How To Choose The Right Appetizers For Your Dinner Party (Just Answer One Simple Question)

Should you have arrived here because you find yourself planning a party, congrats! Good luck and best wishes as you celebrate a birthday, observe the Super Bowl, or simply mark the arrival of another daylight saving time. But now you've got to settle on a festive cake decorating schema, peruse all manner of game day snack upgrades, and source whatever foodstuffs make sense for honoring the impending longer or shorter days. And things can get even more complicated any time "dinner" precedes "party" on your invitations. But one back-of-the-envelope calculation can help your appetizer menu, at least, write itself: considering your entree.

Asking "what's for dinner," and working backwards can take some of the hand-wringing out of your hors d'oeuvre sourcing. And it begins even more simply than balancing proteins or juggling flavor profiles. The heartiness of your main dish should dictate the substance of the small bites that begin the evening. If dinner involves a big pot of tomato sauce or gravy, replete with abundant carbs including not only the requisite pasta but batons of buttery garlic bread, you might want to go easier on the starters with something like Caprese skewers or prosciutto-wrapped melon. Swap that principle when dinner's on the lighter side: something like, say, a seafood Caesar salad can begin with meatballs or chicken Parm croquettes. You want to leave your guests with the option to feel satiated, not stuffed. (But always have enough for anyone who finds the latter sensation more appealing!)

Envision a dinner guest holding a plate of appetizers in one hand and their dinner plate in another. You really don't want to see them weighed down. This imaginary friend should have plenty of tasty choices without feeling anchored. Although it isn't a strict science as illustrated in the above seafood Caesar salad example, you're probably going to start light and continue on with more substantial dishes as the party progresses. That is, of course, because you're typically going to want to build to culinary satisfaction, rather than top-load those gastronomic adventures. Ergo, you're usually going to want your canapés to whet the appetite, rather than drown it. And, again, reversing the spell is easy, too.

If you're ever stumped, those old workhorse charcuterie boards are brilliant for building a choose-your-own adventure panoply of nibbles that your guests can portion for themselves. Provided you more or less follow the golden rule for filling a charcuterie board by building around the larger bits, you should end up with enough meat, cheese, fruit, and salty bites like nuts to incidentally amount to more variety than you might have assembled making a bunch of separate appetizers.

You can also take the notion of a proper charcuterie board pretty far off course to fit your own needs. A sophisticated tinned fish charcuterie board can easily achieve the broad appeal you might seek with a pescatarian flair. The same goes for a dairy-only version (which you could more accurately call a good, old fashioned cheese plate), or even a totally veggie take that's inspired by the classic meaty sampler.