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Egg and Anchovy Sandwiches
3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco 10 anchovies 3 hard-cooked eggs 1 teaspoonful curry powder ½ teaspoonful lemon juice Salt to taste Brown bread
The book gives ingredients and leaves the assembly to the cook, which was normal for sandwich sections of the period. The list is a filling: pound or mash everything together and spread it on thin brown bread.
- Crisco as the binderCrisco here does the job mayonnaise or creamed butter would do now, and the whole point of the book is to prove it can. Melted shortening sets firm as it cools, so mix the filling while it is still warm and spread it promptly, or it will crumble rather than bind. Softened butter, or mayonnaise, gives a better texture on a cold sandwich.
- The anchovies"Ten anchovies" most likely means ten fillets, roughly a 2 oz tin drained, though period lists sometimes counted whole salted fish, in which case five would do. Salt-packed anchovies of the period were saltier than oil-packed fillets; rinse and pat dry, and add the "salt to taste" only after tasting the finished paste.
- Pounding the pasteThe book gives no method; a mortar was probably assumed. A small food processor does it in seconds, but pulse rather than run it, since the anchovies and yolks will turn to a smooth paste while the whites should keep a little texture.
- Curry powderA teaspoonful in a filling this small is assertive. Commercial curry powders of the period were generally milder and more turmeric-heavy than many blends sold now; if you are using a fresh, hot blend, start with half and adjust.
- Brown breadIn American books of this date "brown bread" may mean a wholemeal or graham loaf, but it can equally mean steamed Boston brown bread, which sliced thin and buttered works well with anchovy. Cut the slices thin and trim the crusts for tea sandwiches.
- YieldEnough for about 8 slices of bread, or 4 whole sandwiches, or 16 trimmed tea-sandwich fingers. The filling keeps a day covered in the refrigerator, but let it come back to cool room temperature before spreading.
The Story of Crisco (1913), written by Marion Harris Neil for Procter & Gamble, was published to teach American cooks what to do with a brand-new product: a hydrogenated cottonseed shortening sold as a replacement for both butter and lard. Many recipes in it are ordinary dishes of the day with Crisco substituted into a role butter or lard had held, and a sandwich filling bound with melted shortening rather than creamed butter is one of the more transparent examples of that agenda. The dish itself is otherwise conventional tea fare: the anchovy-and-hard-egg paste was a fixture of British and American savoury sandwiches, and the pinch of curry powder reflects the period's habit of adding a mild commercial curry blend to eggs, potted fish and creamed dishes for what cookbooks of the time called "piquancy."