Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | Entertaining Tip: Put Herbs in Your Pit Bowl

Entertaining Tip: Put Herbs in Your Pit Bowl

There are a lot of cocktail foods that require the eater to bit something off or spit a pit out of their mouth - olives, shrimp with tails, summer cherries. We always include a small bowl on our hors d'oeuvres platter for the inconvenient side effects of these delicious foods. But don't just put a naked bowl out for those ugly little pits...

It's unappetizing for other guests to look down onto an olive platter with a bowl of half-chewed pits staring them in the face. So we add a handful of fresh herbs like rosemary, parsley, or sage to our pit bowls to cover up and disguise the pits or tails going into it.

It's a tiny detail, but we like details like this to add just one more level of care to our entertaining platters. Do you have any tips like this that make your table just a little more friendly to guests?

(Images: Faith Hopler)

Comments (6)

The herbs in the bowl make it look like an accompaniment. If I saw this serving dish, I would probably sprinkle some of the herbs on my buttered bread and find somewhere else to land the pits.

posted by Aimi on June 4th 2008 at 9:18am
view Aimi's profile

i agree w/ aimi, i think it would be better to put a single sprig of rosemary (w/ the leaves still attached) into the bowl, or even balance it over the top like a little leafy cover. That way it would look more like a garnish for the platter, rather than an accompaniment.

posted by kittystockings on June 4th 2008 at 9:39am
view kittystockings's profile

yeah, that just doesn't really make sense. and do you keep reaching into the pit bowl to pull the herbs back on top of the newly added pits? just plain confusing for guests, I'd say.

posted by erica on June 4th 2008 at 9:39am
view erica's profile

That's a good idea kittystockings! My point is mainly to add a small amount of greenery so you don't just have an ugly bowl of pits on the platter - I find that really unappetizing, personally.

posted by faith on June 4th 2008 at 9:59am
view faith's profile

Serve pitted olives, perhaps??

I know it's hard with shrimp tails though...my family is big on shrimp rings at family gatherings and we always just have a bowl for tails next to the platter. Not on it.

I'd be confused with the fresh herbs in a bowl too and totally think it was for the bread.

posted by revolution9 on June 4th 2008 at 11:25am
view revolution9's profile

Oh, yeah i see a guest like... reaching in there as it looks like that's an edible thing.

I put the bowl next to the platter... same w/shrimp tails.

posted by DahliaCactus on June 6th 2008 at 6:24am
view DahliaCactus's profile