among the college set.........Annie Green Springs and Boone's farm wine.Yep, Tang for breakfast, along with those All-in-one Milk additives (carnation, I think).

One dish items...the old..take some beef, add some rice, add some veggies,,,pour on the soup.... were a reguar item...along with Tater tot casseroles........I think TT's were fairly new then

Cheese balls, summer sausage, "DIP" of various kinds all were at parties. The classier folks did Steak Tartare

[Veggo]

68? Boarding school. Lots of Hendrix and Smokey Robinson, Salisbury steak every Wednesday for lunch.

[treb]

Colt 45 and Southern Comfort also!

[Tripeler]

It has often been said that if you can remember the 60s, then you weren't actually there.

[James Cristinian]

I remember the 60's because I was a mere child, but much of the 70's is a blur, and I'm pretty certain I had a good time.

[mamachef]

+1. At least I think so. :)

[GraydonCarter]

Gallery of Regrettable Food
http://www.lileks.com/institute/galle...

Check out the B-B-Que Tricks

[hill food]

aww I love Lileks, I haven't looked at his stuff in years, need to go back - THX!

[MysticYoYo]

James Lileks' website is a lot of fun. So much that I broke down and actually purchased a couple of his books. My mother had a lot of the cookbooks that he pokes fun at in Gallery of Regrettable Food. I still have one or two that she jotted notes in. Thankfully she never made the 7-Up roasts or anything like that, at least, not that I can remember. (Companies would put out recipe books featuring their products and all the so-called tasty things you could make with them... "make a roast using 7-Up as the basting liquid!". Horrible and unlikely.)

[alkapal]

many pork recipes in the south will use some coke or dr. pepper.

[Perilagu Khan]

I make a crock pot pulled pork that features 7-Up as the braising liquid. Nothing wrong with it at all.

[mamachef]

I have a carnitas recipe that calls for cola, and it.is.delicious.

[Perilagu Khan]

I can well imagine. I made carnitas yesterday, and the braising liquids were orange juice and Madeira. Rather different from Coke, but I can easily see where the latter would produce an excellent result, too.

And, oh, my BBQ sauce contains a healthy hit of Coke.

[laliz]

the first ham I ever made was using a recipe that called for ginger ale

[latindancer]

Gorton's fishsticks

[latindancer]

Tab
Fresca
Ovaltine
Wonderbread with ham/cheese/ and mayo
Wonderbread with bologna/lettuce and mayo
Sour cream and onion soup mix dip with Ruffle potato chips
Celery with pimento cheese from the jar
Black olive and green olives with pimento
Swanson's chicken pot pies
Swanson's TV dinners

[GIOny]

We went to an Emeril show one night (when he was still on the Food Network) and the theme just happened to be the 60's, I forgot most of what he made but I do remember a Baked Alaska. I also remember my DS had a Beatles theme tie on that night (pure coincidence) and the producer asked to borrow it for the musician that was there that night. Sorry, I know that's not appetizers or drinks but I think drink wise Singapore Sling or Sloe Gin Fizz (I'm cringing) were popular.

[alkapal]

i'll take a singapore sling or a mai tai right about now. ha!

[mamachef]

Bugles snacks.

[hill food]

only if you fill them with cheez-whiz

[mamachef]

I wonder if they had "cheez spray" - what my kids call "silly cheez" like silly string.... in '68?

[Perilagu Khan]

I'm pretty sure silly cheese existed buffore 1968.

[mamachef]

Dunno how old I was or where I first saw it...I was in Ohio, so it was definitely pre-'68, now you mention it. I do recall desperately wanting my mom to buy it, but she was in her hippie training period that lasted 'til we moved to Cali. and she became an Actual Hippie, and wouldn't even consider it. Waaah me.

[Perilagu Khan]

I would have thought Silly Cheese just the thing for electric Kool-Aid acid parties.

[MonMauler]

Beer and whiskey were always popular. For old-time beer you can always go with yeungling, America's oldest brewery. For whiskey you could go with Woodford Reserve, the oldest Kentucky bourbon on the market. Woodford Reserve even predates yeungling by more than 30 years, if I'm not mistaken.

[marymac]

Noodles Romanoff

[Puffin3]

Oh yeah! 'Noodles Romanoff'!. God they were so horrible but yet somehow so delicious.
I still know someone you has never moved beyond 'Mateus'. Banff Springs hotel in the late sixties in the large dining room. It's very busy. The table next to us is a twelve top. Some guy in a suit is 'holding court' with his business associates. Lots of food and drinks. He summons the waiter over. He bellows: "Bring us four bottles of Mateus". After the waiter leaves he says to his assembled: "Ah Mateus. Never had a bad bottle yet".

[Puffin3]

'Special' brownies' were a hit back then. Strange. One could share a dozen joints back then and all we'd get is a headache. Eat a 'brownie' and 'you got where you wanted to go' IYKWIM'. The late sixties.

[Kholvaitar]

The soft drink "Simba" (later reintroduced as "Mello Yellow" I've read) was somewhat popular in '68.

I remember this from when I was little...

[monalisawoman]

Pineapple Chicken
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls baked with american cheese rolled inside
Lipton onion soup burgers
Fox's ubet & milk
Ovaltine
Moc apple pie (made with Ritz Crackers)
Laughing Cow cheese cubes
Baked Clams
Frozen Sara Lee marble cake
Spagettio's
Chef-Boy-Ardee (ew!)
Cinnamon Toast
Mallowmars
Chocolate covered graham crackers
Yarlsberg cheese

[Perilagu Khan]

I've long been fascinated by the mock apple pie, but have never tried one.

[James Cristinian]

Anyone remember the Mickey Banana Flip or Delaware Punch?

[alkapal]

i remember a banana flip, but not "mickey banana flip,"

and my ode thereto:

(penned April 2008):

Alkapal's Ode to a Banana Flip

You are fluffy and creamy,
Your sponge cake so fine.
You make me dreamy
Wish you'd be mine.

Alas, you have left me
At 7-11 forlorn.
Please return and surprise me
On some fortunate morn.

Why did your fine maker
Cease crafting your kind?
I'd love to again eat you
Snack food so refined!

Oh! the banana
On the tongue gentle.
Without your light sweetness,
I've gone nearly mental.

You may not be trendy,
You may not be hip,
But I love you, I miss you
Come back 'nana Flip!

I promise to love you
Again, it is true.
So please come and meet me,
7-11, aisle 2.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/505546

[mamachef]

Excellent. :)

[Will Owen]

Green chile buffet casserole had a surge of popularity in NoCal (or anyplace where Sunset Magazine was widely read) around then, and since I'd just discovered and fallen in love with chiles rellenos this made me very happy. I found this one that appears to be the version I encountered and subsequently made several times. Of COURSE we used only Ortega canned chiles...

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs...

[JoanN]

I’m surprised by the number of respondents in this thread who recall what, even at the time, was essentially junk food.

I had just moved into my first New York City apartment and was, by trial and error, learning how to cook and entertain. Julia Child was my Goddess, Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey my Gods—especially the articles in the NYTimes that interviewed excellent home cooks and provided their recipes. My fantasy cookbook was the recently revised two-volume Gourmet Cookbook, which introduced me to fish paté and coquille saint-jacques, crown roasts, veal scallops. I still remember Julia’s Beef Wellington and her paté en croute as better than anything I’d ever had—up til that time—in any restaurant. And Claiborne printed a lasagne recipe that ran three, single-spaced typewritten pages, took a few days to make, and was a standard for me for years—until I discovered Marcella Hazan and homemade pasta. Friends and I cooked for each other because we couldn’t afford to eat out much. And we had wine tastings and learned to buy Bordeaux futures. ’68, with or without Alice B. Toklas’s brownies, was a lot more—at least for some of us—than Vienna sausages in grape jelly washed down with Mateus.

[HillJ]

JoanN, the OP asked for what was popular to those of us who remember 1968....I wasn't old enough or talented enough then to create the dishes from your vivid memories. But, your post is certainly ambitious. The OP needs a few appy's..any suggestions?

[lagatta]

Joan, I agree. My family couldn't afford food like that much, but we certainly ate proper food, and my mother frowned on junk and prepared foods - she bought fish as much as we could afford and never ate fluffy white bread - either Italian-type bread or rye bread. Our wine was much simpler, but it wasn't Mateus, it was ordinary but decent French or Italian wine.

You are a few years older than me - I was about 14 then - now that would be an insignificant difference but obviously is a lot more when you were a young adult and I was a teenager.

I think the "hippie" influence was important, throughout the industrialised world. No, not just bongs or tie-dye crêpes (never heard of those, and I think my mum would have frowned on those even more than joints, as she was very aware of harmful chemicals) but "natural foods" - yes, often it was stodgy brown-rice casseroles but it got people back to beans, grains, unprocessed meats, non-chemical cheeses, and new vegetables and fruits. A lot of good would come of that as those hippies learned to actually cook.

Just wanted to add - I have a copy of the original "Book of Middle Eastern Food" by Claudia Roden, printed in 1968 - the year it was first published!

[flavrmeistr]

I was eight years old. '68 was powdered milk, riots downtown, rock fights with the hillbilly kids across the creek and $1.50 sneakers that rotted off your feet by the end of summer. Junk food was a luxury obtained by collecting pop bottles. Back then, I thought it was a big deal.

[James Cristinian]

Carnation instant breakfast, bottle rocket battles with the hillbillies across the street, but no sneakers. I don't think we ever wore shoes during the summer, except when we went to church. I was also 8 in '68.

[flavrmeistr]

We would have killed for bottle rockets! We would soak cattails in lighter fluid and launch them with bicycle inner tubes. They had a range of about 150 yards. Soup can bazookas were also pretty fun, but I'll stop now.

[coll]

I think the statute of limitations has run out!

[flavrmeistr]

Maybe. Maybe not. In any case, times has changed. Juvenile pyromaniacal craziness is no longer tolerated the way it was when we little boomer heathens swarmed the suburbs. Stick to your x-boxes, kiddies.

[James Cristinian]

We would fire off shotguns on New Years and the 4th of July, but it helped that our neighbor was an FBI agent and the police would kiss his....... Food wise, burgers on the cheap charcoal grill.

[50sGuy]

My wife-to-be and I remember ordering beef wellington and shrimp de jonge back in those days...two dishes that you don't often seen on menus these days.

[minutia]

Quisp and Quake cereals. Quisp is available again, but you can only buy it online...how quazy is that?! www.quisp.com

[hill food]

IIRC Hawaiian and Polynesian themed parties were very popular a little later as the 747 was introduced sometime around then, making the "exotic" accessible. (might be off by a couple of years - but if were a toddler, who's keeping score).

[Passadumkeg]

Stoner food! Screaming Yellow Zonkers, Sen-Sens, Alice B. Toklas brownies (Where does the verb to tok come from?), and though not a food, incense.

[susancinsf]

We used to use Reese's Peanut Butter cups as a way to ingest drugs that might other wise taste bitter.....

[Catskillgirl]

Like milkshakes to disguise the taste of funny mushrooms? Oh, the memories.

[Passadumkeg]

jug wine in a bong and then drink the wine

[flavrmeistr]

Yag!

[hill food]

agreed eww. I've lived with enough stoners and spilled bongs over the years, AND they chewed Skoal. been there thanks.

[flavrmeistr]

Yep, me too. Nothing like waking up after a hard night, naked and face-down in the bong-soaked, mildewed shag carpeting of someone's sweltering '71 Chevy van in a liquor store parking lot next to some anonymous fat chick (also naked) with a cop tapping on the window and your clothes nowhere in sight. It gets old after the third or forth time.

[Perilagu Khan]

And to think what I missed in the palmy days of sex, drugs and rock n' roll. The humanity of it!

[James Cristinian]

We used to eat chocolate to speed the rush after ingesting LSD or mescaline. Worked like a charm. Falstaff beer was a buck 89 a twelve pack, but was only palatable when cut with a hit of reefer, all in the mid 70's, mixed with copious amounts of sex for the good looking wannabe hippie, like me. Outdoor stadium concerts in mid-July Texas with the likes of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Allman Brothers, Beach Boys, and the Eagles, admission price, mere peanuts.

[flavrmeistr]

Humanity is what's missing nowadays. That and plain ol' fun and good free radio. Free TV. Free water. Cheap housing. We didn't know how good we had it. Well, actually we did.

[EWSflash]

Yeah, bong water spilled on the carpet- the smell never really goes away.

[ChefJune]

Oh Dear! Julia Child's shows and recipes were very popular. Nearly anything youd find in her first three books would be appropriate. The other thing that came to mind immediately was the book called "Thoughts for Buffets." There are lots of good recipes in there, and we used it a LOT back then! you can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?u...

[meatn3]

Yogurt was just being introduced to the masses. Oh, and Icies (? the frozen sweet drinks) too. I remember sampling both at the county fair for the first time around then. At that age I liked the icie much more than the yogurt!

There was also some sort of jello-ish product that made a multi-layered parfait. We thought it was quite the thing!

French dishes were popular - part of the JFK/Jackie legacy.

[rayrayray]

i belive the jello-ish product you refer to was called junkit. sortof a pudding/jello type concoction. could also have been ambrosia. both were used for parfaits and *shudder* salads in the 60s.

[lvanleer]

There was a jell-o type product that I used to love called "Fruit Float".....it created several layers while it set up in the refrigerator including a traditional jell-o layer and a creamy layer....there might have another layer in there also....my mom used to let me make it.

[meatn3]

Yes, this sounds like it! It separated into 3 distinct layers. I think all you did was add hot water & mix.

[cayjohan]

Jello 1-2-3 was the product you're referrring to. Three layers, with increasing foaminess as you went "up."

Cay

[k_d]

You can still find the product, but it has a different name now. I found it in a local store, called Dr. Oetker's Trio Treat Gelatin Dessert. Just as bizarre as I remembered it!

[flavrmeistr]

My Swedish grandma made her own yoghurt. Buying it from the store would have been unthinkable.

[JonParker]

Space Food Sticks.

[steve h.]

surf and turf was big. crummy wine (cold duck?) was also popular. woodstock exploded the next year and things were never quite the same.

[taboo]

I was also born in 68...whew...feels like forever ago. I do recall eating penut butter and fluff sandwiches and the sarah lee pound cake that we kept in the freezer. I also think fondue was big back then.

[steve h.]

mom was norwegian. sunday dinner was special. lots of roasts. many, many courses. my friends insisted on showing up every sunday long after i left.

late sixties were pretty good. maybe the best music. ever.

[Sam Fujisaka]

But again, 68 was the real start of California wines. And 69 was not only Woodstock, but man on the moon, Charlie Manson, and Altemont as well!

[Passadumkeg]

Stuffed mushrooms, Alfredo sauce on "pasta" (a new word for speghetti.) And did anyone mention the jugs of Almaden wine?
'68 I ate c-rats, spam and on ocassion still hot VC phao in Nam. Not a good year for the lunar new year of Tet for the Amererican guests. The Perfume River in Hue was not.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Jug wine was well worth it for a bit. The relatively rich (e.g, airline pilots) invested heavily in varietals after 69. A glut in 73-4 led to jug wines like Carlo Rossi and Almaden that were fantastic!

[Glencora]

I remember adults buying glass-cutting kits and cutting the bottoms off of jug wine bottles to use over plants in the garden.

[Selter Head]

Fresca, Spanada (don't know how to do a tilde), Olympia beer, Green Goddess dressing . . . .

[Sam Fujisaka]

Tie a lighter fluid soaked string around a bottle, light on fire, tap the upper part (for it to fall away). Voila! Sand the edge smooth. Make glasses, vases, planter pots...

[Perilagu Khan]

Heh. My grandpa had one of those. He cut down regular wine bottles to make drinking glasses. I'm sure I lost a few millimeters of lower lip on those nasty things.

[EWSflash]

i just bought a bottle-cutter. Harrumph.

[alkapal]

come over here…you can open an ikea.

[DiveFan]

Yikes, Sam, you forgot Red Mountain (probably blocked it out) jug red wine. Thank gawd that brand is gone. In college at UCD we claimed it was good for stripping floor wax or cleaning toilets.

[susancinsf]

Interesting. My father drank jug wine, including Almaden, around that time. I was just starting to drink and thought he was crazy and carrying the reserve snobbery thing just a bit too far. Maybe not?

But then, I went to Davis and decided that I should take wine seriously. More seriously than I do now, perhaps, partly because I had to learn a few things in order to pass Enology and Viticulture 101. I took it because I thought it would be an easy way to get my required science units (lab on Thursdays was a tasting!), but it turned out to be one of the most challenging classes I took at UCD (shouldn't have been surprised, but I was young, what can I say).

On weekends our idea of fun (and we thought, sophistication as well) was to get in the car and drive past Putah Creek and up the back roads past Berryessa, with the goal of going to the small wineries. Nichelini was a must-stop.

And of course, more of that nude swimming on the way home, even though Berryessa isn't quite the Sierra :-)

http://nicheliniwinery.us/index.php

[DiveFan]

ROFL! In my day the intro class was V&E 3; half the freshman class took it the first day :-). Definitely Not cream puff units.
There's nothing wrong with jug (or box) wine if it is made properly; as a bonus a box fits well into the fridge. Gallo literally put quality jug wines on the map, the grandson being Two Buck Chuck. Unfortunately today dry reds in box/jug form are much harder to find.

[jlafler]

Yes, it was an interesting time, culinarily. My own memories of the period (I was four or five in 1968) include watching my mom grind her own coffee beans to brew her coffee with a Melitta filter (a weird practice in those days), and shopping at the Shattuck Co-op in Berkeley. Grapes were forbidden fruit, because of the UFW boycott, and I still think of them as a little...transgressive.

[susancinsf]

yes, grapes were forbidden fruit in my house, and the shopping was at the co-op....

[steve h.]

heady times.
dad was a great reader. we had works by john service, others when i was growing up. one of the biggest influences was bernard b. fall. i think i gained my appreciation for asia through his eyes. i go back to eat and learn every year. it's just too cool.

[FoodFuser]

Buitoni Toaster Pizzas. A precursor of HotPockets. In the pre-nuke days, we ate a LOT of these. That was the year that I grew 2 inches in height, on a diet of at least 20% Buitoni.

My parents would buy Sego (a canned "instant breakfast beverage) by the case. These were administered in quasi-abusive fashion on those pre-Interstate road trips. The taste and texture of warm vanilla flavored Sego still lingers as a bad dream.

Found a fun page that lists some retro foods, in their advertising context. Clunky to navigate, but you may enjoy:

http://www.macfilms.com/food%20produc...

[Sam Fujisaka]

You're right! I forgot all about instant breakfasts in a can! Also frozen chicken pot pies, English muffins, ...

[flavrmeistr]

Yes. Morton's pot pies, Chef Boyardee ravioli and Dinty Moore beef stew. Hostess fruit pies for dessert. Tang eaten out of the jar by the spoonful. Good Humor lemon-raspberry Popsicles. Ah, the Summer of Love!

[flavrmeistr]

Carnation malted milk. Eggnog.

[Sam Fujisaka]

In 1968, good California wines were making their appearance, never to look back. T-bone steaks had not been replaced by tri-tips ("invented" many years later) and were done on backyard charcoal grills across the spreading burbs. Ethnic foods in Central California were largely Italian, Japanese, Chinese (Cantonese), Mexican, German, Armenian, and Basque. Spam was on its way out except in Hawaii; and the Birkinstock wearing - organic lentils - brick-like bread - carob cake - hashish brownie - nude swimming in the Sierras - back to the land era was unfolding. "Sensitive" guys made quiche and a few years later could cry. You would too if you saw the polyester flaired clothing that was to come in the early 70s.

People over 30 who couldn't be trusted were supposedly eating Chef Boyardee, Rice a Roni, Uncle Ben's, smooth cranberry sauce that schglooped out of the can in a single piece, Hostess cupcakes, Ding Dongs, Twinkies, See's Candies. Baskin-Robbins was getting going with lots of flavors. Pork still had a lot of fat. The bums drank MD 20 20, Boone's Farm, and Thunderbird. The rummies had Tom Collins, John Collins, Manhattans while paying the piano player to play what was that waltz used in "2001, A Space Odessy".

Others will again mention tamale pie, fondue, chow mein plus sweet and sour pork plus beef and broccoli for Chinese, "red sauce" Italian, sukiyaki for Japanese, the Mexican combo plate, and the ubiquitious use of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.

Personally, in 68 the extended family grew and packed peaches and kamikazied them to LA and NY in ref trucks given cheap gas. I worked briefly as a fry cook in an A&W and later as a baker in Yosemite (Irish soda bread among others). I graduated HS and may go to my 40th reunion later this year. I'll be looking (backwards) to eat bierocks, Armenian, and Basque; and forwards to some of the great restaurants now in Fresno.

[Leucadian]

Sam, I remember your bread. Funny, but I picked up a loaf on the way out of the park after a backpack trip, and thought it was delicious. I think I ate half a loaf on the way back to the Bay Area. Was it a big seller there? Thanks for the memory jogger.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Can't remember the number per day. It always sold out, though.

[Sam Fujisaka]

The soda bread was a specialty of Degnan's. Sold out everyday.

[susancinsf]

If you go to your reunion, check out the posts about Hunan Restaurant on the CA board!

[Sam Fujisaka]

Thank you. I'm on to that. The Fresno CH folks have adopted me, keeping me posted by email. Very nice and much appreciated.

[hill food]

god I miss Sam's posts. but we can't take them out of context.

[laliz]

A&W ~~ I loved the Mamaburger

[HillJ]

If my parents home was any indication...the preverbial Thomas English Muffin pizza done toaster oven style was huge in 1968!

[meatn3]

Yes! I forgot about those. My mother did a variation using "party rye", little rounds (cracker sized) of rye bread with straight tomato paste smeared on, then pepperoni and shredded mozzarella. I prepared these for a slumber party & felt very sophisticated!

[hill food]

http://www.batemania.com/recipes/arch...

[AndyP]

Hi MarieinLA,

Anything from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", first published in great year, 1968.

Hill Food mentioned rumaki. When made with fresh chicken liver, and a very nice applewood smoked bacon, (think Neuskes) and good quality sliced chestnuts, it rocks.

Tamale casserole. Chicken Marengo casserole, with the addition of egg noodles.

And, my absolute favorite thing from 1968...tie-dyed pancakes. As soon as the batter is in the pan, make rings/microdots with food coloring from the outer edge of the batter, to the center. Drag a fork, (my original method) or a toothpick through the food coloring to make a tie-dye pattern. Sell them to your hippie sister's friends that she had brought home for Christmas vacation for 10 cents per unit. Be accused by said friends of being a pawn in Nixon's capitalistic war machine, while selling out the total supply of your Mom's bisquick. These pancakes will be a hit!!

Yoroshiku,
Andy

[Caitlin McGrath]

Heh, love the tie-dye pancakes. You could probably make an appetizer with a pureed potato pancake batter (or go quick and dirty with that boxed German potato pancake mix). Top with something equally colorful. All I can think of are not-very-1968 things like multicolored fish roe!

I'll have to make your family apple cake again soon, Andy (though I admit I replaced part of the oil with applesauce).

AndyP's apple cake: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/287731

[vvvindaloo]

Thanks for the recipe, Andy P. and thank you for posting it, Caitlin!

[Crisco]

1968 Thunderbird wine, Harvey Wallbangers, stuffed potato skins, fondues, anykind, cheese, steak, if you were "going steady" or "wearing his ring" matching sport shirts. Marlboro cigarettes, drag races, playing "chicken" Having duel four barrel carbs on your supersport ... and that was just what us girls remember!!! Of course, there's Roast beef on Kimmelwick with nose clearing horseradish, a Polish dill pickle washed down with a Labatt's 50. Just a little bit o heaven.

[vvvindaloo]

Tie-dyed pancakes... I love it.

[ellabee]

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961. But it's still a good suggestion for a 1968 menu, since Julia's show had gone national just a few years before, and MAFC continued to sell briskly, while French cooking classes multiplied.

[Sarah]

scroll down to see menu from the Trident, the ultimate '60-70's restaurant in Sausalito -- enlarge each for details --
http://www.sell.com/225FJX

[RI Swampyankee]

Don't forget the Wispride cheese spread in the dark brown crock! It pairs nicely with an upstate New York jug wine.

[PrincessBakesALot]

"Cinnamon Apple, in my Zapple, wine is on my mind"
Found right next to the Boone's Farm in the cheap wine aisle!

[gsElsbeth]

fondue, onion dip, vienna sausages in a grape jelly and chili sauce dip, rotel and melted American cheese. Drinks: rum and coke, mai tais, tom collins. There were a couple of rose wines too (can't remember the names-- might both have been Portuguese). Got it -- Mateus was one and something in a heavy ceramic bottle that may have begun with an R? '68 was a time ago for some of us.

[TongoRad]

That wine would be Lancer's?

Never had it ;)
(In my defense, the drinking age was 18 when I was a young'un)

[chicgail]

Mateus Rose. It was hot stuff. Lancer's was a different pink sodapop-wine. Best served with fondue, of course.

If you were fancy-schmacy, you might have tried your hand at beef Wellington.

[meatn3]

Another popular wine was Cold Duck.

[chicgail]

Let us not forget Boone's Farm Apple. : )

[alkapal]

and for the hard-core winos: MD 20-20 ! ;-D

[Perilagu Khan]

My folks and their friends used to play Spoons and get likker'd up on Annie Green Springs. You never heard such bawlin' and cacklin' in all your days.

Now this would have been more like '71-'76 than '68, though.

[Mike R.]

I'll gladly expand on this '68 beverage menu:

-Ripple (Red, White & Pagan Pink)
-Gypsy Rose (an earlier version of Night Train Express)
-Swiss-Up (a viscous white wine that so belonged in its hair-tonic-like bottle)
-Tango (screwdriver mix stuff)
-Fizzies - the original "alka-seltzery" cyclamate version
-Funny Face (powder) drinks
-YAGO and R-E-A-L Sangrias

[chicgail]

I thought fizzies were candies, not drinks. Did anyone mention Boone's Farm Apple Wine?

[Mike R.]

YOU mentioned Boone's Farm...five years ago!

About Fizzies...believe it or not, they're still sold. But do not pop one in your mouth like candy, you'd be in for a shocking surprise. The tablet was tossed into a glass of cold water, it sank to the bottom and effervesced upwards with volcanic force...in a sickly variety of colors...until the eruption ceased.

[chicgail]

I found it odd that this thread has new life five years later. I certainly don't remember what I posted back then. I'm amazed that you do.

[James Cristinian]

Mike R, we rarely drank, but popped them in our mouths for that bubbly goodness. Fizzies were a unit of currency exchange in our elementary school. A quarter or half a fizzie could score a bag of chips or a twinkie. I don't know why our moms didn't give us a few fizzies to take to school, we could have written our own ticket and eaten like kings.

[C. Hamster]

We used to throw Fizzies into the local outdoor swimming pool in the summer.

[James Cristinian]

My initial reaction to throwing fizzies into the pool was nooooo!!!, a waste of a fine fizzie. Reflecting on it, sounds pretty groovy (60's slang.) Another 60's treat, non-food, bottle rockets, we'd shoot them into the lake and they would explode under water. Far out!

[Perilagu Khan]

I threw Baby Ruths.

[James Cristinian]

I didn't know you had water in your part of Texas. I think the Baby Ruth reference may have gone over a high percentage of hound's heads, but Baby Ruth bars and chlorinated water are a fine taste treat. Okay for the uninformed, movie, Caddy Shack, Bill Murray, Baby Ruth, pool. Google it.

[Perilagu Khan]

I think it went under the Hounds' heads. ;)

[James Cristinian]

I just did the research.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_aBz...

[Veggo]

A lot of us got it.

[hill food]

don't be silly. Baby Ruths are 'laid', not 'thrown'

[breadchick]

Yup, Fizzies - haha. We'd put them in the glass and the water would fudtge all over your face if you tried to drink it too soon. As I now think of it, pretty horrid stuff, but just what this little country girl thought was cool!

[Perilagu Khan]

Enough to make a Parisian sommeliere swoon in stupefication.

[chicgail]

And the other "great" wines of their day were Little Blue Nun and Mateus Rose, a sweetish, slightly carbonated Spanish wine that come in a round brown bottle.

I guess you could call them gateway wines.

Edit: I just googled Mateus and found this:
"A light wine, fresh, young, fruity and slightly pétillant." I thought that described us at that time as well.

[Perilagu Khan]

Heh! I'm sure it did.

[breadchick]

Don't forget - the Mateus came in a bazillion different size bottles. We would collect them and put them on the window ledge like some sort of art installation - ha! Never could figure out who would buy that little bitty bottle.

[lagatta]

Horrors!

I guess, drinking a bit of real (if usually downmarket) wine, I was shielded from those indignities. Of course I was barely an adolescent in 1968, so not really clubbing.

There was horrible pseudo wine in Canada too, other than Baby Duck I have a hard time remembering the horrid sweet fruity thing that was not dissimilar to Ripple - wasn't that for itinerants?

I didn't mind the Blue Nun - heck, I was a kid, and it was actually wine. I associate that with gallery openings.

To this day, I like the Germanic varietals,but drier and more mineral of course.

[coll]

I don't remember any "clubs" back in 1968! We did most of our drinking au natural! (meaning outdoors.....ha!)

[hill food]

Wild Irish Rose.

Lancer's.

Champale.

[flavrmeistr]

Belle Haven, Ripple, Bali Hai, Richard's Triple Peach, Sly Fox, Red Rocket, White Rocket, Manischewitz Concord Grape and, of course, Thunderbird--all premium vintages, all for well under a buck in 1968 at People's Drug Store.

[Perilagu Khan]

"People's" Drug Store--heh heh. Naturally.

[flavrmeistr]

Yes. People's was an old chain of drug stores in the DC area that disappeared sometime in the 1980's. They never carded anyone.

[pine time]

I was sneaking sloe gin fizzes in the late 60s! We thought Blue Nun was quite the upscale drink. Ah, youth.

[alkapal]

Ripple -- fred sanford's favorite….champipple!

[zin1953]

At least in Southern California, the big "hits" of the day were:

WINES:
Lancer's & Mateus rosés from Portugal, Nectarosé from France, and Almaden Mountain Nectar Rosé (along with their Mountain White Chablis and Mountain Rhine) from California; Blue Nun and Black Tower Liebfraümilch from Germany; Ruffino Chianti in the straw-covered bottles (fiasci) from Italy, and Y'ago Sangria from Spain.

For the hard-core (or very cheap), there was the Italian Swiss Colony Rheinskellar, Tyrolia, and Napa-Sonoma-Mendocino, as well as Gallo's Spañada and Chablis Blanc. Also Boone's Farm Apple Wine (maybe Strawberry Hill, too); André Cold Duck -- along with Paul MassonVery Cold Duck and the original, Henri Marchand Cold Duck from New York State.

For the "connoisseur," Beaulieu Vineyards 1964 Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was, IIRC, $6.

LIQUOR:
Heublein pre-mixed cocktails (their "Club" canned individual cocktails came out a little later), Smirnoff Vodka (thanks to 007 and Playboy), J&B and Cutty Sark (both still bore the "8 years Old" statement), Old Grand-Dad, Jose Cuervo White (the Gold took off int he early 1970s, IIRC).

NON-ALCOHOLIC:
Tang, Fizzies, Funny Face (really beat up Kool-Aid), Nestlé's Qwik, Bosco, and (I forgot the name) those straws with the flavor-soaked stuff on the inside, so when you sipped your milk through them, it changed the flavor.

Cheers,
Jason

[Veggo]

Zin, you are a good student of recent history. If my math is right, you were barely using Clearasil. Is Ovaltine still made?

[zin1953]

In 1968, I worked on Robert Kennedy's Presidential campaign in Los Angeles, and was at the Ambassador Hotel "that" night; spent the next six weeks in the USSR as a student; and when I returned (no wonder the FBI *loves* me!), got teargassed and Mace'd while working at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago for McCarthy.

And yes -- it's still made. ;^)

[chicgail]

Right on!

[C. Hamster]

I drink Ovaltine all the time!

[penthouse pup]

You forgot Coco-Marsh (Bosco's competitor.) And for dessert:
Whip N'Chill.

Oh, a little Four Roses for a nip? And Canadian Club was still going strong, post Mad Men era...

[zin1953]

Definitely forgot the Whip N'Chill; don't recall Coco-Marsh. Didn't sell much Four Roses, and Seagram's V.O. was equal to Canadian Club in sales.

Colt 45, Coors, Budweiser, and Heineken were it for the beers, followed by Beck's, Dos Equis (there was only the amber), Lowenbrau Munchen (the original, before it was being made here in Texas by Miller's), and Tuborg.

[breadchick]

I worked for a large international corporation in the early 70's and the marketing department was just down the hall. My boss always left early on Christmas Eve, but would send in a couple cases of Andre champagne and large trays of appetizers from a local caterer. Food was incredible. Marketing didn't get a thing, btw. We would grab bottles of champagne and run through the offices like mad, even down to the labs. Poor chemists didn't have a boss like we did, so we poured the champ into their clean beakers! What a time.

Andre, go figure! ;-)

[hill food]

oh great, so us schlubs in marketing working our butts off at unpredictable hours to keep contracts coming in the door and jobs not leaving got nothing...typical. granted most of us were indeed full of $#!+ but you never knew if it was going to be an 8 hour day or a 20. and we were the big drunks in need of a little something.
ehh why I never want to 'sell' anybody's services other than my own ever again.

[alkapal]

i'd forgotten funny face !! goofy grape, etc. i think we had plastic mugs of the characters, though all were transparent plastic...http://theyalwayscomeback.blogspot.co...

zin, wasn't it you who told me that in the late '70's gallo burgundy was a good blend from their vineyard, then? i loved that stuff in college (1979).

[coll]

Gallo Hearty Burgandy was my Italian MILs house wine, always a gallon or two on hand. I don't remember having any complaints. I never got to meet my FIL, he passed too young, but I heard that his preference was Carlo Rossi Paisano, a very strong red wine. That is, when they didn't have homemade!

[zin1953]

Back in those days, Gallo Hearty Burgundy was approx. 75% Zinfandel and 25% Petite Sirah, with a bit of Carignan thrown in as well.

[coll]

I did try it a few years ago, just for old times sake, and thought maybe it was just me but it didn't seem all that great. Sad to hear. It was almost all we drank in the 1970s.

[CindyJ]

Sloe Gin Fizz was one of my drinks of choice in '68. And if I was getting fancy, a Pink Squirrel. Of course, I was waaaaaay too young to drink legally back then...

[Bill Hunt]

Now, those are memories. The Annie Green Springs had lower acidity, than Boone's Farm, and more "body," than Lancers, or Mateus Rosé. While I do recall some of the others, like Cold Duck, they were not on our main wine list (though the Bali-Hi was - especially the "pineapple").

Hunt

[Perilagu Khan]

Dirty rotten shame that such a fine wine bit the dust. ;)

[CindyJ]

We drank Lancers and Mateus more because we liked the bottles than the wine. And don't forget Zeller Schwartzkatz (sp?) and Blue Nun.

[FriedClamFanatic]

Smiles......and now Cindy you have "graduated" on to finer things, judging from your other posts. but yeah. those were the "upscale" wines we'd bring to dinner invitations where Boones Farm and Annie Greensprings woud have been received with a look.

Maybe the next dinner party, I'll bring a 4-pack of Sutter Home!.......LOL

[CindyJ]

Hey, FCF -- haven't seen you in these parts for awhile! Sutter Home!!! I hate to admit it , but I have a friend whose drink of choice is Sutter Home white zin. Oh, well, I love her anyway.

[Bill Hunt]

Yes, Black Cat was a part of our early wine history.

Hunt

[EWSflash]

i remember the heavy ceramic bottle wines, but sure can't remember the name. German-ish named wines, like Zellar Schwartz-katz and Leibfraumilch. What was the brand??

[shaogo]

Could those wines in the ceramic bottles have been "Black Tower?"

[alkapal]

yesssss == black tower. my mom saved a bottle and used it for some cool 70's acrylic flowers on wire stems!

also those mateus brand rosé and other wines were in ceramic bottles, as i recall.

[Tripeler]

Alkapal,
At the time, acrylic flowers on wire stems were the primary form of craft abuse.

[alkapal]

nope. they were cute. it was macramé.

[Tripeler]

Yeah, macramé is cute.

[coll]

Only a couple of months ago, I threw out all my macrame flowerpot holders, hope I don't regret it someday ;-)

[chicgail]

It took until a couple of months ago for you to throw them out? wow.

[coll]

Yeah I wasn't using them, though. But ah the memories, every time I ran across them in the basement I figured maybe they'd come back into style someday! Not that they can be esthetically correct, just....I don't know what actually. They had some kind of hold on me.

[Bill Hunt]

Hey, eBay could likely have netted you millions!

Hunt

[coll]

Well I tried to give them away at our last garage sale, but no takers. Maybe there's a market in Japan or something, I don't know.

[meatn3]

I haven't thought about those flowers in years! I thought they were very "it" at the time! And the Black Tower bottles were quite the sophisticated look.

[shaogo]

Oh, my. It seems every pot-luck supper or dinner party pot-luck someone brought the vienna sausages (or meatballs) in the sauce made from grape jelly and ketchup (or Heinz Chili Sauce, which really is just chunky ketchup).

[Perilagu Khan]

I sometimes make these with Li'l Smokies and a sauce comprised of mustard and red currant jelly. Dee-lish.

[monfrancisco]

The Li'l Smokies will be up at half-time here, in a sauce of bottled BBQ sauce and the last lurking jar of cranberry sauce from the holidays. I did this for the first time a year ago as sort of a joke, but -- oh no -- we really liked it! Dee-lish, indeed.

[Perilagu Khan]

The joke was on you. And it's a dam' good thing. ;)

[monfrancisco]

There's no going back, yah bastid!

[Fog City Kid]

Kold-Kist Sirloin Tips and gravy...

[Bob W]

Cap'n Crunch

[coney with everything]

California dip with Liptons French Onion

[flavrmeistr]

Clam dip and Ruffles potato chips. Cheese fondue, for sure, and Swedish meatballs. You'll need the harvest-gold fondue pot and a bunch of those long, skinny forks. Vodka Collins, or Fresca for the diet conscious.

[MobyRichard]

Fondue?

[sueatmo]

This was new to me in the early 'seventies.

[chicgail]

Fondue was so the thing in 1968. I got married (for the first time :-D ) that year and received at least 4 fondue pots as wedding presents.

[Perilagu Khan]

I got married in 1999 and we received a fondue pot, from an Roman historian, no less! Verily, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

[Bill Hunt]

While we were not married until 1970. we also received four - think that we have one very nice SS one in the closet.

Hunt

[hill food]

rumaki.

[ML8000]

Space food sticks.

http://www.funkyfoodshop.com/index.cf....

[mpalmer6c]

Here's the ever popular food timeline:

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecad...

[southernitalian]

Every time I see this something else jumps out at me. What on Earth is potato-cheese Charlotte? Tomatoes stuffed with chicken livers? Yum!

[MarieinLA]

Thanks - this is perfect!

[janetofreno]

Interesting....the 70s part mentions something called a hummingbird cake that was supposedly very popular. I pretty much learned to cook in the 70s and I never heard of a hummingbird cake!! Of course, I never would have made it anyway (since it contains bananas...).

My go-to cake of the 70s was a Harvey Wallbanger cake. Made in a bundt pan with yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding, orange juice, vodka, and Galliano.

[sueatmo]

Hummingbird cake was also called Doktor Bird cake, supposedly named for a mascot for a Caribbean airline. You made it in a Bundt pan--new in the early seventies--and drizzled a glaze over. (I think. I've actually forgotten how you were supposed to ice it.) I believe the ingredients included canned pineapple and bananas. Here is a link to Martha's version baked as a layer cake:

http://www.marthastewart.com/350178/h...

[Bill Hunt]

Ah, I had completely forgotten the "fondue craze!" Thank you for the reminder.

What is the oft cited statement, "if you remember the '60s, you were not there... ?"

Hunt

[jlafler]

Wow. I wonder if they still make Tang....

[antrobin]

Indeed they do. And it's delicious!

In the 80s, when I was a teen, my mother used to shop at the local canned food / slightly damaged / expired food warehouse and one of the gems she found was Mango-flavored Tang. The copy on the jar was always in Arabic, the only English words being "mango" and "tang." I still crave it 20some years later.

[tobycat]

If you google "mango tang" it seems it's still made and available in Mexican grocery stores.

[mamachef]

So, if you dumped in a shot of Sammy Hagar's adult beverage, would you have a Mango Wango Tango?
Bahaw.

[MysticYoYo]

The woman in line in front of me at the FoodsCo on Thursday was purchasing two enormous bottles of Tang. Not only is it still made, it's made in industrial size canisters.