Velveeta, the Man Pleaser

Velveeta has been called many things through the years, but 'man pleaser' has to be low on its list of characteristics. This Better Homes and Gardens advertisement from October 1954 created a sensation with the introduction of five family recipes sure to please everyone: thrifty enough to satisfy the pocketbook, hearty enough for the hardworking husband, and wholesome enough for children and the calcium-depleted elderly! That makes Velveeta a winner, if you ask me!

When you serve this casserole of noodles, hard cooked eggs, and melted Velveeta, the only cries you'll hear at the dinner table will be cries for 'more!'


Who knew how gourmet Velveeta truly could be? Your table will feel a whole lot more cosmopolitan with Epicure's Chicken and Broccoli (it's like Chicken Divan... with Velveeta!) and the crowd-pleasing Party Special, a shrimp-Velveeta melt that will make your parties the hit of the social season!

Most importantly, just two ounces of Velveeta Pasteurized Process Cheese Spread has more calcium than a glass of milk!

A Cheese Happening

The title of this article, the last one from the October 1955 Family Circle that I'll be sharing with you, is Snappy snacks with Cheese. If that doesn't sound like a little bit of paradise, I don't know what does! Author Nancy Lynn's all-consuming passion for cheese is like a torch that lights the way from beginning to end. Photographs by Bernard Gray, one of the greatest mid-century food artists.


Deviled Deckers is the height of temptation: melted swiss cheese and deviled ham cubes. Escaping the hellfire for a little slice of bliss. Like most sins, these are great paired with shrimps!


Now, this is a fon-do! Meet the seductively smooth Paprika Rabbit, a heady concoction of process American cheese, bacon bits, and paprika! Spoon it over a double-toasted English muffin, and you've got yourself a dish of molten warmth for a chilly Autumn evening.


While a fine selection of fruit and cheeses is a classy end to any dinner party, it would probably be best not to indicate that this course is actually called Fruit 'n' Cheese. I suppose we should be happy it's not Froot 'n' Cheez, though.

Borden's Comedy Hour

Here's a delightful little pamphlet entitled Cheese Puts On A Variety Show. It's an advertisement for Borden brand cheeses. While there are a few recipes, the pamphlet mostly has descriptions, serving suggestions, and drink pairings. The best part is the illustrations of the packaging of the time. Unfortunately, the pamphlet is undated, and I'm not even sure of its decade of publication.

Ladies and gentlemen, Cheese Puts On A Variety Show.. starring Sonny & Cher, The Osmonds, Tony Orlando and Dawn... and the Borden's Cheese dancers! (As always, click on pictures for enlargements!)


If your favorites are Grated American cheese and Borden's delicious cocktail spreads, then here are 'All your favorites at their best'!


The lineage of the 'royal family of Borden's fine Cheeses' can be traced back to the easily digestible Chateau and poignant Early American varieties, as well as recipes for Brick, Pimento, and Limburger Sandwiches.


Borden's continental cousins include Buffet Cheese, Roquefort, Camembert, and America's 'most distinguished cheese', Liederkranz.


Borden's isn't all American cheeses! Here's a bit about Borden's imported cheeses: Gruyere, Edam, Gouda, Brie, and Gorgonzola.

National Day of Fondue

I'll bet you have a fondue set hidden away somewhere in your kitchen. It's worth it to rummage through some of those cabinets rarely opened, filled with unknown horrors of culinary trends past. Did you find one? If so, it's time to dust it off because today is the first great holiday of the year, National Fondue Day*! If you don't happen to have one of these miracle pots, you could buy a new one online, but beware that it's not authentic if it doesn't boast some of the beautiful shades of the 1970s.

Here are two cookbooks to get you in the holiday* spirit: Fondue Cookery (Alison Burt) and Better Homes and Gardens' Fondue and Tabletop Cooking, both originally published in 1970.

Fondue photography, a burgeoning subgenre of photography, is rife with some of the most social and active images of food known to man. Photos of sweatered diners, blazing fires (fireplace or candle), and multiple fondue forks hanging over bowls of creamy cheese are common sights in a fondue cookbook. Not so with Fondue Cookery, however. The pictures, though just as lovely as the Better Homes and Gardens', are lonely and lethargic with a lack of anticipation and many photos containing no action or fondue fork at all.

It's a Swiss thing - Fondue Cookery cover


Neuchâtel Fondue


The sickly-looking Mushroom Fondue with Curried Bread Crumbs


The first of the Flambés - Krambambuli


Bourguignonne Fondue


Peaches Flambé - Unfortunately, there's no photo of the Herbed Veal Kidneys Flambés!

If there's a lesson to be learned from Fondue Cookery, it's that everyone has their own fondue. The book includes personalized concoctions from His Fondue and Landlord's Fondue to Peter's Fondue. Sadly, they forgot Plumber's Fondue, Gandhi's Fondue, and Gertrude's Fondue.

Unlike Fondue Cookery, Fondue and Tabletop Cooking is action-packed. The anticipation is palpable as images of boiling oil, flickering warming candles, and, of course, fondue forks dunking into pots of molten cheese, lifting out dripping chunks of french bread, fill every page.


Front cover of Better Homes and Gardens' Fondue and Tabletop Cooking - Poised to plunge into the second-degree-burn-inducing hot oil. Note the nice candles!


Lemon-chiffon-colored Classic Cheese Fondue


Welcome to the ski chalet, where every day is Fondue Day!


Chocolate Fondue - This photo is a Curly Wurly first! This marks the first time that I've posted a picture of something that actually looks palatable (not including luncheon meats and gelatin salads because I actually do eat those daily)!


Connect-the-dots to see the cover image of next month's Better Homes and Gardens (September 1970 only)!


If your Creamy Ham Rolls have similar looking abnormal pustules, please get it to the doctor quickly. This picture illustrates the most romantic table decor: the tacky pillar candle.


A rare look at the stylish tabletop appliances of the 1970s. Behold the boxy, chrome-accented essentials of a simpler, dare I say, better time! They're obsolete and unidentifiable. Compare the filled-in picture with What's What?!: a Primer.

* Actually, according to the wise internet (where every day is a holiday, no matter how insignificant, ludicrous), there are two fondue-based holidays. National Cheese Fondue Day is April 11th, and National Chocolate Fondue Day is February 5th. This post was nothing but a melty, cheesy lie!

Kraft Complete Cheese Cookbook

Buongiorno! The Complete Cheese Cookbook: Romance Cheeses From Kraft (1971) claims to be the only cheese reference that any worldly or cultured cheese connoisseur could ever need. One look at some of these scrumptious Velveeta fests should put no doubt in your mind that this is the book you need to track down. Because, let's face it, you'd never have thought of melting cheese product over any of these foods.

(Click images to enlarge)


1. First of all, this reference guide hopes to debunk some of the oft-contested cheese myths. This delightful recounting of a camel ride gone bad is surely how it all happened. Who wouldn't be delighted by it all?


2. A sepia-toned globe offset by a pecan-crusted globe. They took a chunk out of Eastern Europe and spread it on a cracker!


3. A lighter bite - Picnic Sticks


4. This is a classic cheese rabbit. Either that or toast trapped in the middle of a Velveeta war.


5. Mostaccioli - Featuring the rare imported formaggio Velveeta dell'Italia (Tip: Check the rind before buying. If 'Velveeta' is stamped on the side, you know it's authentic!)


6. Chicken Rococo - It doesn't get any fancier than deep-fried Cheese Twinkies


7. Cheddar Beef Rolls - (Dis)comfort food is best served rolled.


8. Just as I was about to post this cookbook, I discovered that the Cheddar Beef Rolls (above) was a popular prototype for variations on a rolled beef theme. Here's an ad for the Miracle Meat Rolls (made with Miracle Whip)!


9. Introducing the Company Steak Rolls from a McCormick/Schilling cookbook. Can you guess what decade this is from?

Cooking With Cheese (Polly-O)

Today's cookbook is Polly-O Recipe Book: Cooking With Cheese from the Pollio Dairy Products Corporation. It was published in 1968. Click thumbnails for full pictures.

This booklet features a lot of the oddities of 1960s and 1970s cooking, namely the fascination of stuffing foods in other foods and everything gelatin. While I love that a lot of the foods look pretty inedible, my real interest in this book is in the pictures of the late 1960s packaging, especially the bi- and tricolored designs.

1. Front cover - A medley of cheese delights


2. Ricotta Ravioli (with appetizing background color)


3. Stuffed Frankfurters


4. Fruit & Cottage Cheese Mold | Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes


5. The swinging 60s would have been nothing without cheese!


6. A trio of Polly-O packaging


7. 'The Polly-O Family Of Fine Foods'