Recipe Cards on Parade: Crusty Salmon Shortcakes

One of the advantages of real flea markets over EBay is the ability to dig through piles of freaky stuff and come up with buried treasure. One of my favorite finds are collections of old recipe cards.

There was once a time when food photography was somehow limited, perhaps by the printing technique, or the tinting process, or maybe it was just the aesthetic of the time. The food portrayed more often than not showed up in unappetizing shades of orange and pink.

I love those pictures. The less appetizing the pictures, and the more cheesy the names, the more highly they are prized.

This 1971 collection of recipe cards from Betty Crocker is one of the things I would grab if my house were on fire. They sure don't make them like that anymore.

Just look at that delicious crusty salmon, mmmm. When was crusty ever a good adjective for salmon? And look at that shade of pink. You just can't achieve that level of inedibility in color these days. And it's under the category of Impromptu Party Fare. There's nothing I enjoy serving my guests more than canned salmon and cream of mushroom soup over Bisquick biscuits. And who doesn't love raw broccoli? And olives? This one is sure to please any partygoer.