Impromptu home entertaining has changed a lot over the years. Today if someone is planning to stop by my house, especially if they are hoping that I will serve them a meal, they will text or email to see if it is convenient.
A hundred years ago, people often didn’t have phones (or if they did, phone companies often provided extremely limited service), so friends and relatives just stopped by with no advance notice. The hosts were expected to be hospitable and often provided the guests with a meal.
A hundred-year-old magazine had lots of suggestions for how to quickly and easily pull together a lovely meal with a cold meat platter for unexpected guests:
The woman who can with equanimity view a motor full of hungry persons pulling into her yard just at luncheon or dinnertime, is a woman in a thousand. And yet, if she is hospitably inclined, and has had the forethought to make certain plans for this informal but delightful sort of entertaining, there is no reason in the world why she should feel the slightest anxiety.
In my own refrigerator I always keep a few cans of such viands as crab meat, salmon, tuna fish, sardines, Vienna sausage, veal loaf and chicken, with perhaps a jar or two of some tasty piquant cheese, one of mayonnaise, a head of lettuce and several bottles of a refreshing beverage. In addition to these stand-bys, I select once a week from a fine delicatessen shop an assortment, such as sliced cold boiled tongue, baked ham, several varieties of summer sausage, and Swiss, American Roquefort or Dutch cheese.
On my pantry shelf may be found a jar of pickled walnuts, a bottle each of plain and stuffed olives, one of tiny gherkins, and several kinds of homemade relishes, such as watermelon rind or cucumber rings.
From these good things I can prepare at short order an appetizing main dish which, with rye or white bread and butter, a generous pot of good coffee or hot canned soup, and a salad which is easily managed in summer, makes a most tempting meal. As to the sweet course, fruit either fresh or canned, or a delicate jelly with sweet crackers of which it is well to keep several varieties on hand if one dwells out of town.
Ladies Home Journal (August, 1926)
Whew! It almost sounds like the typical family got unexpected guests frequently. The author of the article seemed to think that cooks had an awfully lot of foods on hand that could be used to quickly prepare a cold meat platter and other dishes to feed unexpected guests. I can’t imagine buying lots of deli foods every week just in case someone happened to show up.
As someone who often finds it difficult to organize a coffee gathering or a meal for guests, in some ways I wish that people today felt free to just informally stop by. In other ways, it seems a little impolite for someone to just show up at my door, and they’d be lucky if they got any food. At most, I’d order a pizza.
It was strange advice indeed unless folks really did frequently stop by unplanned to that degree. Seems like an awful lot to stock up on when it’s only a ‘just in case’!
I stopped at pickled walnuts. What and why? I am not wasteful with food, and my refrigerator is always empty, so I never have a lot on hand. I might be able to find something in the freezer. Of course, today we can order out.