Throw the Ultimate Great Gatsby Party With These 1920s Recipes

Champagne, lots of it

“Champagne was served in glasses bigger than finger bowls,” observes Carraway on his first trip to Gatsby’s house. “The moon had risen higher, and floating in the Sound was a triangle of silver scales, trembling a little to the stiff, tinny drip of the banjoes on the lawn.”

French 75

At Gatsby’s parties, “the bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails” — like this iconic and vintage Champagne cocktail — “permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.”

Old Fashioned

“The bottle of whiskey — a second one — was now in constant demand by all present.”

Whiskey is Tom Buchanan’s — Gatsby’s romantic rival — drink of choice and the star of this classic cocktail.

Mint Julep

On a hectic jaunt around New York City, Gatsby, Carraway, Baker, and the Buchanans book a suite at The Plaza Hotel just as “a place to have a Mint Julep.”

“Open the whiskey, Tom,” Daisy orders. “And I’ll make you a Mint Julep.
Then you won’t seem so stupid to yourself. . . Look at the mint!”

Tom Collins

At the Buchanans’ house, Gatsby and Carraway join Daisy and Tom for gin cocktails “that clicked full of ice.”

“They certainly look cool,” Gatsby says, and they “drank in long greedy swallows.”

Scotch and Soda

“Highballs?” asks the head waiter at a restaurant Gatsby visits with gangster Meyer Wolfsheim. (A scotch and soda is an archetypal version of the cocktail.)

“‘Yes, highballs,’ agreed Gatsby.”

Bee’s Knees

“The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun,” observes Carraway of that first Gatsby party, “and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.”

This yellow cocktail is another classic of the 1920s, invented in the Ritz hotel in Paris.

Snap Pea-Mint Tequila Gimlet

There are no gimlets in The Great Gatsby, but there is — famously — green. Serve this pea-green cocktail in honor of the book’s most famous symbol, the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.”

Oysters Rockefeller

This vintage dish would not have been out of a place on Gatsby’s “buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvres.” Invented in New Orleans in 1899, this take on baked oysters was named after one of the world’s richest men, John D. Rockefeller, for the sheer richness of the buttery green sauce. The dish was popularized in the 1920s.

Classic Deviled Eggs

“At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden,” including a buffet of Trimalchio proportions. It’s easy to imagine these classic deviled eggs among the offerings.

Salmon Croquettes with Creole Aïoli

These salmon croquettes are period appropriate and are fried in butter till they are — to borrow from Fitzgerald “bewitched to a dark gold.”

Dirty Martini Shrimp Cocktail

Serving shrimp in a cocktail glass dates back to the 1920s, perhaps because the glasses were no longer being used for their original purpose. Double down on the cocktail theme with this martini-inspired shrimp cocktail, which combines olive-brined shrimp and a gin-spiked cocktail sauce.

Pigs in a Blanket

Carraway spots “pastry pigs” among Gatbsy’s offerings, and who are we to say no to pigs in a blanket?

Curried-Egg Tea Sandwiches

At the apartment of his mistress in a then-dismal corner of Queens, “Tom rang for the janitor and sent him for some celebrated sandwiches, which were a complete supper in themselves.” These curried-egg tea sandwiches might just be the ticket.

Lemony Waldorf Salad

Carraway describes dishes “crowded against salads of harlequin designs,” a dazzling sight to imagine. Make your own vibrant, motley-colored salads with this recipe for a citrus-forward Waldorf, a classic of the early 20th century (and just as delicious today).

Carla Hall’s Spiced Cider–Glazed Ham

“Spiced baked hams” are a centerpiece of Gatsby’s parties, and we can think of no better recipe than Carla Hall’s spiced cider-glazed ham, which gets its deep and sweet flavor from bourbon and brown sugar.

Chocolate-Raspberry Icebox Cake

The first recipe for an icebox cake debuted on the box of Nabisco’s chocolate wafers in the 1920s, when both storebought cookies and refrigeration (aka iceboxes) became available in home kitchens.

Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake with 7-Minute Frosting

Carraway desparately offers to serve tea to Gatsby and Daisy during a tense moment, and its only “amid the welcome confusion of cups and cakes a certain physical decency established itself.” Coconut cakes were at the height of fashion in the 1920s and would not have been out of place at this highly charged high tea.