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Cheese Sandwich
Grate two ounces of Roquefort, or Parmesan, or other cheese, and work it well with a pat of butter. Spread this on some thin slices of bread, put another thin slice on the top of each, press them gently together, cut the sandwiches into finger lengths, and arrange them neatly on a folded napkin, or a fancy dish-paper, garnishing here and there with freshly gathered parsley. Serve the sandwiches with salad.
A second method of preparation is to take the yolks of three hard boiled eggs, and with one ounce of butter melted over the fire mix and rub them to a smooth paste; grate four ounces of cheese and work it into the paste, and season it to taste with salt and pepper. Cut three slices of thin bread, and butter; spread each slice with one-third of this paste, and fold the other half of the slice over it.
Two versions of the same idea: a cheese butter, and a cheese-and-egg-yolk butter. Both are spreads, and the point of both is that they must be soft enough to spread on thin bread without tearing it.
- Work the butter, do not melt itIn the first method the butter should be fully softened at room temperature and creamed with the cheese until it is a smooth paste. Melted butter will separate as it cools and leave a greasy, grainy spread.
- "A pat of butter"Genuinely imprecise. For 2 oz of grated cheese, 1 to 2 tablespoons gives a spreadable paste; hard grating cheeses like Parmesan need the larger amount, Roquefort the smaller since it is already soft.
- Cheese by weightTwo ounces of grated hard cheese is roughly a half cup loosely packed; four ounces about a cup. Roquefort is crumbled rather than grated.
- Season according to the cheeseThe second method calls for salt to taste after the cheese goes in. With Roquefort or Parmesan the mixture will usually need no salt at all, only pepper.
- The second method's bread"Fold the other half of the slice over it" means large slices from a sandwich loaf, spread on half and folded, not two separate slices. Crustless bread folds without cracking; day-old bread does not.
- Cutting into fingersThe recipe says only to cut the sandwiches into finger lengths, with no dimension given. Trimming the crusts first and using a long thin knife wiped between cuts will give cleaner edges.
- YieldThe second method is fixed at three folded slices. The first gives no number, saying only 'some thin slices'; two ounces of cheese will not stretch far. Both are tea and supper portions, not a meal in themselves.
- Dish-paper and napkinThe recipe calls for a folded napkin or a fancy dish-paper. Beyond the look of the thing, a folded cloth will absorb any butter and stop the fingers sliding on the plate.
Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf's maître d'hôtel and the compiler of this 1896 book, was writing at the height of the American fashion for the small, cut, crustless sandwich, served at afternoon tea, at receptions and at card parties rather than as lunch. The inclusion of Roquefort and Parmesan is a fair indicator of what a large New York hotel kitchen could count on having in the larder in the 1890s, when imported cheeses reached the city in volume but were arguably still more hotel and delicatessen goods than household staples. The second method, binding grated cheese with hard-boiled yolk and butter, belongs to a whole family of Victorian potted and pounded savouries, where the yolk acts as an emulsifier to stretch the cheese and make it spread smoothly on thin bread. The fussy presentation on a folded napkin with a sprig of parsley seems to have been common enough in hotel service of the period, and the direction to serve the sandwiches with salad would suggest the supper or savoury course rather than the sweet end of the tea table.