“Nice with a green salad for brunch or lunch”
There’s a reason why some flavour combinations which, at first glance, seem odd have survived the 1970’s and others died a timely, natural and not particularly sad death (devils on horseback being a perfect example of a plucky survivor – yum!). Bananas, ham, mustard and hollandaise sauce is not a combination that quickly comes to mind and I am pretty sure I have never heard anyone say “I remember an amazing cooked banana and ham dish from my childhood that I MUST recreate”. We set out to find out why.
A few people had sent the idea to us (thank you) and we found the full recipe on a vintage food cards site. There it sat, in all its yellowy glory.
Credit: vintagerecipecards.com
The recipe was one of the easiest we have ever had to make with only five ingredients. In keeping with the retro theme of including as many instant/ tinned ingredients as possible the hollandaise sauce specified was a packet mix. We then just needed bananas, ham, lemon juice and mustard. The mustard was smeared on the ham slices. The lemon juice was sprinkled on the bananas and then the mustardy ham was wrapped around the bananas. The result was baked. The hollandaise sauce was made and poured over and the end result was then baked again for 5 minutes.
I am a huge fan of unexpected fruit/ meat combinations and was really looking forward to this one. The smell of cooking banana filled the house and with great anticipation we pulled it out, dressed it up with some retro accompaniments and served it up.
It didn’t look all that appetising. Despite careful application of lemon juice (both the specified sprinkling AND brushing to ensure even coverage) some of the bananas looked a bit, well, crap. The rest of the bananas shone with a lemony gleam, the ham curled up slightly and the mustard lurked under the surface – unseen but prepared to torpedo your tastebuds. We sliced it up and tucked in anyway.
The result? It wasn’t that bad. There was plenty left over but there were a few surprised noises of appreciation. Probably the worst bit was when you got too much mustard and banana together in a mouthful but other than that it was… ok. On this blog that’s a ringing endorsement.
Bad Jelly 
My goodness you are brave folk … I showed the retro picture to my boyfriend and he exclaimed ‘mm! endive & hollandaise, a classic combination!’ Only to recoil in fear when I revealed the sordid truth.
This basic recipe seems to have been remarkable popular, at a particular moment in time. Versions of it showed up frequently enough that it has been recreated by several other retro food bloggers (including my wife). We also concluded that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed like it should have been.
Here are the links:
http://retrorecipe.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/ham-banana-rolls/
http://maybeweshouldntbeeatingthis.blogspot.com/2010/07/ham-banana-rolls-with-cheese-sauce.html
http://www.midcenturymenu.com/2010/06/the-mid-century-menu-ham-banana-casserole/
Love it! I almost didn’t want to admit that it actually tasted, well, ok.
This is one of the ultimate retro recipe accomplishments. Well done…
Thank you!
Thank you for your bravery! I love your blog!
Thank you!!
This is the greatest blog I have ever stumbled across! Such a good idea. I swear I’ve seen so many of these sorts of things lingering in my mums old Australian Womens Weekly cookbooks.
I am sooooo glad I stumbled upon this blog; you are some brave souls over here. Admittedly, I have just wasted away an entire class period (it was a boring class) reading every single entry on this glorious blog and I don’t know if I’ll ever eat again. That said, your presentation is fabulous–the egg-stuffed meatloaf one was amazing! 🙂
Omg, this looks so incredibly and priceless-ly awful!
I may have to try this
Truth Agent 1
YUM
Your version of this looks surprisingly appetising – I was dreading what I was going to see as I scrolled down, but I think it looks better than the original recipe card version (which looks uncooked). I was expecting the bananas to have lost their structural integrity – I guess the lemon juice is the “secret” here?
I have to show this blog to my mom. There was actually a vintage recipe ad we found on Pinterest that made her nearly barf on the spot. It was a Veggie/tuna salad pie… Bleeeergh. You people are BRAVE.