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Hot Ham Canapes
Bread 3/4 cup grated cheese 1 cup ground boiled ham 2 or 3 drops onion juice 1/4 cup heavy cream Cut slices of bread into fancy shapes, using cookie cutters, and toast on one side. Mix the cheese, ham, onion juice together and spread on untoasted side of bread and brown in quick oven. Serves 8.
A simple broiler-era canape: toast on one side, spread, brown on the other. Two details in the ingredient list need attention before you start.
- Quick ovenPeriod tables put a "quick oven" at roughly 400-450F. At that heat the topping browns in only a few minutes; watch it, since the exposed bread edges scorch well before the center colors.
- The creamThe heavy cream heads the ingredient list but never reappears in the method. Work it into the ham and cheese a spoonful at a time until the mixture is spreadable but not loose, or the topping will slump off the toast.
- Bread quantityNo amount is given. Three-quarters cup cheese plus a cup of ham makes roughly two cups of spread, enough for about 24 small rounds cut from 8 to 10 slices of firm white sandwich bread.
- Onion juiceOnion juice was got by halving an onion and pressing or scraping the cut face against a grater. Two or three drops is a trace; grated onion is wetter and onion powder much more concentrated, so use only a scant pinch if substituting.
- Grated cheeseUnspecified here; a firm dry cheddar or American cheese grated fine is the likely intent, melting without weeping. Pre-shredded cheese carries anti-caking starch and browns less evenly.
- Ground boiled hamCooked ham put through a food grinder. A food processor does it in short pulses; stop before it turns to paste, or the spread loses texture.
- Cutting and toastingCut the shapes first, then toast, so the cutter goes through soft bread cleanly. Toasting one side only keeps the spread side absorbent enough to grip.
- ServingStated as 8, which works out to about three canapes each. They must go out hot; the cheese sets firm and dull within a few minutes of leaving the oven.
Hot canapes like this one belong to the cocktail-party service that spread through American entertaining books between the wars, when a hostess was expected to produce something warm, small and eaten standing up. The name is usually traced to the French for a couch or sofa, the bread being read as the seat for whatever is spread on it. The recipe reads as thrift dressed up: ground boiled ham and grated cheese are pantry leftovers, and the cookie cutters do the work of making it look intentional. Onion juice, pressed rather than grated, was a common way of getting onion flavor into a pale mixture without visible flecks or a raw bite, and turns up often in recipe collections of the period.