Almond Sandwich
Cut white bread in rounds and lightly butter, put on a layer of finely chopped almonds, add a sprinkling of salt and a dash of lemon juice; cover with another round of bread and press a blanched nut in the centre. Serve on a lettuce leaf.
A tea sandwich of the kind that filled American luncheon menus around 1909, and one that lives or dies on the texture of the nuts.
- Blanch the almonds yourselfThe recipe calls for a blanched nut on top, and the chopped filling was most likely blanched too: almonds were dropped in boiling water for a minute and the skins slipped off. Slivered or whole blanched almonds from a supermarket work equally well; skin-on almonds give a darker, coarser filling.
- Chop, do not grind"Finely chopped" means the size of coarse sand, not almond meal. A food processor will turn them to paste in seconds, so pulse briefly or use a knife.
- Toasting is worth itThe original leaves the almonds raw, which is authentic but flat. Ten minutes at 350F deepens the flavour considerably and costs nothing.
- Butter does the holdingThere is no binder here beyond the butter, so it must be genuinely soft and spread to the edges, or the nuts will shed the moment the sandwich is lifted.
- Lemon juiceA dash means a few drops per round, not a teaspoon. Enough to brighten the fat; more and the bread goes damp.
- Cutting the roundsA small plain cutter, around 2 inches, suits the scale, though the recipe gives no size. Cut the rounds from close-textured sandwich bread a day old, which cuts cleanly where fresh bread compresses.
- Yield and timingThe recipe gives no quantities; as a rough guide a standard loaf will yield enough rounds for about ten small sandwiches, with butter and chopped almonds to suit. Assemble within an hour of serving and keep them under a damp cloth; the lettuce leaf underneath is presentation, not storage.
Nut sandwiches feature in books like this one because, in the first decade of the twentieth century, nuts were fashionable food. The vegetarian and "nut food" movements associated with sanitarium cookery had made almonds, peanuts and walnuts respectable as a protein rather than a dessert garnish, and at the same time the ladies' luncheon and the commercial tea room created steady demand for small, dainty, meatless sandwiches that could be made in advance. Almonds were the aristocrat of the group: imported, expensive, and requiring the extra labour of blanching. A single whole nut is pressed into the top round here. The lettuce leaf beneath is a standard finish of the period, when cold dishes were often set on greenery.