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Dutch Sandwich
Between thin slices of lightly buttered rye bread, spread highly seasoned cottage cheese; on this sprinkle finely chopped olives. Cut in diamond shape. Garnish with a sprig of parsley.
A cold sandwich with almost nothing to go wrong, so the interest is in seasoning and in the cheese itself. A few notes on what the 1909 kitchen assumed.
- "Highly seasoned cottage cheese"The book leaves the seasoning to you. Salt and plenty of black or white pepper are the obvious base, and paprika, a little grated onion or a spoonful of cream are all plausible additions. Season it aggressively — the rye and the olives are both assertive, and bland curd disappears between them.
- The cheese has changedPeriod cottage cheese was drier and more crumbly than the wet, large-curd tubs sold now. Drain modern cottage cheese in a sieve for 20 minutes, or press it briefly in a clean towel, or the bread will go soggy within the hour. Dry-curd or farmer cheese is closer to the original.
- OlivesMost likely green olives in brine, though the book does not specify and canned ripe olives were also available by this date. Chop them fine and blot them dry; brine that leaches into the curd will thin the spread.
- The ryeA close-crumbed deli-style rye, sliced thin, holds up best. Coarse artisan sourdough rye with big holes will let the filling through and defeats the neat cut.
- Cutting in diamondsTrim the crusts first, then cut on the diagonal in both directions. This is a tea-table shape and it wastes bread, which is part of why it reads as elegant. Chill the assembled sandwich 10 minutes before cutting for a clean edge.
- Yield and timingThe book gives no yield; a trimmed slice pair cut diagonally both ways will produce a handful of small diamonds plus offcuts, so plan on several per person as part of a tea or lunch spread. Assemble no more than an hour ahead and keep covered with a damp cloth in the refrigerator.
- ParsleyThe book calls for a sprig as garnish. Eat it with the diamond if you like; it adds a fresh note the filling lacks.
Sandwich books multiplied in America between about 1900 and 1920, when the sandwich moved from a working man's dinner pail to the centre of the ladies' luncheon and the afternoon tea, and dozens of little volumes appeared offering a named variation for every occasion. Names like "Dutch" in these collections are loose ethnic shorthand rather than any claim of provenance: rye bread and fresh curd cheese read as German or Netherlandish to the American compiler, and "Dutch" in the United States of this period was often applied broadly to Germanic peoples, as in the Pennsylvania Dutch — whose name is traditionally, though contestedly, traced to Deutsch. Cottage cheese was often a domestic product, made at home from clabbered milk and much drier than the commercial article, and recipes of the era sometimes instruct the cook to moisten and season it before use. The diamond cut, the trimmed crusts and the parsley sprig all belong to the same fashion for the fancy sandwich, in which presentation carried as much weight as filling.