This post is going to be kind of short as there is only one starter this year: Shrimp Cocktail. The recipe card only includes the directions to make the sauce. I guess they assume you already have some cooked shrimp lying around. I just gave my shrimp a quick boil as that seemed like what a mid-century cook would have done. Though any way one likes to cook their shrimp (or buy it pre-cooked) will work for this recipe.

Shrimp cocktail being a starter is not surprising as it use to be a VERY popular appetizer for quite a long time. Making this to go along with this 1958 Thanksgiving menu made me remember that a shrimp cocktail ring was always at the holidays in my family during the 1980s and 1990s. I am not quite sure when it stopped but it probably was when getting shrimp for a group started getting quite pricey. To highlight how popular seafood cocktails were in the mid-century, I would point out that the recipe card had five different ways to make this sauce.

This one is a very basic cocktail sauce. It can be easily tweaked to suit one’s tastes. Like it spicier: add more horseradish, cayenne pepper, and hot sauce. Less spicy is your thing: swap the cayenne out for paprika, omit the hot sauce and maybe do less horseradish.

Don’t like shrimp but still want a mid-century appetizer? Well then check out some of these:
–Lively Dip
–California Dip
–Mish Mash Dip
–Clam Dip
–Blue Cheese Balls
–Curried Wheat Bites
–Blue Cheese Walnut Cheese Ball
–Tomato Aspic