Verdict: Retro Recipes...Appetizers

"Fab Finger Food From the '50s"!

Wow, retro appeal, alliteration AND correct apostrophe use! Seems like these guys are onto a winner from the start.
Alas.
This is a little cardboard book, the kind you usually see all warped, stained and spit-smeared on toddlers' bookshelves and containing 'A is for apple', and so on.
Actually it's part of a series printed and owned in the UK. Other titles are "Cocktails", "Snacks" and "Desserts". This one is written / compiled by Carla Capalbo and released in 2000.

Technically, it's a winner, cashing in on the super-mega-worldwide appeal for all things kitsch and vintage, including kitchenalia. On that score it wins big. Maybe as something to display, tongue-in-cheek, in your hip kitchen, then yes.

However, on the reality side, the "am I ever going to cook this?" side, I have to report that there are some... issues.

Most-cooked recipe: None. But I probably will. Maybe. Considering there are only ten recipes, the choices are somewhat limited.

Recipe I haven't tried, but it was one of the reasons I bought the book: The only thing I would consider making would be the Stuffed Mushroom Caps. Filling: garlic, parsley, Parmesan and pine nuts, olive oil, seasoning. But then again, I'd probably totally alter the filling so that it didn't contain oil AND cheese AND pine nuts....rich oily overload! I suspect I would make them more like the Chinese stuffed mushrooms you usually encounter at yum cha. But then would I really be making the recipe? Existential dilemma.

Rejected recipe: Oh god, the Tomato Aspic. Clear red jellied soup in a ring mould and filled with various saladal items. The worst thing is the instruction "If you don't have a ring mould, make it in a shallow dish and cut it into squares and triangles before serving". Imagine being faced with a platter of bulky quivering red triangles. Shudder.

General good things: A few funky illustrations and brand-name ads pulled from real recipe books of the 50s. Devilled eggs are a good inclusion, but I'm not sure how retro they are. People I know still make devilled eggs.

General bad things: 1) The instruction to "decorate (above devilled eggs) with olives, capers, pimiento or anchovies, cut into little shapes". And the picture, I swear it's true, has little heart-shaped olives and pimientos, each about the size of a dot and representing the most pointless, labour-intensive and time-consuming task I have EVER imagined doing in the kitchen. Other decorative works- you can see them being appreciated and relevant. Studding a ham. Icing a cake. Making sugar flowers. And so on. But carving an olive??
2) The Herbed Cheese Balls. Served in paper cups. Or, "speared with toothpicks".


Lameness factor: Suprisingly not too high. After all, the book is designed to be lame.

Overall rating(from 20): 15