Our favorite mid-20th-century uses of cheese, all in one place!

I knew Fisher's Cooking with Cheese (second printing, December 1966) would be fun because it's by Mettja C. Roate, the mastermind behind some great hot dog and ground beef recipe collections. What kinds of treasures await us in the cheese collection?

The cover shows a vast collection of glorious cheese, but no hints about actual recipes. Based on our knowledge of '60s cooking, though, I bet we can make some guesses. There's got to be a weird avocado-based dip.

I have to admit, I'm on board with the Avocado and Cheese Dip right up until they add the catsup! 

There's got to be a ring of something carby enclosing a swamp of something creamed.

Cheese-bread ring with a broccoli in cheese sauce filling? Perfect.

We have to have something that has been arbitrarily declared a teen favorite.

I didn't know teens were so into condensed black bean soup, but whatevs.

We need a questionable fudge recipe, obviously. (Maybe even a scary treat for the trick-or-treaters back when people still gave out homemade treats?)

We need a fondue.

Bonus points if it's got a can of cream of mushroom soup in it!

Extra bonus points if it can be repurposed with a few minor changes into a rarebit!

Or repurposed with a few minor changes into a rarebit. (Not that I'm suggesting the recipes can get a little repetitive.)

And if the fancy rarebits are a little too rich for the family budget, this book even offers an economy rarebit.

It's pretty sad that some families had to fill out their already-low-budget rarebit dinners with soggy breadcrumbs, so they were essentially eating wet bread on top of dry bread for dinner, but at least Roate took the cover's promise to "stretch the budget" seriously.

But let's not end on a down note. Instead, we need a recipe that's so questionably Mexican as to be laughable.

I know some people think I'm too hard on cooks of the past trying to make "foreign" recipes with whatever ingredients they could find in mid-century grocery stores, but I'm not sure anyone could really consider English muffins covered with pork and beans and American cheese to be tostadas. (Even Roate sees the problem, calling these only "Almost Tostadas." The writer can't quite disavow the idea that these are tostadas, but clearly knows it's a real stretch.)

In short, Mettja C. Roate's books are always a hoot and packed with the kinds of '60s recipes that I love! If these are your kinds of recipes too, and you see a Roate book at the thrift store or antique mall, pick it up! It's a gem.

Well, a gem, but possibly not quite as great as the Chef's Delight cheese prominently advertised inside the front cover but mysteriously never mentioned in a recipe.

Chef's Delight may be the "all purpose cheese product with 1001 uses," but apparently you'll have to make those up on your own. (Or maybe substitute it for any random cheese in any random recipe in the book? It is all-purpose!) I love the mysteries of old cookbooks....