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1920s Recipes

1920s recipes from Prohibition cookbooks and a 1925 London cocktail book: cheese straws, deviled eggs, rum-tum-tiddy and a hot fudge sundae.

These 1920s recipes come from the books that told people what to serve at home once the bars had closed. Nationwide Prohibition began in the United States on January 17, 1920, and the cookbooks printed in the years after it show the food that took the drink’s place: melted cheese stirred up in the kitchen, waffles under creamed beef, cookies beside the punch bowl and an ice cream sundae. What Did Americans Cook When the Bars Closed in 1920? reads them.

Three books carry most of it. Bertha Stockbridge’s What to Drink, written in 1920 for the hostess of the dry years, offers a hot fudge sundae in place of a drink. The Stag Cook Book of 1922 a book of men’s recipes, has President Harding’s waffles, deviled eggs printed under Houdini’s name, a stuffed celery with Roquefort and a rum-tum-tiddy of cheese, tomato soup and beer for a crowd. A Woman’s World Sunday menu of 1924 adds small peanut cookies to go with a bowl of fruit punch.

In London, where cocktails were still legal, Nina Toye and A. H. Adair’s Drinks: Long and Short of 1925 listed what to set out with the shaker: salted nuts, olives, cheese straws and brown bread-and-butter rolled around a strip of pimento. Those small, salty things are the subject of What Did You Nibble With a Cocktail in the 1920s? The recipes here are the food only, each from its own book and measured for a kitchen today.

What Did Americans Cook When the Bars Closed in 1920?

  • A slice of toast on a white plate covered with a smooth pink-orange cheese and tomato sauce flecked with finely chopped green pepper, spilling onto the plate, beside an aluminum saucepan of more sauce with a wooden spoon, on a white enamel table with a blue edge.

    Main course · 30 min total

    Rum-Tum-Tiddy (1922) 

    Rum-tum-tiddy, Frank Ward O’Malley’s kitchen supper for unexpected guests from The Stag Cook Book of 1922: American cheese melted with tomato soup, eggs, green pepper and a splash of beer, poured hot over toast.

  • A dozen small domed drop cookies studded with chopped peanuts on a white platter, one broken open to show a soft cakey crumb, with a glass cup of pineapple punch and a strawberry on a green checked cloth on a porch.

    Desserts & Sweets · 1 hr 30 min total

    Peanut Cookies (1924) 

    Peanut cookies from a Woman’s World summer menu of 1924, served with coffee and fruit punch: small drops of butter, sugar and chopped raw peanuts, sharpened with lemon juice.

  • A scoop of vanilla ice cream under glossy dark fudge sauce and walnut pieces in a stemmed glass coupe on a doily-covered plate with a silver spoon, on a polished wooden sideboard.

    Desserts & Sweets · 20 min total

    Hot Fudge Sundae (1920) 

    A hot fudge sundae from What to Drink, Bertha Stockbridge’s 1920 book for the hostess of the dry years: vanilla ice cream under her heavy fudge sauce, kept hot in a double boiler and finished with nuts.

What Did You Nibble With a Cocktail in the 1920s?

  • A small cut-glass dish heaped with pale golden fried whole almonds, glossy and dusted with fine salt.
    Salted nuts

    Starter · 35 min total

    Salted Almonds (1918) 

    Salted almonds Fannie Farmer’s way, for the cocktail list’s salted nuts: blanched almonds fried a handful at a time in olive oil until pale gold, drained on paper and salted.

  • Long, thin, light golden pastry straws flecked with orange cheese and red paprika, stacked crosswise in a small pile on a white plate.
    Cheese straws

    Starter · 1 hr 25 min total

    Cheese Straws (1924) 

    Pie pastry rolled thin with grated cheese and paprika, folded and rolled three times, then cut in long strips and baked light brown: cheese straws from 1924.

  • Small spirals of thin brown bread and butter, each with a spiral of bright red pimento rolled inside, standing on end on a round silver-plated tray.
    Small rolled slices of brown bread-and-butter

    Starter · 50 min total

    Brown Bread-and-Butter Rolls with Pimento (1925) 

    Brown bread-and-butter rolls with pimento, cocktail fare from a London book of 1925: thin slices, crusts off, buttered and rolled around a strip of red pimento, then cut small.

  • Ten short lengths of pale inner celery, each filled along its hollow with a smooth pink cheese spread flecked with blue-gray Roquefort, side by side on a long glass dish on gray marble.
    Stuffed Celery

    Starter · 1 hr 5 min total

    Stuffed Celery with Roquefort (1922) 

    Stuffed celery with Roquefort, Frazier Hunt’s favorite from The Stag Cook Book of 1922: the cheese creamed with butter, Worcestershire sauce and paprika, pressed into crisp stalks.

  • Twelve hard-boiled egg halves standing upright like small cups, each filled with a pale yellow yolk mixture, on a bed of watercress on a white oval platter.
    Deviled Eggs

    Starter · 1 hr total

    Houdini’s Deviled Eggs (1922) 

    Houdini’s deviled eggs: hard-boiled halves trimmed to stand upright, filled with yolk rubbed smooth with melted butter, cayenne, mustard and vinegar, and set on dressed watercress.

What food was served at a 1920s cocktail party?

Small salty things you could eat with one hand. The London book of 1925 lists tiny sandwiches of pâté or caviar, olives, salted nuts, crackers, Cheese Straws and Pimento Rolls of brown bread and butter. American books of the same years add Salted Almonds, Stuffed Celery with Roquefort and deviled eggs.

What did Americans cook during Prohibition?

Food for entertaining at home. The Stag Cook Book’s Rum-Tum-Tiddy melts cheese with tomato soup, eggs, green pepper and beer over hot toast, and President Harding’s Waffles come under creamed chipped beef, the way he liked them.

The books we used give ice cream and cookies. Stockbridge’s Hot Fudge Sundae pours a heavy fudge sauce, kept hot in a double boiler, over vanilla ice cream with nuts, and the Peanut Cookies of 1924 are small drops with chopped peanuts and lemon.

What they drank with it

The cocktail nibbles here were made to go with a drink. Forgotten Drink, our sister site, mixes the Sidecar, White Lady and Monkey Gland of the London and Paris bars, and the soda-fountain drinks of Prohibition, in its 1920s drinks (opens in a new tab).