Food writer Tim Hayward recently posted a truly inspired article about the “pre-eminent British cookery writer of the mid 20th century” Elizabeth David and the way she would make notes throughout cookbooks she would read. Apparently, sometimes the notes were not all that nice. Mrs. David eventually came across a recipe that sounded so foul, so wretched that she declared it ‘the most revolting dish ever devised’.
I like giving bizarre dishes a fair shake. I like being able to find that silver lining in an otherwise overcast sky. So it was with great relish that I attempted to make the Italian Salad to see if it really was as horrific as had been declared. This recipe originally came from a copy of ‘Ulster Fare’, a collection assembled by the Belfast Women’s Institute just after the second world war. I can imagine that food was more than scarce then, and throwing random ingredients of whatever was handy together was much more common.
Here is the recipe in question:
Italian salad
1 pint cold cooked macaroni
½ pint cooked or tinned pears
½ pint grated raw carrot
French dressing to moisten
2 heaped tablespoons minced onion
½ pint cooked or minced string beans
Mix the chopped macaroni and vegetables; moisten with French dressing, flavouring with garlic if liked. Serve on a dish lined with lettuce leaves. Decorate with mayonnaise and minced pimento or chives.
I assembled the needed ingredients, girded my loins and began making this monstrosity.
When all was said in done this was what I had wrought:
The colors are correct, in case you were wondering. This is actually what the finished dish looks like. The flavor was something totally indescribable, but I’m going to make an attempt. I suppose this isn’t a terribly accurate description as I wasn’t able to finish a spoonful, but the combination of the french dressing and the minced onions hit my palate first. Then, the texture dawned on me–the grated carrot is pulp-like, followed by the gummy pasta, then the mushy pear joins the party before I hit the crunchy green beans. It’s almost as if the recipe writer decided on trying to hit every key on the texture piano.
At this point I spit out the one mouthful I had tried. It was too much. I just couldn’t deal.
Mrs. Davis, you were on the mark. I don’t think I’ll ever run across something this inedible again in my lifetime, and that includes dirt–at least I hope not.
15 Comments to “I just made ‘The most revolting dish ever devised’”
July 2, 2009
Fan-fucking-tastic! Bravo for even attempting this. I believe “Italian Salad” (with French Dressing) is in the Annals of Unfortunate Cuisine; I have a copy somewhere. I’ll go check. Christ, what a monstrosity…
July 2, 2009
Wow, you are my hero.
July 3, 2009
I love how this appears in a Nose to Tail blog. Brilliant. Brains, trotters and tripe present no fear but this is what beat you? Fantastic
July 3, 2009
Why, my mammy used to feed us little I-talian kids this stuff back when we lived in a hole in the road. And we LIKED it!
(Thanks for taking one for the team, Ryan-you are braver than I, but then your blog speaks for itself!)
FM
July 3, 2009
These are the kinds of dishes we’ll see at family pot-lucks. And no matter how revolting it might seem to my wife and I, there will be raves for whoever made it.
Inevitably, I’ll hear someone ask them “Oh, you have to send me the recipe.” Call me a food snob, but it makes me physically ill.
Thanks for sharing this, Ryan. You’re a brave man.
July 3, 2009
You apparently don’t realize that in the 1940′s French dressing meant the dressing popular in France. That means a light vinaigrette. This modern French dressing monstrosity didn’t exist in the 40′s or 50′s. When made with correct dressing it’s not nearly as bad.
July 3, 2009
Looking again, it also didn’t say canned beans. They were available fresh, and they would not have used iceberg lettuce. It would have been a leaf lettuce. Iceberg lettuce didn’t even exist in England until the 80′s. When I lived there in the mid 70′s, the only place you could get iceberg lettuce was at the American import store. They even removed the crispy part of the lettuce in the core of leaf lettuce and sold it to pig farmers as food.
When doing historical recipes, it’s important to use the historical ingredients.
July 3, 2009
You are absolutely right Mr. Schiffman, I had no idea that the term french dressing had a different meaning back in 1945. While the correct dressing may slightly help with the taste, I doubt it will affect the horrific texture.
I do invite you to make the recipe using your superior knowledge of ingredients of that time to prove me wrong though. I await your report!
July 4, 2009
all uniting to create a whole vastly more repellent than the sum of its parts.
Dammit, Ms David, you were right. It is the most revolting dish ever devised.
this post made my morning and thanks for the link to the Guardian article.
July 6, 2009
Sorry I came off “superior”. It wasn’t meant that way. This may be a really bad item. However, this is the type of recipe I remember seeing at events all the time when I was a youngster. I’m not WWII vintage. I’m Vietnam vintage. These lasted for many years. These were never really bad, but they were never really good. I’d be happy to make it up and post back. I can see how a recipe from WWII, from a neighborhood cookbook could be put up by a sophisticated foodie as the “worst.” Here where I live, it’s lime flavored Jello (jelly) with grated carrots in it that’s popular. Personally, I’d put that up as even worse than this one.
Where did you see a picture, or were you just saying that the picture you included actually matched what you made? I followed the link, but there was no picture there. If there is no picture to follow, and I followed the directions you had, I wouldn’t have ended up with something that looked like that. Certainly chopped pear mixed in would be awful. It says to chop the vegetables. Pears are not vegetables. They would not be chopped and mixed in. They would be placed on top of the macaroni either as halves, or large pieces to be eaten separately. Directions for recipes in those days were much less complete. Everyone already knew how to make it. They just included those thinks that had to be done specific to this recipe. Anything not explicit is just done the normal way.
I really enjoy your blog. I get good tips and ideas from your experiences. Thanks.
July 8, 2009
Mr. Schiffman, I think I came off badly with my response. You do have superior knowledge of the ingredients of that time. I’d have never known about the differences in French dressing at all had you not said anything. Everything about this recipe I’ve learned came from Mrs. David’s comment and Mr. Hayward’s article.
I’ve not seen any pictures of the original recipe, thought I’d sure love to have one shown to me.
If you do happen to make this, please let me know and I’ll post it here or post a link to your website.
Thank you!
July 8, 2009
Rachel, happy to have made your morning!
July 18, 2009
Haha I love how perverse the idea is of making people’s most hated food. Very fun! My most hated meal was a German Scrapple my Mom attempted when I was a kid…which is also one of my most memorable meals.
July 21, 2009
Nicole, I still can’t get over those cow lips! I had so much fun running around showing them to people at work. The buncha pansies!
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