Beet Sandwich
Chop cold boiled beets fine, season with salt and pepper and a dash of vinegar. On thin slices of lightly buttered white bread, spread cream cheese. On top of this sprinkle the chopped beets. Cover with another slice of bread.
A two-ingredient spread that depends almost entirely on how well you manage moisture. The book files it under "Egg" sandwiches, though no egg appears — a quirk of the original sectioning rather than an omission.
- Drain the beets hardThis is the hinge. Chopped beets shed a great deal of red liquid, and vinegar draws out more. Chop, season, then let them sit in a sieve for ten minutes and press gently before they go anywhere near the bread.
- "Cream cheese" in 1909At this date the term often covered a soft fresh curd cheese of the Neufchatel type, looser than the stabilized block sold today. Modern block cream cheese works, but beat it with a spoonful of milk or cream so it spreads without tearing thin bread.
- Butter is structuralA thin, complete film of soft butter on the crumb face helps keep beet juice from soaking through, so it is worth spreading carefully. Do not use butter cold from the refrigerator.
- Cold boiled beetsBoil whole with an inch of stem and the root tail intact so they bleed less, roughly 30-45 minutes for medium beets, then slip the skins under cold water. Vacuum-packed cooked beets are a fair substitute; drain and blot pickled beets and cut the added vinegar.
- The vinegarRead "a dash" as roughly a teaspoon to a cup of chopped beets. Cider or white wine vinegar suits it.
- Bread and assemblyThin-sliced white sandwich bread, crusts off if serving for tea. Assemble no more than half an hour ahead — beyond that the beets stain through and the bread goes limp.
- YieldA cup of chopped cooked beets, about two medium beets, and 4 oz of cream cheese make roughly six full sandwiches, or two dozen small tea cuts.
Eva Greene Fuller's collection dates from the era when the sandwich had become a fixture of the American afternoon tea, the card party and the picnic basket, and cookbook writers were busily cataloguing every combination that could be pressed between two thin slices. Fresh soft cheeses of the Neufchatel type had been produced commercially in New York State since the 1870s, which put a spreadable white cheese within reach of ordinary households and made possible dozens of recipes like this one, where the cheese does the work of both butter and binder. Beets were a cheap, year-round root that took well to vinegar, and their color was part of the appeal: sandwich books of the period often recommend fillings chosen for how they would look on a platter alongside paler ones.