Cooking, baking, and putting together meals have always been a creative endeavour for folks. Cooking shows, cookbooks, recipe cards, blogs, and so much more exist out there regarding food and mealtime. Meals and cooking have changed a lot over the years. In modern days, meals are gourmet. People will pay a lot to eat food just because of who it was made by. Meals are planned, varied, and people always want to step up their game.

Of course, food has been scarce throughout different points in time, so people got by any way they could. This fact made for some pretty crazy meals, though. Once upon a time, people made nearly anything into a loaf or a Jell-O salad. Mini marshmallows weren't just for desserts, and casseroles were a hit. Some of these meals look off-putting… but they were enjoyed.

Here we have collected 25 vintage recipes and meals from the early and mid-1900s for everyone to admire or weep over. Enjoy this glance into the lives of people in the past and what cooking and lifestyle looked like back then.