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Egg Club Sandwiches
Heat a teaspoon melted butter in a frying pan and carefully break in a fresh egg. Season with a very little salt and white pepper, fry for one and a half minutes on each side, take up with skimmer and drain on a cloth. Prepare five more eggs in a similar manner, place all on six lightly buttered toasts and arrange on top a thin slice broiled bacon cut in two. Spread a little mayonnaise over six well cleaned and drained lettuce leaves, place on bacon and lay six toasts on top. Neatly trim off crusts all around, cut in triangular halves, dress on a hot dish, set in oven for two minutes, remove and serve.
A straightforward assembly job whose difficulty is all in timing: six eggs, six rashers and twelve pieces of toast need to arrive at the plate at once. Work in stages and keep the toast warm.
- The hinge: don't overcook the eggsNinety seconds on each side, as written, is three minutes of cooking with a turn, so expect a firmly set white and a yolk that is mostly set rather than runny — which is workable in a sandwich that gets pressed and cut. Cook much longer and the yolk turns chalky and the sandwich dry.
- Cook the eggs in batchesThe recipe frames each egg singly, with a fresh teaspoon of butter. A 12-inch skillet holds three at once; add butter between batches so nothing browns and sticks.
- SkimmerA flat perforated skimmer, closest to a modern slotted turner or fish slice. Draining on a cloth means a folded kitchen towel or paper — worth doing, since butter left on the egg soaks the toast.
- Broiled baconGrilled under the broiler or on a rack in a 400F oven until crisp but still pliable. Streaky bacon works; cut each rasher in two so the halves sit side by side rather than overhanging.
- White pepperChosen largely for appearance, so no dark flecks show on the white of the egg. Black pepper will do if that does not trouble you, though it tastes noticeably different — sharper and more aromatic where white is earthier.
- The two minutes in the ovenA brief warming only, in a moderate oven, and no longer than the stated two minutes. Mayonnaise held in a hot oven separates into oil and lettuce wilts fast, so this step is about taking the chill off the toast, not baking the sandwich.
- Not a triple-deckerDespite the name, this is a two-slice sandwich: toast, egg, bacon, dressed lettuce, toast. Cut on the diagonal after trimming the crusts, using a serrated knife and a light sawing motion so the egg does not squeeze out.
- YieldSix sandwiches, twelve triangles — lunch for six, or a platter for three or four.
The club sandwich emerged in American hotel and club dining rooms in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, its name often said to derive from the gentlemen's clubs and clubhouse restaurants where it was served late at night, though this etymology is traditional rather than documented. Substituting a fried egg for the usual sliced chicken or turkey, as here, gives a supper or breakfast sandwich rather than a luncheon one.