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Fish and Egg Sandwich
Mix with an equal amount of cold cooked fish the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, mixed to a paste; add a little mayonnaise dressing. Spread mixture on lightly buttered white bread with a lettuce leaf between.
A flexible formula rather than a fixed recipe: equal parts flaked cooked fish and sieved hard-boiled yolk, bound with just enough mayonnaise. The proportions are the whole method, so weigh or eyeball carefully.
- What "cold cooked fish" means hereIt would most often have meant leftovers — poached or baked halibut, cod, haddock, salmon, or the remains of a boiled fish dinner. Canned salmon or tuna works too, drained hard and flaked fine so the paste holds together.
- Equal amounts, by volumeThree sieved hard-boiled yolks come to only about 3 tablespoons, so pair them with a like amount of flaked fish and scale up from there; the recipe itself gives no quantities. Push the yolks through a sieve rather than mashing with a fork; lumps of yolk make the spread grainy.
- Mayonnaise, sparingly"A little" is literal — start with a tablespoon and add only enough to make the mixture cohere. Fish and yolk are both already rich, and an over-dressed filling soaks the bread within minutes.
- The leftover whitesThe recipe uses only yolks, which is what gives the paste its smoothness. Chop the whites into a salad, or fold them into the filling if you would rather not waste them, accepting a coarser texture.
- Season itThe recipe specifies no seasoning at all. Fish and yolk together are flat without acid: a squeeze of lemon, salt, and a little cayenne or mustard bring the filling into focus.
- Why butter the breadThe thin film of butter is a moisture barrier between a wet filling and soft white bread. It is not optional if the sandwiches are to be made even half an hour ahead.
- Assembly and holdingThe lettuce leaf goes between filling and bread, plausibly as a second barrier; put it in whole and dry. Keep the sandwiches chilled and eat the same day, as a fish-and-mayonnaise filling should not sit at room temperature.
Sandwich books were a small publishing genre in the United States from roughly the 1890s to 1920, riding the fashion for afternoon teas, card parties, luncheons and packed picnic baskets — occasions where food had to be eaten from the hand and made in advance. Fillings of this kind, in which cooked leftovers are pounded or sieved to a paste and bound with mayonnaise, have an evident affinity with the older tradition of potted meat and fish pastes, updated by the spread of homemade mayonnaise and, before long, canned salmon and tuna, the latter available only from the early 1900s. The instruction to use only the hard-boiled yolks is characteristic of the period's fondness for smooth, pale, uniform spreads, and the lettuce leaf laid between filling and bread is a standard trick of the genre, meant to keep sandwiches for a tea table from going limp.