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Tea Room Sandwiches
2 tart apples 1/4 pound shelled walnuts 1 cup stuffed olives mayonnaise Grind through the meat chopper the peeled apples, walnuts and olives. Moisten with mayonnaise dressing and use with a crisp lettuce leaf between buttered slices of graham or whole wheat bread.
A tea-room filling of ground apple, walnut and olive bound with mayonnaise. It comes together in minutes, and the only real decision is how coarsely to grind it.
- The meat chopperA hand-cranked grinder is what the original calls for; it does not specify which plate, though a coarse one keeps the texture from going to paste. A food processor pulsed four or five times gives a similar texture; run it continuously and the apple turns to slush that will soak the bread.
- Keep the apple from browningGrind the apples last and toss them with the mayonnaise immediately, or squeeze a little lemon over them. Cut apple oxidises within minutes and this filling has nowhere to hide.
- Stuffed olivesIn this period these were usually green olives stuffed with pimiento. A cup is roughly 5 oz drained. Drain them well and pat dry, or the brine will thin the mayonnaise.
- Apple choice"Tart" in this period usually meant a firm cooking apple. Granny Smith works; so does a crisp Braeburn. Avoid soft mealy varieties, which grind to pulp.
- Walnut weightA quarter pound of shelled walnuts is about 1 cup of halves. Toasting them briefly and cooling before grinding improves the flavour and keeps them from turning pasty.
- Mayonnaise quantityStart with 3 to 4 tablespoons and add only enough to make the mixture hold together when pressed. Too much and the filling slides out of the sandwich.
- Bread and assemblyButter both slices right to the edge; that fat layer is what keeps graham or whole wheat bread from going soggy. Fill and serve within an hour.
- YieldEnough for about 6 to 8 sandwiches, or 24 to 32 small tea-room quarters with the crusts trimmed.
Tea rooms flourished in American cities and along new motor routes from roughly the 1910s through the 1930s, often run by women and built around light, inexpensive plates: salads, creamed dishes, and sandwiches cut small and served on a doily. Fillings like this one show the period's fondness for the ground-and-bound sandwich, in which a meat chopper reduced fruit, nuts and pickles to a spreadable paste held together with mayonnaise. The stuffed olive was a fashionable touch, cheap and briny enough to give an otherwise sweet apple-and-walnut mixture a savoury edge. Graham and whole wheat bread carried a mild reputation for healthfulness, which suited the tea room's clientele of shoppers and club women rather better than white bread would have.