Gras Sandwich
Two tablespoonfuls pâté de foie gras and a cup of finely chopped cold boiled chicken; season with pepper and salt; spread on a crisp lettuce leaf that has been dipped in French dressing, and place between thin slices of white bread.
A tea-table sandwich in which a small amount of foie gras acts as the seasoning and the binder for a much larger quantity of poached chicken. The proportions are deliberate; treat the pâté as a condiment rather than a filling.
- Work the pâté soft firstTwo tablespoons of foie gras will not distribute through a cup of chopped chicken unless it is mashed to a paste at room temperature first. Cold, straight from the tin, it stays in lumps and the sandwich tastes of nothing in most bites.
- Quantities and yieldA cup of finely chopped cooked chicken is roughly 5 oz, about the meat from one large breast. The filling makes three to four sandwiches cut in halves, or eight to ten fingers with the crusts removed.
- "Cold boiled chicken"The phrase points to leftover boiled fowl, which many households would have had to hand. Poach a breast gently in salted water or stock until just cooked through, then cool it completely before chopping; hot meat will melt the pâté into grease.
- French dressingIn American usage of this period the term generally means a simple vinaigrette of oil and vinegar with salt and pepper, whisked to order; period recipes vary in whether mustard or other seasonings are added. Roughly three parts oil to one of vinegar is a usual proportion.
- Dipping the lettuceDip, do not dress — the leaf should carry a film of vinaigrette, not a pool, or the bread goes through in minutes. Shake it and blot on a towel before laying it on the filling.
- Foie gras todayTinned pâté de foie gras was a stock luxury in well-supplied households of this period and is now expensive and, in some jurisdictions, restricted or banned. Good chicken liver pâté or a mousse de foie de volaille stands in reasonably well, though the flavour is milder.
- The bread"thin slices of white bread" indicates a close-crumbed sandwich loaf, cut thin, on the order of 1/4 inch or less. A thin coat of butter to the edges (not called for here) will help keep the dressing from soaking in. Assemble shortly before serving and keep covered with a damp cloth.
The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book belongs to the brief American vogue, roughly 1900 to 1920, for the sandwich as a genteel item rather than a workman's lunch: hundreds of small formulas built on thin white bread, crusts trimmed, intended for teas, receptions, card parties and travelling baskets. Tinned pâté de foie gras, imported chiefly from Strasbourg and the southwest of France, was a shelf-stable luxury that a well-stocked grocer could supply, and cookbooks of the period use it much as they use anchovy paste or deviled ham — a spoonful to give an otherwise plain cold chicken filling some savor and depth. Foie gras, from goose or duck, was already paired with poultry in Escoffier-era professional cooking, in aspics, galantines and chicken suprêmes.