Party Appetizers From the Past

Tempting Appetizers and Sandwiches from the Kraft Kitchens (not dated, 12 pages) is a small fold-out recipe leaflet published by the Kraft Foods Company, probably sometime in the 1960s.

I'm guessing on this time period based upon my perusal of old magazine advertisements and also by the "look" of the leaflet itself as well as it's contents. The product packaging was slightly different during the late 1950s.

The recipes in this leaflet feature either Kraft Cheese Spreads in a jar or Kraft "Handi-Snack" Pasteurized Process Cheese Food Links as the main ingredient. Although I don't believe they make the Cheese Food Links anymore, I was surprised to find that some of the cheese jars were still available in a few flavors. I haven't ever seen them in the stores, but the Kraft Product Locator tells me that I can find several flavors in my area stores. Just out of curiosity, I'll have to take a look next time I'm at the grocery store.

After reading the raves about the Roka Cheese Spread on Roadfood, I am tempted to try it just to see what all the fuss is about. I don't remember ever having tried these products before. I don't remember that we had them around the house when I was growing up either, but maybe we did and they just weren't that memorable to me. I do remember an unknown brand of processed cheese in a can, which is the same animal in a different package.

I imagine that a handy aerosol can instead of the pastry tube used with the cheese on this Appetizer Tray below would have been much easier. Not so remarkably, the manufacturers thought so too, as later recipe booklets and magazine ads all show these same type appetizers made with canned cheese instead of jar or plastic tube cheese.

I do remember when snacks at parties consisted of sour cream-based dips and potato chips. I recall many teen parties with chips and French Onion dip on the table. It's funny, not long ago, when roaming the store aisles in search of pre-prepared processed food munchies, I picked up a carton of onion dip and a bag of potato chips to see if they still tasted good. I guess tastes do change because they weren't nearly as good as I remember. I'm a salsa and tortilla chip kind of girl now.

I can't imagine a worse flavor combination than dill pickle slices and process cheese spread, but here you go -- Cheese Frills. They must have sounded good to somebody.

This photo for the Snack Tray shows a nice display of the Garlic, Nippy Brand, Bacon and Hickory Smoked Cheese Food Links in their old packaging.

Here's one of the sandwich recipes--Appetizer Rolls, which look totally unappetizing in the illustration. The recipe isn't very inspiring either.


Out of the twelve recipes found in this leaflet, this one for Lily Sandwiches intrigues me the most. While the ingredient list consists of only four ingredients, the rest of the recipe is kind of fussy.

Of all the delicious party snacks and little sandwiches that I would wish to see on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day this year, none of them contain process cheese food from a jar, tube or a can. Sorry, Kraft.