Valentine's Menus Through the Decades
What food has been forging a path from the stomach to the heart over the past 70 years?
I love Valentine’s Day, and I love old menus, so I thought it would be fun to peruse my cookbook collection and see suggested menus and how they changed over the years. Here are various Valentine’s Day menus from the 1950s through the 2000s to see how ideas of romance and food, at least in cookbooks, have shifted.
1950s: Casseroles and Jelly Desserts
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 1953
From the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, it looks like casseroles and jelly desserts were stealing hearts. The casserole is a rice/chicken/almond affair that stretched a little meat to feed 8-10. Add some easy refrigerator dough bread sticks and canned cranberry sauce, and this menu probably got a busy 1950’s homemaker’s heart beating. Ease, thrift, and a fun party are at the heart of this menu.
1960s: Boozy Brunches and Francophile Lunches
Better Homes & Gardens Lunches and Brunches, 1963
I don’t think that liver is routinely associated with Valentine’s Day, but soaking a liver in red wine during brunch strikes me as a pretty apt representation of the holiday. Here we see the Silent Generation’s stereotypical profligacy by pairing their organ meat with avocado. Is it any wonder they struggled during the Great Depression? That’s a bitter millennial joke, but really, this menu tells me we are still in the pre-fat-fear era and the high-tomato-juice period.
In the dead of winter, a canned-fruit salad under coconut snow is a practical and fanciful accompaniment. Don’t forget to add the zip!
The New York Times Menu Cookbook by Craig Claiborne, 1966
Those following a New York Times menu must have had a little more time on their hands. These were the gourmands of the 1960s, probably mostly urban, already hot on the rising fashion of French food.
Eggs Forestière are fussy little deviled eggs-ish/mushroom mashups, and they’re paired with delicate Belgian endive salad and hearty bread. It sounds truly lovely.
To cap it all off, three-layer, heart-shaped showstopper, with three sub-recipes worth of filling and frosting. The recipe instructs that the cake be finished with “a cascade of fresh garnet roses.” How dreamy!
1970s: What Happened to Dinner?
Try as I might to find a full Valentine’s Day Dinner in any of my cookbooks, I could not. Heart-shaped sweets abound, but the main event is overlooked. Maybe everyone just defaulted to fondue? Or carob concoctions? I don’t know. Even if it’s not a Valentine’s menu, here’s what that old stalwart, The Silver Palate Cookbook, had to say about romance:
The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukens, 1979
Wow, can you even imagine? Eggs, caviar, champagne, brie, croissants, a bedside refrigerator, a fireside breakfast and back to bed (wink). Let’s all keep this in our back pockets the next time the entire New York Times comments section calls brunch a recent invention. These 1970s eaters knew what was what.
For those of us who can’t do an all-day bed brunch, how about shortbread hearts?Maybe to eat with the copious amounts of coffee you need to keep up with your kids?
1980s: Gourmet is Good
Gourmet’s Menus for Contemporary Living, 1985
The 1980s were a time when wealth equaled health and happiness. This classy little menu and its wine pairing from the folks at Gourmet put that on display. Is that racy little double entendre at the end of the menu description? I like to think so.
This actually is a very simple and elegant menu. Nothing is too finicky. In fact, most of the recipes are three ingredients. It’s no Craig Claiborne. Fancy for a new generation on the rise.
1990s: Be Mine, Minus the Fat
Southern Living Annual Recipes 1990
Forget the champagne, folks. We are now firmly in the low-fat era. Do you like butter? Too bad! It’s all cooking spray and teaspoons of margarine from here on out. Do you think that’s real cream in the Strawberries ‘n’ Cream?
Dream on, Valentine. That’s a combo of “light process cream cheese product” and low-fat yogurt. This is, after all, the magazine that launched Cooking Light, that stalwart bastion of low-cal cookery. Healthy cooking in the ‘90s and 2000s was low-fat everything. This here was peak healthy living.
2000s: High-Low Menus
Barefoot Contessa Parties, 2001
You know who never skimped on butter and oil, even during the FF (fat-free) era? Ina Garten.
Of course, Ina entertains on Valentine’s Day with this party for six.
This Valentine’s menu actually includes one of my favorite Ina dishes and the first I ever made: her sauteéd cabbage. Does that scream romance to you? Cabbage? You’re wrong. It’s delicious. Cabbage sautéed in butter with lots of salt and pepper. Also of note: she doesn’t even include a desserty dessert. The absolute boldness of this menu! (For fun, here’s her most recent Valentine’s menu.)
Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2004
Honestly, though, I was probably making something a little more like this in the 2000s.
Cupid’s Chicken is stuffing mix, cream of chicken soup, chicken breast, and Swiss cheese. That bright orange salad dressing is a ketchup-based, French dressing situation. And, no offense to Ina, but I think I’d rather cap things off with those frosted brownies. Agree to disagree, Ina, but pears and cheese are a snack not a Valentine’s dessert!
Valentine’s Day Today
So what’s on my menu in 2024? Heart-shaped pizza, a la Mom Tiger (IYKYK), cut up cucumbers, absolutely unreasonable amounts of ranch dressing, and a heart-shaped cake based on the pleas mon petit amour.
Happy Valentine’s Day!