A dinner party in the 1950s called for home-cooked appetizers, centerpiece dishes, and desserts that wowed visually but might seem borderline revolting today. Savory Jell-O salad, bologna cake, ham and banana hollandaise, and confusingly endless combinations of gelatin and meat all adorned the tables of American middle-class dinner parties. Fitting right in on this table of questionable and creative foods is the party sandwich loaf — a multi-layered sandwich that resembles a cake.
Party sandwich loaves are made by trimming the crust off an entire loaf of unsliced white bread and then cutting lengthwise to essentially create what resembles cake layers with bread. Then, each layer gets filled with savory ingredients like tuna salad, pimento cheese mixed with olives, or any ungodly combination involving mayonnaise that you can think of. Once each layer is set, the entire thing gets a frosting of cream cheese and can then be decorated with vegetables, pickles, herbs, meats, cheeses, and other toppings.
When all is said and done, the party sandwich loaf really does resemble a lovely, frosted cake, until you cut it open. One of the more popular party sandwich loaf recipes that is circulating on the internet is from a vintage Better Homes and Gardens book. And while the exact recipe taken from the book may function better as a fun cooking experiment than a useable dish, there are certainly ways to update the flavors and create something more pleasing to a modern palate.
Bringing the party loaf cake into the modern age
We can’t genuinely recommend you try your hand at recreating a traditional party loaf cake without making some edits, but there are some pieces in the recipe that you can work with. Traditional party loaf cakes are dense, salty masses of cream cheese and mayonnaise. Instead, try layering up smoked lox, capers, thinly sliced red onions, dill, and cucumbers to lean into the frosting of cream cheese and bring some freshness to the mix. Or, try Mediterranean flavors with cucumbers, feta, olives, chickpeas, garlic, and fresh tomatoes.
Lavish ’50s dinner parties were the stages upon which middle-class housewives could show off their domestic prowess. After all, if taking care of people and a household is your main responsibility, then there’s no better way to perform your societally assigned duties than by throwing a party. A clean house, well-behaved children, and, of course, show-stopping food were all signs of a “good woman” back in the day. We have thankfully begun to move beyond such tropes, but with rising virality in the “trad wife” lifestyle, perhaps recipes like the party sandwich loaf will make a comeback. On the other hand, if we’re lucky, its original iterations will stay a thing of the past.
