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Cheese Sandwiches
Thin slices of American cheese may be placed between two thicknesses of bread-the bread, of course, being buttered-or Swiss or English cream cheese may be used. Sapsago and Parmesan cheese may be grated and sprinkled thickly over a slice of buttered bread, then just a dusting of red pepper and another slice of bread must be added. Most people like a dash or two of mustard on American, Swiss or English cheese sandwiches. CHICKEN SANDWICHES No. I-One cup of cold chicken; one teaspoon of melted butter; two eggs (yolks only); one teaspoon of rich stock; one teaspoon of lemon juice; salt and pepper. Boil the eggs fifteen minutes, cool them, take out the yolks, and mash them as fine as possible. Add to these the melted butter and lemon juice, the chicken chopped very fine, salt, pepper and the stock. Mix all well together. A sort of paste will be the result, and with this may be made very delicate sandwiches,.
CHICKEN SANDWICHES No. 2-Chop the white meat of one boiled chicken very fine and pound to a paste, adding one-half teaspoon of salt and a dash of red pepper. Soak one tablespoon of gelatine in one tablespoon of cold water for fifteen minutes, then add six tablespoons of thick cream; stand this mixture over the teakettle for a moment to dissolve the gelatine, and beat it slowly into the chicken. Set aside to cool, smoothing into an even mass. When cool, divide into squares; cut these squares into very thin slices and arrange them neatly over buttered thin slices of bread. Cover with another thin slice of bread, and cut into fancy shapes, removing the crusts.
Three sandwich fillings run together in one entry: a plain cheese sandwich, a bound chicken paste, and a set chicken cream sliced like a terrine. The cheeses and one or two techniques need translating.
- "American cheese"At this date this means a firm domestic cheddar, not the processed slices sold under the name today. Any medium or sharp cheddar sliced thin is the intended article.
- Sapsago and English cream cheeseSapsago (Swiss Schabziger) is a hard, pale-green cheese flavoured with blue fenugreek, still sold in cones and grated like Parmesan; its flavour is assertive, so use a light hand. "English cream cheese" here means a rich soft cheese of the double-cream type rather than the American block cream cheese.
- Red pepperIn cookery of this period red pepper means cayenne. A dusting is a pinch or less, not a teaspoon.
- Fifteen-minute eggsBoiling eggs a full quarter hour gives the chalky, green-rimmed yolk that mashes to powder, which is exactly what this paste wants. If you prefer, 10 to 12 minutes off the boil gives a yolk that still crumbles fine and tastes better.
- Consistency in No. 1A teaspoon each of butter, stock and lemon juice is very little liquid for a cup of chicken. Expect a stiff paste and add stock a teaspoon at a time until it spreads without tearing the bread.
- Gelatine in No. 2One tablespoon of powdered gelatine is about 9 to 10 g, rather more than one standard 7 g envelope, and will set six tablespoons of cream and a cup of chicken firmly. Soften it in the cold water, then warm it gently over hot water only until clear; prolonged boiling weakens the set.
- Slicing the set chickenChill No. 2 at least three or four hours in a shallow pan or small loaf tin before cutting. Warm the knife blade between cuts to get slices thin enough to lie flat on the bread.
- Yield and holdingEach chicken filling makes roughly 8 to 10 sandwiches once crusts are trimmed and the shapes are cut. Both are perishable; keep them refrigerated and covered with a damp cloth, and serve the same day.
Butterick published this book as a companion to its dress patterns and The Delineator, aimed at a middle-class household that entertained modestly at home, and the sandwich chapter can be read as reflecting the era's fashion for afternoon tea and card-party fare rather than for lunchboxes. The thin, crustless, fancy-cut sandwich seems to have functioned as something of a status object in itself: it arguably suggested fine-textured commercial bread, a sharp knife and someone with time to trim. The second chicken recipe, in which pounded breast meat is bound with gelatine, chilled and sliced, belongs to the same tradition as the chaud-froid and moulded galantine of professional kitchens, scaled down for a home cook working with a teakettle instead of a bain-marie. Sapsago's appearance may hint at how much imported cheese reached American grocers by this date, and at how tightly cheese sandwiches were still associated with mustard and cayenne rather than with melting.