RE: Celery Soup. Fresh vegetables would’ve been a luxury item in many northern households during the winter months. Even back in the 1960s, I’ve heard oldtimers from rural areas describe their produce aisle as containing only carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets, onions, cabbage, potatoes, squash, iceberg lettuce and celery. Around March, these items would’ve turned fairly disgusting, too. So, I expect some creamed celery was probably considered a nice treat.  We live in charmed times.

This is nothing. My mom’s got a cookbook from around the same time period that has a recipe for “Pork Cake” (yes a flour-based dessert cake, yes with ground pork) that claims to keep in the pantry for something like five months. My family’s been daring each other to make it for years.

i like peanut butter and ham sandwiches. now those are delicious. for real doh, you should try it.

My mom used to make egg coffee all the time, that was the only coffee she ever made. No, it didn’t make it gross like there were egg whites floating around in your coffee.
She used an old-fashioned coffee pot that you’d use on a stovetop. Bring water to a boil in the pot. In the meantime, mix coffee grounds and egg together (it becomes a wet mixture). Turn the heat down low, add the coffee/egg mixture into the hot water. Boil it for a little bit and then let it sit. The coffee grounds sit on the bottom of the pot. You get a few ground in the bottom of your coffee cup, but not a lot. It makes excellent coffee.

I think I can shed some light here.
*) You cover liver in boiling water by placing the slices in a shallow pan and pouring the boiling water over, until the meat is covered. Presto.
*) Bacon + liver sounds like it could be ok, but organ meat is of course a matter of culture etc. I’m guessing both are already in stuff we eat regularly, only more thoroughly minced. Also, think about steak and kidney pie. AFAIK it’s a quite normal combo in many cuisines.
*) Peanut butter is an integral part of many indian curries, that can be salty and sweet at the same time, and even may contain veggies. Like peanut butter with salad dressing and lettuce. Not gross, yummy!
*) The coffee trick = genius, if you don’t have a filter system or equal. The egg white coagulates and keeps the coffee granula in the kettle. You wouldn’t taste it and done right you wouldn’t get anything in the cup besides coffee.

Heck, my grandmother’s Time Life cookbooks from the ’70s have odder recipes than that. Organ meat till you barf! But who knows, this stuff might actually taste good. No one thought much of old cocktail recipes till Dave Wondrich and Ted Haigh started poking around a few years ago. Still … you try first.  And yes, David L., I totally agree about early 21st-century food being weird. One hopes our great-grandchildren will find the whole idea of artificial foods exotic while they chow down on peanut butter and liver sandwiches or whatever.

drugs were still legal then. i think bettina must of gotten into something.

Oh, honey, let’s spoil ourselves tonight and have a whole tablespoon of egg white in our coffee.

This lady wasn’t allowed to vote. I think it only fair she at least take the passive aggressive route and stick it to her husband with peanut butter salad dressing sandwiches.

Rigght… because 100 years from now, things like Taco Bell, Slim Jims, ang GoGurt wont sound disgusting. (Heck..they sound disgusting now)

Mmm… nothing like a peanut butter lettuce sandwich after a hard day in the coal mine!

Bettina was actually Bertolo “One-Eye” San Giacomo, a noted Mafia boss in the witness protection program. Look, at least he was making a go of it.

The egg is to keep the coffee grounds from pouring out.

Ok, I couldn’t make it past lettuce and peanut butter. Ick!