A Guide To Appetizers
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The cocktail party is a very American thing. Of course, other cultures have appetizers. The Italians celebrate with antipasto, the Spanish with tapas, and the Lebanese with mezza. And so it goes on and on. However, we often do not use hors d'oeuvres as an appetizer at all. We Americans are apt to put out an entire snack buffet, offer too much alcohol, and then expect people to enjoy the dinner table. We should not try to do both.
Appetizers should be served as a first course at the dinner table. The meal should be long enough, and lovely enough, to make the evening. You need not serve elaborate appetizers at the buffet before the meal. The hors d'oeuvres buffet should be a separate event, one at which you are trying to get a large number of people together at one time but not going to feed them dinner.
Large Cocktail Party or Reception
At this kind of affair you will want to concentrate on foods which can be eaten with the fingers - a combination of cold appetizers and some hot ones. Most of these should be passed on trays; with a big crowd people cannot always make their way easily to a buffet table.
It's nice to have placed strategically around the room some bowls of things to nibble, like nut mixtures, olives, freshly roasted popcorn, or potato chips, as well as some dips that can be scooped up with raw vegetables or crackers.
Lots of small napkins for sticky fingers are a must; as for the appetizers passed on trays, avoid messy foods that are apt to drip before they can be popped into the mouth.
Near the drinks, a buffet table might hold a pate or something hot in a chafing dish, but this is the kind of cocktail party or reception where guests are expected to go on to their own dinners, so you will need to give them only enough for the road and to take away with them a lingering taste of your delicious tidbits.
Count on about 4 appetizers per person, with the buffet offering and the snacks and dips as extra.
This, too, could be a large party that dwindles down to a manageable number of more intimate friends you've asked to stay on. Or it could be a smaller gathering at which you really want your guests to hang around and talk, so you plan to feed them handsomely enough to sustain them for the whole evening.
In either case, have some nibbles and dips and a few simple appetizers available at the beginning of the party; at a smaller gathering it is easier for people to spread their own crackers. Then offer a satisfying spread of hot and cold dishes with small plates, forks, and napkins so that guests will help themselves as they feel the proddings of hunger. Everyone serves himself and eats perched on the edge of a chair or leaning against the dining room wall. Eventually, the coffee urn and maybe even little cakes or cookies will be welcome.
Here your appetizers are usually more selective, very often just one delicious, tempting creation on a plate that fits in with the meal to come and can be served either in the living room or at table. There are so many possibilities. Later, I will give you a few Menu Suggestions.
These are more or less interchangeable: the same mixture that can be scooped on the end of a carrot stick can be spread on a round of Melba toast.
They are easy to prepare ahead of time, and have the advantage of allowing everyone to help themselves. Surround the dip or the crock of spread with interesting crackers, potato chips, corn chips, fried tortillas, or toasted pita; set out some cold shrimp, scallops, cocktail sausages, or spears of ham; or present a colorful arrangement of raw vegetables.
These can be made by piping different spreads onto crackers or thin slices of good bread cut into decorative shapes or into cornucopias of ham and salami.
Such canapes can be made in the morning and refrigerated, covered with foil, plastic wrap, or a damp towel.
For stuffed vegetables use the same spread and savory butters to fill mushroom caps, hollowed-out cherry tomatoes, cucumber boats, or celery ribs. If it's a very warm evening, keep cold dishes chilled by presenting them on beds of chipped ice.
All those piping hot, tempting morsels like cheese and crab puffs, cocktail sausages in pastry, tiny filled savory tarts, skewers of chicken livers and bacon, hot biscuits, fritters, and so on will be included here.
One can never have enough of them, but remember that if you are both host and cook, you'll have to keep your eye on the stove and replenish the platters, so don't attempt more than you can manage comfortably.
A welcome offering with drinks is a plate of icy-crisp raw vegetables. They spoil neither the appetite nor the waistline, and are usually presented with a variety of sauces and dips.
The culinary name "crudites" means raw, and the vegetables must be garden-fresh, crisp, and well-washed. It helps to scrub and scrape early in the day; keep certain vegetables (not tomatoes or mushrooms) in bowls of ice water in the refrigerator to crisp them. Choose one or many for your arrangement - cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, cauliflower flowerets, broccoli, zucchini rounds or spears, peppery rounds of radish, sticks of turnip or kohlrabi, bland cucumber slices, green and red pepper chunks, and whole mushrooms.
The buffet table might include a handsome pate on a platter surrounded by tiny pickles or in a crock, accompanied by Melba toast, thin slices of French bread or of dark rye; a decorative ball of cheese or a mound of paprika-dusted Liptauer; aromatic vegetables; stuffed eggs; meatballs in a chafing dish, or a cheese fondue.
Even though guests use their fingers, these things are easier to manage if they are laid out on a buffet table than from a passing tray. The food can be prepared well ahead, and it's the kind that always looks enticing on the table.
These are the seductive snacks that dare you to eat only one - popcorn, pretzels, salted nuts, and nut mixtures with dried fruit, pickled vegetables, olives. Most snacks are ready to serve when purchased and need only to be set out.