Hank: Good morning, John. For Christmas, from her mom, Kathrine received a log book that once contained records from her grandmother's hair salon. After she had kids though she turned it into a recipe book, pasting in recipes from newspapers and magazines from the 40s and 50s. They are interesting, so Katherine and I decided to try a few of them out. The results were mixed. Here is our journey.

Recipe one: Golden Rabbit. You make it with two Campbell's soups. Stir well one can Campbell's cheddar cheese soup. Gradually blend in one can Campbell's tomato soup. Add one quarter cup milk. Keep stirring. Pour over crackers or toast. Mmm mmm, good!

Bland.
Katherine: Yeah, it's not a lot of flavor.
H: I have injured myself. I got too excited about my Golden Rabbit. Doesn't it look like a golden rabbit?
K: This is not on the list of things that I want to eat again.
H: The predominant flavor is crackers.
K: Well I do like crackers. It grows on you.
H: If you're still hungry, just add more crackers.
K: Serve it with half a raw potato.

H: Recipe number two: Popovers. In a bowl, dump one cup unsifted flour, one half teaspoon salt, two eggs. Just break them over the bowl and drop them in so they're staring at you with their big yellow eyes. One cup milk. Beat this with an eggbeater till it's just mixed. Now fill the cups half full and set the cookie sheet in the 450 degree oven. You will have six splendid popovers so golden brown and exuberantly puffed up that it's almost embarrassing.

I kinda burned them.
K: Yeah.
H: You know, tastes like bread.
K: Northern biscuit.
H: I'm down with this.
K: Yeah. I'd like to try 'em again.
H: Hole in the middle.
K: A hole in the middle.
H: Wanna know why it's got a hole in the middle? Ha-ow. Hahaha.

Recipe number three: Beer Dressing. Mix mayonnaise and mustard together. Add horseradish and gradually stir in beer.

I mean, it's not good. I don't really like mustard that much though.

Recipe number four: Mexican Chop Suey. One half pound ground beef, fried in butter when possible. One cup sliced fresh tomatoes. One medium sweet papper. One half cup chopped onion. One half cup chopped celery. One cup milk. One tablespoon flour. Fry the meat slowly over low heat, then remove the meat leaving the juices to which should be added the vegetable ingredients. Simmer until tender. Add tomatoes, after which add milk mixed with flour and simmer again until mixture begins to thicken like gravy. Then combine with meat and serve immediately.

You seem really unexcited about this one. It said serve immediately, so we can't dilly-dally. This is probably the best it's ever gonna be.
K: It smells like dog food. You just went for a big fork, huh?
H: I have a suggestion for improving it. Huge amounts of salt.
K: You're gonna eat more?
H: It's so much better.
K: Right now you're wasting salt.
H: I maybe over-salted mine.
K: Yeah, you really went to town on it.
H: Katherine, if you were going to name this dish, what would you call it? Obviously this is inspired both by Chinese food and Mexican food.
K: What? No it's like a Cleveland chowder.
H: (Laughs)

Recipe number five: Orange Cranberry Relish Mold. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Add orange juice and chill until consistency of unbeaten egg white. Cut orange in quarters, remove seeds and put through a food chopper. Add ground orange, cranberry sauce, celery and nuts to gelatin mixture and turn into a one quart mold. Chill until firm. Unmold to serve.

K: Oh no.
H: It's like a colon.

Ugh. It's like coming across just some sand in your food. Do not serve your friends or family this.
K: Why does Jell-O even still exist? This is what you get for prison, high school or the hospital. Like, where else does anyone have Jell-O?

H: What have we learned about 50s food, Katherine? Would you rather live today?
K: Oh yeah.
H: But I think that there may be, there may be some wisdom. Sorry.
K: Not in there!
H: Helen, thanks.
K: Thank you, Helen. That's my grandmother's name. That's not Helen Hunt.
H: Thanks to Helen Hunt too though. Thanks Katherine for being in a video with me, thank you for watching, and John, I'll see you on Tuesday.

K: You've got a lot of cleaning up to do, babe. Have fun. I'm gonna go sit on the couch.