Unfashionable Dinner

[jmacnaughtan]

Hi,

 

I've decided that I'm going to host an unfashionable dinner party, replete with forgotten (but good) hits from the fifties, sixties and seventies.  Unfortunately, I have no first-hand experience of this era, and am looking for suggestions for dishes and drinks.

 

Here's a hazy first draft of the menu, but I'm still looking for suggestions and improvements:

 

Prawn cocktail

Vol-au-vents

Beef Stroganoff

Grand Marnier soufflé

Death by chocolate

 

and hopefully involving Madeira and claret.

 

Does anyone have any better suggestions, or even better, any good recipes?

 

Many thanks,

 

James

[JohnT]

On arrival of your guests - Sherry, a choice between dry or medium cream!

[Lisa Shock]

I was a kid, so my memory won't be perfect and my experiences were limited...

In the US, in the sixties, there was a huge craze for serving Beef Wellington. I can recall people using canned cream of mushroom soup & refrigerated crescent roll dough in versions created by ladies magazines. But Julia made it on an early episode of her TV show and America just went crazy for it.

 

I recall that flambeing was pretty popular in the sixties as well. I attended several dinner parties where everything served was flaming. Cherries jubilee and lobster bisque are all I can remember, though.

 

Of course, fondue was big. It's also kind of a fussy meal, what with the rules and games and whatnot. Also, good cheese was really difficult to come by.

 

I recall that duck a l'orange was popular in restaurants. Also, for many of us, going out to a 'fancy restaurant' meant French food, huge menus pulled almost entirely from Escoffier, served by gloved waiters who spoke French.

 

At the banquets my father had to attend several times a year, steamed artichokes with lemon butter were often served.

 

What I can recall from parties held in people's houses:

Hors d' oeuvres:

Rumaki (none of the revisionist stuff! a water chestnut surrounded by a soy-sauce marinated chicken liver [lightly pounded] wrapped in bacon and broiled)

Swedish Meatballs -actually all sorts of meatballs, I recall some 'porcupine' ones made with rice

Meals:

Crepes had a big moment in the mid-70s, IIRC some people had entire crepe dinners to show off their pan from France.

Baguettes were being flown over to NY & DC on the Concorde from France, your friends were super-impressed if you served one.

Shrimp cocktails here in the US, very popular.

Wedge salad, just a slab of iceberg and bottled dressing -often Catalina. Nowadays, it's been codified into a dish with blue cheese and bacon, back then, there was more flexibility with dressings. But, always bottled dressing.

Spinach salad with warm bacon dressing was big in the late 70s.

Broiled steaks, actually almost anything broiled.

Waldorf Salad

Orange and onion salad; they actually used to give us this in elementary school.

Tomato aspic as a starter.

Desserts:

Champagne sorbet was served between courses at fancy meals as a palate cleanser.

'Bars' were big in the 1970s, but more of a snack than dessert. Layered bars became the norm after a while, I recall a lot of them being made with cake mixes.

Bundt cakes were a huge fad, particularly the 'tunnel of fudge' type.

Baked Alaska was very popular, as was lemon meringue pie.

My parents kept a Rumtopf pot going, but I have no idea how common that was.

Carrot cake caught on the early 70s.

Zucchini 'bread'...

[jmacnaughtan]

Thanks for those, Lisa, you've provided a mountain of inspiration.

 

Waldorf salad and crêpes Suzette might be very good choices, then...

 

Also, is tomato aspic what I think it is- just tomato in jelly?

[ChrisTaylor]

I assume you've thought about something as simple/classic as Larousse Gastronomique? I mean, if the idea is to remain unfashionable, I assume we're not talking some sexed up, deconstructed beef Strog. As for the chocolate one, though, I'm reminded of the recipe in Marco Pierre White's White Heat. He condescendingly refers to his own dish as 'chocolate suburbia'. Of course, that is a sexed up version of an older concept, so maybe that'd be against the rules.

[Sophie Cook]

duck à l’orange

 

Trifle

 

steak diane

 

veal holstein 

[ChrisTaylor]

Veal Holstein! How grand. A restaurant in Melbourne (The European) still regularly digs that one up. 

 

What about beef Wellington? 

[jmacnaughtan]

I've never heard of Veal Holstein or steak Diane- what are they?  

 

Beef Wellington is certainly a possibility, but it still seems fairly popular.

 

My idea was to trawl the era and bring up dishes that were all the rage, but now are essentially pariah foods.  In France, this is embodied by the humble (but delicious) vol-au-vent.

 

I've been thinking about trifle as well, but I'd like to end the meal with an unfashionable kind of cake- maybe a charlotte or cheesecake (but that's been having a revival).

 

And of course, I want to serve it à l'ancienne, with roses made from tomatoes, carved lemons and parsley strewn liberally over everything.  If anyone has any other old-school garnishes, please share.

[ChrisTaylor]

Veal Holstein is a veal schnitzel served with anchovies, capers and a fried egg. Typically freshened up with some chopped parsley and lemon juice.

 

Steak Diane is similar to steak au poivre, although the sauce--prepared table-side--is a bit of a kitchen sink affair. You can throw in basically anything and someone, somewhere will deem it to be Diane so long as the sauce is based on the pan juices that are left over from cooking the steak.

[gfweb]

I think of Diane as a mustard based sauce with flamed-off brandy.

[ChrisZ]

Love the resurrection of the vol-au-vent!

You should have a pineapple hedgehog out for when your guests arrive.

As mentioned above, Baked Alaska was very popular.  I'd say it is now more unfashionable than a grand marnier soufflé.  While Lemon Merengue Pie may well have been popular back then, I'd disagree that it's now unfashionable!  I see them everywhere and they're delicious.

Fondue is probably the most obvious "unfashionable" meal but that's a whole theme to itself.

[Shel_B]

I put together what I called a Mid-America Salad.  Maybe it's a little too fancy for what you're doing, but I'll include the recipe and technique here on the chance it might be "inspirational."   I wrote this recipe up for a dear friend of mine, so the instructions and commentary were for her - and now they're for you.

 

I also remember salads with Green Goddess dressing.

 

Back around 1980, I made a dinner for some friends and the theme, such as it was, was to use as much canned food as possible - canned, condensed soup, canned ravioli, bottled salad dressing, etc.

 

Shel’s Mid-America Salad with Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing

 

Some iceberg lettuce wedges

fresh tomato wedges

rinsed, drained, and dried red kidney beans (optional)

thin slices of red onion (optional)

a few thick sliced bacon slices (optional)

1 Tbs best quality mayonnaise

1 Tbs good quality sour cream

1 Tbs fresh lemon juice or about 1 Tbs lemon zest, or combination

About 1 cup or more rich buttermilk

4 ounces Maytag or similar blue cheese (Maytag Blue is a Mid-American blue cheese)

½ tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

dash or two of dry mustard (optional)

 

Divide the blue cheese into three pieces. Take one piece and chop it very fine. Take another piece and chop it medium fine, and chop or crumble the third piece in larger chunks.

 

If using bacon, lay the bacon strips on a roasting rack over a cookie sheet and bake in a 350-degree oven until crisp, about 20-25 minutes. Remove when cooked to your liking, and set on several layers of paper towels to compete draining and to cool further. Cover with a few more layers of paper towels, and pat bacon dry, letting the towels absorb as much grease as possible. You can also put the bacon into a cold oven, and the slower heating will render a little more fat.

 

Put the mayo, sour cream, and the very fine pieces of blue cheese together, along with the salt, into an appropriately sized glass or stainless steel bowl (preferably one that comes with a tight fitting lid, but you can use plastic wrap to cover - try not to use plastic bowls as plastic can sometimes impart a taste to whatever has been stored in it, especially if you’re going to be storing the dressing overnight or for a couple of days)

 

Using a fork or small whisk, mix together well. If you like you can put the mixture and about ½ cup of buttermilk in a blender or food processor for a few twirls or pulses to incorporate and smooth the mixture, but it’s not really necessary to do that, plus it makes more mess to clean up.

 

When all of the above is nicely combined (don’t over mix) add the rest of the blue cheese and optional dry mustard (start with just a pinch or two) and gently mix together very well by hand. Add more buttermilk a little at a time, mixing well with each addition. When you get the taste and texture to your liking (you may want to add a little more salt, a pinch or two more of dry mustard) cover the bowl and refrigerate at least four hours or, better yet, over night or a couple of days to let the flavors meld. The mixture may thicken up a bit when refrigerated, especially over night, so don’t be afraid to make it a little thinner than you may ultimately prefer.

 

Before using, let the dressing warm a little, stir the mixture, adjust seasoning, maybe add more buttermilk, mayo, or sour cream to adjust taste/texture, and dollop on the wedges of iceberg lettuce with nicely sized wedges of fresh tomatoes and the optional drained and dried canned kidney beans and a few slices of red onion. If using, break up and crumble some bacon over the salad.

 

When eating the salad, close your eyes and it will be easy to imagine that you’re in a diner in Omaha, Nebraska <LOL>

 

Notes: You might want to seed the tomato wedges depending on how moist and runny the tomatoes are. My preference is for thick sliced bacon. Niman Ranch bacon can be had in 1/8-inch or so slices. You can sometimes find slab bacon which you or the butcher can cut for you to whatever thickness you like. The Niman Ranch product is fine.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Shel_B (log)

[huiray]

You are based in Paris.  Are you aiming for a French unfashionable meal, or something pulled from all corners of the globe, or something North American - Western European?

 

Tournedos Rossini.  Here's one recipe w/ an embedded link to the associated story.

 

Suprêmes de volaille en Chaud-froid a l'Écossaise a.k.a. chicken in aspic.  Here's the Childean version.  Myself, I prefer something different like this.

 

Crêpe Suzette for dessert, for sure.  There are any number of recipes out there, just Google it. :-)

 

If you want to mix it up with the Far East, let me know. ;-)

Edited September 25, 2014 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

If "European" in nature, consider vintage port (and maybe sweet madeiras) (and more claret) with cigars with the gentlemen in one room while the ladies withdraw (and join the menfolk later). 

Edited September 25, 2014 by huiray (log)

[Sophie Cook]

I'd say Beef Wellington, although a classic, isn't really unfashionable - it's still very popular here in the UK!

[Deryn]

Sad to say ... I was a child in the 50s but was married and starting to learn to cook in the late-ish 60s/early 70s ... in the Yukon (land of the midnight sun and, at that time, NOTHING 'fresh'). Everything had to be trucked in a thousand miles or so. I didn't know egg yolks were supposed to be yellow or that milk came in any form except powdered. I married a man who liked only 'meat and potatoes' (and peas and carrots). Most days we ate moose (big hunks frozen, brought out on Sunday afternoon, popped into the oven - still frozen, roasted till the outer inch or two were well done, carved down to the next layer of frost and re-introduced to its freezer home till the next day. Rinse and repeat. Horrifying now, but, darn it, that moose roast was good, and easy!)

 

I did however love (in my innocence, thinking I knew how to cook) to give 'dinner parties' and it makes me cringe now when I think of what I served. My ex-mother in law was an elegant and fabulous cook so I felt I had something to live up to. From her I learned about veal piccata and shrimp 'scampi'. My mother was not. From her I have really only one 'dinner party' item I copied back in those days - sour cream mashed potato balls (rolled in crushed corn flakes). She would make them and freeze them and bring them out to be heated up only for dinner parties.

 

On my own I 'discovered' coquilles St. Jacques (and probably made those a few too many times because people were crazy enough to rave about them, and the shells were re-usable).

 

I joined a 'by mail' cook book club way back then. The best cookbook I ever received was a New York Times 'Dinner' book from which I learned that (New York style) 'cheesecake' can be baked (not made from a box with canned cherries on top). That book was my prized possession for many many years - and its recipes were amazing! Thank you, Craig Claiborne.

 

Oh and I became almost famous (among our acquaintances up north) for my 'pickled shrimp' appetizer (again from the NYTimes book). Escargot was also a favorite appetizer, smothered in garlic butter, in the shells.

 

I also did many of the dishes mentioned above by other posters so can vouch they ARE from the era.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Deryn (log)

[huiray]

...and for something that may (or may not) pique your diners' fancy** serve something that another poster suggested above but call them Breen (or Roopo Balls) 

 

** a "subject of conversation starter" where folks discuss the equivalent of parallel evolution in cuisines...

[dcarch]

It is difficult to come up with specific recipes which are recognizable for a specific time period. Most people don't know enough about food.

 

It is much more fun to do a theme dinner party, such as dinner based on " Titanic dinner".

 

But if you do a 50's dinner, the most important thing is also to play 50's music in the background. People do know a lot about music.

 

 

dcarch

[patrickamory]

I love this thread.

 

Some friends made duck à l'orange from Mastering the Art of French Cooking a few years ago. It was stunning - and also a stunning amount of work as I recall. But worth it!

[SylviaLovegren]

You could always pick up a copy of my book, Fashionable Foods: Seven Decades of Food Fads    http://www.amazon.com/Fashionable-Food-Seven-Decades-Fads/dp/0226494071/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411652679&sr=8-1&keywords=fashionable+food+seven+decades+of+food+fads

 

It's got recipes for tomato aspic, beef wellington, veal orloff, green beans amandine, crepes suzette, fondue, rumaki, Grand Marnier souffle and loads of other similar things. 

 

Tomato aspic is jellied tomato juice, not a tomato in jelly.  It was hugely popular at fashionable dinner parties, at least in North America, in the 50s and early 60s.  I have yet to taste a tomato aspic that isn't vile, but maybe that's just me. 

 

A 50s sophisticated dinner:

Martinis with cheese straws, olives broiled in bacon strips

Boeuf Bourguignon,

Garlic bread

Endives salad with bleu cheese dressing

Baked Alaska

 

And a 60s dinner:

Martinis replaced by wine

Tomato Aspic

Beef Wellington

Green Beans Amandine

Wild Rice with Mushrooms

Grand Marnier Souffle or Cherries Jubilee

 

A 70s dinner

Harvey Wallbanger cocktails

Quiche appetizers

Crepes with chicken and mushrooms  or spaghetti carbonara

Spinach salad with cheese dressing

Rum bundt cake

Kahlua and coffee

 

 

Cheers!

[jmacnaughtan]

You are based in Paris.  Are you aiming for a French unfashionable meal, or something pulled from all corners of the globe, or something North American - Western European?

 

Tournedos Rossini.  Here's one recipe w/ an embedded link to the associated story.

 

Suprêmes de volaille en Chaud-froid a l'Écossaise a.k.a. chicken in aspic.  Here's the Childean version.  Myself, I prefer something different like this.

 

Crêpe Suzette for dessert, for sure.  There are any number of recipes out there, just Google it. :-)

 

If you want to mix it up with the Far East, let me know. ;-)

 

I love chaud-froids!  If I was going to spash out on a very expensive unfashionable dinner, I'd do the truffled equivalent, demi-deuil.

 

I'm not aiming for any particular decade (anything from 20's to 80's) or a particular location (the guests will be from France, the UK, Germany and the USA) so I'm very open in terms of dishes.  I just want them to be once-trendy, now mostly either forgotten or unjustly reviled.

 

I'll take Sylvia's advice and leave tomatoes in aspic well alone though  But thanks for the wealth of ideas.  Interestingly, there was a very chic modern michelin-starred restaurant around the corner offering Cherries Jubilee.

 

For the final dessert, I'd rather not have too much à la minute preparation, so Baked Alaska is tricky.  I generally like to finish with something flashy, though

 

Also, I've heard the name Knickerbocker Glory bouncing around for some time.  Does anybody know what it is?

[Beebs]

Check out this website:

 

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html

 

Navigating it is a little wonky, but might provide some ideas for your dinner party.

[huiray]

I love chaud-froids!  If I was going to spash out on a very expensive unfashionable dinner, I'd do the truffled equivalent, demi-deuil.

 

 

http://escoffier.org/adlt/escoff/french/RVPreF.htm

[GlorifiedRice]

Thanks for those, Lisa, you've provided a mountain of inspiration.

 

Waldorf salad and crêpes Suzette might be very good choices, then...

 

Also, is tomato aspic what I think it is- just tomato in jelly?

 

Aspic is tomato juice jello, with or without hot sauce served with a dollop of mayo

[Smithy]

I think of Diane as a mustard based sauce with flamed-off brandy.

Yes. According to Jane and Michael Stern, in their book American Gourmet, you brush Dijon mustard on the steaks, saute in clarified butter, add shallots and parsley, then add warmed Cognac and flame it. I suppose I'm unfashionable, but I still get a hoot out of flaming things...and I very much like the sauce this produces.

There are some great blast-from-the-past ideas in this topic!