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Cheese Canapes
Cut a few pieces of bread into slices a quarter of an inch thick, trim off the crusts, and then cut them up one inch wide and three inches long; fry these a delicate brown in clarified butter; grate a little cheese over them, sprinkle on the tops a little cayenne pepper and salt, and put them in the oven until the cheese has melted. Serve while hot. A fillet of anchovy shredded into two laid lengthwise on these canapes are an improvement, and they may be eaten cold with salad. They may also be garnished with finely chopped parsley.
A straightforward savoury from the era when cheese toasts closed a dinner rather than opened it. Almost nothing here needs translating; the few points that matter concern the frying medium and the cheese.
- Clarified butter is the pointWhole butter will brown and burn before the bread crisps. Clarify it first, or use ghee, and fry over moderate heat so the fingers colour evenly rather than scorching at the edges.
- The breadA close-crumbed white loaf, cut a full quarter inch, holds up best; airy modern sandwich bread soaks fat and collapses. A day-old loaf slices cleaner and absorbs less.
- Oven heatThe oven here only melts the cheese onto already-cooked toast. A hot oven, 400-425F, for two or three minutes, or a few seconds under the broiler watched closely.
- Which cheeseOscar assumes a hard grating cheese of the Parmesan or dry Cheddar type. Anything that melts to a slick, such as fresh mozzarella, defeats the texture the recipe is after.
- Anchovy filletsAnchovies of the period were commonly sold salt-packed and can be a good deal saltier than today's oil-packed tins. Season the toasts lightly if you are using anchovy, and taste before adding more salt.
- CayenneA genuine sprinkle, not a pinch heaped in one place. Mix it into the grated cheese so it distributes rather than sitting in hot spots.
- Yield and servingA standard loaf slice yields two or three fingers; count three or four per person as a first course or savoury. They lose their crispness quickly, so fry ahead and finish with cheese at the last moment.
Canapés in the Waldorf's sense were simply small pieces of fried or toasted bread carrying a savoury topping — the word is the French for a couch. Cheese fingers of this kind belonged to the savoury course, an Anglo-American habit of ending a formal dinner with something hot and salted rather than sweet. The suggestion that they may also be eaten cold with salad shows the same item doing double duty.