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Cold Roast Beef Sandwiches
To each one-half pint of finely chopped cold roast beef add one teaspoon of salt; one-half tablespoon of tomato catsup; one-half teaspoon of worcestershire sauce; and rub in one tablespoon of melted butter. Spread on buttered bread, covering with a second slice, and cut into fancy shapes.
A potted-beef spread rather than a sliced sandwich, and the proportions are dry-side by modern taste. The seasoning is the whole point: taste before you spread.
- Half a pint of beefDry measure here means volume, not weight: one cup of finely chopped beef, roughly 5 oz off a roast. That makes enough filling for four to six sandwiches, or a dozen or so of the small cut shapes the recipe intends.
- A teaspoon of salt is too muchA full teaspoon to a cup of already-seasoned roast beef will read as salty, and the catsup and Worcestershire both bring salt of their own. Start with a quarter teaspoon and adjust.
- Melted butter is the binderRubbing warm butter through the chopped meat is what turns crumbs into a spreadable paste; it sets firm when chilled, which is why the sandwiches hold their shape when cut. Do not substitute mayonnaise if you want the period texture.
- Chop, do not grindA food processor will take this to a smooth paste in seconds. Pulse briefly, or chop by hand with a heavy knife, so the filling keeps some grain.
- Catsup in 1911Tomato catsup of the period was often thinner, sharper and more spiced than the modern bottle, though commercial brands varied and sweeter, thicker styles were already common by then. If using standard ketchup, cut the sugar impression with a few drops more Worcestershire or a little vinegar.
- Cutting into fancy shapesChill the assembled sandwiches under a light weight for half an hour before trimming crusts and cutting; the filling firms and the bread compresses, so rounds and diamonds come out clean rather than tearing.
- Keep them from dryingCut sandwiches dry out fast, particularly once the crusts are off. Cover with a damp cloth and refrigerate until serving, and use them the same day.
Chopped-meat sandwich fillings like this one belong to the era before mechanical bread slicers and reliable home refrigeration, when the practical question after a Sunday roast was what to do with the cold remainder on Monday. The Butterick Cook Book (1911) came from the pattern company's publishing arm, aimed at the same middle-class household that bought its dressmaking patterns, and sandwiches of this kind sit within the period fashion for afternoon tea and "fancy" sandwiches cut into small shapes. Worcestershire sauce and bottled tomato catsup were by then standard American pantry items, cheap and widely advertised, and recipes of the period lean on them as a shortcut to savory depth in cold dishes. The instruction to rub in melted butter is older technique than it looks: it is the same principle as the potted meats of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English cookery, where fat bound and preserved pounded flesh.