Retro Breakfast Recipes
By Mr BreakfastWhether you call them retro, vintage, classic or old-school, you'll be calling these recipes delicious after you make them. They represent a simpler time in America. Words like "heart-healthy" and "low-carb" seemed like future-speak. All that mattered was flavor. We were less informed, but there was more of us to love. So pour a scotch, light a smoke, goose your secretary and enjoy these retro breakfast recipes.
Bacon Strip Pancakes
A 1962 ad for Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake mix called this "just about the best breakfast that ever greeted a hungry family!" The idea is simple: fry up some bacon, cover the bacon in pancake batter, cook, flip... and fall in love!
Bread-N-Butter Waffles
If you like French toast and you like waffles, you'll go crazy for these French toast Waffles. This amazing idea appeared in a 1955 advertisement for Log Cabin Syrup which described it as "a magic new recipe that turns bread and butter into waffles!"
Meal In A Muffin Pan
Muffins are great. But they're SUPER great when they're made of corned beef hash and egg. In this 1971 recipe, you make corn bread and a hearty egg dish in the same muffin tin. A complete hot breakfast - everything ready at the same time.
Cheerleaders' Ham 'N' Eggers
Bravo to Kraft and their delicious Velveeta pasteurized process cheese spread for coming up with a very unique name for scrambled eggs, ham and cheese on a hamburger bun. According to their 1964 ad, you can "sit back and enjoy all the cheers" after you make this one.
Speedy Spam Quiche
The 1984 magazine ad that introduced this recipe said, "(It's) an unbelievably delicious Spam recipe... It just might surprise you." It didn't surprise us. Spam can replace ham in most breakfast recipes.
Banana Scallops
"Here's a golden-brown surprise... Banana Scallops." Everything about that sentence is disturbingly suggestive. But this is actually a delightful way to enjoy bananas as a hash brown style breakfast side dish. From a 1948 Chiquita Banana magazine ad.
Chocolate Cinnamon Buns
"Imagine fragrant, warm cinnamon buns with each fluffy-light bite brim full of chocolatey flavor! Then imagine a yeast recipe that's truly streamlined-easy!" From a 1960 magazine ad for Gold Medal Flour.
Corn Lorraine
Think of a Quiche Lorraine, that delightful classic French dish with mildly sharp Swiss cheese and smokey bacon suspended in an egg custard pie. Now, add a can of creamed corn. That's the secret to this 1962 recipe from Del Monte Cream Style Corn.
Bacon Spider Bread
What makes hot buttered corn bread even better? The same thing that makes everything better... loads of bacon. If you have a cornbread mix, some bacon and a skillet, you're already halfway to making this 1974 classic.
Elegant Eggs (Croustades)
The words "elegant" and "Velveeta" aren't often heard together and when they are - it's a good bet you're reading an ad for Velveeta Pasteurized Cheese Food. Poached eggs on thick bread smothered in cheese... the word they should have used was "cheese-ilicious!"
Breakfast In A Glass
If adorable children like drinking diluted oatmeal in a glass, you should too. That's the message in the 1959 Quaker Oats ad that introduced this recipe. We'll let you be the judge whether or not it "tastes like a milkshake."
Banana Coconut Rolls
Forget for a moment that they look like corn dogs coated in dog hair (we blame food photography of the 50's), this is actually a delicious, nutritious breakfast. Bananas are grilled and then rolled in coconut. A simple, still-relevant idea from the 1950 Chiquita Banana's Recipe Book.
Cornmeal Batty Cakes
A Quaker Corn Meal advertisement in 1950 promised that these strangely-named Batty Cakes were "the lightest, crispest little pancakes you ever tasted!" The ad had a send-away offer for a recipe booklet called "Adventures In Corn Meal Cookery". Let the adventure begin!
Scrambled Eggs Avocado
In 1971, the avocado seemed exotic and weird to most Americans. A green fruit that you use in recipes like a vegetable? It didn't take long to realize that anything, no matter how foreign, is amazing when it's mixed with lots of bacon.
Bacon Logs
In 1967, Log Cabin Syrup and Armour Star Bacon teamed to give America a new breakfast treat. If you think French toast is good, wait until you have it with tons of bacon in it and on top of it.
Tyrolean Treat
If your a lover of Velveeta Process Cheese Food and obscure breakfasts of Austria, prepare to have your mind blown. According to the vintage ad where we found the recipe, "In Austria, this is a favorite Velveeta recipe. (Ask any Austrian child!)."
Bacon Pie
America likes bacon. America likes pie. In 1942, Swift's Premium Bacon took advantage of these great truths by publishing a recipe for Bacon Pie in their advertisements. To quote the ad, "Here, ladies, is that dream of a new dish you've been looking for..."
Bacon Cheese Pie
By 1960, it seemed every company that produced bacon, eggs or flour had their own recipe for a bacon pie. This recipe is from Robin Hood All-Purpose Flour - "the faithful flour that gives you prize results every time you bake."
Pumpkin Puff Pancakes
The swinging 70's... everything was a cocktail appetizer, including these mini Pumpkin Pancakes. The 1971 recipe card that featured this recipe referred to this style of food as Impromptu Party Fare.
Classic Grape-Nuts Bread
Some people put cereal in a bowl. In the 1960's, it was popular to put it in a bread. The ad that gave us this recipe called it one of the most popular recipes in Grape-Nut's history.
Buttermilk Griddle Cakes
Thanks to an obscure recipe booklet from 1931 called Favorite Recipes of the Movie Stars, you can make the same griddle cakes Gary Cooper ate as a boy.
Cheese Tree
In the mood for a Christmas tree made of toast, bacon and cheese sauce? The good people from Campbell's Soup have it covered. This holiday gem was discovered in the pages of the December 1969 issue of Ebony Magazine.
Souper Scramble
In 1958, Campbell's Soup taught us "the way to make eggs different every day for the cost of a can of soup." This recipe is from a vintage magazine ad titled, "Souper Special Budget Beaters."
Coffee Breakers
Cinnamon rolls get a literal "Twist" in this recipe from 1961. The recipe first appeared in a booklet from Fleischmann's Yeast.
Shredded Wheat Pancakes
This recipe is from the back of an old box of Nabisco Shredded Wheat cereal. The shredded wheat biscuits are crushed and mixed with an existing pancake mix to create hot cakes with a unique texture.
French Toasted English Muffins
The good folks at Bays English Muffins brought us a simply 'why have I never thought of this' recipe in 1988. It's French toast made with English muffins. Easy, fun, different, yet familiar.
Baked Egg Nests
Most of us are familiar with Egg Nests (aka Egg In the Hole; aka Birdies In A Nest) where you cut a whole in bread, fill it with an egg and fry it up. This is a different take on that - a puffy, baked version from a 1976 ad for the Egg Farmers of Ontario.
Cream Of Chicken Brunch Benedict
What's the secret to good Cream Of Chicken Eggs Benedict? Would you have ever guessed Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup? Probably yes! This recipe is from a 1969 magazine ad.
Spam 'N Waffles
Forget ham. Use Spam! Next time you make waffles, consider the advice from this 1947 recipe and serve them with America's favorite canned meat. Includes instructions to make crispy waffles.
Pancake Corn Fritters
An old advertisement for Wesson Oil gave us this recipe for glorious little corn donuts you can make on a moment's notice. Serve them with powdered sugar, maple syrup or pretty much anything you'd enjoy over a pancake.
Kippered Salmon Quiche
Want to cook like a real playboy? This recipe for a smoked salmon and Gruyere quiche is from 1972's The Playboy Gourmet .
Classic Banana Fritters
Reaching back to the pages of a 1950 Chiquita Banana booklet, we find a recipe that turns bananas into donuts. The past was truly magical.
Fish Stick Breakfast Broil
You can't make this stuff up. This is from an actual recipe card from 1971. It's basically fish sticks with a side of sliced pineapple. Why don't more people have fish sticks for breakfast? A picture is worth a thousand words.If you have any retro breakfast recipes that you'd like to see added to this article, let me know via Facebook or Twitter.
This article was written by Mr Breakfast (aka Eddy Chavey).
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