Canapés

A canapé is a small, skillfully prepared, and usually, decorative food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite. They are typically served on a canapé tray and eaten from small canapé plates. The composition of a canapé consists of a base (usually bread), a spread, the main item, and a garnish.

Canapés are typically either salty or spicy, which complement the flavor of cocktails and encourage guests to drink more. Canapés include crackers or small slices of various bread or toast or puff pastry, cut into various shapes. They serve as the base for savory compound butter or pastes, often topped with a “canopy” of such delicious foods as meat, cheese, fish, caviar, foie gras, purees, or relish; thus, a canapé is born.

Traditionally, canapés have been built on stale white bread (though other foods may be used as a base). The bread is cut into thin slices, often toasted, and then shaped into circles, rings, or squares with a specialty cutter or bread knife. Shapes might include circles, rings, squares, strips, or triangles. The foods that top the bread base are sometimes highly processed and decoratively applied (i.e., piped) on top with a pastry bag. Decorative garnishes are then applied. 

The canapé spread is typically a compound butter, a flavored sour cream or crème fraîche, or a flavored cream cheese. Common garnishes can range from finely chopped vegetables, scallions, capers, gherkin slices, fresh herb sprigs, fish roe or caviar, truffle slices, or truffle oil.