A debonair gentleman approaches a very pregnant Betty Draper outside the ladies’ room at the Long Island country club where Jane and Roger Sterling are hosting their Kentucky Derby–themed garden party (season 3, episode 3; “My Old Kentucky Home”).
“I wish you were waiting for me,” he says, as smooth an opening line as we’ve ever heard. After asking her what it feels like to be pregnant, he makes a startlingly intimate gesture: “I’m going to blame this on martinis,” he says, “but may I?” He extends his hand, Betty nods, and Henry Francis touches Betty—who will soon become Mrs. Henry Francis—for the first time. But it’s not until later in the evening that they meet formally: Bert Cooper introduces Betty and Don to Henry and we learn Henry works as an aide to New York governor Nelson Rockefeller. He has come to the party directly from Rockefeller’s wedding.
Betty next meets Henry when she seeks his help on behalf of the Junior League of Tarrytown. The mutual attraction is clear, and Betty begins looking for ways to stay in touch.
One morning, Betty reads a headline in the New York Times proclaiming that GOP experts are writing off Rockefeller’s chances for the 1964 presidential nomination. This prompts Betty to mail Henry a note that ends: “Does anyone else read this?” He replies a few days later, “Dear Betty…not anymore. H.”
When Henry appears at Betty’s house unannounced in the middle of the day, she is nonplussed. They share a moment, but only until Carla, the housekeeper, comes in. To mask the nature of his visit, Henry tells Betty her home looks like a perfect venue for a fundraiser and leaves quickly, but Carla’s face betrays her suspicion.
To cover her tracks, Betty places a businesslike call to Henry, while Don sits nearby, to tell him they can host the fundraiser. Henry is puzzled; for a moment he doesn’t recall his off-the-cuff remark that morning. But now the event is on. When the day arrives, Betty feels betrayed when Henry sends an aide in his stead.
The Rockefeller fundraiser as depicted in Mad Men was a typical 1960s-style cocktail party. About a dozen men and women, formally dressed, sip cocktails and nibble on finger foods: canapés, shrimp, and dips. These “nibblers,” as some called them, are, in the words of the New Good Housekeeping Cookbook (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963), “tantalizing little party foods.”
In creating our own cocktail party hors d’oeuvres menu, we drew inspiration from Betty’s and culled dozens of cookbooks to arrive at an appetizer selection representative of the era and the setting. We chose several that Henry Francis would have regretted missing.
These miniature toasts were a fixture of the cocktail party scene in the 1950s and ’60s. Virtually every cookbook of the era offered canapé recipes with toppings ranging from caviar, hot cheddar cheese, and deviled chicken to liverwurst, lobster, and toasted Parmesan. Easy to make and easy to eat while managing a cocktail with the other hand, the canapé boasted virtually endless permutations. Taste and texture will vary depending on the base (we use Melba toasts) and the toppings. Ours include toppings of mushroom, a Parmesan onion mix, curry butter with shrimp, and cream cheese chutney spreads.
Canapés are also easy to serve. As Joan Holloway says to Roger Sterling about the way Shirley MacLaine’s character, Fran Kubelik, was mistreated in the 1960 film, The Apartment, “The way those men treated that poor girl, handing her around like a tray of canapés?” (season 1, episode 10; “Long Weekend”). It’s no way to treat a woman, but canapés are meant to be passed around…on a tray.
ADAPTED FROM JAMES BEARD’S HORS D’OEUVRES AND CANAPÉS BY JAMES BEARD (WILLIAM MORROW & CO., 1963)
3 tablespoons prepared mango chutney
2 tablespoons chopped preserved ginger
2 tablespoons grated fresh coconut (or sweetened coconut flakes)
2 teaspoons curry powder
8 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons chopped blanched almonds (optional)
40 Melba Toast rounds (see Melba Toast)
Place ingredients in a small bowl, mix well, and spread on Melba Toast rounds.
YIELD: 40 CANAPÉS
ADAPTED FROM THE PLAYBOY GOURMET BY THOMAS MARIO (CROWN, 1961)
1 pound small–medium shrimp, peeled (approximately 30 shrimp)
Salt, for water and for sprinkling
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1⁄2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 teaspoons curry powder
½ teaspoon ground coriander
30 Melba toast rounds (see Melba Toast)
Ground white pepper, for sprinkling
2 finely chopped chives, for sprinkling
YIELD: 30 CANAPÉS
ADAPTED FROM BETTY CROCKER’S NEW GOOD AND EASY COOKBOOK (GOLDEN PRESS, 1962)
1 pound mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, to taste
1⁄2 teaspoon onion salt
1⁄4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
20 Melba toast rounds (see Melba Toast)
Minced parsley, for garnish
YIELD: 20 CANAPÉS
ADAPTED FROM LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL COOKBOOK, BY CAROL TRUAX, ED. (DOUBLEDAY, 1963)
3⁄4 cup minced onion
1⁄2 cup mayonnaise
1⁄3 cup Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling
20 Melba Toast rounds (see Melba Toast)
Paprika, for sprinkling
YIELD: 20 CANAPÉS
FROM JULIA CHILD & COMPANY BY JULIA CHILD (KNOPF, 1978)
NOTE: Melba toast is a thin, dry toast that makes a wonderful base for canapés. James Beard and other chefs regularly called for them in canapé recipes of the 1960s. We like using Julia Child's recipe as a base for our canapé toppings.
We prefer to use thinly sliced sandwich bread, such as Pepperidge Farm, but the original recipe calls for a nonsweet sandwich loaf, at least a day old.
The toasts may be prepared well in advance, refrigerated or frozen, and recrisped in the oven before serving.
1 loaf sandwich bread (see note above)
YIELD: APPROXIMATELY 60 MELBA TOASTS
Another mid-century classic was the cheeseball: a mixture of cheeses processed until creamy, spiced with accents such as Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and hot pepper sauce, formed into a ball, and rolled, typically in spices and nuts. For convenience and presentation we chose a recipe for mini-cheeseballs.
FROM THE VOGUE BOOK OF MENUS AND RECIPES BY JESSICA DAVES (HARPER & ROW, 1964)
8 ounces salted almonds
8 ounces cream cheese
1⁄2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 dashes Tabasco
Crackers, for serving
YIELD: 36–40 BALLS
This mix, which uses Chex brand cereal as a base, has been a popular cocktail party nosh for more than half a century. Typically combined with pretzels, nuts, and seasoning and served toasted or warm, the salty Chex Mix will ensure your guests don’t ignore the cocktails. Ralston Purina introduced Chex in 1942, and recipes for the mix began appearing on Chex boxes a decade later. As television became a part of daily American life, snack foods designed for watching “the tube” proliferated. Dubbed a “TV mix,” you ate it with bowl in one hand and eyes glued to the television. Regardless, it works just as well as a cocktail party nibbler. The seasoning in McCall’s Cook Book (1963) differs slightly from the official Chex party mix, but it’s a winner.
AT PARTIES AND IN FRONT OF THE TELEVISION SET, CHEX MIX WAS A UBIQUITOUS SNACK OF THE 1950S AND ‘60S
ADAPTED FROM THE MCCALL’S COOK BOOK BY THE FOOD EDITORS OF MCCALL’S (RANDOM HOUSE, 1963)
2 cups pretzel sticks
3⁄4 cup peanuts
6 cups rice, corn, and/or wheat crispy cereal
squares, such as Chex
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1⁄4 teaspoon garlic salt
1⁄4 teaspoon onion salt
1⁄4 teaspoon celery salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted
YIELD: APPROXIMATELY 8 CUPS MIX
You need a dip to add zest to crackers and chips. Dips made with Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix, like Pete’s California Dip, were ubiquitous in the Draper era. We recommend that one and offer another: an avocado “dunk.” How avocados became popular with American consumers is a tale an ad man like Don would surely appreciate. When Americans were slow to take to the fruit in the early twentieth century, an ad man suggested a representative of the avocado growers’ association deny vehemently the “rumor” that avocados were an aphrodisiac. The result was predictable.
FROM LIFE’S PICTURE COOK BOOK (TIME, 1958)
2 avocados
1⁄4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 garlic clove, mashed
Freshly ground black pepper
Corn chips, for serving
YIELD: ABOUT 2 CUPS
Tips for a Successful Mad Men–Style Cocktail Party