Currently, the group has 38,400 members and a 6-people admin and mod team looking after it. Luckily for us, they agreed to answer a few questions, introducing the online community from the inside.
"I started the group as a way to bond with my new mother-in-law," Katiaña, the founder of Questionable Vintage Recipes, told Bored Panda. "We both think wild vintage foods are really funny and I was afraid I wouldn't have anything else in common with her (thankfully I was wrong) so I made what I thought was just going to be the two of us and my roommate Yvonne sharing silly pictures of spamcakes and aspics. It blew up almost overnight."
One of the admins, Kelly, said that even though a lot of different monstrosities get submitted, aspic and spam are definite favorites among the members.
Indeed, if you look through popular cookbooks of the 1950s and 1960s, you'll encounter a disheartening trend that has since faded into obscurity: dishes that were encased in savory molded gelatin or aspic.
An article in The Daily Meal says this could've been due to the fact that in the early 1950s refrigerators were still quite expensive, and since gelatin needs refrigeration in order to set, preparing a Jell-O mold was something of a status symbol.
Eventually, molds became so popular and ended up in so many cookbooks because home chefs (and publishers) simply accepted that they were a desirable thing to make. They also were relatively fun to prepare—cooks used to show off aesthetic skills by creating inventive aspics. Plus, the ingredient list was quite cheap if you were using canned goods and leftovers.
"I think viral cooking channels like [ours] have people excited about cooking again," another member of the team, Jennifer, added. "Being in this group has definitely had me and my mom reaching for my great-grandmother's hand-written cookbooks more often. I know early in the pandemic when supply chains were disrupted and we weren't sure when we'd get to the grocery store again, people were definitely putting together weird combinations from the pantry like our grandparents did."
And according to her colleague, Yvonne, that's probably the main reason why Questionable Vintage Recipes got so big. "I feel like what unites our group for a lot of its members is the memories we associate with food, even if it's an odd combination from a time mostly forgotten," she said.
"It's the memory of someone's mother making a ham aspic at a family bbq, or another generation making a dandelion salad when money and resources were tight."
The admins and mods also put together a list of recipes to look out for if you choose to join the group. They're not necessarily group favorites, but team favorites:
- Jennifer: "Any dessert with mayonnaise, anything that involves turning food into a candle";
- Yvonne: "Anything with spam. I make spam macaroni and cheese every week";
- Kelly: "Savory banana dishes. I unironically want to try that banana hollandaise dish";
- Katiaña: "I love the gelatinized spaghettios as an idea but I don't know if I could stomach it in real life."
#9 Where A Lot Of 'Salads' Got Their Jell-O From. Special Non Sweet Flavors
#12 Kielbasa Legs! Ahh My Polish Grandmother Would Have Blown Her Cigarette Smoke On This In Absolute Delight
#16 I Don’t Think I’ve Ever Had A Stuffed Party Pickle Slice. Surprised They Didn’t Suggest Putting The Party Pickle Innards On A Saltine!!
#17 I’m Going Through My Mom’s Recipe Box Since She Passed Away. I’ve Come Across Some Lovely Recipes (Heh) Including This Gem. I Hope It’s Okay For Me To Share A Few More Later
#20 I Teach Culinary Arts. One Of My Fav Classes Is Garde Manger. My #1 Rule: Tread Carefully With Animals (Cucumber Sharks, Ugh) But Never Make Food Look Like Other Food. Below Is The First Slide In My What Not To Do Presentation
