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Corned Beef Sandwiches
Put thin slices of cold corned beef between slices of buttered bread, cut into either diamonds, squares or narrow strips.
About as bare as a recipe gets, which means everything depends on the beef and the cut of the bread. A few points fill in what the original assumes its reader already knows.
- "Cold corned beef"Most likely cold cooked salt beef sliced from a boiled joint, though the recipe names no cut; brisket, plate or round were all corned. Deli-counter corned beef brisket is the closest modern match; slice it thin across the grain.
- Buttered bread, not dressedButter is the only spread named, and it does structural work: it seals the crumb against moisture from the meat. Spread it soft and to the edges.
- The bread should be a day oldFresh bread tears and compresses when you cut small shapes from it. Bread baked the previous day slices cleanly and holds a diamond or a narrow strip without collapsing.
- Cut after assembly, and trimBuild the whole sandwich, then cut. Crusts come off first if you want tidy diamonds — press down with a long thin blade rather than sawing.
- Why the shapesDiamonds, squares and narrow strips suit a tea-table or buffet, where pieces are taken in one or two bites without a plate.
- Holding themCover with a barely damp cloth and refrigerate if they will wait more than half an hour; cut edges dry out fast.
- YieldThe recipe specifies no quantities; work from the number of pieces you want, allowing several cut shapes from each whole sandwich.
Books of "hot weather dishes" belonged to a specific late nineteenth-century problem: a coal or wood range heated the whole house, so summer cookery aimed at dishes that used cold cooked meat, needed no long fire, and could be assembled in the cool of the morning. Corned beef — beef cured in coarse "corns" of salt, the name recorded in English long before refrigeration — was a staple, and a large boiled joint is often said to have fed a household for days and kept well in a cool larder. Cutting sandwiches into diamonds and strips reflects the fashionable tea and reception table of the period, where finger food was expected to be eaten standing and without cutlery. The appearance of a beef sandwich under a heading marked "Eggs" is the sort of loose sectioning common in compilations of the era.