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Clover Sandwich
Trim the crust from a loaf of bread and place bread in a stone jar with clover blossoms; wrap the butter in cheese-cloth and also place in the jar; leave over night. Cut the bread thin and spread with the cloverscented butter; put two slices together and garnish with a clover blossom.
This is a scenting recipe rather than a cooking one: nothing is heated, and the whole thing succeeds or fails on how well the jar holds its aroma. Plan a day ahead.
- The hinge: a sealed vesselThe hinge: a covered vessel -- A "stone jar" is a glazed stoneware crock, often used with a close-fitting lid or cloth cover. Any glass or ceramic container will do, but the closer it covers, the more of the volatile floral aroma stays in with the bread and butter.
- Which cloverEither red clover (Trifolium pratense) or white clover will scent the butter; the recipe does not say which. Pick blossoms fully open and dry, from ground that has not been treated with herbicide or sprayed, and shake them out for insects before they go in the jar.
- Butter and cheeseclothWrapping in cheesecloth keeps the butter clean while letting it absorb aroma. Use unsalted butter, chilled but not frozen, and keep the whole jar in the refrigerator overnight rather than at room temperature.
- The breadA close-crumbed white sandwich loaf, a day old, slices thin without tearing. Trimming the crust from the whole loaf before scenting also gives the perfume a way in; a fresh, soft loaf will compress under the knife.
- Slicing thinTea-sandwich thin means about 1/8 inch. A long serrated knife and a firm loaf do it; so does asking a bakery to machine-slice an untrimmed loaf, then trimming the crusts yourself.
- How long to scentOvernight, eight to twelve hours, is what the recipe intends.
- Assembly and holdingSpread edge to edge so the bread does not dry, then cut and cover with a barely damp cloth under plastic until served. Make them the same day.
- YieldA trimmed loaf of about 20 thin slices gives 10 whole sandwiches, or 30 to 40 fingers or rounds for a tea tray.
Fuller's Up-to-Date Sandwich Book belongs to the era of the American afternoon tea sandwich, when the point of a sandwich could be perfume rather than substance. Scenting butter or sugar by shutting it up with flowers is older than the book, and comparable rose, violet and orange-blossom butters appear in earlier household manuals; clover is the homelier, field-gathered version of the same trick, and turns up in period cookery alongside clover honey and clover tea. The method depends on nothing but a tight cover and patience.