Sandwich
2 slices Swiss cheese Butter Butter the bread. On one slice lay the slices of cold ham; then lay on the cheese; then the other slice of bread and press down firmly. Cut across diagonally and serve.
A ham and Swiss sandwich, served cold and uncooked. The transcription has lost the head of the ingredient list, so read the method for what you actually need.
- The missing ingredientsOnly the cheese and butter survive in the list, but the method calls for two slices of bread and sliced cold ham as well. Figure two slices of bread, two of Swiss and two to three thin slices of ham per sandwich.
- Butter both slicesThe instruction reads only "butter the bread," which does not specify one face or two; buttering both inside faces is the usual reading, and butter on those surfaces is often said to help keep a cold sandwich from going damp where it meets the ham.
- Cold ham means coldThis is a cold sandwich throughout: leftover roast or boiled ham, or deli ham, sliced thin. Nothing here is grilled or pressed with heat, so the cheese should be sliced thin enough to eat unmelted.
- Press, then cutThe recipe asks you to press the assembled sandwich down firmly before cutting, which helps compact the layers so the diagonal cut goes through without dragging the filling out.
- Swiss in 1900Swiss cheese -- "Swiss cheese" in an American book of this period generally meant an Emmental-style wheel cut at the counter. Any firm, nutty alpine cheese — Emmental, Gruyère, Jarlsberg — sits closer to the original than processed sandwich slices.
- YieldAs written, one sandwich, cut into two triangles. Scale directly for a plate of them.
Sandwiches of this kind belong to the era's enthusiasm for luncheon and picnic food, and imported and domestic Emmental-style cheese was sold in American groceries under the flat name "Swiss." Mrs. Fryer's book was issued in loose-leaf form, as unbound sheets intended to be sorted by the cook herself, so the placement of any given page reflects the compiler's or binder's arrangement as much as any culinary scheme.