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Supper Sandwiches
Get half a pound of cold boiled ham or tongue; chop it fine, and put it into a basin with a tablespoonful of chopped pickles, a teaspoonful of mustard, and a little pepper. Put about 6 ounces of butter in a basin, and stir it quickly with a spoon till it forms a kind of cream; add the chopped meat and seasoning, and mix all thoroughly. Cut some bread into thin slices, and some very thin slices of veal, fowl, or game; spread a slice of the bread with the above mixture, then a slice of the meat; lay on another slice of bread, and so on, till the quantity required is prepared. If cut into small shapes, these sandwiches prove very acceptable for breakfast or for evening parties. The above quantities will make as many sandwiches as will fill a moderate-sized dish.
A potted-meat butter used as both spread and filling, in the Victorian manner where the butter is the binder rather than a thin smear.
- The butter ratioSix ounces of butter to eight ounces of chopped meat is roughly 3:4 by weight, which gives a firm paste rather than a spread. Cream the butter thoroughly at cool room temperature before the meat goes in, or it will stay lumpy and refuse to bind.
- "Chopped pickles"This means English-style mixed pickles or gherkins in vinegar, not American sweet pickle relish. Drain them well; excess brine will make the butter split.
- MustardA teaspoonful of mustard here most likely means mustard powder or made mustard of the sharp English type rather than a mild modern condiment. Dijon or a mild yellow mustard will be noticeably tamer, so taste and adjust.
- Chop, do not blitzA food processor turns the ham to a wet purée and the pickle to juice. Chop by hand, or pulse the meat only a few times, for the texture the recipe intends.
- Cold cooked tongueOx tongue, brined and boiled, was a standard cold-larder item. It is now a butcher's order in most places; ham, or good roast pork, stands in without trouble.
- The sliced meat layerThe veal, fowl or game slices should be nearly translucent — this is a filling, not a deli sandwich. Cold roast chicken or turkey is the easiest modern substitute.
- Cutting into shapesChill the assembled sandwiches under a light weight for twenty minutes before trimming crusts and cutting. The butter sets and the layers cut cleanly instead of sliding.
- Yield and keepingHalf a pound of meat plus the butter fills roughly 12 to 16 slices of bread, or three to four dozen small cut shapes. The meat butter itself keeps three or four days covered in the refrigerator.