This Old-School Apple Appetizer Is Equal Parts Fascinating And Bizarre

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When perusing vintage recipe collections, some of the entries make you wonder who ever thought it was a good idea to pair certain ingredients together. These jarring dishes were the foods our grandparents ate, oddly plated amalgamations of fruits and canned meat, or vegetables defying gravity in a slab of molded gelatin. Now, we consider caviar and blinis a fancy, must-try appetizer, but in the past, a tray of prawns perched atop stuffed apples was considered a classy way to start a meal.

This creative, bizarre — dare we say tasty? — appetizer features whole, hollowed-out red apples brimming with a creamy, tangy filling, and a sizable prawn hunched over an olive as the garnish. It seems to have emerged around the 1950s or '60s, when over-the-top appetizers inspired by novel processed foods and international flavors were all the rage. 

Shrimp and prawns are now somewhat commonplace, but in the past, they were something of a status symbol. In the 1950s and 1960s, imported shellfish were viewed as high-end, served at restaurants and hotels. Fresh seafood had not been widely available to the general population, but after World War II, refrigeration and industrial freezing of food became a more common practice. This allowed seafood to travel further from the coast. With more access to ingredients that were previously only available in certain regions or in restaurants, it's natural that the presence of prawn cocktails and shrimp toasts would be non-negotiable at any proper dinner party.

A recipe for prawn stuffed apples was published as part of the 1967 edition of Marguerite Patten's Recipe Cards, a recipe box that reads like a literal card catalog of funky midcentury foods. Looking at the ingredients, the recipe isn't so outlandish — it's the construction and garnish that make it look borderline alarming.

To recreate this quirky app, begin by slicing the tops off six red apples, then scoop out the flesh. Coat the apple flesh with lemon juice to preserve the color and flavor, and dice it into small cubes. Mix the cubes with 2 tablespoons of mayo, 1 teaspoon of tomato purée, and a dash of Tabasco. Finely chop 2 gherkins, 4 stuffed olives, 1 tablespoon of parsley, and 4 ounces of shrimp or prawns, and add to the filling. After spooning the filling into the apples, the grand finale is spearing a whole prawn and an olive with a toothpick and placing it on top of each apple.

A prawn balancing on a whole stuffed apple seems like it would pose a challenge to eat, but when YouTuber Bunny Woodcock made the vintage recipe, she suggested taking the garnish off and eating the filling with a spoon. If you're not concerned about dinner guests watching you, biting straight into the apple is another way to go at it. Does it actually taste good? Bunny Woodcock didn't appear to take much delight in it, noting that the Tabasco added too much of a kick. Today, prawn stuffed apples remain one of the old-school appetizers that no one eats anymore.