Dinner parties with contentious food

To me a dinner party is any dinner invite that is not strictly casual, such as a bbq. We have a friend who trained as a chef, and he does the best dinners. They always manage to invite another couple, so it is 6 for dinner. The conversation is lively and food delish. The table is set nicely, and candles lit. He never serves any pretentious menu, nor can I say I have encountered anything in the past. He has also made me realize that store bought cheesecake can be served as dessert, as long as it presented nicely on the plate, with a swirl of raspberry sauce, and a few well placed berries.

When I do dinners, it is less formal. I always try to do a menu that appeals to everyone. My son gave us some bear sausage (he hunted the bear himself), but I would never serve it at a dinner party. Turns out I don't like bear.

I haven't given formal dinner parties for some years now. I do wonder why jugged hare, a traditional dish, is regarded as "contentious" but I also wonder why your hosts chose to describe the details of preparing it. I would not serve liver, per se, but have never known anyone turn down my chicken liver paté (I can't remember where the circumflex is on my keyboard).

Funny how most of the squeamishness comes from eating bits of dead animals that remind people that they are eating dead bodies. Someone complained that they found a cows eyelid in their burger - why? What did they think burgers were made of?

We lived with my Portuguise mil when she died I found what I thought was a piece if pork in the freezer took it out to defrost and found it was half a pigs head!
Even my Portuguise DH didnt want it and I wouldnt know how to cook it anyway. An aquired taste me thinks.

Lilydrop

We lived with my Portuguise mil when she died I found what I thought was a piece if pork in the freezer took it out to defrost and found it was half a pigs head!
Even my Portuguise DH didnt want it and I wouldnt know how to cook it anyway. An aquired taste me thinks.

My dad just used to boil his….

I thought if you invite someone into your home you then made them feel welcome, clearly not something your dinner party host are aware of

We haven't had anyone over to eat since it was too cold to sit outside. Anyone we've 'owed' we've taken out to a restaurant. Why this should feel safer I've no idea, but it does. Mad, I know.

I like game and it's usually low fat (except for some water birds). Jugged hare is excellent, as is venison, pheasant, partridge and pigeon (good casseroled with lentils and a slice of country ham). My grandma used to cook small birds in a pie! Liver, kidneys (cut off the end bit) and sheep hearts (stuffed with sage and onion) are also good eating. I wouldn't be put off by any of these at a dinner party. Game wasn't rationed during ww2 - a great thing for those who had access to it!

I adore tripe and onions in a creamy sauce. It would be my last meal of choice. And I like sweetbreads dipped in flour and fried, and cod’s roe done the same way.
You hardly ever see tripe in the shops round here these days. I buy it when I see it.
I seem to remember DM was given a diet list for DF back in the 1950s when he had a duodenal ulcer, before modern drug treatment, when treatment was diet, then surgery if that didn’t work. Those were on it, so we often had them. I think the sweetbreads were actually pancreas, though some people think they are testicles.
I can’t have been very squeamish as a child. Nowadays, DH is almost vegetarian, so that is mostly what I cook, for simplicity. Though he will occasionally eat chicken and fish. But I fancied a bowl of cawl when I was unwell recently, and nearly had a fit at the current price of lamb pieces.

well I'm with Baggs, doesn't seem at all "edgy" to me, though I always check to see if a guest is vegetarian/vegan. Surely kidneys on toast, not liver. At the risk of a barrage, I do think if you're going to kill an animal you should at least do it the courtesy of eating all of it, offal included.

Remember this guy from the ‘Dandy’? (last edition 2013).
Desperate Dan ate cow pie to keep him strong.

All sounds disgusting. Since I gave up meat thirty odd years ago it completely changed my mindset. Now I look back to the time I ate it in the sense of what on earth was I thinking? I used to eat dead animals - it now seems primitive to me. But I also think if you’re prepared to eat one type of animal then you should be prepared to eat all. Unless you don’t like the taste. What’s the difference?

Being served things like that, I wonder why they bothered to have a dinner party in the first place! Haven't heard of jugged hare for years - it does appear on random "cheffie" shows though.
Weird alternative to the liver - what about those that can't eat grapefruit for medical reasons ? Many drugs to treat high blood pressure can't eat grapefruit of any description as it affects the way that the drug is absorbed, along with people that take warfarin, statins or drugs for coronary heart disease.
I would have left I think at that point, never to return !

Meant to add, we often (pre Covid) had people round for supper. I always ask if there is anything guests don’t eat, after the wife of a colleague of DH turned up and announced she didn’t eat butter, and I’d put butter in almost every dish.
I’d usually do a veggie starter, and put big plates of veggie and meat/fish dishes with vegetables separately in the middle of the table for people to help themselves. I often found the veggie dishes were eaten as much by the non-vegetarians as the meat ones were. More of a challenge is the “I only eat plain food” person, as I like doing “interesting “ dishes. What I would tend to do is roast a small chicken, so they could eat that, and we can either eat it cold or curried for the rest of the week, or freeze it.
Not polite or welcoming to knowingly give guests food that might turn their stomachs, really

I made the decision to go vegetarian this week (I'm having a heart op on Friday - all a bit rushed so it's scared me into action). Having read this thread, I'm rather glad! I've only eaten chicken as a meat for some time, so it's not going to be that much of a change for me. I've always been nauseous at just the thought of eating liver and my mum put me off kidneys for good when I was a child - she wasn't the best cook, bless her.

I've never been to a dinner party so wouldn't know

I love soft roe, haven't had it, or even thought about it, for year. It was often Saturday tea when I was young.

Missiseff

I've never been to a dinner party so wouldn't know

Me neither.
I think I'm safer at home with a cheese sarnie, though.

I have good friends. We thrive on known food, prosecco and great conversation!!
Who are you hanging out with here??? Look for new friends!!

Pretty sure I wouldn't serve offal at a dinner party, and I'd always ask about dietary requirements beforehand - including dislikes.

Nowadays I'm more into 18th century style - cook six or seven different dishes, serve them all, the leftovers get eaten by the family over the next few days. So I might start with a baked & glazed ham, a casserole, something with fish, a quiche, and three vegetable dishes. Then for the second cours, a couple of different desserts, some cheese, some fresh fruit. Sounds complicated but I choose stuff I can prepare ahead - and I don't have to worry about starters.

We have a rule in our house. We can be choosy here. So my husband doesn’t eat pork, my daughter doesn’t eat fish or diary, etc etc. Allergies aside, when we go to someone’s house, we eat what served. Without fuss. Someone has asked us to their home, and we’re grateful.

This thread amazes me!

Why assume that the menu was chosen to offend the guests?

Personally, I do not care for the taste of hare, or of brussels sprouts, but I would eat both if invited out for dinner rather than risk offending my hosts.

Those who did not care for liver were offered an alternative, so obviously the host realised that a lot of people no longer eat liver.

If any guest of mine was ever rude enough to say "I can't eat this" and leave, simply becuause they did not like the food served, he or she would never be invited back.

I would willingly accept that someone couldn't eat certain things for health or religious reasons, but would in that case have appreciated the fact being mentioned when the invitation was given and accepted.

What I'd like to know, from the people who have eaten them, what bit of the pigs trotter do you eat?

I tried cooking them once but all they seemed to be was skin and bone (literally)

My gran used to reminisce about eating cow heel in her Jamaican childhood.

When I moved to Sheffield in the early 70s some of the shops sold pressed udder. I never tried it. I wish I had now. I don't think you can reject things without trying them...

Never been to a dinner party, our small social circle don't do them thank goodness. If I was invited to one I'd probably refuse anyway, not my sort of event.

It does all sound a bit of a worry.