80s Party Food: A Menu Straight Off Mom's Card Table

Most 80s party food wasn't from the 80s. The cheese ball shows up in print in 1944. Pigs in a blanket, the sausage-in-dough kind, are in a 1940s Army cookbook. Deviled eggs go back to medieval Spain. What the 80s did was put all of it on one card table, next to a bowl of chips in a flavor that had just come out, and call it a party.

That's good news if you're hosting an 80s night. The food is cheap, most of it can be made the day before, and none of it needs a sous vide.

The dips

Spinach dip in a bread bowl. Nobody agrees on when the packet recipe started. It's been a potluck staple for as long as anyone can remember. Thawed frozen spinach squeezed very dry, sour cream, mayo, a packet of dry vegetable soup mix and chopped green onions. Chill it, hollow out a round sourdough loaf, and tear the bread you pulled out into dippers. The bowl gets eaten last, usually by one guy standing alone in the kitchen at 1 a.m.

Seven-layer dip. It was popular in Texas before it went national, and its first big national printing was a 1981 Family Circle recipe that didn't call it seven-layer anything. It was "Tex-Mex Dip." Refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cheese, olives and tomatoes or green onions, in a clear dish so people can see the layers. Seven is a suggestion.

Balls, bites and eggs

The cheese ball. Cream cheese, sharp cheddar, a little garlic or onion and a splash of Worcestershire, rolled in chopped pecans and chilled. Serve with butter crackers. Fun fact for the party: by the late 80s "cheeseball" had also become slang for something tacky, so the dish finally got an insult to match.

Pigs in a blanket. Cocktail sausages rolled in canned crescent dough and baked. In 1800s cookbooks the name meant oysters wrapped in bacon, which is a much weirder party.

Deviled eggs. Hard-boiled eggs, mayo, mustard, a splash of pickle juice, paprika on top. The first American recipe is from 1877. They were at every 80s party anyway.

The warm stuff

Potato skins. A bar appetizer from the 70s that stayed popular through the 80s. Several restaurants claim they invented it, TGI Fridays among them, and nobody has won the argument. Bake russets, scoop them, crisp the shells in the oven, then fill with cheddar and bacon and top with sour cream and chives.

Wings. The Anchor Bar in Buffalo claims 1964, wings spread as bar food through the 70s and 80s, and Buffalo Wild Wings opened in 1982. Hot sauce mixed with melted butter, celery on the side, blue cheese dressing if you're a purist and ranch if you're honest.

Slow cooker meatballs. Frozen meatballs in a Crock-Pot with grape jelly and chili sauce, a few hours on low. The Crock-Pot itself is a 1971 product, so it had plenty of time to become standard party equipment by the 80s.

Mini quiches. Store-bought shells, eggs and cream, Swiss cheese and ham. Put a copy of Real Men Don't Eat Quiche next to the tray for the full 1982 effect. The book spent 55 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and people still ate the quiche.

The showpieces

Fondue. Fondue was really a 60s and 70s craze, kicked off for a lot of Americans by the Swiss pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. The home craze had cooled by the 80s, but the pots were still around and still came out for parties, and the Melting Pot restaurant chain started franchising in 1984. Cheese, a splash of white wine, bread cubes and a lot of long forks.

The Jell-O mold. Molded gelatin peaked between the 1930s and 50s, so a Jell-O ring at an 80s party was already your aunt's move. Make one anyway. Fruit suspended inside, served on a glass plate, wobbling whenever someone walks past. It will be photographed more than eaten.

The freezer aisle and the chip aisle

This is the part that is really from the 80s. Hot Pockets came out in 1983, sold to restaurants before they reached stores. Bagel Bites showed up in the middle of the decade. Pizza Rolls were older, from the 60s, and in the 80s the box said Jeno's, not Totino's. Lunchables went national in 1988. On the chip side, Cool Ranch Doritos arrived in 1986, and pre-packaged Chex Mix hit shelves in 1985, more than 30 years after the recipe first ran in a Life magazine ad in 1952.

A tray of Bagel Bites and a bowl of Cool Ranch are a legitimate 80s menu on their own. Nobody at the party will complain.

The drinks

Wine coolers. Bartles and Jaymes launched in 1985 with ads starring two guys on a porch who weren't professional actors, and at the category's peak coolers were about 20 percent of all wine sold in the US. Make your own: white wine or rosé, fruit juice and something fizzy over ice.

The New Coke taste test. Coca-Cola launched New Coke on April 23, 1985, and brought the original back as Coca-Cola Classic on July 11, 79 days later, after its hotline went from about 400 calls a day to over 1,500. You can't buy New Coke now, but you can do a blind cola taste test with two brands and let people argue.

Jell-O shots. They reached peak popularity in the 80s. Label them clearly, keep them away from the kids' table, and make an alcohol-free batch in a different color.

Skip these. Crystal Pepsi (1992), Zima (1993), Gushers (1991) and Dunkaroos (1990) all end up on "80s snack" lists. They're 90s.

How to host it without stress

The day before, make the cheese ball, the spinach dip, the seven-layer dip and the Jell-O mold, since all of them get better in the fridge. The afternoon of, boil and devil the eggs and start the meatballs in the slow cooker. An hour before, bake the potato skins, the pigs in a blanket and anything from the freezer aisle. Set the fondue out last so the cheese stays hot.

For the room, a neon sign does more than a hundred balloons. Our LED Neon Flamingo Sign ($28.99) looks right over a snack table, and a few Synthwave Party Masks ($19.99) by the door solve the problem of the guest who didn't dress up. For the guest side of things, the 80s party outfit guide covers what to wear, and the craziest 80s food fads covers the stuff that was too strange to put on this menu.

Questions we get

What food was popular at 80s parties? Spinach dip in a bread bowl, seven-layer dip, cheese balls, pigs in a blanket, deviled eggs, potato skins, wings, slow cooker meatballs and anything from the freezer aisle, like Bagel Bites and Pizza Rolls.

What snacks actually came out in the 80s? Hot Pockets (1983), packaged Chex Mix (1985), Cool Ranch Doritos (1986) and Lunchables (1988), plus Bagel Bites in the middle of the decade.

Was fondue an 80s thing? It was a 60s and 70s craze that was still around at 80s parties. The Melting Pot chain started franchising in 1984.

What drinks should I serve at an 80s party? Homemade wine coolers, a cola taste test in honor of New Coke, and Jell-O shots for the adults.

Which snacks do people wrongly call 80s? Crystal Pepsi, Zima, Gushers and Dunkaroos. All of them are from the early 90s.

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