A 1960’s Potluck: Bring Mayo!

Carrie and Melissa baked two popular desserts, the Strawberry Fluff Pie and the Frosty Lemon Pie that were potluck guest favorites.

George Washington University Museum Studies masters students, Melissa Grunder, Laura Luo, Mary Kate Robbett, and Bianca Saunders, spent the summer of 2016 interning at The National Museum of American History (NMAH).

Jocelyn made these popular pizza snacks using a pre-made biscuit dough and a recipe from the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook.

The focus of their internship was researching the ways in which new inventions and innovations of certain time periods affected daily American lifestyles, specifically with cooking and preparing meals throughout the 20th century. For the 1960’s they prepared a potluck of dishes whose recipes came from a variety of period textbooks with intriguing recipes. The students also used advice from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (1967), which emphasized the use of pre-made dishes and freezer and refrigerator storage, as these were appliances on the rise in the mid-60’s. They made dishes using pre-made pizza crust and biscuit dough, gelatin, salmon, mayo, and other refrigerated items. Many dishes were a success, such as the Frosty Lemon Pie, while some were not as popular, like the leftover Olive Cheese Ball.

A stunning Salmon Mousse in the shape of a fish was a popular Easter dish in the 1960’s.

You can learn more about these interesting recipes and these graduate students’ research in a recent post on the NMAH “O Say Can You See?” blog here.