Although recipes for ambrosia vary, the core ingredients usually consist of canned mandarin oranges, shredded coconut, and whipped cream. If that’s not enough sugar for the Zeus or Apollo in your life, you can also add canned fruit cocktail, maraschino cherries, and a few canned pineapple slices.
No one is sure if olive loaf originated in Italy or the United States, but as an Italian American, I’m going to go ahead and blame this one on America. Olive loaf is a sliced cold cut — usually bologna — embedded with slices of pimento-stuffed green olives.
Popular in the 1950s through 1970s, a Jello-O salad consists of a gelatin mold with bits of fruit and grated carrots suspended throughout the mixture. Some kitchen renegades add miniature marshmallows, pretzel bits, and nuts to the mix and serve with a dab of whipped topping.
No discussion about old-school foods is complete without mentioning liver and onions. This meal that puts the “organ” in organic is so retro that your great-great-great grandparents probably ate it.
American Vienna sausages are short frankfurters made of beef, pork, or chicken that arrived on the scene in 1903. These canned, garlicy, mini wieners were ideal for making pigs in a blanket or served with toothpicks as part of the hors d’oeuvres selection at an elegant ’70s house party in Ohio.
The Salisbury steak is named after American physician James H. Salisbury — a man who sang the praises of a meat-heavy diet for good health.
This cheesy and playful party snack consists of a ball of soft cheese that is coated with seeds, nuts, or small pieces of dried fruit. Just cut off a chunk with a small knife and slather on your favorite cracker of choice. You and your guests will literally be putting on the Ritz!