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Cherry Sandwich
One cup of maraschino cherries cut in small pieces, mixed with one-half cup of English walnuts chopped fine. Moisten with whipped cream. Spread on thin slices of white buttered bread, put two slices together and cut in squares. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
A tea sandwich from the era of the afternoon reception, where the filling was expected to be sweet and the bread cut small. It comes together in minutes, with two points worth attention: drainage and timing.
- Drain the cherries hardModern jarred maraschinos sit in a heavy syrup that will soak straight through thin bread. Chop them, then blot on paper towels until they stop weeping before mixing.
- Whipped cream as binder"Moisten with whipped cream" means cream whipped to soft peaks, folded in only until the mixture holds together; the recipe does not say whether it is sweetened. A tablespoon or two is plenty for this quantity; more turns it to slurry.
- English walnutsSimply the common walnut, distinguished in older books from the native black walnut, which is far stronger and would overwhelm the cherries. Use ordinary walnut halves, chopped fine.
- Butter is structuralButter both facing slices right to the edges. It forms the moisture barrier that keeps the cream filling from wetting the crumb, and it is not optional here.
- BreadA close-grained white loaf, sliced thin, is what the recipe assumes. Day-old bread cuts cleaner than fresh.
- Assemble lateThese hold perhaps an hour, well covered with a damp cloth. Made in the morning for an afternoon party, they will be pink and soggy.
- YieldAbout a cup and a half of filling, enough for six to eight sandwiches, which quarter into 24 to 32 small squares.
Maraschino cherries reached American households as an imported luxury: originally Dalmatian marasca cherries preserved in maraschino liqueur, they were being imitated by the late nineteenth century with domestic cherries, sugar syrup and colouring, and by the 1900s a jar was cheap enough to turn up in salads and sweets. This recipe belongs to the vogue for the sweet sandwich, which sat alongside savoury ones on the tea table and treated bread and butter much as a modern cook treats a cookie base.