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Wedding Sandwich Rolls (Wrap bread as it is taken)
Wrap bread as it is taken from the oven closely in a towel wrung out of cold water, cover with several thicknesses of dry cloth and set aside about four hours; then cut away the crust, and with a thin, sharp knife cut the loaf or loaves in slices as thin as possible and spread with butter, and, if desired, thin shavings of meat, potted meat or chopped nuts; roll the slices very closely and pile on a serving-dish.
This is a technique rather than a formula: the whole point is getting bread limp enough to roll without cracking. Everything else is assembly.
- The hinge: steam the loafWrapping a hot loaf in a damp towel traps the escaping steam and softens the crumb all the way through, which is what allows a paper-thin slice to bend rather than snap. A cooled loaf rewetted later will not behave the same way; the bread must be wrapped straight from the oven.
- Use the right loafThe method works best with a fine, close-grained white loaf baked in a pan, though the recipe itself does not specify. Open, holey artisan crumb tears the moment you spread butter on it.
- Butter must be spreadableCream the butter until it is the texture of mayonnaise before it goes anywhere near the bread. Cold butter dragged across a thin slice will shred it.
- Slice thin, and slice with intentThe recipe calls for a thin, sharp knife and slices as thin as you can manage; a fine setting on a slicing machine does the same job. Spread and roll each slice as you cut it; slices left exposed dry out and lose their flexibility.
- Potted meatAt the time this meant cooked meat pounded to a paste with butter and spice and sealed under clarified butter. Any smooth meat or fish paste, a good liver pâté, or a seasoned cream cheese does the same job here.
- Holding themPack the rolls seam side down, close together, cover with a damp cloth and then plastic, and refrigerate. They can be made several hours ahead; a toothpick through each is unnecessary if they are packed tightly.
Rolled sandwiches belong to the age of the afternoon reception, when the food at a wedding or tea was expected to be eaten standing, off a small plate. The name here is descriptive rather than regional: these are the sandwiches you made for a wedding, distinguished from ordinary cut sandwiches by being fussier and prettier and by using no crust at all. Steaming a hot loaf under a wrung-out towel is the sort of trick that turns up in domestic-science and cookery-school instruction of the period, alongside instructions for cutting bread into fancy shapes.