Salads were encased in jelly, prawns swam in creamy pink sauce and desserts were regularly set alight. The wartime era and decades that followed produced and popularised many interesting dishes, some of them now only served with lashings of irony and others that have become enduring classics. Then there are those, of course, that no one wants to see – or taste – ever again. Here are a few foods that prove that, while some things may have been better in the good old days, not everything was...

Crêpes Suzette is the sort of dessert you would order in a fancy restaurant, served table-side by a white-jacketed waiter with nimble wrists and perfect pancake-tossing skills. Or the flaming French import might have been served by dinner party hosts really looking to impress their guests (and ideally a fire extinguisher nearby). Find out more about it and try our recipe.

Some dishes just seem to endure, or at least dip in and out of fashion, and this pastry-encased hunk of beef is one of those – perhaps because it packs in so much deliciously rich flavour, or perhaps because it’s guaranteed to impress, if you get it right. The secret, as regular MasterChef viewers may know, is to wrap the beef in a thin pancake to prevent soggy pastry.

Store-cupboard recipes have come back in fashion recently as people become more aware of food waste, and this 1950s classic has to be the ultimate. Pretty much every ingredient comes from a can or packet: tinned tuna, frozen peas, cream of mushroom soup, egg noodles. The only perishable is the grated cheese (usually Cheddar). And, of course, those wanting a little extra texture added a culinary flourish by scattering on some crisps.

This tall, pretty-in-pink cake – invented in California in the 1940s – was one of many easy bakes that became popular as more women entered the workplace or took on jobs during the Second World War. It also, according to this Betty Crocker ad, “combines the best features of Angel and butter cakes”, with extra fluffiness thanks to the use of oil instead of butter.

Was it even a dinner party if you didn’t start off with some shellfish swimming in pink sauce? This fishy dishy of defrosted prawns in Marie Rose sauce became a starter staple in the mid-1950s and continued its reign through the 1970s, playing a starring role at many an awkward dinner party. Read more about this enduring retro classic here.

The spaghetti casserole became popular in the 1950s as a budget dish and a tasty way to use up any veg, meat and sauces. Savvy home cooks added tomato sauce or soup and leftovers to a dish with spaghetti, buried it under grated cheese, and baked. Sounds like the perfect comfort food to us.

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Another dish borne of necessity, these fat meatballs became popular in the US during the Second World War. The rationing of meat meant people were always looking for ways to make it go further. For these patties, minced meat (usually beef) was mixed with potato.

Key lime pie, traditionally made with sweet and tart Florida Key limes, became popular in the 1940s and remains a classic treat. It’s similar to a cheesecake, with a base of crushed-up crackers rather than biscuits, with a creamy citrus filling and final flourish of meringue (or whipped cream, if you’re less confident about your whipping and blowtorching skills).

You don’t see these so much at parties nowadays, and we can’t think why. What’s more impressive than thick processed cheese spread on crackers straight from the jar? Those canapés garnished with olives and pickled onions, that’s what – as illustrated in this 1956 ad. Time for these beauties to make a comeback, we reckon.

Remember when this was the staple of kids’ birthday parties and big family get-togethers? No? You missed out, because this crowd-pleasing favourite was second only, perhaps, to Viennetta in its ability to make the grandkids’ faces light up. It combines pretty much every child’s favourite things, with ice cream wrapped up with sponge slathered in jam.

In case dinner guests became tired of Crêpes Suzette, flamboyant hosts could further display their flambéing skills with this sticky-sweet pud, invented in New Orleans in 1951. Bananas are added to a caramel-like sauce of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon before being doused with rum and set alight.

The trend of serving burgers on chopping boards, fish and chips in hats, and food generally in or on anything but a plate is nothing new. Chicken in a basket was a popular pub dish in the 1950s and 1960s, believed to have been invented in the Cotswolds, UK. Battered and deep-fried chicken legs were presented in a wicker or plastic basket with fries.

Topsy-turvy cakes have long been a favourite among home bakers. Fruit is layered at the bottom before adding the cake mixture, with the cake upturned once baked. Tinned pineapple became the fruit of choice after the Second World War.

Iconic, pioneering celebrity chef Julia Child popularised this Burgundian peasant dish among US and UK chefs in the early 1960s, via her cookbooks and TV show The French Chef. The stew remains a wintry classic, packed with rich, heartwarming flavours of beef, root veg and wine-rich sauce.

The 1940s could justifiably be dubbed “The Spam Decade”. The tinned cooked pork became a huge staple during the Second World War and continued its kitchen reign for decades to come. From baked Spam and Spam fritters to Spam ‘n’ eggs and this 1948 recipe for Spam ‘n’ pancakes, you could easily enjoy it at every single meal (y’know, if you wanted to).

Slapped in a sandwich or dolloped on a jacket spud, this creamy, curried chicken concoction was created for Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation banquet. It isn’t as ubiquitous as it once was, but you’ll still see it in some old-school cafés and sandwich shops, and we think there’s something comfortingly nostalgic about it. Frankly, if it’s good enough for the Queen...

Wondering how to jazz up that salad or pasta dish? Stick it in aspic or put it in a jelly. That was often the way in the 1950s and 1960s, anyway, when this particular type of experimental cooking reached a wobbly peak. And just look how much neater those celery slices, chunks of cheese and creepy, eyeball-like olives look encased in green jelly.

Also called “broken glass cake” (which isn’t quite so enticing), this blancmange-like pudding is reminiscent of jelly and ice-cream. And that’s pretty much what it contains – whipped cream, actually, with Jell-O cubes stirred in and set with lemon gelatine. In the 1960s, it was usually served as a big, wobbly centrepiece, but we think it looks prettier cut into fudge-sized cubes.

Bundt pan sales rose like a soufflé after this dreamily oozy cake took second place in America’s long-running Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest in 1966. Baked in one of the ring-shaped moulds, the clever recipe uses butter, cocoa, nuts and sugar to form a tunnel of fudge sauce through the cake as it bakes. Yum.

Another tasty, carb-loaded treat to emerge from the Second World War, this 1940s favourite – sometimes simply called Woolton pie – was named after the British Minister for Food, and is basically just lots of veg and oatmeal encased in pastry. It was popular when rationing meant meat was scarce, and usually contained turnips, carrots, potatoes, swede and cauliflower. It was such an icon of wartime sustenance, in fact, that it was referred to as “weapon of mass nutrition” against the Nazis.

This crunchy centrepiece dish became popular in the late 1960s, after California-based Sunset magazine published a much-copied recipe. Ingredients like minced beef, shredded chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, grated cheese and sour cream went into this not-so-healthy salad, best served in an edible bowl made from a crisped tortilla. There’s nothing authentically Mexican about this, of course, but it did shake up dinnertime.

We’re not sure exactly what inspired this pickle tree, whose recipe was published in the December 1967 issue of Chatelaine magazine. But it must be some form of crazy genius. Consisting of a wedge of cheese studded with pickled onions and pickle slices on cocktail sticks, this is effectively a table decoration you can actually eat.

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Necessity and, perhaps, hangovers seem to create the most brilliant recipes – like this 1940s treat. As convenience foods became more readily available – and women entering the workplace looked for quicker meals – pre-packaged and tinned hot dogs became a household staple. One way to eat them was chopped into potato salad for extra protein, and you could throw in lots of veg, too.

It could easily be mistaken for a loaf of bread, but this pâté-like slicer won’t hold up so well in the toaster. It usually consisted of a mix of corned beef, pork, bacon and onions, or whatever was available, and was usually eaten sliced with vegetables and potatoes or sandwiched in a bun. Like so many dishes born in the 1940s and 1950s, it was a convenient and relatively cheap way for home cooks to whip up a nutritious dinner.

Eating old food was pretty much a patriotic obligation during the Second World War, when it was crucial to make every scrap and crust go further. So it makes sense that Plum Charlotte was a popular 1940s dessert, since its main ingredients are old fruit and stale bread. Plums were a popular choice, but apples were often used too.

It’s believed this mix of chopped-up boiled eggs with mayo, mustard and salad-y stuff originated in France, but it became popular in the US and UK in the 1940s – another way of throwing things together for something easy, cheap and tasty. Not just for sandwiches, it could be fancied up by being served in neat scoops, perhaps with some greenery on the side.

It looks like a bowl of Turkish delight and it’s just as sweet. But this 1950s dessert staple is actually fruit salad tossed with coconut, marshmallows and whipped cream. It could be made with tinned fruit and typically contained chunks of pineapple, orange segments and maraschino cherries (themselves a retro classic).

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Yep, it’s that thing of putting stuff in jelly again. This 1940s favourite was also, rather less appetisingly, called a 'congealed salad'. Meat in jelly can have the appearance of pet food, but with the right herbs and spices it can actually be quite delicious. And, made as a terrine or – for full-on wow factor – presented in a jelly mould, it makes a pretty impressive centrepiece for a fun retro dinner party.

American-style meatloaf evolved from scrapple, a mix of pork and cornmeal dating back to the 1800s. But it became particularly popular during the 1940s as a way to use minced meats like beef that were cheaper – and stretched further – than steaks and whole joints. It still makes regular appearances at family dinners, best served sliced, smothered with gravy and accompanied by creamy mashed potato.

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