Sentimental Journey Appetizers

[Rover]

Sardines on toast fingers - these were served all through my young-person-hood growing up in England at any gathering and get-together worth its reputation. When they were brought by a neighbour to a recent party - it was like greeting an old friend. Not gourmet, not chic, they were deliciously savoury and transported me to taste memories long gone. I haven't thought of them in years.

Nestled amongst those taste memories is potted shrimp w/toast points and tiny squares of Welsh Rarebit passed around on fancy plates festooned with doilies. I'm filled with curiosity to know what others might recall in a sentimental journey of appetizers.

Rover

[David A. Goldfarb]

Rumaki, the name of which evoked a whiff of exoticism, but which doesn't seem to be of any particular exotic origin--a piece of sauteed chicken liver and half a canned water chestnut wrapped in bacon, held together with a toothpick.

Wikipedia suggests that it was probably invented by Trader Vic.

[heidih]

You may also want to look at this topic on appetizers for a 50's cocktail party as it has lots of old favorites.

[Holly Moore]

Orange Shrub - Orange Juice With Lime Sherbet

Baked Grapefruit

Stuffed Celery (usually blue cheese)

Tomato Juice with Lemon Wedge

Fruit Cocktail Supreme - topped with sherbet

Tomato Aspic (I'd like to see brought back)

Herring in Sour Cream

[ElsieD]

Herring in Sour Cream

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I still eat herring in sour cream and/or pickled herring. Love the stuff.

BUT - one thing I remember from the '70s were Ritz biscuits topped with cheeze whiz with a sliced pimento stuffed olive on top. Also, water chestnuts soaked in soy sauce, rolled in sugar with a piece of sliced bacon rolled around it and broiled until the bacon was cooked. Kinda yucky looking back on it but at the time we thought they were classy. No doubt 30 years from now what we are eating today will seem terribly dated and unsophisticated.

Edited July 25, 2009 by ElsieD (log)

[Pierogi]

Spicy Beef Roll-Ups ! My mother's specialty, and something still requested to this day by my friends who knew her and were fed by her.

Cream cheese mixed with horseradish, grated onion and Worcestershire sauce. Spread this in a thin layer on one side of that chopped/pressed/formed "corned beef" or "pastrami" by Leo's or Buddig. Roll it up like a jelly roll, chill, then cut into 1/2s or 1/3s.

Dip the cut ends into micro-minced parsley if you're uptown.

The onion MUST be grated on a box grater, because you want the juice. But not too much juice, the Cuisinart makes it too goopy (I've tried.....).

These are getting tougher and tougher to recreate, because that faux lunch meat is getting harder and harder to find.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Rumaki, the name of which evoked a whiff of exoticism, but which doesn't seem to be of any particular exotic origin--a piece of sauteed chicken liver and half a canned water chestnut wrapped in bacon, held together with a toothpick.

Wikipedia suggests that it was probably invented by Trader Vic.

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Vic's is where I used to eat them.

A distant and poor '50s cousin is the smoked oyster, impaled on a toothpick and warmed over a candle accompanied by gin martinis. (You only get sick on this combination once before never ever touching smoked oysters again and gin martinis not for a long, long time.)

[maggiethecat]

Two-inch squares of pumpernickel, spread with cream cheese and topped with a cucumber slice. They were drizzled with Kraft Italian dressing and I loved them.

[snowangel]

Two-inch squares of pumpernickel, spread with cream cheese and topped with a cucumber slice. They were drizzled with Kraft Italian dressing and I loved them.

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Maggie:

We actually served these at Diana's graduation party (at her request), and they were a huge hit.

The only change in the version I grew up with is that the cream cheese is mixed with a dry packet of Good Season's Italian Dressing.

Slicing all of those cukes was a breeze with the meat slicer.

[faine]

Endive with blue cheese and walnut. Little Smokies in grape jelly sauce. Pickled shrimps ala Louisiana (easy and delicious as angel giggles). Those are what I recall and adore. The sardine toasts still sound pretty great to me.

I'm 21 and have a serious inquiry: did people really eat savory aspic salads on a pretty wide spread basis in the 50's and 60's? When did aspic stop becoming a fashionable and delightful party treat and start becoming a synonym for "incredibly vile"?

Edited July 30, 2009 by faine (log)

[Holly Moore]

I was referring to tomato aspic as a restaurant appetizer as opposed to party fare. I recall both aspic and jellied consommé madrilène being quite common apps way back when.

[Baron d'Apcher]

When did aspic stop becoming a fashionable and delightful party treat and start becoming a synonym for "incredibly vile"?

In this hemisphere aspic fell into kitschy Jell-O applications such as the venerable Ring around the Tuna Jell-O mold with inlaid iceberg lettuce.

There are more appealing uses of aspic. Consider last New Year’s day suckling ham with leek, carrot and truffle and some stuffed chicken legs in chaud-froid.

Jambon de porcelet en aspic.

Jambonneau de volaille en chaud-froid.

[dave43]

Many of these appetizers bring up memories. I recently had a great one but I can't remember the recipe...it should be simple though. It was a sliced baguette piece with mayonaise (I think) covered in some sort of cheese...I'm guessing parmesan? I can't remember if there were other ingredients though.

[cfm]

My childhood would be late 70's into 80s. Top hand-round in my view was a pimento stuffed green olive wrapped in cheese pastry, baked and served warm. Also, roll the cheese pastry into little biscuits, press with fork, sprinkle with chopped walnuts and salt, bake, serve warm. One that I think was good, but I didn't like being asked to help make (too fiddly) was chopped peanuts mixed with sugar and orange zest and then stuffed into a prune or date, whole thing rolled in sugar. I was debating with my mother whether it was a prune or a date recently, think it must have been a prune, surely the dates were stuffed with marzipan?

Catherine

[heidih]

My mom used to do a similar toast appetizer with the sliced baguette topped with mayo, parmesan and some thin sliced green onion- run under the broiler.

[Holly Moore]

When did aspic stop becoming a fashionable and delightful party treat and start becoming a synonym for "incredibly vile"?

In this hemisphere aspic fell into kitschy Jell-O applications such as the venerable Ring around the Tuna Jell-O mold with inlaid iceberg lettuce.

There are more appealing uses of aspic. Consider last New Year’s day suckling ham with leek, carrot and truffle and some stuffed chicken legs in chaud-froid.

Jambon de porcelet en aspic.

Jambonneau de volaille en chaud-froid.

Thanks. Brought me back to sophomore quantity cooking at the Cornell Hotel School. We did a week on aspics. Not sure if I have seen "en aspic" or "en chaud-froid" since.

Edited to add: Fluted mushrooms too, oh my.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Holly Moore (log)

[rlibkind]

Some of the treats cited above seem to be more like hors d'oeuvre than apps, so I'll go with the former:

One of my mom's fave hors d'oeuvre to serve guests were stuffed Spanish olives encased in a cheesy dough (pretty much a cheese straw dough), baked and served hot from the oven.

[dave43]

My mom used to do a similar toast appetizer with the sliced baguette topped with mayo, parmesan and some thin sliced green onion- run under the broiler.

That's it. Thanks Heidi. I was missing the green onion.

[haresfur]

I'm 21 and have a serious inquiry: did people really eat savory aspic salads on a pretty wide spread basis in the 50's and 60's? When did aspic stop becoming a fashionable and delightful party treat and start becoming a synonym for "incredibly vile"?

I remember my parents going to their bridge club in the 60s & 70s, complaining that they were going to have to eat that damn shrimp in tomato aspic again, whenever it was a certain couple's turn to host.

I don't really remember what apps they served - they seemed to be more into main courses. Oh yeah, herring in sour cream sometimes, but usually that was put out with the corned beef, cheese, and rye bread for open face sandwiches (father's lapsed Jewish heritage).

One thing I do remember was being in Sweden where the neighbors would squeeze all sorts of interesting things from tubes onto rye crisp.

[JTravel]

surely the dates were stuffed with marzipan?

Catherine

Not cream cheese?

Never heard of the peanuts and orange peel, anything with orange peel sounds good.

[velveeta]

How about that elegant layered shrimp appetizer:

cream cheese spread on a plate, then a layer of cocktail sauce, then those tiny shrimp out of the can. Served with Ritz crackers or maybe Sociables.

[Baron d'Apcher]

An edible monument to Washington, DC’s 5 cent bag tax (which has reduced bag consumption by 87%) and the achingly inane whines against it that are being ranked on water coolers in any progressive office where tolerance, paychecks and science fundamentals have evolved since the 1860’s.

5 scented suckling ham in aspic with ink truffle découpage.