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Chicken and Almond Sandwich
One cup of cold boiled chicken chopped fine; one cup of almonds chopped fine; moisten with a little cream, season with salt and paprika, place between thin slices of entire wheat bread. Garnish with parsley, and an olive.
A straightforward chopped-chicken filling, unusual only in its heavy hand with almonds. The proportions and the binder are where it needs attention.
- "Entire wheat bread"Period term for whole wheat; flour sold under that name was often more finely milled than today's stone-ground, though this varied. Any close-crumbed whole wheat sandwich loaf works; cut thin, about 1/4 inch, and use a serrated knife on chilled bread.
- The almondsRecipes of this period often specify blanched almonds — poured over with boiling water and skinned — though this one does not. Unblanched skins make the filling look muddy and taste tannic. Buy blanched slivered almonds and chop them, or blanch whole ones yourself.
- Chop, do not processA food processor turns both the chicken and the almonds to paste in seconds, and the point of the sandwich is the contrast between soft meat and crunch. Hand-chop the chicken to a coarse mince and the almonds to roughly rice-sized bits.
- The ratioEqual cups of chicken and almonds is nut-forward by modern taste, and almonds absorb moisture as they sit. Half a cup of almonds to a cup of chicken gives a filling that still spreads. If you keep the full cup, expect to need more cream.
- "Moisten with a little cream"Heavy cream, added a tablespoon at a time until the mixture just coheres — two to three tablespoons is usually enough. Cream-bound fillings do not hold like mayonnaise-bound ones; assemble within a few hours and keep refrigerated.
- PaprikaPaprika in this period was generally the mild, sweet sort, used as much for color as heat. Smoked paprika will dominate the almonds; use plain sweet.
- YieldAbout two cups of filling as written, nearer 1 1/2 cups if you cut the almonds back; enough for four full sandwiches or eight small ones cut into triangles or fingers for a tea tray.
- The garnishParsley and a single olive, as the recipe directs; such garnishes were commonly set alongside on the platter rather than on the bread. Skip them or use them; they change nothing about the filling.
Sandwich books proliferated in the United States between about 1900 and 1920, aimed at the afternoon tea, the card party and the packed luncheon — occasions where a hostess needed a dozen small savory things and no chafing dish. Chopped cold chicken bound with cream or mayonnaise was the workhorse of that genre, and almonds were the fashionable addition: California's almond industry was expanding fast in this period, and blanched almonds are often said to have become a more everyday pantry item rather than strictly a confectioner's ingredient. The instruction to use whole wheat bread rather than white reflects the era's enthusiasm for "entire wheat" as a health food, generally traced to the health reformers of the day, and it appears throughout these little books as a mark of a modern, wholesome table.