What is the food eaten in Close Encounters during the infamous mashed potato scene?

2 years ago by Thorned_Rose to c/movies

My kids haven't seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind yet and I thought it would be a fun surprise to recreate the meal eaten in the mashed potato scene and watch the movie with the movie dinner. (I can't wait to see if they put two and two together when that scene comes up lol.)

Obviously there's mashed potato. And I can see sweet corn. Kids are drinking milk. But I can't tell what the little meat things are. I assumed they were crumbed rissoles but having not been raised or lived in the US, I'm unsure if I'm missing a common protein that was eaten at dinner around the late 1970s. Meatloaf has also been suggested but in my country we never have mini meatloaves that I've seen so I'm unsure how accurate that is.

EDIT: Middle bottom, you can see a partially eaten meat thing which looks pink inside:

I also can't tell what is in the bowls beside Roy and his sons - to the top left of Roy's plate, right hand side of Toby and top right of Brad's plate. Maybe Ronnie and Silvia have one of these bowls too but I can't tell. You can see Brad eat out of his bowl at one point and it looks like something pale (I wondered coleslaw or macaroni).

EDIT: Screenshot of side

Anyway, anyone know or have an idea of what the little meat things are and what are in the side bowls?

JoMiran 26 points 2 years ago

Those look.like the old "bake n serve" Chicken Cordon Blue shit from back in the seventies. It is basically an breaded eggroll made of thin sliced chicken breast meat, filled with white cheese sauce and ham. Delicious for the seventies, but disgusting if you tried it now.

Source: 51 years old that got fed that shit a few times a month.

PS: They were foul at room temperature.

EDIT:

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MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown 17 points 2 years ago

To be fair, chicken is fowl at any temperature.

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Reverendender 5 points 2 years ago

My father’s speciality was chicken covered in cream of mushroom soup and baked, served over egg noodles. It was his best dish.

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JoMiran 1 point 2 years ago

Mine was similar. It was chicken breast, cut into thin strips and sauteed with onions green pepper, and heavily seasoned with black pepper and some salt. Once browned, dump a can of cream of mushroom soup into it and let it simmer until the onions are practically melted. We used to eat it with a baguette.

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Reverendender 23 points 2 years ago

It’s Fish Cakes. 100%. We got fed these all the time as kids in the 80’s. I honestly haven’t seen them in the supermarket or even thought about them for years. I don’t even know if anyone makes them anymore. You could certainly make them from scratch pretty easily though. And they would almost certainly beat out the store-bought ones I was raised on.

EDIT: it’s These: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishcake

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clay_pidgin 13 points 2 years ago

Fish cakes sounds likely, but I remember eating lots of pre-prepared Chicken Cordon Bleu that looked a lot like that.

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Reverendender 17 points 2 years ago

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clay_pidgin 10 points 2 years ago

I might concede if they had been any good.

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Albbi 3 points 2 years ago

I need more Ash gifs in my life.

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Reverendender 5 points 2 years ago

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cm0002 3 points 2 years ago

Looks like Walmart sells them lol

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Reverendender 33 points 2 years ago

Those are not fish cakes. Those are crab cakes. You can tell by the words “Crab Cakes” on the package.

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Gimpydude 5 points 2 years ago

Crab is fish for exceptional values of fish.

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GuyDudeman 9 points 2 years ago

Crabs is bugs. As is shrimps.

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Peppycito 1 point 2 years ago

I'll put money on the guess that these are made from polluck. "Crab Style Fish Cakes"

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Thorned_Rose 2 points 2 years ago

Are fish cakes normally pink inside in the US? Here fish cakes are white inside.

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Reverendender 2 points 2 years ago

Your images aren’t showing, so I can’t see what you mean

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Thorned_Rose 3 points 2 years ago

Sorry, I usually use Fedia.io but for some reason it's not federating very well. Here's the one where you can see a partially eaten one and it's pink inside.

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Reverendender 3 points 2 years ago

I grabbed this from the 4K director's cut. Maybe it's just variations in lighting.

Also, we had that exact same white PYREX serving dish and brown bowl the potatoes are in, lol!

Here's a couple more:

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PapaStevesy 7 points 2 years ago

Hush puppies? Not really a main dish, but idk.

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Thorned_Rose 2 points 2 years ago

We don't have hush puppies here (or at least here, they're shoes, not food lol). What pictures I have seen of food hush puppies show them as being more yellow inside than pink?

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Nougat 1 point 2 years ago

Definitely hush puppies. The ones in the movie would likely be frozen ones in a box from the supermarket, 350F for 25 minutes.

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Reverendender 6 points 2 years ago

They’re too big to be Hush puppies. Wrong shape too.

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Nougat 1 point 2 years ago

That's why I was thinking frozen foods. Easy to manufacture by extruding and chopping off, which would leave them in that shape.

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MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown 1 point 2 years ago

The oblong shape reminds me of mini corn dogs.

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Nougat 2 points 2 years ago

The other picture OP linked to shows it to be either doughy or "ground meaty" inside. Based on the outside color and texture, I have to think it's doughy, either little dinner rolls or some kind of fried (or fried, frozen, reheated) dough.

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neuracnu 6 points 2 years ago

I also can’t tell what is in the bowls beside Roy and his sons - to the top left of Roy’s plate, right hand side of Toby and top right of Brad’s plate. Maybe Ronnie and Silvia have one of these bowls too but I can’t tell. You can see Brad eat out of his bowl at one point and it looks like something pale (I wondered coleslaw or macaroni).

It looks like everyone at the table has a bowl on one side or the other. This was a time when a common middle-class American family dinnerware place-setting might include a salad bowl with a simple salad: chopped iceberg or romaine lettuce with a store-bough salad dressing (ranch, blue cheese, 1000 island, etc). Probably not the most appetizing thing in the world, but totally legit given the era and setting (with Roy being a electrical line worker).

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Thorned_Rose 2 points 2 years ago

I did wonder if it could be a very plain lettuce like iceberg with a white coloured dressing. When Brad eats some, it looks thin and round which doesn't track with coleslaw but does make more sense if it's pieces of lettuce.

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thefartographer 4 points 2 years ago

Looks like rye dinner rolls to me. I originally thought chopped sirloin, but the roundness and how light they are makes me think bread.

I have a funny feeling that the prop department raided the crafts table, cuz that appears to be a meal of carbs and sides.

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aubeynarf 4 points 2 years ago

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southsamurai 6 points 2 years ago

Do you like fish sticks?

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DemBoSain 3 points 2 years ago

I love fish sticks. Put them between a couple of buns, that's a meal!

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SatansMaggotyCumFart 5 points 2 years ago

You like fish sticks between your buns?

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Teal 2 points 2 years ago

Only bottom feeders.

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Thorned_Rose 4 points 2 years ago

Fish croquettes?
EDIT: Maybe not, not sure. I found another angle that shows the inside of the meat things is pink coloured and the texture is not what I would think of as fish. Imgur

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ChicoSuave 4 points 2 years ago

At least one kid is holding one in his hand and there is no butter or white sauce, so not chicken kiev or chicken cordon Bleu. Hush puppies are spheres and the size of donut holes or bon bons. These are bigger.

They look like croquettes. As folks have been confirming in this thread, the 70s had a lot of fried food that was roughly hotdog/baseball shaped. Croquettes would be an easy way to mix protein and veg in a kid friendly way.

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derek 4 points 2 years ago

Toss a message at Scott Reeder (Scott Prop and Roll). I'd bet money he either knows folks who worked that set or knows someone who knows someone. I've no idea if he'd respond but he seems chill like that.

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Thorned_Rose 2 points 2 years ago

Done lol.

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rizo 3 points 2 years ago

Looks like miced patties to me. (Faschierte Laibchen in German...) We Always have them with mashed potatoes.

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Orbituary 2 points 2 years ago

Mac and cheese and corn bread.

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Blaze 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you for posting!

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notfromhere 2 points 2 years ago

Kind of looks like miniature corn dogs.

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zabadoh 1 point 2 years ago

It looks like there are 2 kinds of brown things.

One type that is a lighter brown looks spheroid, possibly potatoes or dinner rolls.

Another type is a darker brown, looks like fat cylinders, possibly deep fried breaded fish/salmon/crab cakes, as others have said.

The lighter brown ones could also be fish/salmon/crab cakes, but from a different manufacturer, or just shaped differently.

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