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Piquant Sandwiches
1/2 cup butter 6 tablespoons grated cheese (Parmesan) 1 tablespoon prepared mustard 1 tablespoon anchovy paste 1 teaspoon vinegar Cream the butter, add the cheese and mix thoroughly. Mix in all the other ingredients and beat well. Spread on thinly sliced rye bread.
A compound butter in the 1920s–30s cocktail idiom: salty, sharp, and meant to be spread thin on dark bread. The whole thing hinges on the butter being soft enough to take the cheese without breaking.
- Butter temperatureHalf a cup is one stick, and it must be genuinely at room temperature — soft enough to dent easily with a finger. Cold butter will not absorb the grated cheese and the paste will stay grainy no matter how long you beat it.
- ParmesanGrate it yourself on the finest holes you have. Pre-grated tubs are drier and coarser, and they leave a sandy texture in a spread this smooth.
- Anchovy pasteStill sold in tubes and unchanged in character. If you have only whole salted or oil-packed fillets, mash two or three to a paste with the flat of a knife; that is roughly a tablespoon.
- Prepared mustardThat means a jarred table mustard, mild yellow or similar, not dry mustard powder. Dry powder would make the mixture harsh and grittily hot.
- VinegarA teaspoon of plain white or cider vinegar. Add it last and beat hard — a small amount of watery liquid going into fat needs to be worked in or it will bead out.
- SaltNone is called for, and none is needed. Parmesan, anchovy and mustard together carry more than enough; taste before you consider adding any.
- Bread and slicingThin-sliced deli rye or a dense pumpernickel-rye is right. Cut the crusts and quarter the slices for finger sandwiches; a heavy country rye will overwhelm the filling.
- Yield and keepingEnough to spread about 20 to 24 small open sandwiches. Packed into a jar it keeps a week refrigerated, and improves after a day; bring it back to spreading temperature before use.