Hors d’Oeuvres: American Version

Hors d’Oeuvres: American Version
The introduction of the pre-dinner cocktail hour in the early twentieth century changed American’s view of hors d’oeuvres.

Before World War I, guests at a dinner party were presumed to arrive punctually and to proceed almost immediately info the dining room.

If cocktails were served, they opened the dinner, accompanying a plated appetizer, once everyone was seated at the table.

This custom had change by the 1920s, when racy hostesses served hors d’oeuvres as “accompaniments for the liquid refreshment that dodges prohibition conscientiously and yet is flavorsome enough to make the quarter hour before dinner less solemn and uninteresting than it sometimes proves.”

After the repeal of Prohibition, the modern cocktail party burst n the scene, with a slew of recipes for hors d’oeuvres to help absorb the liquor.

Until about 1940s, “fine dining” restaurant menus tended to use French terminology in organizing the successive courses - at least for those courses that did not have a handy English translation, such as hors d’oeuvre, entrée, and entremets.

But a simple model for a “proper” meal was emerging from the 1920s on consisting of only three courses.

A term being needed to pigeonhole the many types of dishes being offered, the generic category “appetizers” began to appear denoting the first of three courses.

Appetizers broadly included soups, salads and savory pastries, all of which appeared as separate courses - although in smaller portions - in nineteenth and early twentieth century meals.
Hors d’Oeuvres: American Version