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Bacon & Tomato Sandwich
Place lettuce on slices of buttered toast, then lay on strips of crisp bacon and over the bacon place slices of fresh tomatoes. Cover all with mayonnaise. Place another slice of toast on top. Cut diagonally and serve at once.
Fruit Sandwich Filling Chop together one pound each of raisins, figs, and dates, with 1/2 lb. each of blanched almonds and shelled pecan meats. To this add the juice of 3 oranges. Mix thoroughly, pack in glass jars and set away to be used when wanted. Keeps indefinitely. May be sliced.
Two entries run together here: an early bacon-and-tomato sandwich and a keeping fruit filling. Both are straightforward, but the storage advice on the second has not aged well.
- Toast, not breadThe original calls for buttered toast as the base, with a second slice of toast on top (the text does not say whether that one is buttered too). It is cut and served at once rather than made ahead.
- Mayonnaise of the periodMayonnaise in a book of this kind was often made at home from raw yolk, oil, and vinegar or lemon, though cooked dressings and bottled mayonnaise were also in use. Commercial jarred mayonnaise avoids the raw-egg question; use a full-fat one, as light versions thin out against warm bacon.
- Tomatoes"Fresh" meant seasonal, and the sandwich is only as good as the fruit. Slice about a quarter inch thick, salt the slices, and drain them a few minutes on paper towel or the mayonnaise slides.
- Assembly orderLettuce goes against the bottom toast for a reason — it keeps tomato juice off the bread. Keep that order rather than layering tomato underneath.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities; it describes the method for a sandwich and leaves the number to the cook. Cook the bacon in one batch and assemble at the last moment.
- Fruit filling quantitiesThree pounds of dried fruit plus a pound of nuts and the juice of three oranges makes a very large batch — roughly four pounds of paste, enough for dozens of sandwiches. Halve or quarter it unless you are feeding a church supper.
- Chopping"Chop together" implies hand chopping. A food processor does it in pulses, but stop while there is still texture; run it too long and the dates turn the whole thing to a smooth putty that will not slice.
- "Keeps indefinitely" does notAdding fresh orange juice to dried fruit raises the moisture enough that an unrefrigerated jar can mold. Keep it in the refrigerator and use it within two or three weeks.
- Serving the fillingIt firms up cold, which is what makes it sliceable — turn it out and cut thin slabs for buttered bread, or let it soften ten minutes at room temperature if you would rather spread it.
The bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich is often said to have emerged in American cookery around the turn of the twentieth century, and is traditionally traced to the club and toast sandwiches served in hotel dining rooms and lunch counters. Its appearance in a Presbyterian congregational cook book from Libertyville, Illinois, is a good marker of how quickly a restaurant novelty became domestic: books like this one were compiled by subscription from members' own kitchens and sold to raise money for the church. The fruit filling that follows it belongs to an older habit of dried fruit and nuts, a keeping sweetmeat made in quantity and drawn on for sandwiches.