A dinner recipe found in a special edition of “Husmorens
Kokebok” (The Housewife’s Cookbook) utgitt i 1963
This is a typical Norwegian finer dinner dish from the late fifties early sixties. Dressing up pork chops and other everyday foods when having dinner guests was high fashion at the time.
A canapé recipe found on BBCgoodfood
This quick canapé of traditional Jewish salt beef with a twist has the wow factor despite taking only minutes to make
A party snack/canapé recipe found on chatelaine
https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/kremede-rekesalatmunnfuller/
Cooked frozen shrimp is a great time saver when preparing for a party.
A classic Norwegian shellfish recipe found in “Festmat”
(Partyfood) published by Hjemmets Kokebokklubb in 1982
A personal favourite from “Varme Småretter”
(Hot Snacks) published by Gyldendal in 1991
This was often part of the Saturday evening family gathering at our cabin outside Oslo when I was a child. This recipe is exactly the same as my mother used and I still use, though I’m a bit heavier on the curry than she was. I am so fond of this that I know the recipe by heart- Ted
This is a very popular starter for big parties. The safest is to order the shells in good time in a bakery or in the grocery store. Filled shells can be served as hot dishes on a smörgåsbord or as a separate dish with friend gatherings. Calculate two shells for each serving. The fish puddings can be exchanged with tiny fish balls and the prawns with crayfish tails.
A children friendly punch recipe foun in “The New Sealtest Book
of Recipes and Menus” published by Sealtest Inc in 1940
It’s strange how our perception of images change over time.
Seen with 1940 eyes that man was obviously meant to look like
a friendly old uncle. Seen with 2017 eyes I wouldn’t have left
my children alone with him for more than 5 seconds.
Ted
A spicy cod dinner recipe found in
“Torsk til Hverdag og Fest” (Cod for Everydays and Parties)
a free E-book published by Godfisk!
Cod is perfect for everyday life when time is scarce, the family is hungry and you need a healthy, quick and tasty dinner.
But cod is also great as party food. Put cod on the table when family or friends get together for a nice meal and a good mood is guaranteed. With its firm white fish meat and its delicate flavor, cod fits just perfectly for everydays and parties.
An article by Peggy Trowbridge Filippone posted on The Spruce
Fondue headlined suburban American theme parties in the 1960s, then pretty quickly fell out of favor, as fads so often do. Americans briefly rediscovered the communal meal in the early ’90s, albeit with a more modern and health-conscious approach to the recipes. But if everything old eventually becomes new again, that fondue pot set you stashed in the basement might be due to come out for another round.
The idea of fondue likely calls to mind the style that originated during the 1800s in the Swiss Alps as a way to use hardened cheese and stale bread during the winter months. Deriving from the French verb fondre, meaning “to melt,” fondue was a classic peasant dish made fashionable across the country after World War I by the Swiss Cheese Union. French gastronome Brillat-Savarin mentioned fondue in his 19th-century writings.
But fondue-like dishes originated in cultures around the world, such as Asian hot pots in which diners cook chunks of meat, seafood or vegetables in a communal pot of bubbling oil or steaming broth. Mexico’s queso fundido resembles the cheesy Swiss dish, though served with tortillas, while bagna cauda in Italy relies on pureed anchovies for texture and flavor and is typically accompanied by vegetables. Chef Konrad Egli of New York’s Chalet Suisse Restaurant gets the credit for chocolate fondue, which he developed in 1964 to support a marketing effort by Swiss company Toblerone.
Traditional Swiss fondue combines Emmentaler and/or Gruyere cheese and wine, melted in a communal pot. A cherry brandy called 
kirsch gets added to the mixture, which becomes a dip for pieces of stale bread and crusts. In Switzerland, cooks in different regions produce fondue with other local melting cheeses and variations on flavorings.
But they all agree that the best bite develops at the bottom of the pot during the course of the meal. The crusty slab of cheese, called le religieuse, gets reverentially scrapped off by fondue connoisseurs and shared around the table.
Those same connoisseurs (and hopefully any good cheese fondue host) will tell you to drink white wine, kirsch or herbal tea with your meal — and nothing else. Those in the know say beer or juice or even water can cause the cheese in your belly to coagulate, which doesn’t sound like a pleasant end to the meal.
Chocolate fondue might seem like a foregone conclusion, but the editors at Bon Appetit don’t recommend the high-cholesterol combination. A few slices of fresh pineapple make a much better choice for dessert because the natural enzymes help with digestion.
You don’t even need a special fondue pot to serve a meal for family or friends. A slow cooker makes a convenient substitute and keeps the cheese warm. You can also melt the cheese in a double boiler on an electric hot plate, or prepare it on the stove and transfer it to a chaffing dish.
A classic Swedish party dish found in a special edition of “Husmorens Kokebok” (the Houswife’s Cookbook)
utgitt av Norsk Kunstforlag i 1963
This is a typical Scandinavian party dish from the early sixties that comes highly recommended even today.
This article was printed in “The Hostess” published by the Bromangelon Publishing Department in 1910, and it is making it quite clear that when inviting a few lady friends over for luncheon back then putting a box of Twinings Earl Grey tea bags and a tray of hastily made sandwiches on the table simply wouldn’t do
Ted
Every hostess, however modest her home surroundings, cherishes the ambition to shine in her own little sphere. The ideas suggested in this little book are intended as a guide to simple methods of entertaining in a hospitable, easy, refined and dignified manner, without any undue extravagance. They are intended to serve, not as set patterns to be copied or followed in every detail, but rather to suggest to the ingenious hostess, ways of adapting her own original ideas to the art of graceful home entertainment.
Most hostesses do not realize the full value and usefulness of the serving table. To serve a meal without a maid is easy of accomplishment, if one will follow the hints conveyed in this description.
Instead of the more conventional large tablecloth, for this cosy occasion we will use the more decorative embroidered centerpiece and doilies.
Place on the embroidered centerpiece an earthen jar or vase filled with honeysuckle or some graceful flowering vine. At each cover place a low, small glass with a long branch of the same vine; a water glass partly filled with cracked ice, a small butter plate, containing a butter ball, the little knife by its side; a doily, on which is the service-plate; to the right, two silver knives (sharp edge toward the plate)—to the left, three forks (the prongs turned up), and the napkin, folded square (monogram side up). On the table are three trays, one containing narrow strips of twice-baked bread; and the two smaller ones holding chocolate or other bonbons, and olives or salted almonds.
Most of this luncheon is prepared in advance, and ten minutes before serving, the hostess excuses herself to her guests to heat the first course and prepare the coffee. Everything else is in readiness.
Lobster Newburg on Toast
Finger Slices of Dry Toast
Cold Turkey or Chicken
Hearts of Celery
Twice Baked Bread
Jellied Pecan Salad
Brown Bread Sandwiches
Chocolate Cakes filled with Whipped Cream
Black Coffee
Cheese Straws
Salted Nuts, (or Olives)
Sweets
As the guests enter the dining-room, the first course, Lobster Newburg (or Crab Creole) has already been placed. This has been prepared in advance, and only required quick heating on gas burner or chafing-dish before serving. The serving table with a five o’clock tea cloth of handsome linen stands against the wall to the left of the hostess. This table is of the same height as the luncheon table, and is equipped with a lower shelf of the same size as the table top. On top are placed the water pitcher, ice bowl, after-dinner coffee cups and saucers, the plates, a handsome coffee pot and two covered trays, one holding cheese straws, the other the cakes.
On the lower shelf, out of sight, are the second and third courses (which are both cold) arranged on plates—the salad plates toward the back, the plates of cold chicken or turkey (dressed with celery hearts and twice-baked bread) towards the front. The four finger bowls, the napkins and extra silver are in a corner at the back.
Each guest, as she receives the plate for the second course, passes her used plate and silver from the first course to the hostess. These used plates are slipped by the hostess into the places just vacated on the lower shelf of the serving table. When the salad comes forward, places are made for the plates from the second course. Thus, as soon as a plate has been used, it vanishes as completely as with the best trained service. After all the plates and silver have been used, they can be placed in piles on the lower shelf, and removed after the departure of the guests.
When dessert and coffee have been served, the guests will retire with the hostess to the drawing room.
If these instructions are observed everything will pass off very smoothly.
A classic fish dinner recipe found in “Fisk og Skalldyr” (Fish and Shellfish) published by Hjemmets Kokebokklubb in 1980
White fish, rice, asparagus and shrimps is a classic Scandinavian dinner dish combination and can be found in a multitude of recipes from our little part of the world. It is as the title of the post suggests classic party food. It was when this book was published in 1980 and it so absolutely still is – Ted
A youth party suggestion with menu and recipes found in
“Vi Skal Ha Gjester” (We’re Having Guests)
published by Johan Grundt Tanum Forlag in 1969
I found working with the last post so entertaining that I just had to do another post from the same book although both are more more work than most posts. Because if you think arranging a party for your young ones would provide less problems than serving crabs to a couple of friends you are absolutely mistaken.
The set of worries maybe different, but the chance of ending with egg on your face was indeed present. And all the worries about what would happen to your furniture and floors came on top of that.
I was sixteen in 1969 and I must admit that the parties I went to back then were home-alone-parties that didn’t have the slightest likeness to the parties described in this book. If not totally Sex Drugs & Rock’n’Roll we were close enough.
Ted
A party suggestion with menu and recipes found in
“Vi Skal Ha Gjester” (We’re Having Guests)
published by Johan Grundt Tanum Forlag in 1969
“Vi skal ha gjester” is not a cook book in the normal sense of the word, it is a book on hosting parties at home with menu suggestions and recipes.
And have times changed in the nearly fifty years since this book was written. How anyone dared to invite even their closest friend for dinner after having read in this book what it would take to make it a successfull evening I can’t imagine. What table cloth, what sort of flower arrangement and what sort of candles to use for what sort of evening was the least of the problems you had to tackle.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, those were hard times visitors. A time full of etiquette pitfalls and embarrasing situations. With a variety of blunders that could as we would say here in Norway, leave you standing with your ass bared.
Ted
A classic Swedish dish found in “Cattelins Kokebok”
(Cattelin’s Cook Book) published in 1978
This classic dish is from old Hotel Rydberg in Stockholm. A nice party dish when one is willing to go for beef fillet, because beef fillet is needed in this case. But one does not have to use the very finest fillets, since the meat should be cut into pieces.
A classic Norwegian restaurant dish found in “Festmat”
(Partyfood) published by Hjemmets Kokebokklubb in 1992
RecipeReminiscing 