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My Irish American grandma on my dad's side had two recipes. 'Roast Butt ', some pale greasy meat that was boiled until it was falling apart, yet still resisted cutting and chewing once it cursed your plate: the left overs of this were tossed into a pot with a can of La Choy 'Oriental Style Vegetables' and a bottle of some sweet sauce and dubbed 'Chop Suey', which was probably from a recipe she got out of an ad in the back of a TV guide in the 60s.

The woman could boil a mean potato, though.

My Oklahoma dust bowl era meemaw never really cooked anything that didn't come from a can, but she baked bread and 'English Muffins' from scratch that held up well when frozen.

The bread was really dry and tasteless unless you really slathered on condiments. The 'muffins' were flattened little lumps of dough that were as dense as a dying star, not a single nook or cranny in sight, with a chewy raw consistency not unlike chewing gum.

I actually liked those a lot, and was disappointed later in life when I had store bought English Muffins, which were more like a mutant crumpet than anything else.

My mom and sister have the recipes, but neither have attempted making them. I'm afraid to read them because they'll probably just say:

One box Jiffy baking mix, water, salt. Bake until done.

My grandparents ate boiled potatoes with boiled vegetables and watery meat. When I lived at my parents we often at the same. Thank god that we've adapted the cuisine from countries that actually discovered that food can have taste

What is it with americans putting everything in jello? That's just gross. And then they make jokes about fries with vinegar (which is just ketchup without tomato (edit: and sugar)).

It can't be overstated how many of those recipes were some con to sell canned shit that Grandma cut out of a magazine. There's very little "in the old county we cooked like this..." that made it through the Boomer food filter. Best case scenario is it's Betty fucking Crocker.

The people who say that about younger women probably had Grandmas who were still in households that could be sustained on a single income.

Not saying it was ideal that their only choice was homemaking, but it stands to reason that a more significant amount of them got good at cooking and baking.

In her defense, we're quickly approaching the point where the only food we'll be able to afford is depression era food. Welcome back to splitting one streak between 7 people and water pie.

Both my grandmothers were great cooks. I guess I had a lucky childhood in that regards.

I grew up in the 70s with casseroles that would make your god cry.

If I’m diagnosed with cancer, I’m blaming old-timey cooking. Some things should be left in the past.

When I was in high school my older brother brought a cookbook with recipes from around the world. I tried to make couple that were fairly easy to make and was amazed by the taste. I couldn't believe food can have that much flavor. I later realized it's not that the recipes was so special. My mother's food was simply very bland. Not bad, but it was just variations of salt and sour. I don't make or miss any of her recipes. She makes very good deserts tough.

Yeah, even just having more different ingredients and spices available makes those recipes of old somewhat obsolete. But then you also have the internet to tell you all kinds of new recipes, so if the local cuisine isn't great to begin with, it is easier than ever to not bother with it.

I have three sets of grandparents. Only remember one of my granddads cooking, one of my granddads would bake.

Dad and granddad (his step dad) were the consistent, enjoyed cooking and playing with flavours cooks in the family 😅 none of the women in my family, including me, enjoy it other than my sister maybe!

My grandmother would put food in the oven before turning it on. When the timer would go off, she'd be frustrated that the food was dehydrated and undercooked, so she'd try her best to salvage it by starting the timer again for the same amount of time. Then she'd ask "what smells funny?" before pulling the food out from the oven, and complaining that the recipe was bad.

She never cooked before she got married, but she was married for somewhere around 70 years.

70 years.

In 70 years, she was never able to understand the concept of preheating the oven. When I was a child, she'd come over to my parents' house. If my mom was preparing dinner, and the oven was preheating, my grandmother would turn off the oven and tell my mother that she shouldn't leave the oven on. My mom tried so many times to explain preheating the oven, but my grandmother insisted that it was a waste of energy.