Nut-Butter Sandwiches

A plain sandwich paste that thins stiff nut butter with cream so it spreads without tearing soft bread. The whole method is in the ratio, and the ratio is generous.

• The cream is the pointEqual parts nut butter and cream gives a very loose paste by modern standards, closer to a spreadable dip. Start with half the cream, beat it in, and add the rest only until the mixture drops from a spoon but still holds its shape on bread.
• "Good nut butter" in 1900"Good nut butter" -- Nut butters of this era were ground peanuts or almonds with little or nothing added; sugar, emulsifiers and hydrogenated oil belong to later commercial production. A modern natural, stir-the-oil-back-in grind is the closest match; commercial sweetened peanut butter will make the paste cloying against the cayenne.
• Rich, sweet cream"Sweet" here means unsoured, not sugared. "Rich" cream is roughly comparable to modern heavy cream; half-and-half will work but slackens the paste faster, so add it in smaller increments.
• Salting"If needed" assumes unsalted nut butter. Taste before adding anything — most jarred peanut butter is already salted, and the cream mutes very little of it.
• Cayenne against the fatAn eighth of a teaspoon of cayenne or a quarter teaspoon of paprika per cup of finished paste is enough to register. Mix it in and let the paste stand five minutes before judging the heat, which blooms in the fat.
• Keeping and yieldA cup of finished paste fills roughly eight to ten small tea sandwiches or dresses two dozen crackers. Because it contains fresh cream it should be refrigerated and used within two days, and crackers should be spread only just before serving or they soften.