The Super Bowl looms ahead, with advertisements we hope will be clever and a halftime show we hope will be entertaining. I’m told Football is played between the ads and singing. We hope the game is good and that there are neither injuries nor a lopsided score. But what we really hope is that the snacks are good. Liking football is not a requirement for liking the snacks associated with football. We’re called this post “A 1960s Dip and Spread for Game Day,” but it could also be called “A 1960s Dip and Spread for Friday Night” or “A 1960s Dip and Spread for Book Club.” Enjoying these snacks is not football interdependent.
Both recipes come from Lessons in Gourmet Cooking (1963), by Libby Hillman. Ms. Hillman taught cooking for the Adult Classes in Great Neck, NY and always packed the house. The book includes background info, instructions, recipes and Q&A. Ivy Bottini’s line drawing illustrations have a Great British Baking Show vibe to them.
One would hardly consider me a gourmet. My idea of game snacks is a tub of onion dip and a bag of ridged chips. The only gourmet aspect would be in presentation, if I took the onion dip out of the plastic tub and the chips out of the bag and put each in their own bowl. But both of these recipes, one for a dip and one for a spread, are simple enough and intriguing enough that I can imagine myself making both.
Technically the name for this recipe is Bleu Cheese Dunk; we’re calling it a dip. Maybe “dunk” was considered more chic than “dip” in the 1960s. Author and chef James Beard is generally credited with trying to popularize crudités in the 60s. I can’t remember raw vegetables being a thing until the 1970s, and then only when served with ranch dressing.
Invoking ranch dressing means we are legally obligated to provide in a little ranch dressing history. For those of you wondering, there was indeed Hidden Valley Ranch in Santa Barbara, CA in the 1950s and ranch dressing was really served there. The inventor, Steve Henson, a plumber turned rancher and innkeeper, served it at the ranch steakhouse. By 1957, there was a mail order business for dry seasoning mix. The actual ranch closed in the mid 1960s, but the dressing business roared on and was eventually purchased by Clorox in 1972.
But that has nothing to do with Bleu Cheese Dunk/Dip, which would be a nice change from the expected ranch dressing on the vegetable platter. It would also be delightful with buffalo wings and celery.
Port wine cheese spread holds a position of great culinary reverence in my family. Who doesn’t love processed pasteurized cheese food? Many the summer evening was spent eating Wheat Thins and port wine spread with my father. But it never crossed my mind to actually make it from scratch. Until now.
Wine Cheese Pot is a nicer name. But I love that it is ideally stored in a crock, just like the store bought cheese spread served in my house in the 1960s. Brown stoneware cheese crocks turn up at thrift stores with some regularity and can be bought from vintage sellers as well, although we suspect any storage container would do.
The recipe calls for “soft cheddar cheese.” Soft cheddar is a young or mild cheddar, aged only for a brief period of time.
However you choose to spend your Super Bowl Sunday, we hope you’ll give these vintage recipes a try. Life is too short for boring snacks.
