The Weirdest Popular Foods That People Ate In 1975

Just like fashion and music, food trends are cyclical. What was once seen as outdated or even tacky can eventually come back around as a nostalgic or hip throwback. The 1970s were a golden era for fanciful and fun cooking experimentation; with new kitchen technologies and a booming culture of hosting elaborate parties, the most popular foods of this time period were easy to prepare and impressive enough to serve to guests. Finger foods and fondue pots reigned supreme over dinner party tables across the U.S. throughout the decade.

Not every popular food trend from the '70s seems that weird today. Some dishes that were wildly popular back then are still popular in 2025. Quiche, for instance, had a major moment in the '70s, and it's still a favorite for brunch (or really, any time of day) today. Black Forest cake, which was once an exotic indulgence to Americans, became a mainstay of dessert tables during the '70s too. And cheese fondue is an all-time cozy classic that has never really gone out of style.

But naturally, there are some true oddball dishes that haven't quite made the retro-cool comeback yet. Whether it was savory Jell-O salads, bananas wrapped in ham and smothered in hollandaise, or cream cheese incorporated into every conceivable appetizer, the chefs of the '70s certainly dared to experiment with unconventional flavors and textures.

Read on to learn more about the weird and wonderfully strange foods that people were actually eating in 1975.

If you've ever encountered a simultaneously fluffy yet chunky green dessert at a potluck, there's a good chance that it was a Watergate salad, a dessert that peaked in popularity during the mid-to-late 1970s. Made from pistachio pudding mix, canned pineapple tidbits, whipped cream, chopped pecans, and mini marshmallows, this "salad" doesn't require any cooking, which made it a go-to dessert recipe for households in the 1970s.

Watergate salad is a true product of its time, from its contents to its name. In 1975, Jell-O released a pistachio-flavored pudding mix, a main ingredient for this iconic dessert. But perhaps more historically important, just a year prior, President Richard Nixon resigned due to his involvement in the coverup of the Watergate scandal. So how did this dessert end up named after a shocking political controversy?

While the source of the name remains unconfirmed to this day, the most likely theory for the name comes from its similarity to the Watergate cake, which was also green, pistachio-flavored, and mixed with nuts. The icing on top was allegedly a reference to the "cover-up" of the Watergate scandal. One Maryland newspaper credited Christine Hatcher for creating the recipe; she suggested that it was called Watergate "because of all of the nuts that are in it".

Regardless of its quirky name, Watergate salad was an iconic 70s salad that has mostly fallen out of fashion today. Like other Jell-O based salads, the texture might just be too weird for modern audiences today.

No 1975 dinner party would be complete without at least one cheese ball on the table. This spherical hors d'oeuvre enjoyed a long reign of popularity in the 20th century and up through the 1970s. Cheese balls are made with a base of cream cheese combined with some type of shredded cheese, then mixed with herbs, spices, or wildcard ingredients like meat or pickles. The ball is then coated with a layer of crunchy nuts or herbs for texture. Served with Ritz crackers, it's a fairly simple, no-cooking-required recipe with plenty of room for customization. Not to mention, it's visually fun and easy to congregate around during a party.

According to legend, the first cheese ball in history, called "the mammoth cheese," weighed over 1,200 pounds. It was made in 1801 by a farmer from Massachusetts, who presented it as a gift to President Thomas Jefferson.

Surprisingly, the cheese ball seemed to be off the radar for American cooks until 1944, when it appeared in a Minneapolis cookbook. The golden age of the cheese ball would be around the 1950s to 1970s. As with many food crazes, it eventually fell out of fashion towards the end of the century. Funnily enough, the term "cheeseball," used to describe an obnoxiously corny person, was first used in 1986, when the cheese ball itself was becoming passé.

Cheese balls would probably not be considered the most stylish of appetizers today, but they enjoy nostalgic comebacks every once in a while. While these squishy spheres of cheese are a bit odd, they certainly wouldn't be out of place at a dinner party today. Just because it's retro doesn't mean it's not tasty!

Stuffed celery might not be something you'd expect to find on a dinner menu today, but half a century ago, it was a staple. Usually slathered with cream cheese and sprinkled with herbs and spices, stuffed celery was a low-effort, high-visual-impact appetizer perfect for a hostess in a hurry.

The combination of celery and cream cheese goes back decades. A 1929 recipe called it "the most popular hors d'oeuvre of the day," and by the 1970s, its popularity was still going strong at potlucks, buffets, and cocktail hours. The integral ingredient, cream cheese, seems to be omnipresent in appetizers throughout the 50s to the 70s.

Why was cream cheese so incredibly popular in the '70s? It all goes back to when Kraft merged with Philadelphia Cream Cheese in 1928 and developed a pasteurized version of cream cheese, taking the product to household name-status. Silky smooth, a little tangy, and richly creamy, it became the base of countless popular party dips and spreads. Stuffed into vegetables, mixed into dips, or served solo with chives on top, cream cheese was the social butterfly of the American appetizer table — and arguably still is today, with jalapeño poppers and buffalo chicken dip as modern counterparts to the '70s stuffed celery and cheese balls. Stuffed celery may have lost its spotlight as the prized appetizer, but its crisp-and-creamy combo still has a certain retro charm. 

Sometimes you come across a recipe so bizarre, you have to check twice to make sure it's not a joke. Ham and bananas hollandaise is one of those bewildering recipes. It was originally published in the McCall's Great American Recipe Card collection in 1973; these recipe cards were typically stored in small plastic boxes on the kitchen countertop, making it easy to flip through and pull one out to use. This particular recipe features bananas tossed in lemon juice, wrapped in mustard-coated ham slices, and then baked in the oven. Afterwards, they're topped liberally with hollandaise sauce.

Theoretically, this dish has that classic sweet-and-savory combination, in the same family as pineapple-glazed ham, sweet-and-sour chicken, or even Hawaiian pizza, which was actually invented in Ontario in the early '60s. Generally, it seems there was a widespread interest in salty meat and sweet fruit pairings in the 1970s. But while some flavor combinations manage to strike the right balance of salty and sweet, ham and bananas hollandaise seems... off, to say the least. The soft, warm banana, the salty ham, and the rich hollandaise don't quite sync up, according to modern recipe testers. Still, this dish is a perfect time capsule of '70s experimentation and creative presentation. We doubt anyone would willingly try this one today, unless out of morbid curiosity, but it nevertheless remains a crown jewel of retro recipe absurdity.

Koogle, a "peanut flavored spread" made by Kraft, hit grocery store shelves in 1974. It came in four novelty flavors—chocolate, vanilla, banana, and cinnamon—and was advertised as "the peanut spread that doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth!" In hindsight, that probably had less to do with sophisticated food science and more to do with the wildly off-balance proportions of sugar-to-peanuts contained inside the 12-ounce jar.

Similar to how Nutella only contains 13% hazelnuts, Koogle was comprised of just 60% peanuts, falling well short of the FDA's 90% requirement for labeling something as "peanut butter." It contained plenty of oil, sugar, and about three times as much sodium as normal peanut butter. That didn't stop Kraft from marketing it with family-friendly TV ads and a googly-eyed mascot known as The Koogle Nut. Aimed towards kids, it was sweet, smooth, and closer to a dessert spread than any peanut butter we're familiar with today.

The '70s were also a time when nutrition labels weren't required on food packaging; it wouldn't be until 1990 that the "Nutrition Facts" label we recognize today was introduced for FDA-approved foods. Back in 1975, parents may not have realized how sugary or artificial products like Koogle really were. In 1975, Consumer Reports issued a warning, saying, "It may be better for kids than candy, but it's certainly not better than plain old peanut butter." Unfortunately for sugar-crazed kids everywhere, Koogle quietly disappeared by the end of the decade.

Long before protein and energy bars were stocked at every checkout counter in America, there were Space Food Sticks: a chewy, tube-shaped snack launched by Pillsbury in the early 1970s. Inspired by the space race and America's growing fascination with astronauts, these futuristic snacks promised a taste of outer space while still being "nutritionally balanced."

The concept was simple: a small, shelf-stable energy snack that real astronauts actually ate on one NASA mission, Skylab 3. The name was a marketing master stroke: capitalizing on the same NASA-fueled hype that turned Tang into a household name (after Gemini astronauts drank it in orbit), Pillsbury's Space Food Sticks appealed to daydreaming kids and sci-fi-loving adults alike.

Described as "a cross between a Tootsie Roll and a Powerbar," Space Food Sticks were dense, chewy, and vaguely chocolate-y. While the idea was cool, the sales of these snacks never quite reached the astronomical heights expected. The space craze fizzled out by the late '70s after global oil crises shifted cultural priorities away from space travel. And by the end of the decade, Space Food Sticks had vanished from shelves, leaving behind memories of a sci-fi snack that was probably more exciting in concept than in actual taste.

One of the more puzzling retro dishes to modern eyes, tomato aspic was once a dinner party staple, particularly in the American South. This molded masterpiece was made from tomato juice and unflavored gelatin, and often seasoned with vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. Served chilled, it could be paired with shrimp, chicken salad, or Ritz crackers, with a dollop of cream cheese or flavored mayo as a garnish.

Aspic wasn't a 1970s invention, but it was still showing up at luncheons and buffet tables well into the decade. It fit right in with the era's love of gelatious molded salads and make-ahead appetizers. A shortcut version even appeared in Jell-O's savory salad flavor line, introduced in the mid-1960s: the Seasoned Tomato Jell-O flavor promised all the tanginess of a homemade aspic with none of the hassle.

By the late '70s, tomato aspic had begun its slow descent into old-fashioned obscurity. Still, for anyone intrigued by the more avant-garde end of vintage cuisine, tomato aspic is an oddly elegant time capsule of vintage taste. 

Of all the retro dishes that defined 20th-century American cuisine, few are as famous, or infamous, as the Jell-O salad. These colorful, wobbly creations were a staple at mid-century gatherings, and by 1975, they were still eaten, even if their golden era was coming to a close.

While it may seem bizarre today, savory Jell-O salads had been around since at least 1905, when recipes like the Perfection Salad— a mix of cabbage, celery, and pimentos in lemon Jell-O — first gained traction. Home cooks experimented endlessly, adding vinegar to cut the sweetness or suspending leftovers like carrots, brocoli, or olives inside shimmering molds. At their peak, Jell-O even released an entire salad-flavored line, complete with flavors like Italian salad and celery.

By the mid-1970s, however, the novelty began to wear off. Changing health trends favored fresh, raw vegetables over sugary molded "salads".  Salad courses evolved, and public health campaigns began to emphasize eating fewer artificial additives — something Jell-O had in abundance. The salad Jell-O flavors were quietly discontinued around the mid-'70s, and a culinary era faded. Still, in 1975, less fashionable potlucks or dinner parties would most likely still feature an extravagant Jell-O salad. 

The dramatically-named devils on horseback is another delightfully strange appetizer straight from a 1970s dinner party table. These little bites consist of dates or prunes, often stuffed with nuts or cheese and wrapped in bacon before being baked to crispy perfection. The result is a rich, sweet-and-savory mouthful that checks all the boxes for retro finger foods that still make the rounds at holiday parties today.

While this appetizer dates back to 19th-century Britain, it gained popularity in America in the 1970s when home entertaining was all the rage. Fancy but approachable hors d'oeuvres were essential for dinner parties, and devils on horseback brought just the right balance of old-school elegance with simple preparation.

In the U.S., dates are more commonly used than prunes for this recipe. With their sticky sweetness and smoky bacon wrapping, these canapés aren't so different from the other savory-sweet combos, like bananas and ham hollandaise making waves at the time, but are more rich in taste and have a far more appealing texture, in our opinion.

It might sound like a practical joke, but tomato soup cake was a very real and surprisingly popular cake throughout most of the 20th century. This vintage spice cake originated back in the 1930s, when Depression-era bakers used tomato soup as a substitute for more expensive ingredients like milk and butter. With the addition of cinnamon, cloves, and sugar, this surprisingly scrumptious cake tasted far better than it sounded.

In 1960, Campbell's began printing the recipe for tomato soup cake right on their soup labels, making it the first recipe to appear on a Campbell's can. In the '70s, this cake had become a pantry staple in many American households. It even earned a spot in Campbell's 100 Best Recipes cookbook, published in the 1970s. The cookbook describes it as "a winner for more than forty years, and its popularity never waned."

Tomato soup cake resembles carrot cake in texture and taste, thanks to the blend of spices, and it is often similarly topped with cream cheese frosting. If you think about it, carrot cake also seems just as odd of a concept to someone who's never tried it; you just need a lead of faith to discover a whole world of richly spiced cakes. This cake is a great reminder that resourceful home cooks have always found creative ways to stretch unconventional ingredients to make a delicious dessert.