Avocado green here as well, with a masking tape last name on it from potlucks. I remember Salisbury steak, and chicken cacciatore (from the Chicken Tonight! jar, natch) (bonus points to anyone who remembers the jingle for that)
From the generation that had raw meat, and meat cooked 15min past well done, and there was no option in between.
I had no idea (homecooked) meat was allowed to have moisture in it until I started cooking for myself.
Honestly makes me wonder why Boomers were so bad at cooking. Obviously not all were, but enough that a hell of a lot of us have memories of some really bad meals. Mine in particular are of "cheese spaghetti." Even the thought of it makes my stomach churn.
Because THEIR parents survived the depression and didn't have cooking skills of their own. In my household, we were like the 5th generation that lived in abject poverty. Hard to teach your kids to cook when every generation since forced removal has had to live on government commodities with naught but salt and pepper for seasoning. I live a quite comfortable life in my adulthood and have access to an unfathomably large world recipe repository. I can cook lobster bisque from scratch one night, palak paneer the next, and Hungarian mushroom soup after that. But I grew up on burnt roast, frybread, and canned salmon.
Shit, I'm pretty sure my parents never used *any* seasoning, including salt or pepper. We did grow up pretty damned poor, so I know that was part of it, but I often wondered if my parents just preferred their food to be as bland as possible.
This. Literally no seasoning. I didn’t appreciate vegetables and pork until I met my wife and was introduced to cooking done right. Bless my mom, though. She did the best she could with what she had, and to this day makes the best lasagna.
Why was EVERYTHING cooked to powder. Ketchup on everything just to choke it down. Also Italian dressing on iceberg lettuce and frozen "mixed vegetables".
I often wonder how I managed to be a decent cook myself. Considering my mom literally never taught me. It’s amazing how far we have come with our knowledge of food. Probably many thanks to the internet.
My mom's was butter yellow. It's what I learned to cook in, too. We used it to make browned meat for spaghetti, little hamburger patties, fried chicken, Hamburger Helper, pork chops, grilled cheese, pancakes... everything!
Ours was blue and my mom never used it that I can remember. But once or twice a year my aunt would come visit and she would make the best damn fried chicken I ever had.
I still own one. Very handy when we were remodeling the kitchen and didn't have a stove, and I'll also take it camping if I'm going to pay for electricity (although we have an RV now so no need for an electric skillet).
I can't remember what all my mom made in it... probably because I did most of the cooking and used the stove. But if I had to guess, white people stir fry.
We had an electric Wok for that!
I mostly remember the electric frying pan being used for weekend breakfasts ( bacon, eggs, pancakes). I was allowed to make the pancakes from a pretty young age, I guess they thought it was safer than the stove?
I'm pretty sure we had the larger size rectangular version of this one:
https://preview.redd.it/lh261tgig05d1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=7afb3c06f6c45828df0338eb0a18869d96e1a4e3
I can remember using it for stir fry before we got a real wok, stuffed pork chops, pork ribs (or bratwurst) with sauerkraut, and a dish we called Spanish rice (had bacon, green bell pepper, onions, ground beef, tomatoes, seasonings, and rice).
Pork chops, potatoes, and green beans. We only used it when we went on vacation (always two weeks on the road seeing cool stuff). My mom would pull this out for our dinners since lunches were usually McDonald’s.
We had a rectangular one that was stainless steel inherited from my grandmother. No telling how old it was because my grandma took care of all her pots and pans. We finally had to get rid of it after it caught fire.
My mom had a square one that was west bend. Brown and the lid had lines on it.
Beef Stroganoff was also the go-to out of those skillets.
Had that exact one (my mom's) until about five years ago. The cord got soft and sticky and would spark sometimes. I didn't feel safe using it after that, but it still worked fine otherwise!
My parents still have the green one! It gets used for heating corn tortillas on taco night, making pancakes, and cooking chicken and dumplings and cube steak.
It was a good night when the electric skillet came out.
Didn't appreciate it so much at the time bit there was this one meatball recipe that my mother used to make for potlucks in this thing that I can still taste after all these years. Mostly gross food from this thing but those meatballs were SICK!!!!
Fried chicken! Heat up some oil in the green electric fryer. Put flour, salt, and pepper in a plastic bag, put the chicken parts in and toss them around a little, then fry 'em up.
My mom had a white one. Probably more than one over the years. We were very poor and for a long time didn't have a working stove so she cooked all our meals in the electric skillet. Lots of poor people foods like fried potatoes and fried eggs for dinner. Hamburger helper. I remember always having a big can of shortening and she'd slop it in there and figure something out to feed us.
actually the only plug-in thing we cooked in at all was a Fry Baby...until I begged mom to get me/us a cheap Sunbeam wok when I was like 14/15 so we could make our home-made fried rice fantasies come true...and I'm still wokkin' out to this day, boiiii!
Pretty sure we had that exact one. I remember first and foremost, eggplant being fried in it, which I did like very much. Pretty sure my mom made burgers in it too, which I didn't really like.
Ours was stainless steel like that, but it was an electric broiler with the heating element in the lid. My mom liked to cook chicken pieces with absolutely no seasoning, broiled on a grate so all possible flavor dripped out and eventually congealed in the bottom, and left under the element until the top skins were burned black. And my parents wondered why I used so much ketchup.
The whole exterior was dangerously hot when used. The thing died when something shorted out and started shooting sparks. Somehow it never started a fire.
Orange, Green, White....she went through a few of those. We definitely had the beef stroganoff. I continued using these myself for years after moving out before I realized using pans directly on the stovetop works just fine.
Ours is what we used for a deep fryer before they became popular. Onion rings in Drakes batter specifically. I can’t remember anything else ever being cooked in it but always knew it was onion rings night when it came out. I think it was brown, but not sure.
This is why I crave fried chicken every Sunday. Grandma’s fried chicken - made in an electric skillet just like this. I have no other memory for its use outside that and pineapple upside down cake.
We didn’t have one, but my grandmother had a yellow one and aunt had a white one. I remember them sitting on their counters, but I don’t remember them ever being used.
My mom didn't have one, but my Mamaw did, and if I saw it on the counter, I knew it about to be either some delicious seasoned chicken...or the torture of choking down salmon croquettes. I never dared let on that I didn't like them, or cornbread, or hominy, lol
Holy shit dude, my mom still has that exact one. pancakes, sweet n sour spare ribs, breaded and fried cauliflower, This picture just hit me so hard in the nostalgia nethers.
My mom has never been one to overspend, but when her and my dad got married back in the 80’s, she bought a set of Lifetime cookware. We had the same thing as this except it was like the Cadillac that weighed 15 lbs and had a double wall stainless pan. What’s cooking in it? Almost always Salisbury steak with onions and mushrooms in some thick pan gravy.
My grandma had a giant version of this. She would make the Thanksgiving turkey in it. Or tons of sauerkraut and sausage, stuffed cabbage, or scalloped potatoes for other gatherings.
My former MIL had the small square kind. She would make the world's worst "roasts" in them. Lipton onion soup halfway up the roast, so it was braised on the bottom and dry on the top. Except somehow the whole thing would be dry. She'd use an electric carving knife to saw off slices, and meat dust would fly. Also I usually couldn't tell if it was beef or pork 😂
We had the avocado green one. My mom made the dryest pork chops ever in that thing. Good memories.
Avocado green here as well, with a masking tape last name on it from potlucks. I remember Salisbury steak, and chicken cacciatore (from the Chicken Tonight! jar, natch) (bonus points to anyone who remembers the jingle for that)
I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight!
I think my mom made the La Choi canned Chinese food with the crunchy topping in this.
From the generation that had raw meat, and meat cooked 15min past well done, and there was no option in between. I had no idea (homecooked) meat was allowed to have moisture in it until I started cooking for myself.
Honestly makes me wonder why Boomers were so bad at cooking. Obviously not all were, but enough that a hell of a lot of us have memories of some really bad meals. Mine in particular are of "cheese spaghetti." Even the thought of it makes my stomach churn.
Because THEIR parents survived the depression and didn't have cooking skills of their own. In my household, we were like the 5th generation that lived in abject poverty. Hard to teach your kids to cook when every generation since forced removal has had to live on government commodities with naught but salt and pepper for seasoning. I live a quite comfortable life in my adulthood and have access to an unfathomably large world recipe repository. I can cook lobster bisque from scratch one night, palak paneer the next, and Hungarian mushroom soup after that. But I grew up on burnt roast, frybread, and canned salmon.
Shit, I'm pretty sure my parents never used *any* seasoning, including salt or pepper. We did grow up pretty damned poor, so I know that was part of it, but I often wondered if my parents just preferred their food to be as bland as possible.
This. Literally no seasoning. I didn’t appreciate vegetables and pork until I met my wife and was introduced to cooking done right. Bless my mom, though. She did the best she could with what she had, and to this day makes the best lasagna.
I found a jar of Mrs Dash in my pantry as a kid - it blew my mind when I put it on the table and started using it at dinner
Coated in corn flakes and covered in mushroom soup. This is one of the reasons I learned to cook
We had the red one and, yes, my mom also made desert-dry pork chops. I grew up thinking I hated pork chops.
Why was EVERYTHING cooked to powder. Ketchup on everything just to choke it down. Also Italian dressing on iceberg lettuce and frozen "mixed vegetables".
And boom, another core memory unlocked from this aging grey matter of a brain. Thank you!
I can't remember but I remember the cord.
Smothered porkchops
Ooooh! That creamy sauce made from campbell’s mushroom soup!
Yesss. I make it for my wife and I every so often, although I add extra mushrooms and black pepper
Cooked to an internal temperature higher than the surface of the sun.
Came here to say this. Never eating them again.
I'm guessing they were dry?
They were somehow dry yet very wet, and full of sodium yet flavourless. It took a special skill set to be as bad of a cook as my family was.
> They were somehow dry yet very wet That describes most things I make in a slow cooker.
Damn, I'm sorry.
🤣it’s ok! I’m a great cook now (brag) so it all evened out in the end.
Awesome to hear! I love to cook myself whilst I think the only spices my family ever used growing up was salt and pepper..and everything cooked 'Well'
I often wonder how I managed to be a decent cook myself. Considering my mom literally never taught me. It’s amazing how far we have come with our knowledge of food. Probably many thanks to the internet.
My mom's was butter yellow. It's what I learned to cook in, too. We used it to make browned meat for spaghetti, little hamburger patties, fried chicken, Hamburger Helper, pork chops, grilled cheese, pancakes... everything!
My mom has one and it comes out once a year in December for latkes.
That’s what we still use ours for! Makes the cleaning process easier.
It really does!
That was for fried chicken and then making the gravy after the chicken was done.
This is the correct answer.
Ours was blue and my mom never used it that I can remember. But once or twice a year my aunt would come visit and she would make the best damn fried chicken I ever had.
Hamburger helper
Trying hamburger helper in my adulthood, just takes like chemicals to me. Anyone else?
Gotta try the beef stroganoff. It’s the best flavor
What is it? LOL I feel like I’m totally missing out on something here!
It's an electric frying pan!
Thank you!!! I don’t remember us having one or seeing them at any friends houses…but now I want one
I had no idea what it was either until someone replied to your comment
I have one but it also has a ceramic insert and basically operates as a crockpot
I can see the steam spouting out from those four little vent holes right now. My mom made the best meatballs in that thing (ours was avocado green!).
Yes, it’s the steam spouts for me too.
This was for hamburgers and meatballs, I guess fried? Because it always had an inch of oil first.LoL
My mom still uses the one her & my father received as a wedding gift in 1973. She only uses it to make fried potatoes for when she makes mexican food.
Hamburger helper for some reason
My parents have the electric griddle. My dad uses it to make pancakes.
Multiple grilled cheese sandwiches at once!
I bought one for myself when I got my own place a long time ago. Pancakes and French toast every weekend in that thing. It’s the best!
Cube steaks that were full of gristle and served in nasty gravy.
was it called "swiss steak?
My mom always made Chicken Tonight in one of these, the mushroom one.
I feel like Chicken Tonight! Like Chicken Tonight!!!
> I feel like Chicken Tonight! Like Chicken Tonight Holy crap, memory unlocked.
As soon as I saw this, the immediate smell of liver and onions came to me... This may be one of the few times I don't say thanks for the memories...
Ah, sorry
Chicken marinated in Wishbone Italian dressing with vegetables
Oh man, I haven’t made that in a while. I should do that.
My in-laws still have one. My parents didn't even have a microwave until after I left for college.
I still own one. Very handy when we were remodeling the kitchen and didn't have a stove, and I'll also take it camping if I'm going to pay for electricity (although we have an RV now so no need for an electric skillet). I can't remember what all my mom made in it... probably because I did most of the cooking and used the stove. But if I had to guess, white people stir fry.
We had an electric Wok for that! I mostly remember the electric frying pan being used for weekend breakfasts ( bacon, eggs, pancakes). I was allowed to make the pancakes from a pretty young age, I guess they thought it was safer than the stove?
I'm pretty sure we had the larger size rectangular version of this one: https://preview.redd.it/lh261tgig05d1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=7afb3c06f6c45828df0338eb0a18869d96e1a4e3 I can remember using it for stir fry before we got a real wok, stuffed pork chops, pork ribs (or bratwurst) with sauerkraut, and a dish we called Spanish rice (had bacon, green bell pepper, onions, ground beef, tomatoes, seasonings, and rice).
Definitely cube steak!
Sausage and peppers or porkchops
Didn't have one. Mom cooked by ordering take out!
Fried chicken…deep fried chicken at that.
Porkchops and potatoes. Still one of my favorite dinners.
Hash brown casserole
With canned cream of mushroom (or chicken) soup?
IIRC, that thing had a massively exposed heating element. Death trap.
Wow - I think you’re right. Lol! Those were the days…
Yeah, I have this hazy memory of fried chicken gone wrong. 😆
Pork chops, potatoes, and green beans. We only used it when we went on vacation (always two weeks on the road seeing cool stuff). My mom would pull this out for our dinners since lunches were usually McDonald’s.
We made grilled cheese sandwiches on this.
We had a rectangular one that was stainless steel inherited from my grandmother. No telling how old it was because my grandma took care of all her pots and pans. We finally had to get rid of it after it caught fire. My mom had a square one that was west bend. Brown and the lid had lines on it. Beef Stroganoff was also the go-to out of those skillets.
Had that exact one (my mom's) until about five years ago. The cord got soft and sticky and would spark sometimes. I didn't feel safe using it after that, but it still worked fine otherwise!
My parents still have the green one! It gets used for heating corn tortillas on taco night, making pancakes, and cooking chicken and dumplings and cube steak. It was a good night when the electric skillet came out.
Mom's was yellow. The best fried chicken, sopapillas, and frybread in the world were made in that thing.
French toast. I also burned myself on it because I didn’t believe the outside would be hot.
Didn't appreciate it so much at the time bit there was this one meatball recipe that my mother used to make for potlucks in this thing that I can still taste after all these years. Mostly gross food from this thing but those meatballs were SICK!!!!
Fried chicken! Heat up some oil in the green electric fryer. Put flour, salt, and pepper in a plastic bag, put the chicken parts in and toss them around a little, then fry 'em up.
Pork chops or pork tenderloin - both were overdone and gross
Still using mine. Mom made everything from main dishes to desert in hers. I love this more than my crockpot.
Sunday brunch. My dad would make scrambled eggs and pancakes. Best pancakes I ever had came out of one of those. Same silver color too.
We had the brownish orange one. Fried rice and pancakes were done in it.
Holy crap I completely forgot about this.
Baked steaks… 🤌
Nah, my mom would actually cook in an oven/on a stove when she had time. If not…it was Encore night. That Salisbury steak was 🤌🏻.
This was for frying chicken cutlets in the backyard
What is it called? My parents didn't really cook for me and my sister....so we didn't have one
An electric frying pan! My mom and dad cooked damn near everything in one. I’m kind of low key wanting one now lol.
They still make them!
This is great news!
Yeah haha I saw this post and it looks so cool, I want one!
My mom cooked hot dogs with bacon in a sauce of ketchup and orange juice, and served it over rice.
Ours was an awful mustard yellow or avocado green, I can’t exactly recall, but the usual meal in there was Italian sausage with peppers and onions.
This exact one. Fish out on the patio
The rarely appearing but always delish fried chicken.
Most commonly hamburger helper, but the best was chicken fried steak.
My mum still has hers! Chicken fried steak!!!
Lamb chops and vegetables.
Not stainless steel but yeah we had one
The metal one! We did teriyaki chicken in it a lot.
My mom had a white one. Probably more than one over the years. We were very poor and for a long time didn't have a working stove so she cooked all our meals in the electric skillet. Lots of poor people foods like fried potatoes and fried eggs for dinner. Hamburger helper. I remember always having a big can of shortening and she'd slop it in there and figure something out to feed us.
Fried pork chops, yum.
My husband's grandma gave us hers just like this! I made lots of meals in it for me and my family. Especially fried potatoes with sausage!
This was how my dad made pancakes every Sunday.
Fried chicken and fried potatoes
Pork chops
We have the steel coloured one. I remember crispy mashed potatoes if that makes any sense. I haven't thought about that one in a long time!
Had this chrome one. And thank you for the memory of my mom’s lemonade chicken. And yes. It is literally chicken breast simmered in frozen lemonade.
That sounds like a recipe out of a 60s or 70s cookbook
Curried Sausages and they were fucking awesome ! Whenever mum invites me to dinner and asks me what I want, I always ask for curried Sausages again
Chicken and onions
I don’t recall the color but salmon croquets were usually what was inside. They were good!
Fried chicken. Ours was avocado green.
Round metal one, exclusively used to make potatoes and eggs.
actually the only plug-in thing we cooked in at all was a Fry Baby...until I begged mom to get me/us a cheap Sunbeam wok when I was like 14/15 so we could make our home-made fried rice fantasies come true...and I'm still wokkin' out to this day, boiiii!
Love it!
Pork chops and onions
my grandma not my mom. hers was a 70s mustard yellow color. and the thing she made in it, the only thing, was fish.
Your Mom, too? I thought I hated pork chops until my wife made them when we were dating.
A bigger one, chicken fried steak.
“fajitas”
This was the go to for French toast
Pretty sure we had that exact one. I remember first and foremost, eggplant being fried in it, which I did like very much. Pretty sure my mom made burgers in it too, which I didn't really like.
Fried chicken!
Beef stroganoff
Fried pork chops on the back porch. Man, I miss that thing.
The tan one. Everything you'd pan fry.
Pepper steak
Ours was stainless steel like that, but it was an electric broiler with the heating element in the lid. My mom liked to cook chicken pieces with absolutely no seasoning, broiled on a grate so all possible flavor dripped out and eventually congealed in the bottom, and left under the element until the top skins were burned black. And my parents wondered why I used so much ketchup. The whole exterior was dangerously hot when used. The thing died when something shorted out and started shooting sparks. Somehow it never started a fire.
Grilled cheese! Also hamburger helper.
Sausages, onion and gravy.
Hamburger Helper! I think hers had a cream colored top IIRC.
Ours had a yellow top. Definitely bacon
Fried chicken. That’s the only thing she ever made in it. Maybe once a year.
Orange, Green, White....she went through a few of those. We definitely had the beef stroganoff. I continued using these myself for years after moving out before I realized using pans directly on the stovetop works just fine.
I own one, I use it in the summer so my kitchen doesn’t become overwhelmingly hot in the summer.
Not my mom, but my grandma. She served Salisbury steak. I really liked it at the time.
American Chop Suey
Chicken paprikash
Oh my god. My mom had this exact one, and she cooked the most dry, tough, tasteless roasts in them.
Bomb ass fried chicken!
Pork chops with mushroom soup on top, white rice, and a can of French cut green beans
My roasts are never as good as the ones my mom made in this thing. I can never get the gravy right.
White top. Skillet lasagna. The best thing my mom made.
Ground beef.
Pretty sure my MIL's finally died a year or so ago. She made the best beef stroganoff in it.
My grandma had two of these going full steam ahead when she hosted family gatherings.
Ours is what we used for a deep fryer before they became popular. Onion rings in Drakes batter specifically. I can’t remember anything else ever being cooked in it but always knew it was onion rings night when it came out. I think it was brown, but not sure.
Breaded, fried, tough as shoe leather round steak and cube steak. Don't know why these even exist!
Caponata
This is why I crave fried chicken every Sunday. Grandma’s fried chicken - made in an electric skillet just like this. I have no other memory for its use outside that and pineapple upside down cake.
White trash poor people goulash. With elbow macaroni, ground hamburger and red kidney beans.
It was beige/tan. I still have it, and still make stuff in it.
Shit on a shingle
Kielbasa and sauerkraut. It was excellent.
Chicken paprika. Ours was beige I think?
My mom did egg rolls and corn fritters, neither very often
That one and Chislic
Off-white lid. Cubesteak and kidney beans.
Pork chops, sauerkraut, and dumplings. Always better than next day when you could pan fry them in butter and drench everything in gravy.
hamburger helper
My mom only ever made tuna casserole and the maids preferred old-school cooking implements. I bought one recently though, for use on the road.
We didn’t have one, but my grandmother had a yellow one and aunt had a white one. I remember them sitting on their counters, but I don’t remember them ever being used.
Fried chicken, bbq potk chops
What if my dad had one, is that cool? My mom left. He made fried potatoes in that damn thing at least twice a week.
My grandma is 86 and to this day makes spaghetti sauce in hers every time I visit! It has a cream lid with brown trim.
Best fried chicken at Grandma's house.
My grandma fried chicken cutlets in that thing. So good.
My mom didn't have one, but my Mamaw did, and if I saw it on the counter, I knew it about to be either some delicious seasoned chicken...or the torture of choking down salmon croquettes. I never dared let on that I didn't like them, or cornbread, or hominy, lol
Schloppy Joe
Holy shit dude, my mom still has that exact one. pancakes, sweet n sour spare ribs, breaded and fried cauliflower, This picture just hit me so hard in the nostalgia nethers.
Joint of Mutton, Mum looked (looks? She might still have it) just like this, the little vent closer this fell off a millennia ago.
We had a square and a double sized rectangle. Ground beef that either was or wasn't made into taco meat was the most common use. Bacon was second.
Rice o riso
Dried out cube steaks with some packet gravy. Our was a wheat gold color.
My mom has never been one to overspend, but when her and my dad got married back in the 80’s, she bought a set of Lifetime cookware. We had the same thing as this except it was like the Cadillac that weighed 15 lbs and had a double wall stainless pan. What’s cooking in it? Almost always Salisbury steak with onions and mushrooms in some thick pan gravy.
Same one, cube steak.
Single *father* of 3. My dad made hamburger helper in it mostly.
Shoulder steak. Gag, barf.
We had this one and she’d make the best fried potatoes in it. She’d put peppers in it too. I can smell it now.
We had a round one. If I think real hard I might be able to recall the brand.
Strips of breaded and fried beef heart in butter flavor crisco.
That was the exact one my aren’t had. I loved when they cooked pancakes in it. And I hated when they cooked corned beef hash in it.
My grandma had a giant version of this. She would make the Thanksgiving turkey in it. Or tons of sauerkraut and sausage, stuffed cabbage, or scalloped potatoes for other gatherings. My former MIL had the small square kind. She would make the world's worst "roasts" in them. Lipton onion soup halfway up the roast, so it was braised on the bottom and dry on the top. Except somehow the whole thing would be dry. She'd use an electric carving knife to saw off slices, and meat dust would fly. Also I usually couldn't tell if it was beef or pork 😂
Lightweight as well.
The yellow... fried rice, fried chicken, skillet meals.
My bestie still uses hers (well her mom's)to this day
Grilled cheese!
My mother also had a silver one.
Hamburger steak and gravy with homefries. The kids these days say "it slapped" we used to say "it was good enough to make you wanna slap yo mamma!"
My mom had that exact one.. It made A LOT of meatballs.
My mom had the tan plastic lid one. Its sitting on my counter right now, cooked some bacon in it last night for dinner.
When this came out of the cabinet you knew it was Hamburger Helper night and you were going back for seconds.
Round steak with brown gravy and onions, was good.
We never had one. My paternal grandmother had one and she just cooked Pennsylvania German food in it.
We didn’t have that but we had an electric griddle with basically the exact same cord. Lotta breakfasts on that bad boy.