20 Finger Foods From the Heyday of Cocktail Parties That You've Never Heard of
When Hors d’Oeuvres Got a Little Weird
The cocktail parties of the 1950s and 1960s weren’t satisfied with putting out a bowl of chips and calling it a night. Hosts filled trays with tiny, elaborate bites involving everything from chicken livers and olives to anchovies, pastry, and maybe a little too much cream cheese. Period menus could include mushroom strudels, cocktail croquettes, stuffed eggs, cheese twists, and other foods designed to be eaten while holding a drink. Here are 20 forgotten finger foods from the heyday of cocktail parties that should, or shouldn't, be brought back.
1. Rumaki
Rumaki was one of those appetizers that immediately made a cocktail party seem a little more sophisticated, thanks in part to its Japanese-sounding name. Traditional versions wrapped chicken liver and water chestnuts in bacon, often adding a soy-based marinade before baking or broiling the whole thing. It became especially associated with tiki restaurants and eventually found its way into suburban entertaining during the mid-century period.
2. Angels on Horseback
Despite the charming name, angels on horseback were surprisingly rich little bites. Oysters got wrapped in bacon, skewered, and cooked until the bacon crisped around the seafood. The dish predates the mid-century cocktail craze, but its tidy size and extravagant ingredients made it right at home on party trays.
3. Devils on Horseback
Devils on horseback swapped the oyster for a prune, although recipes could vary quite a bit. The dried fruit was wrapped in bacon, secured with a toothpick, and sometimes given a dash of cayenne before cooking. Versions of the appetizer have existed since at least the 19th century and later fit neatly into the finger-food-heavy cocktail party scene.
4. Olive Cheese Balls
These weren’t the giant cheese balls you’d place in the middle of a tray with crackers. Instead, individual pimento-stuffed olives were surrounded by a rich dough containing shredded cheese, flour, and butter, then baked until golden. The version most closely associated with the 1960s turned each olive into a warm bite-sized snack.
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5. Camembert Amandine
Camembert amandine sounds far more elaborate than the small party bite it usually became. Camembert cheese was marinated in dry white wine, blended with butter and a splash of cognac, and coated with crunchy toasted almonds. It gave hosts a way to make cheese feel especially elegant.
6. Cocktail Croquettes
Croquettes were once perfectly acceptable cocktail fare as long as you made them small enough. Tiny portions of meat, seafood, poultry, or another savory filling could be breaded and fried into neat little bites that guests ate with their fingers or cocktail picks. Cocktail croquettes appear on period entertaining menus alongside considerably fancier-sounding offerings.
7. Shrimp Curry Butter Canapés
Apparently plain butter wasn't exciting enough for every mid-century host. Some cocktail canapés combined butter with curry seasoning and shrimp, then spread the mixture over small pieces of bread or crackers. The combination feels very much like an era when adding curry powder could instantly make a familiar ingredient seem exotic.
8. Mushroom Strudels
Strudel didn't always mean apples, cinnamon, and dessert. Savory cocktail versions wrapped mushroom filling in thin pastry and were cut small enough to pass around with drinks. They sound surprisingly modern until you remember they were being handed around decades ago.
9. Wild-Rice Pancakes
These weren’t breakfast pancakes shrunk down for a party. Wild rice could be incorporated into small savory pancakes intended to be picked up and eaten as hors d’oeuvres. Compared with another bowl of salted nuts, they certainly gave the host something unique.
10. Potted Shrimp on Melba Toast
Potted shrimp traditionally involves shrimp preserved or packed in seasoned butter, producing a rich spread once considered ideal for entertaining. For cocktail parties, it could be served as a pâté with crispy Melba toast. For better or worse, you don't see many people casually passing around butter-packed shrimp at house parties anymore.
11. Mushroom-Stuffed Eggs
Deviled eggs survived, but some of their more elaborate relatives didn't fare quite as well. Rather than sticking to the familiar mustard-and-yolk mixture, mushroom-stuffed eggs combined cooked egg halves with a mushroom-based filling. Apparently, there was once no reason an egg couldn't support several completely different party personalities.
12. Avocado Tidbits
Long before avocado toast became unavoidable, cooks were already figuring out how to turn avocado into party food. Vintage recipes used the fruit in small appetizers often described simply as “tidbits,” usually combining it with creamy or savory ingredients that could be served in bite-sized portions.
13. Cheese Straws & Twists
Cheese straws haven't completely vanished, although their former cocktail-party status certainly has. Crisp pastry or dough flavored heavily with cheese was baked into thin sticks or twists that could be grabbed without interrupting a conversation. They also had the considerable advantage of not requiring a fork, plate, or explanation.
14. Liverwurst Pinwheels
Mid-century cooks were extremely enthusiastic about turning spreads into spirals. Liverwurst could be mixed with cream cheese or seasonings, spread over bread or another thin base, rolled tightly, chilled, and sliced into little pinwheels. The result looked impressively neat while delivering a fairly intense bite of liver. It's not hard to see why the presentation stuck around longer than liverwurst's popularity did.
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15. Anchovy Canapés
Anchovies once appeared on cocktail trays far more confidently than they tend to today. A typical canapé might place anchovy fillets or anchovy paste onto toast with ingredients such as egg, cheese, olives, or butter. Everything was trimmed into small, tidy shapes so the salty little bite could disappear in one or two mouthfuls. Modern hosts may hesitate to unleash anchovies on an entire room, but their strong flavor did make them ideal for tiny portions.
16. Stuffed Celery
Yes, celery once qualified as legitimate party food, but hosts rarely served it plain. The grooves could be packed with mixtures involving cream cheese, pimento cheese, peanut butter, or other rich fillings before the stalks were cut into manageable pieces. It turns out vegetables become considerably more festive when they're smothered in something fatty.
Douglas Paul Perkins on Wikimedia
17. Tuna-Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes
Tiny tomatoes made convenient edible containers before anyone was calling food “bite-sized.” Hosts hollowed them out and spooned in tuna salad, creating individual portions that looked far more polished than a bowl of the same filling ever could. They're actually one of the old-fashioned ideas that wouldn't look terribly out of place at a party today.
18. Thin Onion Sandwiches
Few modern cocktail hosts would announce onion sandwiches with much confidence, but James Beard once included them on an entertaining menu. Thinly sliced onion was paired with bread and a creamy spread, then trimmed into delicate finger-sized portions. At the risk of giving everyone onion breath, the elegant presentation helped turn an aggressively simple filling into respectable cocktail fare.
19. Cream Cheese Pastry Turnovers
Tiny savory turnovers gave hosts a convenient way to put something warm and filling onto the hors d’oeuvre tray. Cream cheese could be worked into the pastry itself, which was then wrapped around a seasoned meat filling and baked. Compared with some vintage appetizers, these might actually deserve a comeback.
20. Peanut Butter & Ketchup Dip
Finally, there were cocktail foods that even people at the time approached cautiously. One documented 1950s party recipe combined peanut butter and ketchup into a dip, proving that convenience cooking occasionally went to unexpected places. If nothing else, putting this on the table would guarantee that nobody ran out of conversation.
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