14 Unbelievably Quirky Vintage Appetizers

Appetizers are a great way to start your meal, introducing flavors to get your appetite going or satiating the hungriest of diners who can’t wait for the main course. Some of the most popular appetizers from years past are also some of the most unique, and we’ve compiled a list of concoctions you have to taste to believe.

Beginning in the 1950s, food focused on new, innovative, and sometimes quirky ingredients and preparation methods, with an emphasis on showing off the technological advances of the time. Canned goods were all the rage and the best dishes to serve for company often included pre-made items that we’d count as convenience foods now. But in the 1950s, they were high tech, and if you had things like Jello and tinned fish on your buffet spread, you were at the height of sophistication.

Some of these appetizers have held up against the test of time and are still enjoyed on modern menus, while others have remained retro favorites that we don’t make as much anymore. See if you recognize any of the most unique vintage appetizers or are inspired to try something new at your next dinner party.

When you think of quirky appetizers, Jello salad is likely the first thing to come to mind. It was all the rage beginning around the 1950s, and dinner party hosts showed off some truly unique molds. The most basic versions included technicolor Jello, often made from a sugary packet, which was set in the fridge. The wiggly result wowed guests because quick dishes like Jello were relatively new at the time. Even though it didn’t provide much nutrition and certainly didn’t satiate appetites, the novelty of Jello made it one of the most popular appetizers at the time.

Mixing in fruit and whipped cream transformed basic Jello into a sweet salad. The best versions were a mix of fluffy and sweet thanks to Jello, whipped cream or cottage cheese, plus extras for flavor and color. Mini marshmallows were another often-added ingredient, and they helped provide an airiness to the salad. But there were also odd combos like cabbage and horseradish thrown into the gelatinous mixture, and surprisingly, sometimes they worked!

On many buffet lines, you could find multiple colors and combinations of Jello salad. Many families had their own traditions, including adding canned fruit, like oranges or maraschino cherries, on the top as a garnish. Presentation was just as important as the actual taste of the salad and themed Jello molds became a household item.

Hamburgers have been a popular dish for generations and are served at everything from casual backyard barbecues to upscale restaurants today. The vintage appetizer version relied of Bisquick, a mix that replaced labor-intensive baking around the 1930s. Up to that point, many types of bread, pie crusts, and other baked goods needed detailed recipes and a lot of ingredients. But thanks to Bisquick, home chefs only needed a bit of water to mix up tasty dough that they could use in these hamburger turnovers.

Hamburger turnovers were a budget-friendly appetizer showcased in the 1950s Betty Crocker Bisquick Party Book, which stuffed classic hamburger ingredients — beef cooked in onions, tomato sauce, and sour cream — into Bisquick-made pastry bread. Cookbooks like this were common during this time period as a way for companies to market directly to customers. In the case of the Bisquick hamburger turnover, the result was not just an easy and tasty appetizer, but also more sales for the company.

Sliders have mostly replaced these turnover-style burgers as a more modern appetizer, but we wouldn’t be surprised in these begin to make a comeback. A handheld burger that can be enjoyed with minimal mess at a party sounds like a win to us! You can still get a box of Bisquick to save time, just like our grandmothers used to when making these quick apps.

Are you really at a shared buffet if there isn’t at least one bowl of ambrosia salad? This sweet salad could be served as an appetizer or brought to a potluck, where has it graced many tables for generations. It’s named for ambrosia, the food eaten by the ancient Greek and Roman gods, and was especially popular beginning in the 1950s. Because it uses many convenient ingredients, like canned mandarin oranges and marshmallow fluff, this salad was another great way to show off modern technological advances in the kitchen.

It combined easy-to-find pantry ingredients, like canned fruit and marshmallows, with a generous amount of sour cream and Cool Whip. Diced apples add tartness, especially when you use a Granny Smith variety. Pineapple is also a nice addition for some tropical appeal, while a bright red maraschino cherry on top gives the dish a pop of color. The real star is the shredded coconut, however, and most versions include it. Of course, you can make ambrosia salad without coconut and add Jello, but the purists might turn their noses up, calling it a Jello salad instead.

Cream cheese dip is a completely believable appetizer, but it’s iconically vintage. Most cream cheese dips start with the rich base of cream cheese, either the spreadable variety or a softened brick. Flavoring agents like onion soup mix for a savory dip, or brown sugar for a sweet version, are thoroughly mixed in. The vintage versions included a lot of briny sauces, whether it was a pickle-inspired dill dip, seafood clam dip, or zesty horseradish dip. Crunchy items like potato chips were often served on a tray alongside these creamy dips as a nice pairing.

What we can’t believe is that it was so popular that Philadelphia Cream Cheese put together an entire cookbook dedicated to Philly dips called the “‘Philly’ Dip Party Book.” This cookbook called for Philadelphia cream cheese in every recipe, but you can use the brand that you like best. The book also suggested partnerships with specific chips, veggies, and other ways to serve these dips.

Nippy spread was made with cream cheese and sharp cheddar, plus a dash of horseradish to add a little spice. A store-bought version made by Kraft made it even easier to set out this cheese spread. It was often served with crackers, potato chips, and a garnish of olives. It was a little more cheddary than a standard cream cheese dip, and the premade versions could be thicker than a traditional dip. You can still find it available premade, even sticking with a similar Kraft pimento spread, although it’s not nearly as popular as it once was as an appetizer.

Modern versions include other types of cheese, but if you really want to keep things vintage-inspired, keep your cheese limited to rich cream cheese, well-mashed and softened, plus a generous amount of cheddar. The horseradish should help the flavors blend together rather than overpower, and olives add extra saltiness, plus retro garnish style, to the dish. You can chop up a few to mix in, but many home chefs in the 1950s would use the opportunity to create designs in the appetizer.

If you like Jello and cheese, why not put them together? At least, that’s what the appetizer-loving crowds from the 1950s thought when they paired the two popular starters in one dish. Yes, the famous Jello salad used to include cheese balls inside the mixture. It was all formed in a decorative mold, then garnished with lettuce or other greens. Lime and strawberry Jello flavors were both featured in ads, but there were as many color combinations as you could find on the supermarket shelves.

Salad oil was an important part of the preparation, since it helped the Jello separate from the mold when it had set. This was a lighter vegetable oil that didn’t have a strong flavor, but it gave the finished Jello a nice, even finish. Fruit, like strawberries, cut into bite-sized pieces and small cheese balls then went into the Jello mold, followed by the gelatin mixture. Home chefs popped that into the fridge, let it set, and turned it over onto a display plate. Alternative options include a flat Jello square with fruit mixed in, topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

Presentation was just as important with this appetizer, so a little greenery in the form of vegetable completed the look. We can only guess what the sweet and rich combo of Jello, fruit, and cheese tasted like. But hey, if it works on a charcuterie board, maybe it works with Jello as well!

Liver pâté is still quite popular as an appetizer (and pricey at high-end restaurants), but this vintage-style appetizer used to be styled a bit differently as smoked turkey or goose liver paste. The turkey version could have been made out of various parts of the bird, but the goose liver used a very specific section. You might recognize it on certain menus by another name, foie gras, which refers to goose or duck liver from fattened poultry. It isn’t seen as much in modern cuisine, however, since animal rights groups expressed concern about how the birds are fattened, and many countries have taken steps to limit or even ban the production of foie gras. Foie gras has always been a big part of French cuisine, however, which likely played a role in its reputation as a “fancy” delicacy to serve to guests.

This paste was often spread on toasted pieces of bread. Home chefs served this canapé on a decorative tray or placed it on a sideboard as finger foods. Typically, a selection of savory crackers and spreads were included so that guests could find something that worked for their palates. If you want to replicate this starter today, you can get goose paste delivered, like this chicken, pork, and veal spread, for example. Spread it on crackers and enjoy.

Cream cheese works as a base for drained clams, minced, to bring a salty taste of the sea to the buffet table no matter where you lived. Even home chefs who were landlocked could get clams to serve as an upscale appetizer when company came around. The trick to making a few clams — which could be pricey if they had to be shipped from elsewhere — go a long way was to mince them finely and mix them into a base like cream cheese that was easier to find and more economical. With a strong briny flavor, a few clams also packed a big punch when it came to taste, and the canned clams — which also make a great pizza topping — kept in the pantry for a long time.

This spread goes on toasted bread. Home chefs cut a larger loaf of bread into bite-sized pieces, perfect for a canapé tray or finger food. Each morsel was easy to pick up, pop in your mouth, and enjoy without making a mess. A simple seasoning of salt and pepper helped the flavors come together and voila! This appetizer was ready in just a few minutes with minimal time in the kitchen, but it still impressed guests.

Tinned fish on toasted bread makes a nice appetizer, even now, so it’s not surprising that two popular retro apps included the combination. But the 1950s vintage version calls for a generous garnish of olives as well, which you can find on a lot of dishes from that time period. Anchovies and sardines have a salty, briny taste, and olives bring their own type of bite to the table.

Stuffed olives were a great offering because they could be enjoyed on their own or as a garnish for other apps. In the case of the anchovy or sardines on toast, the recommend presentation included chopping them up finely and sprinkling the pieces along the outside of the tray as a decoration. This meant they weren’t as easy to eat and just meant to make the overall look more impressive.

This dish used canned ham, Spam, and cream cheese to create a striped loaf. 1950s appetizers were all about presentation, and if you could layer something, why not? It looked eccentric and likely tasted unusual, too. To make the loaf, home chefs sliced up an entire loaf of spam and spread a cream cheese mixture between each slice. The recipe recommended thinning the cheese with a little bit of milk to make it easier to spread and adding minced onion and seasonings for flavor.

Assemble the layers and put the entire thing in the fridge to chill. This could be done ahead of time, which helped cut down on the work of a host at a dinner party. All the home chef needed to do when it was time to serve the app was slice and wait for the oohs and ahs. Spam is still used today, especially in Hawaiian cuisine, where it’s included in everything from snack-sized spam musubi to savory spam sandwiches. It’s still paired with cheese, although the presentation is not nearly as quirky.

What could be simpler than sliced celery topped with dips, spreads, and extra goodies? This was a classic on many holiday tables in the early-and-mid 1900s. Stuffings varied, but popular combos were peanut butter and sharp cheddar cheese dip. Olives often made an appearance as a garnish, of course, and the possibilities were almost endless. Like with many other retro apps, presentation was important, so celery had to be cut to precise lengths and displayed artfully on a platter.

Today, celery and peanut butter is still a nice combo. You can dress it up with raisins or chocolate candies as well. If you put it on a fancy platter or a paper doily, you can elevate this simple snack into a vintage-style appetizer. If you really want to make things fancy, use a frosting tip to pipe cream cheese spread onto the celery in a fun design worthy of any vintage dinner party.

The final Jello showcase on our list, a layered Jello salad, involved multiple flavors layered. It took a little bit longer to prepare, since each layer had to set to ensure they didn’t run together. But the result was impressive and definitely vintage. This was an appetizer where presentation was more important than fancy ingredients, since it relied on simple Jello to bring everything together. The combination of colors worked for various holidays and special events, wowing both kids and adults.

For each layer, make a standard Jello version and a creamier version by incorporating sour cream into the packet and boiling water. Let the regular Jello set for 30 minutes, then add the creamy layer and let it set for the same amount of time. Repeat this as many times as you want with as many colors as you want. The result is a layered Jello salad that has a cake-like style and wiggly consistency. It gives off vintage Jello salad vibes with an updated appeal.

Rumaki includes chicken livers and water chestnuts, wrapped in bacon with plenty of sweet and savory seasonings. The chicken livers were first marinated in brown sugar, soy sauce, and other spices to give them lots of flavor. Paired with a water chestnut, the entire thing was wrapped in bacon, speared with a toothpick to hold it together, and cooked on a piping hot skillet. The result was a super flavorful bite-sized app that brought exotic tastes together.

This dish has its roots in Polynesian cuisine and became especially popular in the 1950s when tiki culture and food became very trendy in the United States. Restaurants included rumaki on their starter menus, and home chefs recreated the dish at home to serve to guests. These bites are a great way to begin a meal because they don’t take a lot of special know-how in the kitchen, include tasty ingredients and flavorful spices, and are easy to enjoy in just one bite. Arranged on a tray, they wow in the presentation department as well.

What’s a list of vintage appetizers without the good ol’ cheese ball? They’re still a popular option today and are even featured on luxury charcuterie boards, but the retro versions took things to an unbelievable level with the mix-ins and garnishes. Sliced almonds on the outside were common and are still a great feature, but many home chefs created intricate designs to make the presentation even more impressive. Olives were all over the place, both on the serving trays, in the cheese mixture, and on the top of the ball. Extra cheese was often added to alter the flavor and change things up.

If you want to experiment with your own version just like generations before you, combine cream cheese with other cheeses, add a little flavor, like Worcestershire sauce, and roll it in something crunchy. You can stick with the vintage classic and use sliced or chopped almonds, or upgrade it for modern times with pretzels or potato chips.