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Almond and Lemon Sandwich
Grate the thin yellow rind of one lemon, being careful not to rub off any of the bitter white pith; blanch and pound one-half pound of almonds, adding slowly the juice of one lemon. When a smooth paste is formed, add the grated lemon rind. Rub the yolks of two hardboiled eggs to a smooth paste, add the almond mixture, and spread over thin slices of lightly buttered white bread. Cover with another slice of bread and cut in triangles.
A nut paste bound with egg yolk rather than mayonnaise, which is what keeps it from turning greasy on the bread. The work is all in the pounding.
- The hinge: zest only, no pithTake only the thin yellow outer layer with a rasp grater or by paring and mincing. Any white pith turns the whole paste bitter, and there is nothing sweet in the mixture to hide it.
- Blanching almondsPour boiling water over half a pound of shelled almonds, let stand two minutes, drain, and slip the skins off between finger and thumb. Dry them well before pounding or the paste will be loose. Half a pound is about 1 1/2 cups.
- Pounding, done fasterA food processor does in two minutes what a mortar does in twenty. Pulse the almonds to a coarse meal first, then add the lemon juice in a thin stream with the motor running. Stop while it is still a paste; run it too long and the almonds give up their oil.
- Egg yolksTwo yolks from hard-boiled eggs, pressed through a fine sieve, blend in far more smoothly than yolks mashed with a fork. The whites are not used here; save them for another filling.
- Lemon proportionOne lemon's juice for half a pound of almonds gives a firm, spreadable paste. If your lemon is large and the mixture goes slack, a spoonful of ground almonds brings it back.
- SaltThe original gives none, and the filling reads flat without it. A good pinch stirred into the finished paste sharpens both the lemon and the almond.
- Bread and butterThin-sliced white sandwich bread, buttered lightly to the edges so the lemon juice does not soak in. Cut crusts off before filling rather than after and the triangles stay neat.
- YieldRoughly ten to twelve sandwiches, which cut into something like forty to forty-eight small triangles. Make the paste a few hours ahead if you like, but press plastic wrap onto the surface, since cut almond paste dries and darkens.
Sandwich books were a publishing genre around the turn of the twentieth century, aimed at the afternoon tea, the card party and the church supper, where the point was a large number of small, decorative, hand-held things. Almonds were an expensive nut, and blanching and pounding them by hand was ordinary kitchen labor rather than a special effort. Binding a filling with sieved hard-boiled yolk instead of mayonnaise or cream turns up in other sandwich recipes of the period, and it holds up better than a wetter binder on a sandwich that has to sit on a plate. The insistence on avoiding the white pith is a reminder that lemon zest in this era was taken off with a grater or a knife, and that a bitter sandwich was a real risk.