The Most Popular Recipes of the 1950s (2024)

FAQs

What was the most popular dish in the 1950s? ›

As you can see from the decade's top recipes, the 1950s were all about the intersection of comfort food and convenience—casseroles and quick dishes like Chicken a la King and Welsh rarebit reigned supreme.

Items like pancakes, sausages, meatloaf, burgers, and sandwiches were standard on diner menus, and still are today. The meals were priced low, making diners popular even before their rise in the 1950s.

Breakfast was viewed as the meal to set you up for the day so was, at the very least, porridge, followed by bacon, eggs and fried bread, then toast and home-made marmalade, and lots of milky tea. As children it was also when we had our vitamin tablets - Haliborange and Adexolin capsules.

Taco Bell and Burger King are among the fast food chains that were started in the 1950's.

Supper time and or lunch time might be Fried Chicken or ham, meatloaf, fried fish or pork chops. Vegetables such as peas, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, butter beans, turnip greens, mustard greens or most any vegetable that was in season. Salt pork was fried or used as seasoning in greens.

However, packaged snacks were not about to concede to the fast food trend. Peanut M&Ms, Atomic Fireballs, Certs Mints, Hot Tamales, PEZ candy, Pixy Stix, Smarties Candy Necklaces and Marshmallow Peeps were all candies developed during this decade.

Casseroles provided affordable sustenance during the Depressions of the 1890s and 1930s and the shortage of food items during both World Wars. In the 1950s, the widespread use of oven-proof cookware and canned foods made casseroles a simple, quick and inexpensive way to feed the whole family.

Whereas Maxson had called its frozen airline meals “Strato-Plates,” Swanson introduced America to its “TV dinner” (Thomas claims to have invented the name) at a time when the concept was guaranteed to be lucrative: As millions of white women entered the workforce in the early 1950s, Mom was no longer always at home to ...

Some of the most popular cereals of the time were packed with sugar, and people could satisfy their sweet tooth with cereals like Sugar Rice Crinkles and Frosty-O's, which General Mills marketed in 1959 as “goodness shaped like little frosted donuts.” One of the most sugary cereals of the 1950s, Kellogg's Sugar Smacks, ...

What is for lunch in the 1950s? ›

So, what did people eat for lunch in the 1950s? In many cases, it was a pared-down version of dinner, consisting of meat, sides and veggies. Sandwiches were also popular, particularly bologna, as were soups packed in a thermos.

In addition to Coronation Chicken, Chicken Tetrazzini.

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.

'Diets were generally healthier than today, with people eating more vegetables and milk, and far less fat and sugar. People were more aware of the importance of seasonal produce, having been involved in growing vegetables during the war.

Often tinned hams, salads, breads and dessert would be served in a field. However, for an easier alternative make sandwiches and wrap them in greaseproof paper. Don't forget the hard boiled eggs as no picnic would be a picnic without one! Tea and lemonade.

Popular packaged foods included Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Special K cereals, General Mills' Trix and Cocoa Puffs cereals, Star-Kist Tuna, Minute Rice, Eggo Waffles, Pepperidge Farm Cookies, Ruffles potato chips, Rice-A-Roni, Ramen Noodles, and Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream.

Apple crumble and apple pie were always popular. And then there were the milk puddings: blancmange or rice pudding, tapioca or sago (“frogspawn”), usually served with a spoonful of jam. For around the 50% of children who stayed school dinners in the 1950s, it was the main meal of the day.