If you were hosting a 70s style party what food and drink would you have?

[keiratwiceknightly]

So a drunken night resulted in this idea...

We've thought

Babycham/snowballs
Vodka martinis with an olive
Starter
Fondue
Cheese and pineapple hedgehog
Devils on horseback
Main
Coq au vin? A really yellow curry? What about vegetarian? Were there any of those in the 70s🤣??
Dessert
Black Forest gateau
Something else?

Any more ideas welcome.

A lot of these are more from the 60s or even earlier - - devilled eggs, vol-au-vents (soo Fanny Craddock) -- but coq au vin (although definitely not in a basket) was very much a 70s dinner party dish.

Food in basket was 1980s

Cherry B is available in Iceland (the Peter Andre one, not the Bjork one). It's next to the Babycham and the Snowball.

Asda stock Angel Delight, amongst other horrors.

My mum used to whip condensed milk into un-set green jelly and put it in the fridge all afternoon, as a dessert.

Black forest gateaux, arctic roll, raspberry ripple ice cream, silverskin onions, twigletts, bottles of pop coke, lenondae with straws in them. Smash potato

Oh Paul Masson wine and Hirondelle! I'd forgotten those!

Please tell me you’ve seen the Twitter account @70s_party !

twiglets

Robert Carrier's Great Dishes of the World or Elizabeth David's series were my dinner party cook books. I made things like paella, osso bucco, beef olives, veal in orange sauce.

Mousse in all forms both savoury and sweet was very 70s, rich chocolate mousse was always a popular pudding, I used to put brandy soaked raisins in mine.

As a starter, Secret Mousse made from consommé and cream cheese was often served, though not by me! Instead, I made home pâté to serve with toast.

Wines were limited, as well as those mentioned by pp Liebfraumilch was popular and by the end of the 70s Beaujolais Nouveau was becoming a fun event.
Cocktails were the more traditional ones, gin & orange or lime, gin & it, with snowballs around Christmas time.

I don't eat Werthers or tongue!

I wondered how long it would be before someone said a bowl for the keys.

We children used to waitress at my Mum's dinner parties. I remember melon as a starter, then Beef stroganoff with rice, and orange slices marinated in Cointreau as a dessert. There were always dips and crackers or ritz crackers with toppings on beforehand with drinks. She used to serve smoked oysters on the ritz crackers quite often I think, we were in Australia at the time and they were easy enough to get hold of. Lunch parties for 'the girls' were often asparagus wrapped in ham cooked in a cheese sauce.

Cheesy footballs! You definitely need them!

Baked Alaska for pudding!

Prawn cocktail!!!!!

You’ll need a hostess trolley of course.

In fact if you really want to set the scene, there’s plenty of inspiration on this thread (which was pretty much my home growing up).

Definitely vol-au-vents with chicken fricassee inside.

My mum had special upright dishes dotted around for holding king size cigarettes for all the super-classy guests to help themselves, with matching ashtrays! Probably John Players Specials. After our first holiday to Majorca, she upgraded to those long black More cigarettes.

no wonder I've never smoked

Mandarin Flan with a "orange?" glaze.

Oh God, yes the flans. You buy a horrible sponge flan case, put some tinned fruit in and then shove a load of jelly on the top. To be served with sweetened whipped cream. A sort of bouncy, sickly, slimy, dead horribleness....

Glad someone mentioned Twiglets.

They were the Pringles of the 1970s and I can't resist them

Oh and that "Creme Caramel" from the packet aswell.

Pavlova?
Meringues?
Sponge cake?
Chocolate brownies?

You definitely need some After Eights am Matchmakers. I remember as a child thinking these were the height of sophistication 😆

If you’re making trifle, it has to have angelica threads on top, along with glacé cherries

Definitely sylabub also Joni Mitchel, Mahjong and home brew beer were all very popular with my parents and their friends in the 70s.

And avocados with lumpfish roe in middle, served with a slice of lemon.

Oh, and a Cinzano in a cut crystal tumbler.

And salmon mousse made in a mould the shape of a salmon swimming, with delicate curly cucumber scales.

And chicken liver pate which always came with a zig-zag cut half tomato.

Lots of rainbow trout and roast lamb featured too.

Just imagining in 40 years time a thread reminiscing about prosecco, posh gin and tonic and triple fried chips at an authentic 2010s party.