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Chicken Sandwich
Two cups of finely minced cold cooked chicken, a heaping tablespoonful of Parmesan cheese, a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, a dash of French mustard, salt and pepper, add a little thick cream, work all to a smooth paste. Place between thin slices of buttered white bread. Garnish with a stick of celery.
A potted-chicken spread rather than a sliced sandwich, and it comes together in a bowl in about five minutes. The only real technique is getting the paste smooth without turning it to slurry.
- Mince, then pound"Finely minced" in a period sandwich book meant knife work or a hand grinder, which leaves the meat fibrous enough to hold the cream. A few pulses in a food processor works, but stop while the texture is still slightly coarse or the filling turns pasty and gluey.
- QuantitiesTwo cups of minced cooked chicken is roughly the yield of two large breasts or the picked meat from half a small roast bird. Expect enough filling for six to eight sandwiches.
- ParmesanA heaping tablespoon of finely grated Parmesan, not the coarse shred sold for pasta. Grate it on a rasp so it dissolves into the paste; it is there for salt and savour, so taste before adding more salt.
- Tomato catsupMany period catsups were thinner and sharper than the modern bottle, though sweetened commercial brands existed too. Use a scant tablespoon of a plain ketchup, or cut it with a few drops of vinegar if yours is very sugary.
- French mustardThis means Dijon-style prepared mustard, not powdered English mustard. A quarter teaspoon is a "dash" here.
- Thick creamHeavy cream, added a teaspoon at a time. The paste should just hold its shape on the knife; too much cream and it will soak the bread within minutes.
- Assembly and holdingButter the bread to the edges before spreading the filling, which keeps the crumb dry. If the sandwiches must stand, cover with a damp cloth and refrigerate, and cut only when serving.
- BreadThin slices of a close-crumbed white sandwich loaf. Trim the crusts and cut into fingers or triangles if you want a tea-table look, though the recipe itself specifies only thin buttered white bread.
Sandwich books were a small publishing boom in the first decades of the twentieth century, when afternoon tea, card parties, picnics and the packed lunch all needed something that could be made ahead and eaten with the fingers. Chicken recipes are common in the genre, often as a bound paste rather than sliced meat, since minced cold chicken spread with a knife stretched further and stayed put between thin slices. What marks this particular version is the seasoning: Parmesan, catsup and mustard together give it a savoury, faintly sharp edge closer to the potted meats and "devilled" spreads of Victorian cookery than to the mayonnaise-bound chicken salad that later took over the American sandwich. A stick of celery was a common garnish of the period, doing the same work a pickle spear does now.