Appetizers List: Hors d'Oeuvres Ideas for Parties, by Type

My mother kept a list of hors d'oeuvres taped inside a kitchen cabinet, and every party started with her standing in front of it with a pencil. This is my version of that list, sorted the way I actually plan: what is cold, what is hot, what works for the vegetarians, what involves seafood, and what is sweet. Next to the ideas are the practical things that decide whether a bite belongs on your menu at all. Can it sit out? Will it survive a car ride? Does it need a fork? A lovely appetizer that wilts in twenty minutes is a bad appetizer for a three-hour party.

How many pieces per guest

This is the question I get most, so here are the numbers I use.

A worked example: 40 guests at a two-hour evening party with no dinner means about 440 pieces. Spread over eight bites, that is 55 of each. I round the cheap, filling ones up (cheese, bread-based bites) and the expensive ones down (shrimp, lamb), so it might be 70 mini grilled cheese and 40 lamb chops. Add a cheese board or a dip with vegetables and you can lower the count by about two pieces per person, because people graze from it constantly.

Cold bites

• Curried chicken salad with toasted almonds in endive leaves
• Mini tomato, basil and mozzarella sandwiches, toasted
• Figs with brie and a drop of honey, on a cracker or by themselves
• Cucumber rounds with herbed cream cheese and smoked trout
• Deviled eggs, classic or with a little curry and chive
• Prosciutto-wrapped melon or asparagus
• Crudites with a creamy dip such as the curry dip
• Smoked salmon on brown bread, or slices of homemade gravlax with mustard dill sauce

Cold bites are the backbone of any list because you can finish them before the doorbell rings. Most hold at room temperature for an hour or two, though anything with chicken, eggs, seafood or soft cheese follows the 2-hour rule: after two hours out, it goes back in the refrigerator or in the trash.

Hot bites

• Mini grilled cheese squares with brie, thin apple and apple chutney
• Mini heart-shaped cornmeal waffles with fried chicken and a drizzle of maple syrup
• Candied bacon lollipops with a cider glaze
• Char siu style frenched lamb chops
• Stuffed mushrooms with sausage or with spinach and cheese
• Mini crab cakes with lemon aioli
• Pigs in a blanket with grainy mustard (everyone pretends not to want them; they vanish first)
• Small squares of savory tart, such as a cherry tomato and goat cheese tart

Hot food is where parties go wrong. Choose no more than two or three hot bites if you are on your own, and pick ones that can be fully assembled ahead and only need an oven. The lamb chops and waffles need someone at the stove; the grilled cheese and mushrooms do not. Hot bites held on a buffet need to stay at 140°F (60°C) or above, which in practice means small batches out of the oven every 20 to 30 minutes rather than one big tray.

Vegetarian bites

• Roasted golden beet rounds with whipped goat cheese and chives
• Mini BLTs with smoky eggplant in place of bacon
• Marinated mozzarella and cherry tomatoes on short skewers
• Spanakopita triangles
• White bean and rosemary crostini
• Stuffed grape leaves
• Pimento cheese on celery or crackers

Plan for about a third of your bites to be vegetarian even if you only know of one or two vegetarians coming. Everyone eats them.

Seafood bites

• Shrimp shooters: a chilled shrimp hooked over a small glass of spicy cocktail sauce
• Scallops wrapped in bacon
• Smoked salmon mousse piped onto cucumber
• Crab salad in phyllo cups
• Tuna tartare on rice crackers

Seafood is the category to buy last and serve first. Keep it on ice, in small batches, and refill rather than setting out the whole lot.

Sweet bites

• Tiny lemon tarts
• Chocolate-dipped strawberries
• Brownie bites with flaky salt
• Mini cheesecakes in paper cups
• Figs or dates stuffed with mascarpone and a walnut half

What travels and what holds

If you are bringing appetizers to someone else's house, the list shrinks. These are my rules of thumb.

The pattern is that anything with a crisp base gets assembled on site. Pack the filling and the base separately and give yourself ten minutes in their kitchen.

Three short recipes

Figs with brie

For 24 pieces, halve 12 ripe fresh figs from top to bottom. Cut a wedge of brie, well chilled so it slices cleanly, into 24 small pieces. Press one onto the cut face of each fig half, set them on a sheet pan, and slide them under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes, just until the cheese slumps at the edges. Drizzle with honey, grind on black pepper and scatter a few thyme leaves. They are good warm or at room temperature. When fresh figs are out of season, use dried figs plumped in hot tea for 15 minutes and a cracker underneath.

Roasted golden beet rounds

Wrap 4 medium golden beets in foil and roast at 400°F (205°C) for 50 to 60 minutes, until a skewer slides through. Cool, rub off the skins and slice into 1/4-inch rounds; you should get about 30. Beat 6 ounces of fresh goat cheese with 2 tablespoons of cream, a little lemon zest and salt until fluffy. Pipe or spoon a small mound on each round and finish with snipped chives and a few grains of flaky salt. The beets can be roasted two days ahead. Golden beets are the choice here because they do not stain the cheese pink.

Curried chicken salad in endive

Poach 1 1/2 pounds of boneless chicken breast in salted water at a bare simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until it reaches 165°F (74°C). Cool and dice it finely. Fold in 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 2 teaspoons curry powder, a spoonful of mango chutney, a finely diced celery stalk, and 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds. Season and chill. Separate 4 or 5 heads of Belgian endive into leaves and spoon a heaping teaspoon into the wide end of each. That makes about 40 pieces. Fill them no more than an hour before serving or the leaves soften.

A sample list for 30

For a two-hour Saturday party for 30, I would choose: figs with brie, golden beet rounds, curried chicken in endive, shrimp shooters, mini grilled cheese, stuffed mushrooms, white bean crostini and brownie bites, at about 40 pieces each, plus a crudite platter. Only two items need the oven during the party, and both are baked straight from the refrigerator on sheet pans. For more ideas there is the whole Party Food section.

The figs always go first, so put them at the far end of the table, away from the door.