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Crab Sandwiches
Cut the crust from a loaf of whole wheat bread; butter the loaf, cut off a slice one-fourth inch thick; cover this thickly with picked up, boiled crab meat, put over it one tablespoon of French dressing or mayonnaise. Cover with another slice of bread, trim off the crusts, cut into fancy shapes and serve.
A tea-table sandwich built by the old method of buttering the whole loaf and then cutting the slice, which is worth reviving for anything this thin. Nothing here is difficult; the details are all about handling.
- Butter first, slice secondButtering the cut face of the loaf before slicing is the point of the technique: it lets you spread firmly against a solid mass instead of tearing a quarter-inch slice. Use butter at room temperature and a long serrated knife.
- A quarter-inch sliceThat is thinner than a standard pre-sliced sandwich loaf, so buy an unsliced whole wheat loaf. A day-old loaf cuts more cleanly than a fresh one.
- "Picked up" crab meatThis appears to mean picked over — gone through by hand for shell and cartilage. Fresh lump or backfin from a fishmonger needs the same treatment; even pasteurised tubs can hide fragments.
- French dressing hereIn this period the term means a plain oil-and-vinegar dressing, shaken, not the sweet orange bottled dressing sold under the name today. A tablespoon of it per sandwich will soak the bread if the crab is at all wet — drain the meat first.
- Mayonnaise vs. dressingMayonnaise binds and holds the crab in place; the vinaigrette does not, and a vinaigrette sandwich must be assembled close to serving or it falls apart in the hand.
- Fancy shapesRounds, diamonds and triangles cut with a knife or biscuit cutter. Cut with a single firm press rather than sawing, and keep the finished sandwiches under a barely damp cloth so the edges do not dry.
- Keep it coldDressed crab meat is a fast spoiler. Assemble chilled, and do not leave the tray out for more than a couple of hours.
Sandwiches of this kind belong to the era when afternoon tea and the ladies' luncheon were fixed social occasions, and cookbooks like Butterick's — published by a pattern company whose business was the well-run middle-class household — devoted whole chapters to them. The fussy trimming and cutting into shapes is the whole point: a sandwich meant to be eaten with one hand while holding a teacup, and to look ornamental on a plate. Crab appears often in American sandwich chapters of the period, a genteel but not extravagant filling. The choice of whole wheat rather than white is characteristic too; whole wheat and brown breads carried a mild reputation for healthfulness in early twentieth-century American cookery writing.