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The 1980s may have been a time of excess in things like flashy sports cars and rampant consumerism, but for middle-class families, things were a lot more down-to-earth, even on the dinner table.
Comfort foods and convenience were king, along with a few trends toward more “exotic” flavors. Here’s what big-haired, shoulder-padded middle-class moms in the ‘80s were cooking up in the kitchen.
No, sloppy joes weren’t just school lunchroom fare, they made regular appearances on dinner tables, too. Canned Manwich, arguably the most popular way to make sloppy joes, was introduced in 1969, but it really took off in the ‘80s. It may not be as popular today as it once was, but it’s still a fast, cheap, and filling meal.
Yep, we’re talking about Shake ‘N Bake. Making breaded pork chops (or chicken drumsticks, or fish, if you were fancy) on the stove is a mess with splatting oil, but Shake ‘N Bake solved all that nonsense. Plus, it was marketed as a healthier alternative to frying, and everyone who was doing aerobics with Richard Simmons in the ‘80s was into that.
Microwaves were the height of convenience at the time, so frozen meals were popular. One of the most common was salisbury steak, a seasoned beef patty that’s a burger and meatloaf mashup. It was always drenched in gravy, of course, and usually came with mashed potatoes too. Later on, you’d start seeing the dish in school lunches, but it’s clearly dropped in popularity since then.
People love 7-layered things. Salad was the big one in previous decades, but 7-layer dip reigned supreme in the 1980s. Tex-Mex food (we thought of it as just “Mexican food” back then) was gaining popularity fast, and this dip layered all the best stuff: guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, veggies, and cheese. Salsa was also a must, since this is the decade when it started to become as American as apple pie.
Everyone was making poke cakes in the ‘80s. It’s another brand invention, this time by Jell-O, the cake’s essential ingredient. Just make a box mix cake, poke holes in it with the handle of a wooden spoon, and pour liquid Jell-O over it. Its artificial flavor and color seep into the cake for a festive, tooth-rotting treat.
How do you make staple food pizza more fun, and most importantly, easier to make at home? Skip the dough and put it on a loaf of store-bought supermarket French bread instead. The crust was always crunchy, the middle bread was always a bit soggy from the sauce, and there was always plenty of cheese and pepperoni. Even frozen, microwavable french bread pizzas were a hit back then.
Sure, some people demanded steak in their stroganoff, but middle-class moms knew the best shortcut: ground beef. Sure, it may have turned into a very unappetising looking slop by the time dinner was ready, but it sure tasted good. Hamburger Helper was the standard, but some moms made their own with canned cream of mushroom soup instead.
Opposite ground beef stroganoff on the fancy pants scale of ‘80s noodles was penne with vodka sauce. It burst onto the scene, and it was on every Italian restaurant’s menu, so naturally moms wanted to try and do it up at home, too. Turns out, it’s a pretty easy and economical recipe, so many lucky families got to eat that creamy, sophisticated pasta often.
Presidents are known to influence the country’s taste, and that happened in the ‘80s with monkey bread. It was one of President Reagan’s favorite treats, and First Lady Nancy Reagan’s recipe for it is everywhere. At home, middle-class moms used shortcuts like canned biscuit dough to make it a fast and simple recipe, complete with tons of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
The 1980s were big on dips, and onion dip was one of the easiest dips to make that was also incredibly satisfying. Like so many other recipes of the time, it starts with a packet of French onion soup seasoning mix (good old Lipton), and ends with sour cream. And that’s about it — just add potato chips.
Every party in the ‘80s had a sourdough bread bowl filled with spinach dip. It’s one of those recipes that is printed on the back of a package (in this case, Knorr vegetable soup mix) that becomes iconic. No matter if you prefer chunks of bread or carrots as your dipper, that creamy dip will be gone in no time.
America really started its love affair with ground beef hard shell tacos in the ‘80s, and it’s been a staple ever since. Families with lots of kids especially loved it since everyone made their own. Hate lettuce? No problem, load up on cheese. Love heat? Pass the jalapenos, please. Taco night was always something special to look forward to.
Mud pie, or the “Mississippi” style, sprang up all over the place in the ‘80s. It could take many forms, but what the name always implied was chocolate, and lots of it. Coffee, crushed Oreos, and Cool Whip often made appearances as well, making for an easy and cheap dessert for moms to tackle. Mud pie’s cousin, French silk pie, was also common in the decade, but felt a little too sophisticated for home cooking. Best buy that one frozen, or from Baker’s Square.
If you ever thought, “Hm, what could jazz up this boring recipe?” in the 1980s, chances are the answer was sundried tomatoes. They were trending big at the time, and so every mom had a jar stashed away in the pantry for special occasion meals. Bonus points if you also had pine nuts in the same dish.
What is poppy seed dressing, exactly? All we know is that it’s some kind of liquid sauce that happens to have poppy seeds in it. It could be for any kind of salad you can imagine, including things like slaw and potato salad, it could be creamy, or vinaigrette based, and it could be store bought or homemade. All that mattered were those tiny black specks that imparted seemingly no flavor.