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Chapter XV-Sandwiches
F bread is used for sandwiches it should be made especially for the purpose in good-sized square loaves, that the slices may be cut into fancy shapes without waste. Thin salt wafers or crackers are very often used in place of bread for paste sandwiches. Butter may be used perfectly plain, or it may be seasoned and worked into a soft condition, and lemon juice, parsley or paprika added.
BUTTERED AND ROLLED BREAD (For Sandwiches or Serving at a Supper or Luncheon) - To butter and roll bread, cut off the crust of a loaf of fresh bread (or, wrap a stale loaf for an hour or so in a cloth wrung out of water); spread a thin layer of butter on one end of the loaf; cut off this buttered end in as thin a slice as possible; roll this slice having the buttered side inward, and lay it on a napkin. Continue buttering and making the rolls until you have a sufficient quantity. Draw the napkin firmly around the rolled bread and put it in a cold place until needed. TO USE ROLLED BREAD FOR SANDWICHES:-Butter and slice as directed; then spread each slice with whatever meat or mixture you have selected; roll it closely, and tie the roll about the center with a narrow ribbon. Rolled sandwiches thus made are very pretty for teas, receptions, etc.
CANAPÉS-A canapé is a form of sandwich. The bread used in making canapés is cut into fancy shapes and either toasted or fried in hot fat. The slices are then covered with any mixture of nicely seasoned meat, fish, etc., and served for first course at luncheon or for a chafing-dish supper. Anchovy and sardine canapés are very appetizing. For various canapés, see chapter on Appetizers.
This is less a recipe than a set of working methods for the sandwich course, but the rolled-bread technique is exact enough to follow, and it stands or falls on one thing: the butter must be soft enough to spread on the cut face of the loaf without tearing it.
- Butter first, cut secondThe hinge of the method is that you spread the whole end of the loaf, then shave off the buttered slice. Trying to butter a slice already cut will shred it, because the slice has to be thin enough to bend without cracking — the original asks only for "as thin a slice as possible".
- The damp clothWrapping a stale loaf in a wrung-out cloth for an hour rehydrates the crumb just enough for it to roll. Note that the recipe's first choice is a fresh loaf; the cloth is the remedy for bread that has already dried.
- Butter consistencyRoom-temperature butter, worked with a spoon until it is the texture of soft frosting. Cold butter drags, melted butter soaks into the crumb and the roll goes greasy and limp.
- "Good-sized square loaves"A pullman or pain de mie — baked in a lidded rectangular pan so it has no dome and a tight, even crumb. Any tall square sandwich loaf from a supermarket will serve; a rustic open-crumb loaf will not roll.
- The napkinDrawing a cloth napkin firmly round the finished rolls is a setting step, not decoration. An hour in the refrigerator with the rolls packed snugly together will hold the shape; plastic wrap does the same job and keeps them from drying.
- RibbonThe recipe has each roll tied about the centre with a narrow ribbon, for teas and receptions. If the ribbon is not food-safe, a chive blanched for ten seconds does the same work and can be eaten.
- "Paste sandwiches"Period shorthand for potted or pounded fillings — anchovy paste, potted ham, chicken pounded with butter. These are what the crackers and wafers are for, since a wet filling would soften a thin slice of bread.
- Canapé breadFried in hot fat means shallow-fried in clarified butter or oil at roughly 350F until golden, then drained. Toasting gives a drier base that holds a moist topping longer.
The rolled bread-and-butter sandwich belongs to the late-Victorian and Edwardian tea table, where the food was expected to be eaten standing, with one hand, and to look like an ornament. The Butterick Publishing Company, which produced this book, sold dress patterns and women's magazines, and its cookbook reflects that audience: the sandwich chapter is concerned less with feeding a family than with the reception, the luncheon and the chafing-dish supper, all of which were social obligations with rules. The instruction to bake a square loaf specifically so that fancy cutters waste no crumb is a small piece of evidence about how these events were provisioned — at home, in quantity, by a woman or a cook working to a deadline. Canapé is simply the French for couch or sofa, the bread being the seat on which the garnish sits; the word had come into English cookery writing by the later nineteenth century and, then as now, marked a dish as belonging to the formal end of the table.