Lettuce Sandwiches

A two-line filling recipe that assumes you already have mayonnaise on hand and know what kind of bread to use. A few points fill the gaps.

• The mayonnaise is the recipeEverything here depends on the dressing, which in this period generally meant a thick, sharp, homemade emulsion of egg yolk, oil, vinegar or lemon, mustard and salt. Many commercial mayonnaises and salad dressings are sweeter and looser than that; a spoonful of lemon juice and a pinch of dry mustard will bring them closer to the intended flavor.
• Unbuttered is deliberateMany sandwich instructions of the period call for buttered bread, so the omission here looks like a choice: the dressing supplies the fat, and butter would make the whole thing greasy. Without butter there is also no moisture barrier, though the reason the recipe itself gives for assembling late is the crispness of the lettuce.
• Tear, do not chop"Pull the lettuce into small bits" rather than shredding with a knife. Torn pieces are usually said to hold up better than cut edges, and they give the filling body instead of turning to slush.
• Choose a firm lettuceCrispness is the stated goal, so romaine ribs or the heart of an iceberg work well. Loose-leaf and butterhead varieties go limp in the dressing much faster.
• Dry the leavesWash and spin or blot the lettuce completely dry before dressing it. Water clinging to the leaves thins the mayonnaise and soaks straight through unbuttered bread.
• BreadThe recipe specifies only unbuttered bread; a close-crumbed white sandwich loaf, sliced thin, suits it. For tea sandwiches, trim the crusts and cut into three fingers or two triangles per sandwich.
• Yield and timingAs a rough guide, about a cup of torn lettuce with two to three tablespoons of dressing will fill four sandwiches. The recipe says only to make them near serving time; assemble shortly before serving and keep them covered.