“Our Tea Party Shelf” (1923)

Today’s post comes from a fascinating booklet called “Party Eats,” published 1923. It’s a combo of recipes and advice for hosting parties of all sorts, but mostly the casual sort you’d have in the 1920s during the day– tea parties, luncheons, club dinners, etc. This specific article is about making a “tea party shelf”– a prepared section of the kitchen with things that you can quickly throw together to host a tea without having to work too hard to get it ready. It has some great ideas for little snacky things to eat, some interesting ideas for things to put into tea (fruit tablets??), and even ideas on how to make food easily in hot weather without having to heat up the kitchen (this was before air conditioning!).

I transcribed the text myself from a PDF scan provided on the Internet Archive via the Library of Congress. Enjoy!

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WE HAVE at last solved the problem of what to serve with our winter five-o’clock tea and hot-weather drinks and how to have it on short notice, by an institution called “our afternoon tea shelf.” In this space, set apart, are gathered together all sorts of dainty, quickly-prepared delicacies suitable for the social rite of tea. Of course there are the usual package wafers and small cakes and crackers that have been created for the relief of harassed hostesses and we add an occasional jar of home-baked cookies when a cool morning moves our cooking spirit in that direction.

On the shelf to serve with cookies and crackers are ready-made goodies, such as marshmallows, candied fruits, chocolate, nut meats, peanut butter, coconut, raisins, dates, figs, even cheese and the various spices, a jar or two of canned fruit preserves, jams, marmalades, and jellies, A basket of lemons is imperative.

Both loaf and powdered sugar are there, also rock candy (for sweetening the hot tea on cool days), candied rose petals, violets and mint leaves, which are lovely floating on top of the cup, honey, fruit pastes, a jar of assorted fruit tablets (they give a variety of flavors dissolved in the tea), and a jar of good mayonnaise, for we like something beside sweets in hot weather.

We spread cream cheese mixed with sugar and melted chocolate on little molasses cookies. Honey, thickened with nuts, is a quick filling for any sort of wafer. Common ginger snaps are rendered uncommonly tasty with a spread of date paste and nuts.

Peanut butter, cream, and confectioner’s sugar, or peanut butter and icing, are good between plain crackers. Cheese wafers are made even more appetizing by a dab of something piquant—any salad mixture on hand, a few chopped olives, pickles, nuts, or celery mixed with boiled mayonnaise; dated pounded to a paste with cream and dusted with powdered cloves or all-spice.

Marshmallows, of course, are always a good stand-by. Laid over plain round crackers or sweet ones, and popped into a moderate oven to puff and brown, with a nut or cherry or a bit of coconut pressed into the top before cooling, they are popular “trimming.”

Day-old bread, crustless and cut into finger lengths, toasted carefully and spread with butter, sugar, and cinnamon, is not to be despised. When something especially tasty is desired, as when the men-folk swarm around, we mash hard-cooked eggs, grated cheese, ground boiled ham with French mustard or mayonnaise, and spread on crackers. Something else the summer man likes is toast sprinkled with minced green pepper and dotted with mayonnaise.

An easy home-made refreshment is angel, sunshine, or other light loaf cake, fresh baked and cooled, cut into thin slices and put together sandwich fashion with an icing made by stirring canned milk into powdered sugar, flavored and enriched with nuts. If desired, cut these cake sandwiches into narrow strips. This sort of icing is excellent for dressing up all manner of plain crackers, and takes but a few moments to prepare. Nothing could be much simpler than sweet chocolate melted and poured over wafers, and a most delicious result is achieved by melting chocolate drops on crackers.

Ordinary drop cakes may be quickly transformed by scooping out the center and filling with marmalade. Even brown bread gems are acceptable so treated.

An unusual little macaroon consists of rolled oats, cheese, and dates in any proportion liked. For cheese biscuits, good on a chilly afternoon, roll biscuit dough thin, spread with chopped nuts, grated cheese, and a little cream, fold over and cut into tiny rounds, sprinkle the tops with some of the filling mixture, and bake.

By the way, in warm weather, when the kitchen should be kept cool, bake cookies on the griddle instead of in the oven. Do no have the griddle too hot, only lightly greased, and turn the cookies with a cake turner when one side is browned.

We substitute the ice box for the steaming kettle when it comes to beverages. We have fruit juices saved from canning, lemon syrup purposely made, or some of the delicious drinks to be bought ready bottled, and we serve a thick syrup instead of sugar with iced tea.

Transcriber’s Notes

• Last paragraph, changed “sirup” to more common spelling “syrup.”

Sources

Woman’s Home Companion. Party Eats for Luncheons and Dinners, for Parties and Teas (1923). Page 12-13. PDF from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/partyeatsforlunc00unse/mode/1up

Illustration from original book, page 12.