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Turkey Sandwich
Chop finely the dark meat of a cold roast turkey, place it in a saucepan with about two tablespoonfuls of finely-chopped celery, season with salt and pepper to taste, and stir over the fire until hot; then add a soft boiled egg and leave it until cold. Cut some slices of bread about one-half inch in thickness, toast them on both sides, then split them in two and butter them inside. Spread a layer of the turkey mixture over one of them, lay the other slice over and press them gently with the blade of a knife. Cut the sandwiches into halves or quarters, place them on a folded napkin or a fancy dish-paper that has been spread on a dish, and serve.
A leftovers dish from a hotel kitchen that had a great deal of cold roast turkey on hand. The technique worth borrowing is the split toast: a thick slice toasted on both sides, then pulled apart so each half has one crisp face and one soft, buttered inner face.
- Splitting the toastCut the bread a full half-inch thick from an unsliced loaf, toast it, then split the slice horizontally through the soft middle while it is still hot. A serrated knife and a fork to steady the slice make this manageable; sandwich bread from a bag is too thin to split at all.
- "Stir over the fire until hot"This is a gentle warm-through over low heat, not a browning or a fry. The turkey is already cooked; the point is to soften the celery slightly and marry the seasoning. A minute or two is enough.
- The soft-boiled eggIt appears to serve as a binder here, in place of mayonnaise. Peel a 5-6 minute egg and mash it into the warm turkey off the heat so the loose yolk coats everything. One large egg suits the quantity here.
- Quantity, since none is givenThe dark meat of one leg and thigh, call it 8 oz or so once chopped, with the two tablespoons of celery, will fill four split slices, or eight to sixteen pieces once cut.
- Cooling it safelyCold roast turkey warmed and then left to stand until cold is exactly the sequence modern food handling avoids. Cool it in a shallow dish in the refrigerator and assemble within a few hours rather than leaving it on the counter.
- Chop, do not processHand-chopping keeps the shreds distinguishable; a food processor quickly turns dark meat and egg into paste. Chop the celery very fine or it will slide out of the sandwich.
- SeasoningDark meat and unseasoned celery both want more salt than you expect, and the egg mutes pepper. Taste after it has cooled, when the salt reads lower than it did warm.
- ServingThe dish-paper and folded napkin are hotel presentation, and they also absorb butter. Cut into quarters for a tea tray, halves for a plate.
Oscar Tschirky's book appeared in 1896, when the sandwich was moving from tavern food to something a first-class hotel would send out for afternoon tea, late supper or a ladies' luncheon, and the book gives a great many of them. The economy here suggests a large kitchen rather than a thrifty home: breast meat would go to the dining room in slices, leaving the darker, coarser legs and thighs to be chopped for sandwiches and salads. Binding a chopped filling with a soft-boiled egg rather than mayonnaise gives a looser, more savory result than the mayonnaise-bound turkey salad familiar later, though how common the practice was in hotel kitchens is not something the book itself establishes. The instruction to serve on a folded napkin or fancy dish-paper is a reminder that this was a book credited to a maitre d'hotel; presentation was half the recipe.