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Goose Sandwiches
These are made of the smoked breasts of geese cut into very fine slices. Cut some thin slices of bread and butter, lay the slices of goose on them with a few thin slices of hard-boiled eggs, squeeze over a little lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and cover them with slices of bread and butter. Cut the sandwiches into fingers, arrange on a folded napkin, and garnish with sprigs of parsley.
A cold-buffet sandwich that depends entirely on one bought ingredient. Everything else is assembly.
- Smoked goose breastThis means cured, cold-smoked goose breast, sold whole or sliced by German and Polish delicatessens as geräucherte Gänsebrust. Smoked duck breast is the closest widely available substitute; ordinary roast goose will not do, being fattier and blander.
- Slice it thinly, and coldCut across the grain, almost translucent, with the breast well chilled and a long thin blade. Thick slices turn the sandwich chewy and make the cured saltiness overwhelming.
- BreadThe recipe specifies only thin slices of bread and butter; a fine-crumbed white loaf, sliced thin and buttered before filling, suits it. Pumpernickel or a dark rye is closer to the way smoked goose is eaten in Germany if you want the pairing rather than the period.
- Hard-boiled eggsAn egg slicer or a wet knife keeps the yolks from crumbling. Use the wide middle slices and keep the ends for something else.
- Season with a light handCured smoked goose is already salty. Taste a slice before adding any salt at all; the lemon and pepper are doing most of the work.
- Cutting into fingersTrim the crusts and cut each sandwich lengthwise into three or four strips about an inch wide. Press the assembled sandwich gently under a board for a few minutes first and the fingers will hold together when picked up.
- Yield and holdingEach round of two slices gives three or four fingers; count accordingly for the number of guests. Assemble not far ahead and keep them covered and chilled, as the lemon juice will begin to soak into the bread if they stand.
- The folded napkinA period serving convention; the linen may also take up some condensation from chilled sandwiches.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 book was written for the Waldorf's banquet and supper trade, where sandwiches cut into fingers and stood on a napkin were a common buffet and late-night supper item. Smoked goose breast reached New York menus through German and Central European charcuterie traditions, where the cured breast has long been a Christmas and cold-table item; Oscar himself was Swiss. The pairing of a strongly cured meat with hard-boiled egg and a squeeze of lemon is characteristic of hotel cold work of the period, where acid and egg offset salt without a sauce that would wet the bread.