'The Most Revolting Dish Ever Devised'? Or Have You Seen Worse?
This story in the Guardian has been making the rounds in the food blog world and people are rightly freaking out about it.
Guardian writer Tim Hayward is given access to a cache of books that celebrated British food writer Elizabeth David bequeathed to London's Guildhall library upon her death. In the margins and on slips of paper are "bitchy annotations," including one in which she designates the following recipe as the "most revolting dish ever devised":
Italian Salad
Ingredients
1 pint cold cooked macaroni
1/2 pint cooked or tinned pears
1/2 pint grated raw carrot
French dressing to moisten
2 heaped tablespoons minced onion
1/2 pint cooked or minced string beans
Procedure: Mix the chopped macaroni and vegetables; moisten with French dressing, flavouring with garlic if liked. Serve on a dish lined with lettuce leaves. Decorate with mayonnaise and minced pimento or chives.
The recipe and note were found inside Ulster Fare, published in 1945 by the Belfast Women's Institute Club.
What do you think, serious eaters? Is that the worst recipe ever devised? Or have you seen worse? Please dish!
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
58 Comments:
Something about the word "moisten" in there just rubs me the wrong way.
DanielJ at 8:37PM on 07/01/09
What about that screams "name me 'Italian Salad'"? Could it be the *French* dressing?
NYCEater at 8:40PM on 07/01/09
Got that beat. By a mile.
Frog's Eye Salad
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (20-ounce) can pineapple chunks in its own juice, undrained
2 (11-ounce) cans mandarin orange segments, drained
1 large egg, beaten
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) Acine di Pepe Pasta, uncooked
3 1/2 cups (8 ounces) frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed and divided
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup flaked coconut
Maraschino cherries (optional)
In medium saucepan, stir together sugar, flour and salt.
Drain pineapple, reserving juice to equal 1 cup. With whisk, gradually stir juice and egg into sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in lemon juice. Cool mixture to room temperature.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Rinse with cold water to cool quickly; drain well.
In large bowl, stir together pineapple juice mixture and pasta. Cover; refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Add crushed pineapple and chunks, oranges, 2 cups whipped topping, marshmallows and coconut; mix gently and thoroughly. Cover; refrigerate until cold.
Top with remaining whipped topping; garnish with cherries, if desired.
Makes 12 servings.
First saw this horrific glop when I lived in Colorado. The deli woman explained that it had "aseenee de peppy" pasta. Ugh.
therealchiffonade at 8:42PM on 07/01/09
My sister-in-laws' French bean side dish.
Canned French cut green beans
Condensed Mushroom soup
slivered almonds
crushed, buttered potato chips on top.
Even the dogs avoid it.
tinytim at 8:44PM on 07/01/09
NYCEater: no no no, it's OBVIOUSLY the use of macaroni. using macaroni automatically makes everything Italian.
.....tinned....pears...?
fraumeinnoodles at 8:45PM on 07/01/09
That liver mush sold in the cold cut case.
Potted meat.
That delviled ham/chicken/other meat product in the canned meat section.
Any dish containing the above products.
beth1 at 8:47PM on 07/01/09
I'd love for someone to actually make this and post photos.
weheartfood at 8:51PM on 07/01/09
I don't even need a recipe to gross you out. I used to love squeeze cheese. There, I said it (again!).
http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/a-gross-food-i-once-loved/
DanaMcCauley at 9:01PM on 07/01/09
when i first got a computer i started hanging out at a cooking website that i won't name... but all of the women there posted recipes that called for things that mixed a box of cake mix with crushed pretzels, crushed canned pineapple, cool-whip, lime jello, and mayonnaise.
cybercita at 9:02PM on 07/01/09
I have to agree with some of the comments in the original article...
If you read pears as a typo for peas, it seems like an ok meal given the time period and foods available.
If I only had canned vegetables and needed to make sure my kids got a nourishing meal during a time of rations, I think I can understand the dish. I wouldnt eat it out of want, but maybe out of need...
froggo at 9:07PM on 07/01/09
This all sounds like "Goop Melange" from the Odd Couple.....Oscar's favorite dish!
Fill salad bowl w/ sardines and pickles
Top w/ whipped cream
Garnish w/ crushed potato chips...........
Athletes supposedly trained on this!
http://staceysnacksonline.com
Stacey Snacks at 9:13PM on 07/01/09
Oh, how I love Elizabeth David
Tombolo at 9:19PM on 07/01/09
I'm with NYCEater on this...I died a little bit inside when I saw this recipe labeled "Italian Salad"... Italians everywhere are wondering what we did to deserve this insult, have we not given the world enough truly delicious food to avoid getting blamed for atrocities like this recipe?!
BUT, this is still worse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we2iWTJqo98
Leave it to Sandra Lee! I can't get enough of that video.
LizLemon at 9:34PM on 07/01/09
There's an even worse British melange consisting of boxed macaroni & cheese combined with a can of baked beans. Simple yet somehow wrong.
kathyvegas at 10:07PM on 07/01/09
When my husband and I were first dating, I really didn't believe him when he said how horrible his meals were growing up. There was one meal a week, in two week cycles, that he was okay with eating...broiled round steak and spaghetti and meatballs. Nightmares that he got his mom to brag about to me:
Cream of celery soup with canned green beans and hotdogs mixed with well cooked (think mushy) egg noodles and baked for 30 min. in a 350 oven. Top off with lots of black pepper. And she bragged about it!
dhorst at 10:23PM on 07/01/09
I grew up on a ranch in rural South Dakota--aka. beef country. My mom collected alot of cookbooks compiled by local churches and organizations--one of our all-time favorite recipe finds was this tasty little number:
Beefy Brownies
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup melted margarine
3/4 cup cooked ground beef, drained
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt margarine in an 8-inch baking pan in oven. While it is melting, mix other ingredients. Add margarine to mixture. Spread into buttered baking pan; mixture will be very thick. Bake for 25 minutes or until done. Cool and ice if desired.
thehostess at 10:41PM on 07/01/09
This macaroni salad: http://www.recipezaar.com/Sweet-N-Sour-Macaroni-Salad-19486
There was a video I saw of a woman making this salad and it was pretty soupy. Vinegar-mayonnaise-condensed milk-sugar soup. Looked disgusting.
geenersaurus at 10:52PM on 07/01/09
Kitty Litter Casserole.....
Yes....this is an actual recipe....and if you google it you can see it has pretty much been made for pot lucks the world over.....I'm no food snob, but that is just wrong...white trash might think its funny....but it's revolting.
I'm not going to go into the full recipe...but suffice it to say it envolves a 9x13 pan, a wildrice casserole of your choosing....and the piece de resistance, sausage or ground turkey made into kitty droppings.
There is an equally disgusting dessert version circulating amongst trailer parks that involve tootsie rolls.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sandra has made this....
2qrs at 11:00PM on 07/01/09
1945 would have made that WWII era. Sure, it's gross by today's standards. Interesting that they called Italian Salad considering Italy's side in the war.
ONTOH, when I was a kid, well after WWII thank-you very much, my sister and I wanted to make dinner for mom and dad. I don't recall everything that what went into it, but I do remember involved Wheat Chex and possibly ground beef. It was so bad that even dad couldn't choke it down.
RossS at 11:14PM on 07/01/09
Nope.
1. The ingredients are not then suspended in lime Jello.
2. See #1.
Amandarama at 11:20PM on 07/01/09
It looks like someone had half the ingredients for one recipe, half the ingredients for another, and only one bowl to put it all in.
dbcurrie at 11:40PM on 07/01/09
I totally thought I had this in the bag... until I read the comments. There are some seriously weird people in the world.
The most revolting dish I've discovered is... my mother-in-law's "Ambrosia" salad. Mandarin oranges and bananas, I think? All mixed up with whipped (read: melted plastic) topping. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's disgusting... all my in-laws seem to think it's okay, but then again, they've been eating it all their life.
TheKitchenette at 12:33AM on 07/02/09
My husband recently talked about a commonly served dish of Jello with pineapple, oranges, or whatever fruits, and carrots.
I've read of a dish that consists of marshmallows, Miracle Whip/mayonnaise, Jello, and pineapple...and I think celery?
I really like Jello. I want to know what has Jello ever done to people to create some of these atrocities?!
Cassaendra at 12:33AM on 07/02/09
@therealchiffonade -- I'm with you on the frog eye salad! My husbands family think I am the antichrist because I pass it quickly along at thanksgiving and they impatiently wait 364 days for it.
My vote is for any recipe involving a can of tuna. I know I'm in the minority on this, but the stench of it is unbearable to me.
carhoff at 12:33AM on 07/02/09
Last year for a big Thanksgiving gathering, I made a Spam Jello salad. It had cubed spam, diced hard boiled eggs, celery, onions and carrots suspended in a lime Jello base mixed with mayo and sour cream. It was green and vulgar to look at, let alone taste. It was a real recipe, so it is not like I went out of my way to invent something that horrible.
Helldog at 12:50AM on 07/02/09
Here's an abomination, definitely in the running for worst dish ever divised:
Avocado-Lime Salad
1 pkg. Lime Jello
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water
1 tbs. green pepper fine cut
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbs. lemon jello
1 mashed avocado
Dissolve jello in hot water. Add cold water, salt and lemon juice. Cool until thickened, then beat until fluffy. Add other ingredients. Mold and serve with pimento garnish.
LearP at 2:04AM on 07/02/09
I saw Paula Deen make this a little while back on her show and about lost it... though some of the other comments here are equally disturbing!
Cheesy Ham and Banana Casserole
Butter
12 slices white bread
8 large slices deli ham
4 bananas, sliced on the bias
2 cups shredded Cheddar
2 cups crushed potato chips
6 slices cooked and crumbled bacon
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter a 9 by 13 glass baking dish. Butter both sides of the bread and layer 6 of them into the bottom of the baking dish, overlapping them as necessary but keep them even. Layer the slices of ham on top of the bread and then the bananas, 6 more slices of bread, then the cheese, potato chips, and bacon. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, cream, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Pour this over the casserole almost to the top. Bake for 45 minutes until brown and bubbly. Cut into squares and remove with a spatula, like lasagna.
PinkCupcake at 4:53AM on 07/02/09
My mother has some older friends with pretty scary kitchen repertoires. One makes a casserole from canned clams, canned cream of mushroom soup, chopped cabbage and shredded cheddar cheese (I never dared ask for more details than that). Another has a more budget-friendly answer to melon and prosciutto - corned beef and cantaloupe. Luckily for my mom, these folks don't entertain much.
lcwgourmet at 6:44AM on 07/02/09
Rationing aside, the inexplicable addition of pears (if not a typo) is just head-scratching. It would be a normal, rather than an epically bad dish otherwise.
However, I have only one word in response to the question:
Haggis
HeartofGlass at 8:06AM on 07/02/09
As a 19-year-old student newlywed back around 1970, I had to depend on canned tuna quite a bit. I used to make a casserole with white sauce and crushed potato chips, where the grease would make giant pools on top by the time it was baked. Tried a tuna pizza once...but only once :)
ChloeA at 8:30AM on 07/02/09
Ellizabeth David rules-i totally write bitchy stuff in the margins of my cookbooks-ha
gastronomeg at 9:09AM on 07/02/09
I live in the South were they called Jello salads congealed salads. Is that not a gross word or what?
And I think the pears, though I am sure they were a typo, would add a certain fruitiness to this kind of salad if they were chopped up nicely.
This from the woman who took caramel ice cream, chicken and green chilies at age 15 and had them for a meal!
queenbleu at 9:52AM on 07/02/09
My sister's favorite salad is STILL carrot and pineapple salad made with orange jello. But the worst meal I can remember was cooked by my Arkansas grandmother when my mom was in the hospital having one of my brothers. She used a can of deviled ham, some chopped up hard boiled eggs, some canned peas for color all in a white sauce, serving the whole glutinous mess on white bread toast. It honestly looked as if it had already made a visit to our digestive systems and we might have slipped and said as much to our grandmother, rest her soul.
Marti at 10:49AM on 07/02/09
I did it. I made the dish that disgusted Elizabeth David. http://twitpic.com/90zdw
nosetotailathome at 10:54AM on 07/02/09
@thehostess has my vote. Beefy Brownies? Reminds me of the "Friends" episode where Rachel made the Trifle that was half jam and half beef because two pages of the recipe book stuck toether. Joey: "Jam, good. Meat, good."
KB in Toledo at 11:21AM on 07/02/09
But you made it all pretty lol
feistyfoodie at 11:26AM on 07/02/09
I would buy the collected marginalia of Elizabeth David in a heartbeat. Jill Norman, make this publication happen!
How I wish I knew how she felt about Fernand Point's Ma Gastronomie much earlier.
I always love reading about Point, but the cookbook is dissapointing and doesn't deserve the veneration it receives from Thomas Keller, Charlie Palmer, etc...
Ortolan at 11:53AM on 07/02/09
I have a Jello cookbook from the 1970s. Some of the desserts are quite pretty, really - but there iss also, unfortunately, a section called "Salads That Help Make the Meal." The winner of The Horror, the Horror! award from that section is definitely Jellied Salad Nicoise:
1 can tuna
1 small tomato, diced
1/2 cup cooked green beans (mmm, canned I hope!)
2 Tbl sliced black olives
2 Tbl green pepper strips
2 Tbl red onion strips
2 Tbl French or Italian dressing
1 hard-boiled egg, diced
1 PACKET OF LEMON JELL-O
The recipe calls for putting the vegetable and egg mixture into a ring mold, pouring on half of the (partially thickened) Jello, and then, for the layered look, topping that with 2 cups of chopped lettuce, and pouring the rest of the Jello over that.
It also calls for serving the salad with a lovely mayonnaise dressing: 1/2 cup mayo, 2 Tbl cream, 2 finely chopped anchovy fillets. Yum.
Judes at 12:07PM on 07/02/09
Ack!!! That's a disaster of vomitous proportions.
juliebugsmama at 12:18PM on 07/02/09
I think the Shrimp Gelatin Mold has to be one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard of. This has to be a joke. No one in there right mind would contemplate serving this to anyone or thing. http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,161,147165-254206,00.html
Shrimp Gelatin Mold
1 can tomato soup
12 oz. cream cheese
2 env. unflavored gelatin
1/4 c. cold water
1 c. finely chopped celery
1 c. finely chopped onion
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 drops Tabasco
1 c. mayonnaise
2 (6 oz.) pkg. frozen cooked shrimp, drained
Heat soup; add cheese. Stir until smooth and melted. Soften gelatin in water; add to soup. Stir to dissolve; cool slightly. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into 6 cup mold and refrigerate until solid. Serve on a bed of lettuce as a spread for buttery-flavored crackers.
jimmyg at 12:25PM on 07/02/09
Why even "go there"?
CJ McD at 12:37PM on 07/02/09
@PinkCupcake I agree Paula Deen's Cheesy Ham and Banana Casserole trumps the Jello salads for most revolting recipe ever devised. What is it with the sweet and salty and fatty?
LearP at 12:51PM on 07/02/09
TY LizLemon I just followed your link, OMG that is so funny.
trabil22 at 2:16PM on 07/02/09
awwwww, frog's eye salad is good you hater!
GretchinF at 3:15PM on 07/02/09
Can't say that this is the most revolting food when compared to something like haggis.
AnnieNT at 3:24PM on 07/02/09
@thehostess -- beef brownies? Reading that recipe made me throw up in my mouth a little.
There is always the Gallery of Regrettable Food:
http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/
Good stuff.
gbania at 3:25PM on 07/02/09
@AnnieNT I've made haggis. Haggis is so much better than this, I don't know where to start.
nosetotailathome at 3:43PM on 07/02/09
nosetotailathome, do you cook your haggis in the sheep's stomach? it's cooking in the stomach part that really revolts me, not the ingredients. The smell...oh sorry bad memories coming back...
AnnieNT at 4:27PM on 07/02/09
An infamously cheap sister-in-law made some "taco salad," but didn't see why she should spring for taco sauce when she had a perfectly good 3/4 full jar of Saucy Susan Chinese duck sauce that had been sitting the the refrigerator for a few months. It was served as both appetizer and main dish.
MMinNYC at 4:46PM on 07/02/09
Hi,
I don't post much, but I remember my bf (now husband) making a barley, miso, hard-boiled egg 'pie' with whole-wheat crust when we were really broke about 25 years ago. Needless to say, this did not go into the recipe rotation.
Kendall
rundbay at 4:56PM on 07/02/09
Whoa!
Whats with all the middle-class retro housewife hate in the chain?!
A culinary mis-step to be sure, but come on it is not that bad. Each ingredient is fundamentally ok.
I would rather eat this than some of the faddish "gastronomic delights" (ehem, foam, ehem) that surface in restaurants every so often. Isn't the diversity of food (and food preferences and people, now that I'm ranting about it) the really beautiful part of recipe collections?
zom2pan at 5:42PM on 07/02/09
@AnnieNT Sure did. Here's the post if you're interested: http://www.nosetotailathome.com/2009/05/haggis/
nosetotailathome at 6:16PM on 07/02/09
@zom2pan It was really, really terribly bad. I'm working on a post about the taste and texture, but in boxing terms it's a knockout one-two punch that I've never experienced before.
nosetotailathome at 6:18PM on 07/02/09
as others already mentioned, the peas/pears thing is what makes this so revolting. if the recipe had been written as intended, it's really not that bad. otoh, if pear was intentional this is vomit-worthy.
sloppy at 6:38PM on 07/02/09
Ugh! That's awful! But definitely not the most disgusting recipe I've ever seen. My worst meal ever was prepared by my college roommate. Here's a link, if you're interested!
http://highheelsinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/05/worst-meal-of-my-life.html
lehrlich at 2:05PM on 07/06/09
This is seriously one of the funniest 'food chains' ever. Especially the comment about the taco salad... i'm crying its so funny
jwaldemar at 2:36PM on 07/06/09
Several years ago this website about some old Weight Watchers recipe cards made the rounds. If you haven't seen it, check it out. They are horrible!
http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/fluffymackpudding.html
curiousjon at 4:16PM on 07/06/09
I can't believe no one's mentioned Sandra Lee's infamous Kwanzaa Cake.
jennywinker at 4:22PM on 07/13/09