Food Ideas: 1920s Speakeasy Murder Mystery

1 Buffet Foods for a 1920s Speakeasy Murder Mystery Party

1.1 Salads

Green Goddess Salad - this is said to have been invented at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in 1923. It makes a wonderful and versatile addition to your buffet:

• Use this as a dip for crudities of your choice. If you want to add a wow factor to your table, place this dip inside a hollowed-out green cabbage or iceberg lettuce.
• Use as a dressing for a salad of your choice. (Salads consisting of green vegetables such as lettuce, cucumbers, green peppers, watercress, spring onions, blanched broccoli florets, and blanched peas are ideal as they go with the green color of the dip. You might also add green fruits such as green grapes or slices of green-skinned apple.) 
• To make this more substantial it can also be served with a protein source such as cooked chicken, cooked salmon, avocado, or nuts.
• To give an added wow factor to our table, we surrounded the plates of chicken and salmon with chopped green salad and chopped herbs and then drizzled the dressing over the chicken and salad and garnished with more chopped herbs. We also had a jug of dressing for guests who wanted more dressing to go with their salad - many did!
• The Green Goddess dressing can be made the day before; the chicken and salmon can be cooked the day before; some salad vegetables can also be prepared the day before.
• We found the dressing to be delicious, wonderfully aromatic, and popular with our guests; however, the color was a pale green at best. If you want the startling green color sometimes seen on recipe sites, then add green food coloring.

Waldorf salad - when this was invented in New York City in 1893, it only consisted of apples, celery and mayonnaise. By the 1920s, grapes and walnuts had been added. This is ideal party food as it can be made in advance (partly or completely) and refrigerated. 

Ginger Ale Salad - many 1920s cookery books give recipes for jellied fruit and vegetable "salads"; these were often served with mayonnaise. The 1921 Atlanta Woman's Club Cook Book gives two different recipes for ginger ale salad. One uses walnuts, white grapes, and canned peaches; the other uses apple, celery, pineapple, and crystalized ginger. (See original ginger ale salad recipes.)  I chose the best part of each recipe to create my own recipe:

Ingredients: 1 packet gelatine, 3 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 pint ginger ale (less 3 tablespoons for the lemon juice liquid; for a firmer set or for vegetarian gelatin, use slightly less liquid), 1 cup chopped apples, 1 cup chopped drained pineapple, 1 cup chopped celery, 1 cup chopped drained peaches, 2-4 balls of stem ginger, a handful of walnuts.
Method: lightly chop and toss the fruit and celery and arrange in a jelly mould of your choice; place walnuts on top for decoration. Prepare gelatin as per the manufacturer's instructions, ensuring the total liquid does not exceed 1 pint. As I used vegetarian gelatin, I dissolved the gelatin in ginger ale and heated the ginger ale, lemon juice and sugar until just boiling.  I then allowed the mixture to cool enough to pour over the mixed fruit, celery and walnuts. 
Note: if working with vegetarian gelatin, it is best to prepare this just a few hours before your party so the jelly does not have time to separate. Normal gelatin should produce a jelly that can be turned out onto crisp lettuce; vegetarian gelatin does not hold its shape so well and so is best served in an attractive glass dish. As this is a speakeasy party, shot glasses are also appropriate. 1920s parties would have served this salad with mayonnaise.

Frozen salads - the 1921 "Atlanta Woman's Club Cook Book" gives an interesting recipe for frozen pear salad made with a tin of frozen pears, lettuce, and mayonnaise. (See recipe for frozen pear salad.)

Other salads associated with the 1920s include the Candle Salad and the Caesar Salad. Looking at historical recipe books, however, it is evident that 1920s Americans also ate a variety of other salads. For example, "The Shorewood Cook Book", published in 1922, lists potato and celery salad, pineapple salad, prune salad, raisin and apple salad, banana and apple salad, tuna fish salad, beet salad, spinach and egg salad, cabbage salad, cherry salad, chicken salad, celery salad, cottage cheese salad, cucumber salad, daisy salad, lettuce salad, and others. (See salad recipes.)

1.2 Fish

Shrimp cocktail - some say this became popular in the Roaring Twenties due to Prohibition meaning that cocktail glasses were not (legally) used; given the number of speakeasies that sprung up and the alcoholic cocktails that the decade was famed for, this sounds a bit of a far-fetched theory. That said, the shrimp cocktail is an authentic choice for a 20s party.

Devilled crabs - these crab meat croquettes are thought to have originated as street food in Tampa, Florida, during a strike in the cigar factories during the late 1920s.

Crabmeat Remick - was invented at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in the 1920s.

1.3 Meat

Sliced ham - the 1921 book, "Recipes Tested by the Families of the Parish and Comp. by the Women's Guild" gives a recipe for ham boiled in cider and garnished with aspic jelly, parsley and olives.  (See ham and cider recipe.) Other Prohibition methods of cooking ham involved soaking cooked ham in whiskey or bourbon. These methods of cooking ham would be ideal for a buffet - or for fancy finger sandwiches.

Antipasto platter - include your choice of sliced cold meats; optionally arrange with dishes of olives, pickles, bruschetta slices, and cold or pickled vegetables.

1.4 Vegetarian

Devilled eggs - these were popular throughout the decade

Savory cheese balls - these grew in popularity during the cocktail parties of the decade. 

Cheese board - a cheese board is an easy way to add a dish to your buffet. Serve cheeses of your choice together with small attractive crackers, olives, mixed nuts, pickles, cornichons, pickled onions and grapes. Optionally impress with fresh figs or edible flowers. Presentation is key here - artfully arranging food and using dishes where helpful for olives and pickles can elevate a simple cheese board into something your guests will admire.

1.5 Other Snacks

Pretzels - pretzels were popular at the time - clever speakeasy owners placed bowls of these salty foods to encourage clients to drink (even more).

Stuffed celery - slices of celery stuffed with cream cheese and your choice of additions. Examples might be bacon bits, olives or pomegranate seeds. (For our test party, we gave the celery added flavor by using Boursin Cheese and then topping it with a swirl of Mayonnaise and half a grape.)

Finger sandwiches - use a filling of your choice. (Wonder bread was created in 1921 and so speakeasies would have had convenient sliced bread for sandwiches.)

Canapes - use slices of bread or pastry cut into interesting shapes (stars, circles, squares, triangles). Then top with a topping of your choice and add a decorative element such as half a grape or an olive.

Cheese straws - a useful extra.

2 1920s Speakeasy Dinner Party Ideas

2.1 Soups 

Recipes Compiled By the Women's Guild in 1921 shows that soups popular in the Twenties include Clam Chowder, Lobster Soup, Celery Soup, Tomato Soup, Onion Soup and Duchess Soup. Recipes can be found at the Internet Archive.

2.2 Other Starters

Consider using one of the cold buffet dishes in 1 above. This will enable you to play the game with your guests without disappearing into the kitchen for an extended period of time.

Alternatively, if you are happy to serve the starter before the main murder mystery starts, then you may wish to consider a Hot Brown Sandwich. -This was created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville in 1926. It is possible to make the mornay cheese sauce in advance and then chill it and then reheat it although many claim it is better fresh.

2.3 Main Course

Meat - Chicken à la King, meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, roasted duck, roast beef

Fish  - Crabmeat Remick (created at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1920), codfish cakes

German potato salad - this was served warm and so goes with hot meals.

Croquettes - historical cookbooks tell us that croquettes were popular throughout the decade. The 1921 "Atlanta Woman's Club Cook Book" has recipes for green corn, salmon, chicken, beef, rice, banana, nut and potato, and even brain croquettes. (See original croquette recipes.)  Alternatively, frozen potato croquettes are convenient and can be easily reheated while you are playing the game rounds.

Scalloped Sweet Potatoes and Oranges - this is an interesting dish that can be prepared ahead of schedule if you cover the top of your dish and place in the fridge. The 1921 "Recipes Tested by Families of the Parish and Comp. by the Women's Guild" book gives the instructions as "Cut cold boiled sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch slices. Remove the skin from oranges and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Put a layer of sweet potato slices in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with salt, cover with oranges and sprinkle with about a 1/4 cup of sugar and dot with small pieces of butter. Repeat leaving a final layer of oranges and sugar on top. Bake in a moderate oven for 3/4 of an hour and then garnish with orange peel. (See original recipe.) We loved this recipe although I reduced the sugar quantity and used soft brown sugar rather than white sugar.

Potato Whip - this is a fancy take on mashed potatoes. It would be great to prepare in advance of your party and then heat through as the guests are playing the rounds.  The 1921 "Recipes Tested by Families of the Parish and Comp. by the Women's Guild" book gives the instructions as: "Beat 1 pint of mashed potatoes, season with salt and pepper and moisten with a little milk or cream, 2 tablespoons of butter and the yolks of 2 eggs, When very light and creamy, add the well-beaten whites. Heap lightly on a dish and brown in the oven." (See original recipe.)

Spaghetti with Walnut Sauce - while this cannot easily be made in advance and is therefore only included for those hosts who choose to play the murder mystery game after dinner is served, this was allegedly a famous mobster's favorite food!

Vegetables - consider quick-cook vegetables such as spinach or thinly sliced vegetables. Or use a pressure cooker so that vegetables can be cooked as the main course is being served.

3 Desserts (For Both Buffets and Dinner Parties)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake - this became popular in 1925 when Dole ran a competition for the best pineapple recipe and the winner was a pineapple upside down cake.

Icebox Cake - this cake is named after the iceboxes that 1920s Americans used before fridges became widespread. It's a great make-ahead cake for your murder mystery as it needs to chill in the fridge in order for the cookies to absorb some moisture from the cream.  At its simplest, it is just layers of chocolate cookies and whipped cream. (The original recipe called for Nabisco Chocolate Wafers but Oreo Thins or Dewey's Bakery Brownie Crisp Cookies are modern-day alternatives; alternatively, use slices of cake soaked in syrup.)  This simple and easy-to-put-together pudding can be given extra taste by flavoring the cream with vanilla essence, alcohol or fruit zest. Optionally add layers of pie fillings.

Tip: to transform this wonderful 1920s dessert into a murder mystery one:

• • optionally smooth the whipped cream on the top of the cake and pipe the outline of a body using colored icing sugar
  • make some "fake blood" with corn syrup, cornstarch, red food coloring and a tiny amount of blue food coloring
  • pour fake blood over the top and down the sides
  • stick a sharp, clean kitchen knife into the cake.

Cupcakes - Hostess CupCakes were first sold in 1919 and so were available commercially in 1920s America. Add a murder mystery twist to this baking classic by your choice of:

• sprinkling the top with edible fake "blood" (use corn syrup, corn flour, red food color, and a small amount of blue food coloring)
• making a knife, axe, or gun shape out of a biscuit or pastry and then using icing and/or silver foil to decorate this "weapon"; silver foil can be used to give the "blade" a metallic look
• adding the outline of a body using piped icing 

Other popular 20s desserts include Persimmon Pudding, Charlotte Russe, Chocolate bread pudding and fruit jellies and mousses. Classic desserts such as pies (butterscotch, pumpkin or cherry pie, lemon meringue pie, rhubarb, blackberry) were still popular. Cakes included Lady Baltimore Cake, Angel Cake and many favorites common today such as lemon cake.

4 Cocktails and Mocktails

No speakeasy party would be complete without moonshine and cocktails. Many hosts like to serve cocktails in fancy cocktail glasses. For authenticity, however, you could serve them in tea cups! (Back in the days of Prohibition, speakeasy owners - and guests - wanted to pretend that alcohol was not being consumed. Within our game, some characters unconvincingly claim to be drinking pop or iced tea.)

Cocktails are the bee’s knees, doll; especially those with gin or champagne. A few Roaring Twenties favorites:

• The French 75 - a mix of gin, champagne and lemon
• The Gin Rickey - gin, lime juice and water
• The Bees Knees - gin, fresh lemon juice and honey
• The Sidecar - brandy, orange liqueur and lemon juice
• The Mary Pickford - rum, freshly squeezed pineapple juice, dash of Maraschino liqueur, dash of Grenadine syrup
• Mint Julep - bourbon, sugar syrup, mint leaves

Or try a Bathtub Gin Punch or a Planter's Punch.

Absinthe, or The Green Fairy, was a popular Prohibition drink due to its hallucinogenic properties; a slightly different recipe can now be bought legally.

Lemonade, soda pop or iced tea are ideal for non-alcoholic drinks. Or try mocktails such as a Prohibition Daisy (a blend of freshly squeezed orange, pineapple, lemon and lime juices with raspberry syrup).

For our own test party, we went for a personal favorite of mine: the Mimosa. Like Bucks Fizz, another 1920s invention, this is made with champagne and orange juice. Technically, the Mimosa is thought to have been invented at the Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1925 and the Bucks Fizz was created at Buck's Club in London in 1921, but the bootleggers smuggled champagne into the speakeasies the same as they smuggled gin and other alcohol.

5 Our Speakeasy Murder Mystery Buffet - Menu and Timings

5.1 Menu

For our murder mystery test party, we chose to have a buffet. We chose food that we could largely make in advance:

• Devilled eggs
• Green Goddess salad - we had a mix of meat eaters and pescatarians so we offered a choice of chicken or wild salmon on a bed of mixed green salad and then topped with Green Goddess dressing
• Waldorf salad
• Ginger ale salad - we served this in shot glasses and then served the remainder in an attractive glass dish
• Celery stuffed with Boursin cheese and topped with Mayonnaise and grape halves
• Cheese platter with grapes, fancy crackers and olives
• Homemade bread

For dessert, we offered the twenties classic: pineapple upside-down cake topped with pineapple rings and glace cherries. We then gave this a modern twist by serving it with homemade cherry and cherry brandy coulis and fresh cream. 

We also offered Mimosa cocktails garnished with an orange slice.

5.2 Timings

We set the table two days before the murder mystery party and placed the champagne glasses on the sideboard.

We made or prepared the following the day before the murder mystery and then refrigerated or covered food as appropriate:

• Green Goddess salad - we made the dressing, cooked the salmon and the chicken, and chopped the vegetables that would not spoil such as cucumber and peppers.
• Waldorf salad - we made the dressing, toasted the walnuts, and chopped the celery and grapes.
• Ginger ale salad - we chopped the celery, grapes, and peaches.
• Pineapple upside-down cake - we made this and then placed it in an airtight container.
• Cherry coulis with Cherry Brandy.
• Cut the orange slices.

We did the following on the afternoon of the murder mystery; all dishes were refrigerated as necessary:

• Ginger ale salad - we have previously found that dishes with vegetarian gelatin do not last as long as dishes with ordinary gelatin; we therefore finished making this salad a few hours before the party.
• Stuffed celery.
• Devilled eggs.
• Waldorf salad - cut the apple and tossed all ingredients with the dressing; washed the lettuce and arranged the lettuce and Waldorf salad on a serving plate.
• Green Goddess salad - we chopped the lettuce and arranged this and other pre-chopped vegetables on a plate; we sliced the chicken breasts diagonally; we then arranged the chicken and salmon over the lettuce and salad vegetables and drizzled the dressing over; then added a garnish of chopped herbs.
• We put some bread to bake in the breadmaker.
• We arranged the cheeses, grapes, pickles, olives, and crackers on a cheeseboard.

6 Ideas from Our Customers' Parties

Bonnie's 1920s night was the bees' knees. For starters, she served a shrimp cocktail and a charcuterie platter. For mains, she served a roasted pork shoulder with roasted seasonal vegetables. For dessert, she served eclairs and cream puffs.

Some hosts choose to provide a 1920s-style buffet. For Monica's swell couple weekend in a wooden cabin, each couple brought a different dish from the suggestions we give. Monica says "The food suggestions were helpful. Everyone took a category of food from your suggestions, so one couple brought a dessert one couple brought a meat, one couple brought a cold appetizer, etc. We had bacon-wrapped weenies, devilled eggs, some type of fancy salad, Mac n cheese and pineapple upside-down cake."

For Theresa's 40th birthday, she chose to have a birthday cake decorated with the typical gold and black 1920s colors. Then they went by stretch limo to a modern-day Speakeasy lounge in Tampa for a nightcap.