Is the relish tray passé? It seems that they're a nostalgic memory from Grandma's table. But as Joanna pointed out in her post last spring, many of the relish tray elements are popular again, namely the pickle. So why not bring it back? Read on for some ideas on how to revamp the relish tray just in time for its traditional appearance: the Thanksgiving table.
As with all the classics, we get into tricky territory when we explore a more modern approach. Some things are just too sacred to change! So I'm taking the safe route here and offering both the classic and modern take on the relish tray.
The Tray
classic: a crystal/cut glass or silver bowl or tray that is divided into several compartments; a lazy-susan.
modern: a wooden board with a rough cut edge; a simple modern flat square piece of pottery; a cluster of several bowls on a tray; simple, compartmentalized glass trays or bowls; a shallow bowl made from sleek aluminum.
The Fork
classic: a little three-pronged fork or tongs
modern: also a fork or tongs; chopsticks
The Edibles
Olives
classic: canned black olives, drained (and eaten off your fingers) or jarred green olives with pimento centers.
modern: a variety from your supermarket's olive bar; green olives stuffed with blue cheese, whole garlic cloves or whole almonds.
Pickles
classic: mini-gerkhins or crinkle cut bread & butter; beets; pearl onions; okra.
modern: all of the above plus japanese daikon; whole carrots in red, yellow, orange with a bit of their tops still on; artichoke hearts; green beans; cauliflower; mushrooms; pepperoncini; kim chee; sauerkraut.
Vegetables
classic: radishes; celerey stuffed with peanut butter or cream cheese; carrot sticks; green onions trimmed and soaked in ice water so they look like little palm trees.
modern: radishes in many colors such as purple, white and pink or the long, thin french butter variety; celery stuffed with goat's cheese; multi-colored carrot sticks; cherry or grape tomatoes; jicama sticks; red pepper spears; fennel.
Miscellaneous
classic: a sour cream based dip.
modern: a stiff hummus and some broken flat bread.
The Presentation
classic: mound each offering in its little compartment or arrange tightly packed on a circular tray
modern: scatter over a wide, flat surface or arrange in little clumps with space in between; cluster a collection of 1/2 pint canning jars on a wooden tray and fill.
I hope this inspires you to revive or reinvent your own relish tray. What are your classic relish tray elements and what have you added over the years?
Related:
• In Praise of the Relish Tray
• Olive Bars vs Prepackaged Olives
• Aunt Lorrraine's Refrigerator Pickles
(Image: Dana Velden)
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Huge fan of relish trays here. This was an interesting post. We always have canned beets on ours, and never any dip. Just those long crystal-y looking dishes with three separate compartments: olives, pickles and beets.
We always do a relish tray for Thanksgiving and almost never have dip either, the dip tray is reserved for parties. Other suggestions though- we usually have garlic and jalapeño-stuffed olives soaked in vermouth [fancy martini olives] and dilled green beans if mum has been persuaded to do any canning earlier in the year.
I have to say I never experienced it until I moved to Wisconsin, but there are so many old-school supper clubs and steak joints here that most would be surprised if they *didn't* receive a relish tray at dinner. I was saddened that a favorite place of ours out in the sticks (Duck Inn, Delavan, WI) recently moved their standard "hey, welcome - have a relish tray" to their appetizer menu. (sigh)
@Tchivai: Ooooo. Dilled green beans--we call those Dilly Beans in the South.
I also love pickled okra on my relish tray.
Mmm, relish tray! It's handy to keep the poaching of the dinner to a minimum. We usually have several different olives, cornichons, grape tomatoes, and maybe carrots. There were pickled beets when I was young - I'll have to get some this year! And maybe some fancy radishes if I can find them. Sometimes we also have accompanying cheeses, but then you being to risk filling up before the food even comes out...
Yup, relish tray is standard for Thanksgiving and Christmas. No dip, but there are always olives, stuffed celery, pickled beets (bleh), baby sweet pickles, maybe baby corn, and some other stuff. Generally there's some ranch pinwheels and these ham/cream cheese/pickle rolls somewhere too.
My mom still does this all the way down to the divided cut glass/crystal bowl: pickles, olives, crudite and a sour cream based dip. Holiday meals wouldn't be the same without it.
This year Thanksgiving dinner will be at 11:00 so people can catch their planes. Our traditional rainbow relish tray will be breakfast: sliced hardboiled eggs (maybe devilled if there's time); melons & grapes; tomatoes, radishes & leaves with yo'Ranch dip and vanilla yogurt.
In the 40's restaurants served a relish tray consisting of cottage cheese spread with horseradish, carrot curls, radish roses, gherkins(sweet pickles), celery sticks, olives, corn relish, pickled beet slices, piccalilly, pearl onions,spiced apple rings or crab apples. A selected assortment would be brought to the table first, with a basket of crackers. It was so fun and always looked for with anticipation. It kept us all "busy and amuse" while we ordered.