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Egg Sandwiches
Nice for lunches. Boil hard 1 egg for each person. Pulverize while hot. Add salt and pepper to taste and a dash of curry powder, ½ teaspoon melted butter to each egg, also 1 large pickled cucumber to each egg. Chop fine and mix well together.
Spread on thin, well-buttered slices of Five Roses or graham bread.
A straightforward hard-boiled egg filling, made with pickled cucumber rather than mayonnaise. The proportions are given per egg, which makes scaling simple.
- Pulverize while hotMashing the egg while it is still warm lets the yolk break down into a paste that binds the whites and takes up the butter. A fork or a coarse sieve does it; a food processor turns the mixture to glue.
- Boiling the eggsThe recipe says only "boil hard" and gives no time. Twelve minutes in gently simmering water, then a cold-water bath, gives a firm yolk without the grey-green ring and makes peeling easier.
- One large pickled cucumber per eggThat is a whole dill or sour pickle for each egg, which is a great deal of liquid. Chop it fine and squeeze it dry in a cloth or the filling will soak the bread within minutes.
- Curry powderA dash means a small pinch. Period curry blends varied, and some were likely milder than today's jarred blends; an eighth of a teaspoon for two eggs is a safe starting point, adjusted to taste.
- Melted butter as the binderWith no mayonnaise, the butter is what holds the mixture. It sets firm when chilled, so spread the filling while it is still soft, or let it come back to room temperature.
- Well-buttered breadThe butter on the bread is a moisture barrier, not seasoning. Take it to the edges, especially if the sandwiches are to sit before serving.
The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company to promote its flour, and its sandwich recipes reflect the early twentieth-century vogue for "dainty" sandwiches served at teas, card parties and church lunches. Egg fillings bound with butter rather than mayonnaise appear in books of this kind; commercial mayonnaise was not yet an established pantry staple in Canadian homes, and homemade dressing took more work than melted butter and a chopped pickle. The dash of curry powder reflects the British influence running through Canadian home cookery of the period, when curry powder was a common grocery item used as a general seasoning as well as for Indian dishes. The recommendation of graham bread alongside the company's own flour points to the same era's interest in whole-meal breads for luncheon fare.