MZANSI EATS: HORRIBLE SA RECIPES FROM THE PAST

Mzansi eats have become famous for meals like the ‘bunny chow’ and bobotie recipes.

However, some South African recipes from the past were considered far more questionable.

Does anyone remember the fondue craze where everyone was melting cheese in their houses? South Africans have enjoyed some strange foods from the past, including savoury jelly salads and a thing called ‘frozen cheese salad’.

Have you ever visited someone’s house and they were making one of these weird foods?

Have you ever eaten some of this during your childhood?

Here are some horrible recipes from the 1970s that might have been better off staying in the past.

Mzansi eats: Savory jelly salads

Mzansi eats were pretty strange during the 1970s, starting with one of the classic era-dishes that you’ll see in older cookbooks.

However, very few people are still making this dish today.

The recipe combines salad ingredients, suspended in jelly – usually lime.

Yes, that’s a salty jelly recipe.

Would you serve this to your guests at a dinner party?

Mzansi eats: Frozen cheese salad

Frozen cheese salad is a 1970s recipe, originally from Weight Watchers, which recommends adding cottage cheese, blue cheese, and buttermilk to spices.

Mzansi eats could benefit from never knowing this existed.

It doesn’t sound horrible, however, it’s also not fantastic.

Why does it have to be frozen cheese salad, when it could have just been a cheese salad?

Who knows?

Mzansi eats: Ham fruit rings

Ham fruit rings uses canned ham that’s shaped into a circle, combined with canned fruit like pineapples and cherries.

The recipe traces its origins back to the 1970s.

Cookbooks were changing during the 1970s, introducing more canned products and consumer tricks. That is where odd recipes like these come from.

However, today people get their recipes from the internet – and Mzansi eats is finally about flavour.

Mzansi recipe horror: Tuna salad

According to Million Dollar Sense, tuna salad was one of the most popular retro recipes.

The Mzansi eats recipe combines canned tuna with peas and noodles.

It capitalizes on the tradition of canned recipes. However, some might remember this as their grandparents’ favourite weekend salad.

It’s less popular today, and many South Africans are glad to find more creative recipes.

Old recipes are great for nostalgia, but not so fantastic for the table anymore. The South African also has a much better tuna salad recipe.

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2024-07-02T14:11:45Z dg43tfdfdgfd