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Feetloaf
TypeSeasonal (Halloween)
Invented2009
Serving temperature98.6 °F (37.0 °C)
Main ingredientsGround beef
Ingredients generally usedonion slivers, parsnips

Feetloaf is a novelty dish intended to be served on Halloween. The earliest known reference is a 2009 cooking blog which was based on a recipe found in a seasonal cookbook sold at a grocery store checkout counter. The original recipe described a meatloaf molded into the shape of a human foot, using brazil nuts as toenails and ketchup or barbecue sauce to mimic blood.[1]

The dish was originally called "Bloody Stump" or "Feet of Meat".[2] The first known use of the term "Feetloaf" was in a 2014 Today Show interview with Laurin Sydney, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.[3][4] A contemporaneous MTV News story alternately referred to the dish as "Feet Loaf" (two words) and "Meat Foot".[5] A 2016 New York Times Magazine article mentioned feetloaf as being the subject of an Amy Sedaris Instagram post.[6]

In 2019, The Washington Post featured the dish in a pre-Halloween article, citing a tweet by rapper Richard Wilson (known by his stage name Lil Rich Aka Crash). According to The Post, the tweet had nearly 28,000 incoming links and had amassed almost 9,000 retweets. The version of the recipe described by The Post used slivers of onion instead of brazil nuts for toenails, and parsnips to simulate a sawed-off tibia. Serving suggestions included using a small handsaw instead of a knife, and a quarter-size sheet pan as a platter, mimicking a laboratory tray.[2] In the same year, Chris Prosperi of NBC Connecticut noted that there were "tons of pictures" of feetloaf available on the internet.[7]

In 2021, The Daily Mirror reported on a variation of the recipe which included a cheese topping. The dish was described as "absolutely disgusting".[8]

In fiction

Feetloaf is mentioned in the 1967 children's book The Hungry Thing. When the title character, a creature with a "Feed Me" sign hung around its neck, requests feetloaf, other characters ponder what it might be. A wiseman suggests it might be "a kind of shoe pudding that grows in a tree", and the cook counters that it "tastes sweet, and it's eaten by kings when they dine in bare feet".[9] The book uses incremental rhyming changes to lead the reader from made-up nonsense spoken by the monster to an actual culinary dish; "feetloaf" becomes "beetloaf" and then "meatloaf".[10]

References

  1. ^ "Tried and True Favorite Recipes: Halloween Dinner – Bloody Stump or Feet of Meat". Tried and True Favorite Recipes. October 21, 2009. Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Heil, Emily (October 24, 2019). "It's almost Halloween, and 'feetloaf' is already giving us nightmares". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  3. ^ Sydney, Laurin = (October 23, 2014). "9 spooky ideas for Halloween entertaining". TODAY. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  4. ^ Wida, Erica Chayes (October 30, 2019). "What is feetloaf? The gruesome dinner recipe is back". TODAY.
  5. ^ Lindner, Emilee (October 31, 2014). "The 13 Grossest Foods You Can Make On Halloween". MTV News. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  6. ^ Symonds, Alexandria (February 26, 2016). "Strange Candy: On Amy Sedaris's Instagram". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  7. ^ "Taste of Today: Halloween Feetloaf". NBC Connecticut. October 24, 2019. 0:22. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  8. ^ Mills, Kelly-Ann; Caplain, Helen Le (June 16, 2021). "Dad's over-cooked Sunday dinner ends up looking like Madge from Benidorm". mirror. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  9. ^ Slepian, Jan; Seidler, Ann G; Martin, Richard E (1967). The Hungry Thing. New York: Scholastic Book Services. pp. 10–13. ISBN 0590091794. OCLC 1035608121 – via Internet Archive. The Hungry Thing comes to town and asks for tickles and feetloaf and other interesting things to eat while the townspeople try to figure out what he means
  10. ^ Justice, Laura M. (2006). Clinical Approaches to Emergent Literacy Intervention. Plural Publishing. p. 289. ISBN 9781597568319 – via Google Books.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feetloaf