Dream Cakes

A chafing-dish savoury of the fried-cheese-sandwich family, written in the shorthand of a period when every hostess owned a chafing dish and knew what to do with it. Two clarifications carry most of the weight.

• "American cheese" is not a processed sliceIn a book of this vintage the phrase means plain factory-made cheddar, the everyday cheese of the American grocer. Use a mild to medium cheddar, sliced thin or grated; modern individually wrapped singles will give you a very different, saltier result.
• "Cover" means a second round of bread"Cover" most likely means a second round of bread -- the sequence ("put on bread; cover and fry") reads as a closed sandwich, though "cover" could also mean putting the lid on the chafing dish. If you read it as a sandwich, cut the shapes in pairs so the edges meet, or the filling will run out in the pan.
• The mayonnaise is the hingeKeep the mayonnaise thin -- the recipe specifies a thin layer of cheese and says nothing about quantity of mayonnaise, but mayonnaise breaks and weeps oil under heat, so a sparing amount on the inside face is safer than a thick one.
• Cayenne is an either/or, not an additionCayenne appears to be an either/or, not an addition -- read as written, the cayenne is offered as an alternative to the mayonnaise, dusted directly onto the cheese. The recipe gives no quantity; a pinch is enough.
• Chafing dish means low, steady heatThe original relies on a spirit lamp under a blazer pan, which is gentler than a gas burner. In a skillet, work over medium-low with enough butter to film the pan, about 2 to 3 minutes a side, so the cheese melts through before the bread darkens.
• BreadThe recipe says only crustless bread. A close-crumbed white sandwich loaf cut fairly thin works best; airy modern bread compresses to nothing, and day-old bread cuts cleaner into rounds and fancy shapes.
• Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities. Judge by the loaf, fry in batches, and serve at once while the cheese is still soft.