70's food? I'm catering for it eeeek!!

Juliav_2

Hi all

I have volunteered my cooking services for my sister's 30th fancy dress party weekend.

There are 11 adults and I need three meal ideas to feed everyone. One night is the 70's party and I thought it would be fantastic to serve purely 70's food! I have one vegetarian

However I was born in the 80's and have no idea?

Would love your thoughts?

Thanks Julia

Vampgirl

The classic 70s dishes that immediately spring to mind are prawn cocktail (no good for the vege tho!), cheese fondue and black forest gateau.

Have read of this: http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_britain/70s/70s_party.html (I just googled classic 70s food and came up with lots of hits)

Sharifa_2

Avocadoes need to feature highly; try stuffing them at the last minute with prawn cocktail. Cheese and pineapple on sticks as nibbles. Devilled eggs; hardboil eggs and halve them, scoop out yolk and mix with mustard powder, chilli and a bit of mayo or salad cream before piping back in. Serve Cinzano to drink. Chicken mornay: diced chicken in a tin of Campbell's mushroom soup, with crushed cornflakes and grated cheese on top; serve with potato croquettes. Try your local charity shops for old cookbooks.

Sarahsaver

In the 70s the only vegetarians were lentil munching hippies, so cook a lentil loaf or even worse a nut roast for the veggies.
You need vol-au-vents, pineapple and cheese on sticks, sausages on sticks, something involving spam. I would only have avocado if you are really very middle class LOL. Twiglets, cheese puffs, fruit cocktail from a tin, a proper trifle - preferably Birds' from a packet, fairy cakes, swiss roll or maybe an arctic roll if you can get one (the Spar still sells them) My mum used to make boiled egg, grated cheese and salad cream sarnies. No one I knew had mayonnaise in the 70s, only dead posh people.
I have seen beer in barrels again, and the wine you can get Lambrusco/Lambrini. If I were you I would have a buffet, thats more 70's than a sit down meal and will be less of a stress. Also it will show off peoples' 70's style long flowing frocks better;)

flea72

fondue party

prawn cocktails, vol-au-vents with cold mushroom soup inside, beef bog-in-yog, black forest gateaux

or basket meals, ie scampi or chicken and chips in a basket, as pub grub started in the the 70s

flea

Spendless

I remember xmas '78 my Primary school teacher telling me the food item I was fetching to the xmas party was 'original'. It was sausage rolls :rotfl:

From memory of birthday parties I used to have, combination of sausages/cheese cubes/ sml pickled onions/pineapple cubes on cocktail sticks all stuck in half a grapefruit that was covered in tinfoil.

fairy cakes with icing on top, butterfly buns.

prawn cocktails, cheesecake and black forest gateau we ate at special family meals.

milliejon

I remember my parents holding a party one night and my dad decorated the rims of the glasses with sugar. I don't know how he did them, but at 8 I remember them looking really impressive - I guess that's why I remembered them.

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat

milliejon...your Dad probably dipped the rims of the glasses first in egg white and then into a saucer or plate of caster sugar (or least that's how I remember my grandmother doing this!)

boglin

...and you could serve snowballs - with a cocktail cherry of course - in the glasses!!!

I can remember working in a pub in the Seventies and being asked for some strange combinations of bottled and draught beer - Light and Bitter, for example, or Brown and Mild. Black Velvet (cider and Guiness) was a party favourite. In pubs and restaurants who didn't have Mateus Rose bottles as candleholders, with all different colours of candle wax dripping down the bottle as the memento of previous evenings?! I don't remember wine being a popular 'quaffing' drink at that time though.

As a student I remember brewing Barley Wine for parties and Spag Bol was an all-time favourite supper dish. Our curries were most definitely NOT the 'authentic' Indian style that we eat nowadays, but were served up with all sorts of strange side-dishes - peanuts, hard-boiled eggs, dessicated coconut, chopped tomato - no nan breads to be seen! I can remember making an egg curry at college - that might suit the vegetarian?! Pate was a definite for a starter, along with the previously-mentioned prawn cocktail/avocado, cream of tomato soup and melon boats (with sails made from slices of orange speared with a cocktail stick into the melon slice and with the inevitable cherry on top) also sailed forth for special meals...

If you are looking for more buffet type foods then you already have several suggestions - Scotch Eggs I remember in addition to those listed, and cheese straws - we used to make them ourselves - chicken drumsticks - Ritz Crackers with fish or meat paste or cream cheese spread on it and topped with sliced tomato or cucumber - all pretty basic stuff really.

Definitely trifle, gateau and cheesecake as favourite puds - at home we had awful versions made from packet mixes, but the stuff served up at special occasions would be better, with real whipped cream in preference to Dream Topping - although you would probably find tinned mandarin oranges, strawberries and raspberries got an outing for any or all of these puds!

Have lots of fun and if you decide to go for the 'dinner party' see if you can borrow a hostess trolley for authenticity; don't forget the Jacobs Crackers if you do a cheese board; liqueur coffees would go down a storm too! :beer:

seashore321

I seem to remember Babycham and twiglets being very sophisticated. Also open sandwiches were very trendy. Lots of sliced boiled eggs and tomatoes. I still have a square egg maker that we bought and though it was the height of fashion.
Sparklets soda syphons in all different colours were always a great deal of fun, not just for drinking but for fights afterwards. (We were only young) but I cannot for the life of me remember what we had with soda water, cos there was only Blue nun about at the time and that was bad enough without soda water. (t was a bit to sweet for me thats all I amsaying) I know a lot of people like it!!

Have fun!!

AMIE399

celery with cream cheese down the middle

Babycham