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Creepy, eerie and spine-chillingly good: These are the craziest Halloween dishes

By: Reading Time: 5 Minutes

A giant spider has spun its web over the front door, and the skeleton in the front yard grins as it waves at passers-by. Yes, it’s that’s time of year again: Halloween is just around the corner. The only thing missing is the right menu. Whether it’s for a private party or a restaurant, KTCHNrebel has picked out the scariest Halloween dishes to appease little monsters and to make Halloween a spookily delightful event in your restaurant.

When mini-Frankensteins, witches, spiders or werewolves suddenly appear on your doorstep and greet you with the words “trick or treat”, they come to celebrate Halloween. What they want is candy. It doesn’t matter if it’s chocolate or gummy eyes, as long as they get as much as possible. What is now one of the most important holidays in America (and usually ends in a sugar high) has a long culinary tradition and is a combination of Christian, Roman and Celtic customs.

Halloween – a holiday with history

But where does the word Halloween come from and what does it mean? The biggest celebration of the Celts, celebrated more than 2000 years ago on the night of November 1 in Ireland, was called Samhain. It marked the start of winter and the dark season. The name Halloween is short for All Hallow’s Eve, which means the evening before All Saints’ Day. At that time, people believed that the border between the living and the dead was particularly thin that night and that deceased ancestors would leave their burial mounds and mingle with the living. To appease them, food was placed outside their door. They sought to ward off evil spirits with large campfires. In other words, the creepy aspect was already part of the day back then, and giving away food also played a central role.

Cook with pumpkin and Halloween background

Image: AdobeStock

Halloween menu as a harbinger of the future

In the past, however, it was amateur actors who went from house to house, asking for food and drink, and reciting verses in return, or warning of misfortune should they not get a proper reception. But they didn’t have chocolate bars and candy back then. Instead, people ate barmbrack, a type of fruit bread, on Halloween. Special ingredients were often mixed into the dough to predict the future for the person who found it. For example, a ring promised an imminent wedding, a pea the opposite, or a penny coin wealth and success.

The same goes for colcannon, a stew of potatoes and kale, which was also one of the early Halloween dishes. Incidentally, back then people believed if unmarried women filled a sock with colcannon and hung it on the door, their future husband would walk through it the next day. However, these type of matchmaking customs came to an end with the rise of feminism, because women no longer wanted to be reduced to their role as wives or partners.

 

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Appeasing children instead of the dead

Halloween finally became a holiday and party event in the 19th century, after many Irish people emigrated to America and brought this custom with them. The first children’s party is said to have been organized by a woman called Elizabeth Krebs, but more out of self-defense because she wanted to protect her well-tended garden. First, she tried to appease the children with candy. When this didn’t work, she organized the very first Halloween party and parade in 1914 to divert the energy of the (destructive) young people. Apparently, the entire city got in the spirit, and approximately 1,200 people joined in the celebration. In doing so, the Swiss-born woman, who had been laughed at by most, created a new tradition that also spread to Europe at the beginning of the millennium.

Halloween food in the restaurant and gastronomy industry

Today, people plan weeks or months in advance where and how they want to celebrate Halloween. On the one hand, they plan how to decorate their houses privately and scare the neighborhood children. On the other hand, chefs and restaurateurs also think about which special dishes they would like to cook and offer for Halloween. Ideas range from themed decorations to a special Halloween menu, which means everything from witch fingers and edible guts to brain and eyeball soup, creepy pizza or mummy cookies. There are no limits to your imagination when it comes to private parties or gastronomy. Even professional chefs host Halloween specials in their restaurants and create their own Halloween dishes that make your hair stand up on end while you eat. Be inspired by the craziest Halloween dishes and make your event and/or party a complete success.

Halloween dogs

When you think about it, the name hot dog doesn’t sound particularly appetizing. However, that hasn’t stopped anyone from taking a hearty bite. This may also be because the sausages do not look like the pups on Lassie or Paw Patrol. But what if you put meaty fingers smeared with blood in the bun instead of a sausage? Then you’ve upgraded the classic to a spooky Halloween recipe, one that not only looks good thanks to the caramelized onions, but also tastes great.

 

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Bony, green witch fingers

The thought of a long, bony, green witch’s finger brushing across your face sends a shiver down most people’s spines. Served as a starter, they’re not exactly something that will bring a smile to your face. But if the scrawny fingers are made of green-colored shortcrust pastry and garnished with an almond and strawberry jam, then the serving plate will surely be empty in no time – unlike the tummies of the little ghosts, monsters and superheroes.

 

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Fried bats

On Halloween, you see plenty of bats with glowing red eyes. They hang on windows, curtains or dangle from the ceiling. But they are even creepier when they are fried and lying on a plate. Who loves to eat bats? Not many people. But you don’t have to, because these creepy-crawly critter are actually crispy chicken wings dyed black – a guaranteed hit at any Halloween party. Unless Batman is among the guests. Then you might have a problem.

Mummy apple pastry

These days, apples are unlikely to win over many mummies and vampires. You might as well hand out small tubes of toothpaste. Unless you become inventive. For example, the first of two mummy-style Halloween recipes calls for a few apples, puff pastry, sugar, sugar eyes and an airfryer or professional oven with air-fry function, and voilà – the healthy fruit turns into the sweet undead.

Baked mummy brie

Number two of the mummy-style Halloween recipes: If you prefer something savory, you can also use Brie, blueberry jam and puff pastry strips to make a spooky but delicious mummy. But watch out! This Halloween dish should not be confused with another type of “mummy cheese”, which is unlikely to go down well at a Halloween party. Researchers found the oldest cheese remnants in the world on the neck of a 4,000-year-old mummy from the Xiaohe burial ground in western China. This was given to the “Beauty of Xiaohe” as a burial gift for her journey into the afterlife.

Costumed delicacies

“What’s worse than finding a worm in your food?” asks food illusionist Ben Churchill on Instagram and immediately answers his own question. “Finding half a worm.” The extraordinary head chef makes divided worms crawl over plates, serves moldy tangerines or dishes up full ashtrays and wet sponges. Even with a candle if it’s your birthday. Ben Churchill likes to disguise his sweet treats to the point of being unappetising, and not just as Halloween recipes. Those who want to enjoy his extraordinary creations must first overcome the yuck factor and, if need be, bite into the moldy tangerine before they can experience the taste explosion.

Cake in the shape of a pumpkin - baked by Ben Churchill

Image: Ben Churchill

Spooky pizza

Pizza is also one of the classic Halloween recipes. After all, pizza is always a great option. However, to ensure Halloween guests won’t accuse you of being unoriginal, you can garnish them with mushroom skulls. Admittedly, this takes a bit of skill. However, carving mushrooms is definitely more fun than removing toilet paper and dried eggs from the front of your house.

KTCHNrebel hopes you like these ideas and that they have given you some great inspiration for your restaurant or catering business’s Halloween special. In any case, we hope you have fun and enjoy the spooky experience of exploring the possibilities!

 

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