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Sandwich
SUETONIUS, who lived in the times of the Cæsars, tells of the Sandwich as known among the Romans under the name "Offula;" though our English term is given after John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich (1780), who used to have slices of bread with ham between them brought to him at the gaming-table, so that he might go on playing without intermission. Byron wrote, alluding to the two Earls, Spencer, and Sandwich :- "The one invented half a coat, The other half a dinner." 66 As an acceptable, and nourishing little meal, when the teeth are defective, or the masticatory powers feeble, an excellent plate of Sandwiches may be made thus : Prepare a little good gravy, or stock, and add to it enough gelatine to ensure firmness when cold; there will not be any necessity to clarify the stock for this. Pour it on a dish, or soup plate, and when set, about an eighth of an inch thick, stamp out small rounds of it, and take a couple of these rounds for each Sandwich, adding a central layer of finely-minced, underdone beef-steak, or mutton-chop (keeping the gravy therein). Now form these into Sandwiches with brown, or white bread and butter, stamping each to the shape of the jellied stock. In all cases keep the stock cool, and prepare the Sandwiches immediately before serving." Other Sandwiches may be conveniently, and profitably made for similar uses, such as of egg (hardly boiled), chicken-cream, minced beef with olives, sardines, cream cheese, etc.; and likewise sweet Sandwiches of plain jams, fruit compotes, and marmalade; a happy combination is that of Gruyère cheese, and plantains. ""What are all them clerks eating Sandvidges for?' asked. Mr. Weller, senior, of his son, Sam, when they went together to the Will Office, at the Bank of England. 'Cos it's their dooty, I suppose,' replied Sam; 'it's a part o' the system: they're allvays a-doin' it here, all day long'" (Pickwick).
Apricot Sandwiches are especially grateful to a weakly, qualmish stomach which can only bear light food; they should be made with a purée of fresh, ripe fruit, sweetened, and flavoured with Noyau. In Devonshire Sandwiches are prepared with the clotted cream of the county spread on brown bread, having sugar, and grated biscuit-crumbs strewn on the top just before serving, so that their crispness may be fresh; sometimes also a layer of sweetened raspberries underlies the cream. "Claret, Sandwich, and an appetite," as Byron gossips in Don Juan, are things which make an English evening pass." 66 Some remarkable Sandwiches were lately recorded (by Dr. J. Johnston) as having been made with satisfactory effect of cottonwool, for a patient who accidentally swallowed his false teeth through being struck in the face by a wave whilst swimming in the open sea. He was treated with Sandwiches containing a thin layer of cotton-wool in each, between the slices of bread and butter; and after a week, when a mild laxative was given, the dental structure, being now enrolled in cotton-wool, was passed without difficulty amongst the excrement. In Alice through the Looking Glass "the White Knight had a little box, 'of his own invention,' to keep clothes, and Sandwiches in. 'You see,' he told Alice, 'I carry it upside down so that the rain can't get in.' 'But the things can get out,' Alice gently remarked; 'do you know the lid's open?'”
Buried in the anecdotes is a genuine invalid-cookery recipe: a savoury sandwich in which the filling is bound between two discs of set meat jelly rather than a spread. The rest of the entry is suggestion and quotation.
- The hinge: keep everything coldThe jelly rounds are structural. Once the stock softens, the sandwich collapses and the filling weeps. Cut the discs straight from the refrigerator, assemble at the last minute, and serve immediately, as the text directs.
- How much gelatineThe original gives no quantity. As a modern starting point for a jelly firm enough to stamp with a cutter, try something in the region of 1 oz (25-28 g, about four standard sachets) of powdered gelatine per pint of stock — a good deal firmer than a wobbling aspic. A well-made meat stock that already sets on its own needs proportionately less.
- An eighth of an inchAbout 3 mm. Pour the stock into a shallow dish or soup plate to that depth and chill until firm; deeper than that and the rounds will not sit flat in the bread.
- Minced underdone beefThis is cooked-rare steak or chop, chopped fine, not raw mince. Cooking rare and mincing afterwards still leaves the interior below a pasteurising temperature, and the dish was written for the ill and the elderly — precisely the people now advised against undercooked beef. For anyone frail, immunocompromised, pregnant or very young, cook the meat through before mincing and add stock to make up the lost juices.
- "Hardly boiled" eggsMost likely meaning boiled hard rather than barely boiled, though the phrase is ambiguous. Ten minutes gives the crumbly yolk that mashes into a filling.
- NoyauAn almond-flavoured liqueur historically made from peach or bitter-almond kernels. Modern bottlings and almond extracts are made safe by processing; do not attempt to flavour the apricot purée with home-cracked kernels.
- Grated biscuit-crumbsCrushed dry sweet biscuits — a plain digestive or shortbread works. They are strewn on at the moment of serving so they stay crisp against the clotted cream; added earlier they dissolve.
- Gruyere and plantains"Plantain" was used loosely in English for the cooking banana and for banana-like fruit; the author does not say which he means. Ripe banana, sliced thin, is a reasonable reading against a nutty alpine cheese.
- Not a recipe: the cotton-wool sandwichesThe passage about the swallowed dentures is a medical case note, not a serving suggestion. Cotton wool is not food.
- YieldNone is stated. A soup plate filled to 3 mm gives a modest number of rounds; scale the stock to the dish rather than the other way round.
Meals Medicinal belongs to the Edwardian genre of invalid cookery, where the doctor and the cook shared a brief: food for people who could not chew, could not digest, or could not be tempted. That explains the jelly. A meat jelly carries flavour and nourishment in a form the feeblest jaw can manage, and the whole conceit here is a sandwich whose bread does the least possible work. The etymological notes are the author's own flourish and should be taken lightly: offula in Latin is simply a small morsel or bit of meat, not a sandwich, and the date of 1780 attached to John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, is loose — he lived from 1718 to 1792. Gibbon's journal entry of 1762 is the earliest recorded use of the word rather than a version of the gaming-table story, which comes from Grosley's French account of his 1765 visit, published in 1770. The couplet on Earl Spencer's short coat and Earl Sandwich's short dinner is traditionally but not securely attributed to Byron, and it appears alongside the Weller exchange from Pickwick; their presence tells you the book was written to be read for pleasure as well as consulted for a patient.