It's  happened again. You're having people over for the Super Bowl and you only just remembered that they'll probably expect you to feed them. Or you've been invited to a Super Bowl party and you only just realized that you're probably supposed to contribute somehow. What can you do?? The answer, for this particular occasion, is obvious: dip.

We're not sure how it happened, how dip became the unofficial food of the Super Bowl. But it makes perfect sense. It feeds a lot of people, out of one bowl. It's perfect drunk food, to go along with the official food of the Super Bowl: beer. We scoured the internet for the best dips to save you from your pre-football panic. Here are five great recipes. 
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5. Bon Appetit's Spring Vegetable and Goat Cheese Dip
This year, Bon Appetit declares: “We hereby mandate that all Super Bowl parties must have a dip.” As such, they have 24 recipes to help you with this mandate. The one that looks most exciting is this spring vegetable and goat cheese concoction. The recipe looks like a great twist on the played-out spinach and artichoke dip, using fresh asparagus and herbs instead of spinach, and goat cheese instead of sour cream goo. 

4. Food 52's Roasted Fennel and White Bean Dip
This is a simple but delicious recipe that takes the classic cannellini bean dip and adds roasted fennel. It's a bubbling-cheese-on-top recipe, so make sure if you're taking this to someone else's party you'll have access to an oven for about 15-20 minutes to finish it off. 

3. Anna Zepaltas' Salmon Rillettes
Are rillettes really a dip – or more of a spread? Who cares? It's a perfect dish for a party, and this version looks amazing. Inspired by a dish eaten at Thomas Keller's Bouchon in Yountville, here fresh and smoked salmon are blended with butter, wine, lemon juice and more for a rich, creamy spread to go on toasted slices of baguette. 

2. The Lee Brothers' Cheese Relish??
Matt and Ted Lee are basically patron saints of Southern cooking these days, the antidote to Paula Deen, and if you have any interest in Southern cooking at all and don't have The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook you ought to get on that. Of course, the ultimate southern dip is pimento cheese, which can be made by combining sharp cheddar, mayo and pimentos. The Lee brothers go a different route, combining Swiss cheese, yellow banana peppers and capers. 

1. Joaquin Baca's 7-Layer Dip 
You didn't think we were going to get by without a 7-layer dip recipe did you? This is the Super Bowl, after all, and some things are sacred – like layered dip. This one, from the (Momofuku alum, ex-Texan) chef of Brooklyn Star in Williamsburg is a doozy. Where most 7-layer dip recipes call for a bunch of stuff from cans and jars, each component here is made from scratch. It will teach all those other crappy versions of this dip who's boss. 


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