The Retro Food Combination Baby Boomers Still Love Today

Some food combinations never truly go out of style, even if the recipe gets tucked away. Pork chops and applesauce is one such dish that's still beloved today, especially by baby boomers — the generation born between 1946 and 1964 — who grew up eating it. This food pairing is the quintessential tale of savory-meets-sweet. Fried or baked pork chops topped with (or served alongside) some sweet and tart applesauce can be quite tasty. But what's the origin story of applesauce and pork chops, and how did this dynamic duo become such a staple for so many people?

The dish has been around since the 5th century, when it appeared in the Roman recipe collection "De Re Coquinaria" or "The Art of Cooking," compiled by Marcus Gavius Apicius. It contains a recipe that uses strips of pork shoulder and Matian apples. Fast-forward to George Washington becoming the first U.S. president, and a quick check of the Mount Vernon website reveals that pork and apples had a place in Martha Washington's cooking repertoire. Then, in 1893, the pairing made an appearance in "Good Housekeeping."

The dish continued to soar in popularity throughout the 1920s thanks to shelf-stable homemade applesauce, which became a canned household staple. Pork was also a primary protein source at the time, and the U.S. was the top pork producer of the 1930s and 1940s.

Ask any two baby boomers what this meal looked like on their dinner plate, and you'll probably get two different answers. On a Facebook page dedicated to this generation, the moderator asked, "Who had applesauce as a side when your mom fixed pork chops for dinner?" One member of the community responded, "Apples cut up with onions in sauerkraut with a few cinnamon candies, and served on the side with mashed potatoes, and pork chops beaten to another death flat so they are tender, and then breaded, and baked." Another offered, "Pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, and applesauce!" Many others shared that they still eat this dish.

If you like the idea of pork chops and applesauce but want to give this classic an upgrade, plenty of riffs out there might prove worthy of a family dinner. Hollywood legend Joan Crawford liked her pork chops with red onions and fried apple rings. Bobby Flay transforms his pork chops with a spicy maple glaze and serves them with an apple ginger chutney. Ina Garten uses pork loin wrapped in prosciutto with her own version of apple chutney. Of course, you can also skip the apples altogether and make pork chops with a blackberry-based sauce for an even sweeter, more decadent bite.