Fun retro recipes for a really 'with it' 1960s dinner party! - Click Americana (2024)

FAQs

What was a popular dish in the 1960s? ›

Dinner: American palates became more sophisticated thanks to Julia Child, but many 60's meals were still dominated by convenience foods like this terrifying olive,celery and cheese jello salad. Buffet dinners of beef stroganoff, green beans amandine and flaming cherries jubilee were popular.

Chicken and dumplings, pot roast, casseroles, fried chicken and biscuits were just a few of readers' favorite dishes that are as popular now as they were in 1963, but few of us are killing the chickens we eat.

From Waffles to Cronuts. And during that World's Fair, the most influential item of the year: the Belgian waffle. “It was a tidal wave," says Bill Cotter, author of *The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair: Creation and Legacy, "*and everybody had to have a waffle stand by 1965.” Sound familiar? Ah yes, the cronut craze.

The cuisine that the counterculture took to in the late 1960s, and then helped introduce to the mainstream in the 1970s, embraced whole grains and legumes; organic, fresh vegetables; soy foods like tofu and tempeh; nutrition-boosters like wheat germ and sprouted grains; and flavors from Eastern European, Asian, and ...

Popular party snacks were: chunks of pineapple and cheddar cheese on co*cktail sticks stuck all over a grapefruit. And milk shakes with balls of different pastel-coloured ice creams. Or you could make Jelly in pretty shaped moulds with different layers of tinned fruit in them.

It was a decade of flambée, fondue, Jell-O and junket.

We Americans will always have a sweet tooth. How we go about satisfying it, however, continues to change.

Pringles, Pop-Tarts, Doritos, Starburst, Chips Ahoy!, Gatorade, Sprite, and Ruffles all debuted during the decade, and fast food came into its own with McDonald's. New kid-friendly (read: super-sugary) breakfast cereals abounded, like Froot Loops, Honeycomb, Cap'n Crunch, and Lucky Charms.

1966: Chicken Liver Pate

In the 1960s we were a lot more used to offal and using up every part of the animal, which meant chicken liver pate quickly became one of the most loved dishes.

1965: Onion Dip

The advent of packaged soup mixes made easy, entertaining-friendly dips a popular '60s go-to.

In 1962, Pepperidge Farm founder, Margaret Rudkin, launched Goldfish crackers in the United States, and they've been filling the hearts and bellies of kids and adults ever since.

What foods were popular in 1962? ›

If a from-scratch dinner wasn't in order, quick options included Kraft's Egg Noodle with Chicken Dinner, Macaroni and Cheese and Spaghetti Dinner; Chef Boy-Ar-Dee (either canned pasta or a pizza kit); and, of course, Swanson's frozen dinners, in varieties ranging from the common (fried chicken, meatloaf, Salisbury ...

1964 — Pop-Tarts.

In a single year, American popular culture changed forever with musical moments like The Beatles' debut on American television and Bob Dylan's declarative The Times They Are a-Changin'; theatrical debuts like Fiddler on the Roof and Funny Girl featuring Barbara Streisand; and film debuts like Mary Poppins and ...

Pringles, Pop-Tarts, Doritos, Starburst, Chips Ahoy!, Gatorade, Sprite, and Ruffles all debuted during the decade, and fast food came into its own with McDonald's.

Appetizers - For parties where you're only serving appetizers and finger foods, base your estimate on five to eight appetizer bites per person, per hour. If there's a meal included, cut back to four or five per person per hour before the meal. Offer more types of appetizers for a larger crowd.