Do You Know These Popular Foods From the 1970s?

In 1968, Kellogg’s introduced Danish-Go-Rounds as a more grown-up version of Pop-Tarts. They were spirals of pastry filled with fruit and marketed as a quick and easy breakfast treat. In 1976, Danish-Go-Rounds were rebranded as Danish Rings in an attempt to grow the product’s popularity, but just four years later, the pastries disappeared from shelves.

Today, Subway’s Italian B.M.T. sandwich is said to stand for “biggest, meatiest, tastiest.” However, when it was launched in 1975, “B.M.T.” actually stood for “Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit System,” keeping with the chain’s transport-related theme. The sandwich contains Genoa salami, Black Forest ham, and pepperoni, and is one of Subway’s most popular sandwiches.

In 1973, Momofuku Ando of Nissin Foods developed Cup Noodle for the American market after he realized most Americans did not own a ramen noodle bowl. The simple solution provided instant noodles in a styrofoam cup that only needed boiling water and a few minutes to cook. Cup Noodle became a popular, cheap, and simple meal and continues to endure on grocery store shelves.

In 1971, Hamburger Helper was introduced by General Mills in response to a meat shortage and escalating meat prices. The idea was simple: You could stretch 1 pound of ground beef by simply mixing it with their boxed meal kit consisting of either pasta or rice and seasonings. Building on the success of the Helper brand, Tuna Helper was added in 1973.

In the late 1970s, drink manufacturers set out to create “healthy” fruit-flavored sodas. Pepsi created Aspen soda, which was flavored with “just a snap of apple.” Unfortunately, the drink was not very popular and the soft drink was abandoned in 1982.

Spray cheese was first invented by Nabisco in 1965 and was originally known as “Snack Mate.” The product came in five flavors — cheddar, American, pimiento, Swiss, and French onion — and the spread became a popular appetizer ingredient during the 1970s. In 1984, Snack Mate was acquired by Kraft and rebranded as “Easy Cheese.”

In the 1960s, Pillsbury developed Space Food Sticks for the Apollo space missions. The energy snacks came in innovative stick shapes so they could be consumed by astronauts wearing helmets. A consumer version of the “perfectly balanced energy snack” later became available, and by the 1970s, Pillsbury dropped “Space” from the product’s name. Today, Food Sticks are seen as the precursor to modern energy bars.

Koogle was a peanut butter spread that came in four flavors: chocolate, cinnamon, banana, and vanilla. It had a smooth texture but unlike traditional peanut butter, Koogle did not stick to the roof of your mouth. The spread never really took off and was discontinued by the mid-1970s.

The 1970s were the decade of all things Jell-O, and nothing encapsulated this more than poke cakes. The simple recipe involved baking a cake with a standard cake mix, then stabbing holes in the top and filling them with fruity Jell-O. When the cake was sliced, guests were impressed with the brightly colored hidden filling.

Two green desserts were named after the 1972 Watergate scandal: Watergate cake and Watergate salad. Watergate cake was made from cake mix mixed with pistachio pudding mix and iced with whipped topping. Watergate salad was not a traditional salad, but rather a fluffy dessert made with canned pineapple, pistachio pudding mix, chopped nuts, and whipped cream.

In the early 1970s, an entrepreneur named H.P. Hood created a low-fat frozen yogurt named “Frogurt.” The concept was further developed in 1978 when Boston’s Brigham’s ice cream shop introduced a prepackaged version of the treat. By the 1980s, frozen yogurt stores began opening in malls across the nation.

Swanson introduced TV dinners in the 1950s and initially marketed them to busy housewives. By the 1970s, Swanson realized it needed to target the growing demographic of bachelors, and introduced the Hungry-Man brand, which provided large meat-based meals for men who didn’t like to cook.

In 1971, Herb Peterson, the owner of a McDonald’s in Santa Barbara, California, decided to introduce a breakfast item based on eggs Benedict. Peterson quickly realized that packaged hollandaise sauce wouldn’t do the trick, so he added a slice of cheese and bacon alongside the egg and English muffin. The dish was an instant success, and four years later, it was rolled out nationally as the Egg McMuffin.

With a growing fascination for Hawaiian culture and a desire to be experimental in the kitchen, many Americans began using pineapple as an ingredient in the 1970s. The fruit brought an exotic vibe to dishes such as pineapple souffle and baked ham with pineapple. The plethora of imaginative ways to use pineapple became emblematic of the decade’s cuisine.

Fondue was first introduced in the U.S. in the 1960s at the New York World’s Fair. Soon after, at-home fondue kits hit shelves to appease the growing demand for the cheesy trend. By the 1970s, fondue became a popular choice for dinner parties, where guests could dip a variety of breads, meats, and vegetables into pots of various cheeses, such as Swiss, Appenzeller, and Emmenthaler.