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Austrian Sandwich
Two cans of boned and skinned sardines, two balls of cottage cheese, one small onion chopped fine, two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, two tablespoonfuls of chopped mint, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, salt to taste, a dash of red pepper, the grated rind and juice of two lemons; also use the oil from the sardines. Mix and beat thoroughly; spread between thin slices of lightly buttered rye or brown bread.
A sardine paste with a lot of acid and herb in it, meant to be beaten into a spread rather than layered. The measurements are mostly plain; two things need translating.
- "Two balls of cottage cheese"This refers to hand-pressed fresh curd sold shaped into small rounds, not the wet curds in a tub today. Sizes were not standardised, so the total is a matter of judgement; drain modern cottage cheese in a sieve first, or use farmer cheese or quark, which is closer to what was meant.
- Sardine cans"Boned and skinned" sardines in oil came in tins of roughly 3 to 4 oz, so two cans is 6 to 8 oz of fish. Modern skinless and boneless sardines in olive oil are a direct substitute; the oil is called for, so do not drain them.
- Acid balanceTwo tablespoons of vinegar plus the juice of two lemons is a great deal of acid for the 6 to 8 oz of fish two tins would give. It is worth adding the vinegar last and tasting as you go, or the cheese will thin out and the paste will taste sharp rather than savory.
- Beat, do not stirThe instruction to "mix and beat thoroughly" is the point of the recipe. The fish, cheese and sardine oil need to be worked into an emulsion so the spread holds together on thin bread; a fork works, a food processor works faster but will make it pasty if overrun.
- MintTwo tablespoons of chopped mint alongside parsley is not an error; it is the unusual note in an otherwise familiar sardine spread. Use spearmint; peppermint is too aggressive against the fish.
- OnionA small raw onion chopped fine will assert itself strongly within an hour. Mince it very fine and, if the sandwiches are to sit, rinse it briefly in cold water first to take the edge off.
- Yield and holdingThe quantity makes enough spread for a plateful of thin rye sandwiches; the recipe gives no yield. Spread the bread shortly before serving, as the acid and oil will soak through thin slices left to stand.
Eva Greene Fuller's The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book (1909) came out of the era when canned sardines had turned an expensive imported delicacy into a pantry staple in American kitchens, and sandwich books of the period lean hard on them: they were shelf-stable, already boned, and needed no cooking, which suited the tea-table and the luncheon plate. The national names in books like this one — Austrian, Russian, Italian — are generally decorative rather than documentary, signalling a flavor gesture rather than a real provenance; here the gesture is fresh curd cheese, parsley and mint, and dark rye, the shorthand a 1909 American cook would have read as Central European. Fresh cheese sold in pressed balls, mint used as a savory herb rather than a sweet one, and rye or "brown" bread as the default for a fish spread are all suggestive of a period before the sliced white sandwich loaf became standard, though a herb choice and a bread choice can only hint at a date.