Home › The Principles of Cookery › Cheese Sandwich
Cheese Sandwich
Put three ounces of good rich cheese, cut into small pieces, into a mortar with an ounce of butter, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and two boned anchovies. Pound these ingredients to a smooth paste, spread this between two slices of brown bread and butter, and lay over it very thin slice of salt beef, ham, or tongue. Cut the sandwiches into pretty shapes, and arrange them on a napkin garnished with bunches of green parsley. Time, half an hour to prepare. Sufficient, allow one sandwich for each person. Probable cost, 2d. each.
A potted-cheese spread rather than a toasted sandwich. The whole thing hinges on pounding the cheese, butter and anchovy into a genuinely smooth paste, which is what makes it spreadable and keeps the salt evenly distributed.
- QuantitiesThree ounces of cheese is about 85 g, an ounce of butter about 28 g. The recipe states no yield beyond "allow one sandwich for each person."
- "Good rich cheese"The recipe names no variety; a firm, well-aged Cheddar or Cheshire would suit. Grate it rather than cubing it if you are using a food processor, and let the butter soften first so the mixture emulsifies instead of seizing.
- Made mustardPrepared English mustard from a jar, not dry mustard powder. If you only have powder, mix a scant half teaspoon with cold water and let it stand ten minutes for the heat to develop.
- Boned anchoviesTwo salt-packed or oil-packed fillets, not two whole tins. Rinse salt-packed ones and pat dry; they will already carry enough salt that no extra is needed anywhere in the recipe.
- Mortar or machineA small food processor does the pounding in under a minute, but pulse rather than run it, or the butter warms and the paste turns greasy. Chill the finished paste briefly before spreading.
- Brown bread and butterA close-crumbed wholemeal loaf, buttered on the cut face before the paste goes on, as the phrase "bread and butter" indicates. Slice it thin.
- The meat layerSalt beef, ham or tongue, carved almost transparently thin. Cold roast beef or good cooked ham works; between the cheese paste, the anchovy and the cured meat this is a very salty sandwich by modern standards, so keep the layer sparing.
- Cutting and servingThe recipe asks only for "pretty shapes"; triangles or fingers will do. Made an hour ahead and kept covered and cold, the paste softens the bread pleasantly; much longer and it goes soggy.
Savoury pounded pastes of this kind sit halfway between potted cheese, a long-standing British method of preserving hard cheese by working it with butter and seasoning, and the anchovy-spiked savouries that closed a Victorian dinner. The addition of made mustard and anchovy to cheese is the same logic behind Welsh rarebit and the commercial anchovy pastes then sold in pots: strong salt-and-umami seasoning to lift a plain ingredient. What the page itself gives is the recipe together with its lines for time, sufficiency and probable cost — twopence each.