What's your best "retro" recipe?
What recipe brings back food memories of home or being in your grandparents' kitchen? Do you have a handwritten copy of the recipe? Or was it was one of those "verbal or learned by watching" recipes? How often do you prepare the recipe now? Can you replicate that unforgettable taste from childhood?
Of course, mine are all dessert related...apple crisp, lemon meringue pie and Hellmann's chocolate mayo cake!
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23 Comments:
Mom's Velveeta Mac-n-Cheese. I finally got this out of her this past summer, so the full details are now available here.
LunaPierCook at 6:19PM on 01/22/08
LPC---btw, hatlady recently commented (fruit dessert favorites talk question) how you have the best peach cobbler recipe---can you link that one?
Your Mom's Velveeta Mac-n-Cheese is definitely a classic & one to continue to pass down thru the family!
JEP at 6:58PM on 01/22/08
Well ... yeah, mom's peach cobbler is pretty good! Here's where I stashed the PDF:
Old-Fashioned Peach Cobbler
My wife asks for this cobbler for her birthday instead of cake!
I'm going to need to get up-to-speed on that mac-n-cheese. Honestly, I've not double-checked the method quite yet.
LunaPierCook at 7:13PM on 01/22/08
My mom makes a great Tuna Noodle Casserole (seriously!) that I've loved since I was a little kid! She always serves it with Golden Corn Cake (a savory cornbread, really) from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
I always make the mac and cheese from The Best Recipe, and it's fantastic! I love it with peas!
And do desserts really ever go out of style? Will anyone ever say, "Gosh, that delicious-warm-cinnamony-buttery-vanilla-ice-cream-topped apple crisp is just too retro for my taste!" I don't think so!
ChristineB at 8:46PM on 01/22/08
Without a doubt; meatloaf.
The recipe has been disseminated to the degree I fear it might end up being my epitaph!
srhcb at 8:56PM on 01/22/08
My grandmother used to make a potato dish which involves layering sliced potatoes, butter and dry french onion soup mix. I've introduced my friends to it, adding shredded cheese to the layers...it's a hit every time I make it!
mepolo at 9:03PM on 01/22/08
Luna - I am totally going to make that. It looks awesome! Velveeta exists for a reason. Clearly, this is it.
Okay, this is going to sound kind of disgusting, but it's really awesome. Even my serious food snob friends love it, as long as I don't tell them what's in it. It came to me from my mom, from her mom. I always just call it Mom's Kielbasa Thingy.
Preheat oven to 300o
Slice kielbasa into 1/12 inch chunks
Mix 1 cup chili sauce with 1 cup grape jelly (not sugar free)
Dump all into lidded pot or casserole
Bake, covered for an hour or so. Then uncover, raise heat to 400 and continue to bake, stirring occasionally, until the chili sauce/jelly mix has turned into a thick glaze which has started to get little browny spots.
Serve with plain white rice (I use Nishi Sushi Rice - not a big fan of plain long grain white rice. I kind of need it to stick together a little bit. I'm sure this is nature v nurture) and green beans.
JEP - Great question.
chisai at 9:36PM on 01/22/08
Oooh, that's a great question, here are mine: the first one that comes to mind is my Mum's salmon and potato pie (bottom pie crust, layered slices of potatoes, onions and crumbled tinned salmon and top crust). It doesn't sound like much, but when I first recreated it a couple of years ago, I felt like crying, it tasted so much like childhood (my Mum passed away when I was 17, and even though we cooked a lot together when I was, I don't have that many real "recipes" of hers). Then, from my Gran's kitchen, a dish that we knew as "red aubergines" growing up (it's an absolutely brilliant dish, similar to ratatouille, I guess), which I finally "nailed" several weeks ago (I've actually been making it for years, but the one I made last time was just "it"). I was lucky, both my Mum and my Gran (my father's mother) were amazing cooks, and I have plenty of dishes in my repertoire inspired by them, but these two, for whatever reason, are my quintessential childhood-memory-dishes when I make them.
brooke29 at 10:34PM on 01/22/08
Lemon Meringue pie. Huge tall meringue and tart tart lemon. MMMMM
I also make a wicked bundt cake but that is sexy again.
JerzeeTomato at 10:55PM on 01/22/08
It would have to be lobscoch, potatoes layered with hamburger, onions & tomatoes with cream (evaporated milk) poured over the top and cooked in a 325 degree oven for hours. It is sooo good and is considered an old family recipe.
windjunkie at 11:44PM on 01/22/08
brooke29 - we do the same thing at my house, but we make it with meatballs...the best I have ever had hands down. It does sound weird....my response was "grape jelly....no...really????" I encourage everyone to make it!!
Lilartist at 7:47AM on 01/23/08
lilartist - The question for you is, how are those meatballs with a side order of properly-made poutine? ;-) (Oh, and I believe you were responding to chisai, not brooke29)
chisai - My mom's tried other block cheeses for her recipe, and none work quite as well as Velveeta. Kraft must use just the right combination of chemicals to create that stuff! :-D
LunaPierCook at 8:00AM on 01/23/08
I hate that I can't go back in and edit! For Mom's Kielbasa Thingy the kielbasa is cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks , not 1/12.
No matter how much I check, I always seem to miss something.
chisai at 8:16AM on 01/23/08
oh, silly me!
Lilartist at 8:45AM on 01/23/08
I am just THRILLED that someone else uses the word "thingy" in recipe titles- I always felt like the only wierdo. :) thanks chisai!
bisbee at 11:39AM on 01/23/08
OMG - great question! And I love reading some of the answers -- now I'm totally in the mood for tuna-noodle casserole, yum.
As much as I love desserts, mine has to be my mom's salmon mousse. Sounds fancy-pants, but it's made in the blender with canned red salmon, mayo, sour cream, gelatin, red horseradish and an onion. Gross, I know (looks nasty in the blender too), but it is DELICIOUS -- I could eat the entire bowl myself. And I don't like cooked salmon or mayo!
CookiePie at 11:55AM on 01/23/08
My Nana's spaghetti sauce, my Grandmom's pound cake, and my Mom's tonkatsu.
If I could find a recipe for beef stew that got close enough to Grandmom's, that would be up there too.
segalbraith at 12:58PM on 01/23/08
While I have plenty of good chocolate available to me, I must admit to sometimes craving these really, really sweet chocolate and oatmeal mounds that my Mom used to make. I think some people call them "No-Bakes" because they are cooked on top of the stove, but in portions of the south they were called, "Preacher Cookies." My Mom said that was because they were something you could whip up quickly if the preacher happened to drop by for a visit. Basically you boil butter, sugar and cocoa powder for about 3 minutes then add vanillia and a bunch of (uncooked) oatmeal and plop spoonfuls out onto waxed paper to firm up. Yum! Wish I had a couple right now.
elizabethw at 2:32PM on 01/23/08
I don't know if this is retro or even really a recipe but the talk of "thingy" recipes prompted me to write. My late sister and I used to make Ritz Cracker Thingys...a ritz cracker with a little ketcup, then a square of ham or bologna topped with a piece of american cheese zapped in the microwave til the cheese melted. As she put in the family cookbook she put together "perfect for watching Love Boat on Saturday night" Sounds yucky and to be honest haven't made them in 20+ years but the thought of them brings me right back. Hmm, wonder how they would go over for the super bowl party?!
mrsmoosie at 3:04PM on 01/23/08
My Dad's oven roasted all day pot roast with tons of garlic and mushroom gravy made with the drippings. Served with cream and butter infused fluffy mashed potatoes and green peas. Because you have to take the potato on the fork and then smash it into the peas. I need to go make this...NOW
jcrisco at 4:21PM on 01/23/08
My mom's "dog food dip," so called because it looks like wet dog food. Mix one brick of cream cheese and one can of chili, and serve warm with tortilla chips. It's delicious, and always a hit at every party of mine (no matter how unappetizing the name or appearance.)
Diz at 4:31PM on 01/23/08
What great memories all you SE's have shared--thanks! I so wish that my mother & grandmother would had written down recipes for some of their favorites. I only have a handful of scrap pieces of paper with faded writing & food stained blotches---I have this notion that if I ever re-copied them that the dish would somehow not taste the same! All the recipes are kept in a beat-up old tin recipe box! It's time to look thru the recipes & feed myself some memories:)
JEP at 5:58PM on 01/23/08
CookiePie: Use the Cook's Illustrated recipe. Sooo delicious, I never thought I'd like it but it's great!
From the "New Best Recipe" (p.294)
TUNA NOODLE CASSEROLE
12 ounces fettuccine broken into thirds
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
10 ounces button mushroom caps sliced sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 medium onions, minced
1/4 cup flour
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
3/4 cup milk
1 tb lemon juice
1-1/2 cups thawed peas
1/4 cup minced parsley and 1-1/2 tb chopped thyme
2 cans tuna
Make the topping by toasting 1 cup of fresh bread crumbs, salt, and 1-1/2 tb unsalted butter at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, cool.
Heat oven to 450. Boil pasta until al dente, drain.
Saute mushrooms in 2 tb of butter with onions, salt, and pepper and cook until moisture evaporates and onions soften. Set aside.
Melt 4 tb butter, add flour, and whisk until golden brown. Still whisking, add chicken broth and milk. Raise the heat and cook for about 5 minutes more until it thickens. Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp salt, lemon juice, and fresh herbs.
Combine sauce, pasta, tuna, peas and mushrooms, add salt and pepper. Put into a buttered 13 x 9 inch baking dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes or until topping is browned and casserole is bubbling.
lo82070 at 12:56PM on 01/24/08