Hors D’Oeuvres Tips
November 21, 2004
I had a great time teaching in Wayne, New Jersey last week at Adventures in Cooking. Thanks to all who attended. Here are some tips that I compiled to help with throwing an hors d’oeuvres party.
Hors D’Oeuvres Tip Sheet
Planning the Menu
- Think about your guests – any allergies (shellfish, nuts, dairy, gluten)?
- Any special diets (vegetarian, low carb, religious)?
- Make complimentary foods:
- Temperature – some hot, some cold/room temperature
- Texture – some crunchy, some soft
- Flavor – some more vibrant than others
- Shape
- Ingredients
- Keep it seasonal
- Don’t forget about dessert – prepare a dessert hors d’oeuvres or set a dessert table
- Think about your workload
- Don’t choose hors d’oeuvres that all require last minute attention. Plan the menu so that you can spread your work over several days, finishing one dish at the last minute and putting finishing touches on others.
- Consider mixing store-bought hors d’oeuvres with home-made hors d’oeuvres.
- Make large items that require one cooking or preparation technique and are then cut or served into bite-sized pieces
- Soups – make one big batch and serve in little sip cups
- Pizzas, cut into smaller pieces
- Quiche, quesadillas, frittatas, etc. – make in mini versions
- Cuts of meat, sliced and presented with crostini and a dip
- Sausages platters – various sausages, sliced with mustard & toothpicks
- Remember the simple add-on’s that are easy to prepare:
- Cheese platters
- Crudités platters
- Nuts (spiced, candied, smoked)
- Olives
- Caviar and crackers
- Dips
- Edamame (soy beans) with sea salt (you can find these frozen in most grocery stores)
- Breadsticks
- Consider logistics – will the hors d’oeuvres be passed or placed? Sometimes the construction of an hors d’oeuvres makes it more difficult to be passed around. Also, if you are planning on doing the passing yourself, you will need to be free from the kitchen in order to do so.
- Quantities:
- Light nibbles (not replacing a meal): 5 – 6 different hors d’oeuvres and 1 – 2 of each type per guest
- Hearty serving (replacing a meal): 8 – 10 different hors d’oeuvres and 2 – 3 of each type per guest
- Plan on 8 beverage napkins per person for the evening
Planning the Bar
- Setting up a self-serve bar is a way to lighten your load and leave yourself free to worry about the food portion of the get together.
- Position the bar at the far end of the party space – that will create movement in the party and will keep people out of your kitchen (for a while at least!).
- Quantities:
- Wine: 5 bottles for every 10 people
- You will get about 5 servings per 750ml bottle
- Beer: 5 six-packs for every 10 people
- Cocktails: plan for 20 drinks for every 10 people, 30 – 40 drinks for every 10 people if it is a full evening affair. (1 drink = 1.5 oz. liquor)
- You will get about 16 cocktails out of a 750ml bottle
- You will get about 22 cocktails out of a 1 L bottle
- You will get about 39 cocktails out of a 1.5 L bottle
- A basic bar set up includes: vodka, rum, gin, scotch, bourbon, blended whiskey and tequila
Presentation Ideas
- Find hints on how to present your foods from the recipe. Pull an ingredient out of the recipe and present it whole or in bulk. For instance, if fresh thyme appears in the recipe, use whole bunches of fresh thyme to garnish.
- Fresh flowers can add color to a platter. Think about holly for the holidays.
- Use your pantry. Dried beans can create an interesting bed on which to present foods.
- Banana leaves give an exotic look to a plate.
- A bed of rock salt can add interest and can be used to position unstable hors d’oeuvres that aren’t able to stand or sit upright on their own like oysters.
Crudités Platter
- Change the look of the traditional platter by presenting the vegetables vertically instead of horizontally, and providing a selection of dips.
- Incorporate snap peas, red peppers, cucumber, green onions, red and golden beets, daikon radish, asparagus, jicama, yellow squash and zucchini into the mix.
- Don’t have too many vegetables. Pick a few vegetables, pick them carefully (complimentary colors and shapes) and in generous quantities.
- Remember you can prepare many of the vegetables a day or two in advance and store them in the refrigerator wrapped in damp paper towel in a sealed plastic bag.
- Think before you cut. Think about the finished shape of the vegetable before you cut or peel it. You might want to do something different from the norm, but so often we dive in there with what we’ve already done. Once you’ve made a slice, it is hard to go back.
The Cheese Platter
- Go with variety, or pick a theme. You can either select cheese from different families or select a variety within a family. It can be interesting to your guests (especially if they are “foodies”) to taste a variety of different Cheddars, or goat’s cheeses to distinguish the difference between them all. To please the most number of people however, selecting cheese from different families is the safest method.
- Vary your cheeses in the following manner:
- Country of origin
- Texture – hard, medium or soft
- Color – white to orange
- Goat, sheep or cow’s milk
- Serve your cheese room temperature rather than cold. Take the cheese out of the refrigerator an hour before serving.
- Serve cheeses on a completely flat platter or cutting board. Plates have rims which prevent the cheese from lying flat and make it difficult to cut.
- Provide a cheese knife or spoon for each cheese.
- Serve the cheese platter with a variety of vehicles: different breads (whole grain, olive, baguette) and crackers, cucumber, apples.
- Think about cheese accompaniments: preserves and chutneys, olives, nuts, fruit (pears, grapes, apples, dried apricots).
- Cut a small portion of each cheese off before presenting it. This is part of cheese etiquette in France. Cutting a piece of cheese off first shows your guests how to cut that particular cheese and also invites them to have some, rather than pressuring them to be the first to break into a new cheese.
- Quantities:
- 3 or 4 varieties of cheese are ample for a platter.
- Provide about 2.5 – 3 oz of cheese per person