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Date and Fig Sandwiches
Wash equal quantities of dates and figs; stone the dates; add blanched almonds in quantity about one fourth of the entire bulk; then run the whole mixture through a meat chopper. Moisten with orange juice and press tightly into baking powder tins. When ready to use, dip the box in hot water; turn out the mixture; slice and place between thin slices of buttered bread.
An uncooked tea sandwich filling that sets in a mold rather than in an oven, which is why it can sit in the cake chapter without ever seeing heat. The whole thing depends on the paste being stiff enough to slice.
- Go easy on the juiceThis is the hinge. The dried fruit already carries plenty of moisture, so add orange juice a teaspoon at a time, only until the mass coheres. A wet paste will never slice cleanly and will soak through bread.
- Meat chopperA hand-cranked grinder with the coarse plate. A food processor works, pulsed rather than run continuously, or the almonds turn to butter and the fruit to a slurry. Chop the dates roughly by hand first so they do not bind the blade.
- Baking powder tinsSmall straight-sided cylindrical tins, on the order of 2 to 3 inches across depending on the size of the can, which produced round slices. Any narrow straight-sided can, or a plastic wrap-lined mini loaf pan, will serve; press firmly to eliminate air pockets.
- Dipping the boxThe brief hot-water dip loosens the paste from the metal. If you line the mold with plastic wrap you can skip it entirely and simply lift the block out.
- Chill before slicingThe original does not say so, but several hours in the refrigerator firms the block considerably and gives thin, tidy rounds. Use a thin sharp knife wiped between cuts.
- Figs and datesDried Mission or Calimyrna figs and Deglet Noor or Medjool dates all work. Trim the hard stem nub from each fig; Medjools are softer and wetter, so expect to need less orange juice with them.
- AlmondsBlanched means skinned: pour boiling water over shelled almonds, let stand a minute, and slip the skins off. One part almonds to four parts total mixture is a generous amount of nut, and it is what keeps the paste from being cloying.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; scaling from, say, 8 oz each of dates and figs (plus almonds at a quarter of the bulk) will fill a tin or two and yield a few dozen small sandwiches, depending on tin size and how thin you slice. Butter the bread right to the edges so the fruit does not wet it, and trim the crusts if you are serving them at tea.
Sandwiches like this belong to the American ladies' tea and luncheon table of the early twentieth century, when the sandwich had expanded well past meat and become a vehicle for anything that could be spread, ground, or sliced thin. Dates and figs were shelf staples in this period, dates reaching American kitchens largely from the Persian Gulf and North Africa, which is part of why fruit-paste fillings turn up so often in books of this era alongside chopped olive, nut, and pimiento. The trick of packing a mixture into a used baking powder tin to mold it looks like pure home-kitchen thrift: the tins were about the right diameter for a sandwich round, and they had straight sides.