By Ed Goode — 21 Feb 2023

Mayonnaise cups

The thing about these mayonnaise cups is that they are actually kind of delicious. They are tastier than they have any business being, but they are also confusing. How are you supposed to serve them? Probably as part of a platter of appetisers, and The Hostess Cookbook has a few more great suggestions for that.

It’s not clear whether this recipe for Battlement Dips is something you’re supposed to eat, or something purely decorative, but it is edible:

Ingredients: bread, lard, cheese, mayonnaise, walnuts, appetisers

Cut a 2 inch slice from a 2 lb. sandwich loaf lengthwise. Remove the crusts. Place on a flat board and cut out the entire centre, leaving a rim about 1/2 inch all round. You now have a rim almost resembling a honeycomb, though a little longer. Brush all over with melted lard and bake in a slow oven until pale brown and crisp. The rim is now ready to be filled and decorated. Give it a battlement effect by cutting pieces of cheese 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch, dipping them in mayonnaise and sticking them all around the rim about 1/2 inch apart. Sprinkle them with finely chopped walnuts. Place on a dish and fill with small appetisers such as olives, cheese balls, fish or ham balls, walnut or pecan lovers, smothered walnuts, liver sausage balls, etc. Place each on a cocktail pick and pile into the Battlements.

A black and white picture of some appetisers for a party. In the lower left hand corner, a plate of multi-layered sandwiches is partially visible, and in the right, a plate of some sort of bread twist. In the centre there is a large white plate with what is presumably an orange in the middle. Lots of assorted things on sticks are sticking out of it. The rim of the plate has a row of fairly nasty looking but otherwise unidentifiable black and white blobs that glisten in a way that doesn't really invite you to try them.

A colour photograph of a wooden tray of appetisers. The tray has a wooden sculpture of a person with a quitar and a mustache and a sombrero, with a cactus behind him. Both the cactus and the sombrero have toothpicks stuck into them. Each toothpick has a cube of some sort of red meat that's heavily streaked with fat, and a colourful blob that's probably a pickled onion on top of the meat. The tray itself has a lot of crackers with toppings fussily arranged into flowers on top. It looks like a lot of work went into it. It doesn't look very appetising, though. — Both pictures from the *Hostess Cookbook*

The mayonnaise cups are a little plain on their own, though, so why not also make these Wedding-Bell Savouries?

Ingredients: lobster, cheese, cream or top milk, crystallized cherries

Mince finely enough lobster to make 1 cup pressed down (1 medium-sized lobster). Mix to a paste with 4 oz. soft cheese. Season with salt and pepper and moisten with 2 teasp. cream or top milk. Mould into little wedding bells about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches high, pressing the bottom up a little with the thumb to form a slight hollow. Work a cocktail pick right through the centre and place a little piece of crystallized cherry on the end to represent the tongue.

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