Remember when people thought putting marshmallow fluff on a peanut butter sandwich was normal? The 1960s brought us some truly bizarre sandwich combinations that seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. These weren’t just quick lunch fixes – they were actual recipes that families passed down and restaurants proudly served. Most of these strange creations have vanished from modern kitchens for good reason.
Fluffernutter sandwiches dominated New England lunch boxes
Massachusetts kids in the 1960s thought nothing of spreading marshmallow fluff and peanut butter between two slices of white bread. This sticky combination became so popular that schools had to pass actual laws limiting how often they could serve Fluffernutters in cafeterias. The sandwich started as a wartime creation called the Liberty Sandwich, made with barley bread to save wheat for soldiers.
Durkee’s Marshmallow Fluff company pushed this regional favorite by printing recipes right on their jars. While Rice Krispie treats helped boost marshmallow fluff sales in the ’60s, the Fluffernutter sandwich remained mostly a New England thing. Today, finding someone who actually makes these regularly is like finding a unicorn – they exist, but barely.
Banana and mayonnaise combinations shocked outsiders
Southern families during the Great Depression discovered that sliced bananas with mayonnaise made a surprisingly filling sandwich. This wasn’t just desperation food – people genuinely enjoyed the creamy, sweet combination. The sandwich provided meat-like substance when actual meat was too expensive, and both ingredients were cheap and readily available in the South.
NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. still makes these nostalgic sandwiches occasionally, though he treats them more like a curiosity than regular food. Some variations included peanut butter along with the mayo and banana, creating an even stranger combination. Duke’s Mayonnaise still has a cult following in the South, partly because of these old-school sandwich memories.
Chow mein sandwiches never left Massachusetts
Fall River, Massachusetts created one of America’s weirdest fusion foods when Chinese immigrants tried attracting local diners. They piled seasoned chow mein noodles, bean sprouts, celery, and onions onto white bread, then smothered everything in brown gravy. The result was a messy, carb-heavy sandwich that mill workers loved for its massive calorie count.
Local factories started serving these unusual sandwiches in their cafeterias, especially on Fridays when Catholic workers avoided meat during Lent. School cafeterias picked up the trend too, making chow mein sandwiches a regular menu item. The sandwich never caught on outside New England, making it one of America’s strangest regional specialties that most people have never heard of.
Olive loaf disappeared from deli counters
Grocery store delis once prominently displayed thick loaves of processed meat studded with green olive slices and red pimiento bits. Oscar Mayer and other companies mass-produced these colorful lunch meats, which were essentially bologna with stuff mixed in. People bought olive loaf and pimiento loaf as readily as they bought regular ham or turkey.
Younger generations started avoiding deli counters entirely, preferring grab-and-go options over waiting for someone to slice their meat. Consumer habits shifted toward self-service and app ordering, leaving traditional deli meats behind. Oscar Mayer stopped making olive loaf altogether, while muffuletta sandwiches with separate olive tapenade replaced the concept of having olives mixed directly into the meat.
Mock ham salad fooled nobody but fed families
Depression-era cooks created fake ham salad by chopping up cheap bologna and mixing it with mayonnaise, sweet pickles, diced onions, and hard-boiled egg bits. Real ham was too expensive for most families, but bologna was affordable and had a similar texture when chopped up. The final product looked almost identical to actual ham salad, though the taste was obviously different.
Once the economy recovered in the mid-1940s, mock recipes quickly disappeared from family kitchens. People wanted to forget the difficult times when they had to substitute expensive ingredients with cheaper alternatives. Mock apple pie made with Ritz crackers suffered the same fate – nobody wanted reminders of when they couldn’t afford real ingredients.
Coronation chicken honored Queen Elizabeth awkwardly
British cookbook authors created coronation chicken in 1953 for Queen Elizabeth II’s official crowning ceremony. They needed something simple enough for cooking students to prepare for 350 foreign dignitaries in Westminster School’s tiny kitchen. The result was poached chicken mixed with mayonnaise, whipped cream, curry powder, tomato and apricot puree, lemon, and red wine.
Post-war rationing rules prevented most people from trying coronation chicken until the late 1950s, when the recipe finally appeared in regular cookbooks. British convenience stores still sell coronation chicken sandwiches, but mostly as nostalgic novelties during royal weddings and similar events. The curried chicken salad never really caught on outside the UK, making it another odd relic of 1950s British cooking.
Frosted sandwich loaves masqueraded as fancy cakes
Hostesses in the 1960s impressed guests with elaborate sandwich loaves that looked exactly like frosted cakes. These monstrosities involved layering different sandwich fillings – egg salad, chicken salad, deviled ham – between slices of white bread, then covering the entire thing with cream cheese frosting. The goal was creating something that looked like dessert but was actually lunch.
Making these elaborate creations required hours of preparation and significant skill to make them look presentable. When cut, each slice revealed colorful layers like a fancy cake, which was supposed to delight and surprise guests. Modern hosts rarely have time for such elaborate preparation, and the heavy combination of multiple mayo-based salads feels overwhelming compared to lighter modern preferences.
Finger sandwiches required proper social occasions
Delicate cucumber, ham and butter, and savory paste finger sandwiches once appeared at every respectable baby shower, bridal shower, and ladies’ luncheon. These tiny, crustless triangles represented proper etiquette and social refinement. Women’s organizations and civic groups served them on elegant platters alongside tea service, making them essential for maintaining social status.
The decline of formal women’s organizations and traditional afternoon tea culture killed demand for finger sandwiches outside special occasions. Britain’s economic troubles in the 1970s made stopping work for elaborate tea breaks seem frivolous and outdated. Today, full afternoon tea service exists mainly for tourists and special celebrations, not as regular social events that require tiny, fancy sandwiches.
Emergency sandwiches combined whatever was available
Mid-1930s families created “emergency sandwiches” from pantry staples when grocery money ran out. These desperate combinations mixed hard-boiled eggs, pickles, mustard, and peanut butter into a spreadable paste that could be thinned with vinegar if needed. The name perfectly captured the reality – this wasn’t food people wanted to eat, but food that kept families fed when options were limited.
The sandwich provided protein, fat, and enough calories to sustain people through physically demanding work, even if the combination sounds terrible today. Depression-era creativity produced many similar combinations that mixed whatever shelf-stable ingredients families could afford. Once economic conditions improved, these necessity-driven recipes disappeared completely as people gained access to fresher, more appealing options that didn’t require combining pickles with peanut butter.
These weird sandwich combinations remind us how much food culture changes over just a few decades. What seemed perfectly normal to one generation becomes completely bizarre to the next. While some of these sandwiches disappeared for obvious reasons, others might actually be worth trying again – though maybe skip the peanut butter and mayonnaise unless someone dares to test it first.
