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Marbled Bread Sandwich
Make an equal number of white and brown bread sandwiches, lightly spread with butter and currant jelly, press sandwiches together in alternating colors, cut in thin strips. Serve on lace paper doily.
A ribbon sandwich in miniature: the whole effect depends on the contrast between the two breads and on cutting cleanly. Nothing here is difficult, but a few of the assumptions need translating.
- What "brown bread" meansIn an American book of this period brown bread may mean graham or whole-wheat sandwich bread rather than steamed Boston brown bread, which is baked in a can and harder to slice into matching rectangles. Choose a dark whole-wheat pan loaf of the same shape and dimensions as your white loaf so the layers line up.
- Slice thin and evenlyThe bread should be cut about 1/4 inch thick; a day-old close-crumbed loaf slices far better than fresh. Uniform thickness matters more than thinness, since uneven slices ruin the striped edge that is the whole point.
- Butter to the edgesButter must be soft enough to spread without tearing the crumb, and it should reach the very edge. It acts as a seal against the jelly, which will otherwise soak through and stain the pale layers.
- Currant jellyRed currant jelly is still sold, often in the condiment aisle beside mint jelly. It is tart and firm-setting; if it has stiffened in the jar, stir it smooth rather than warming it, as melted jelly runs. Redcurrant is the traditional choice, but any firm, not-too-sweet jelly behaves the same way.
- PressingStack the alternating sandwiches, wrap the block in plastic or damp cheesecloth, and weight it with a plate and a can for 30 minutes to an hour in the refrigerator. This is what makes the layers cohere so the strips do not slide apart under the knife.
- Trimming and cuttingTrim all four crusts from the chilled block first, then cut strips about 3/4 inch wide with a long thin knife, wiping the blade between cuts. A serrated blade drags the jelly; a sharp straight blade is better.
- Yield and holdingFour slices each of white and brown bread give two sandwiches per colour, that is, one stacked block. Cut the strips no more than an hour or two ahead and keep them covered with a barely damp towel, since exposed edges dry quickly.
- The doilyLace paper doilies are still made and sold for baking and party use. They are chiefly decorative, though the paper will absorb a little grease.
The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book belongs to the wave of small single-subject cookbooks that appeared alongside the American fashion for afternoon tea, card parties and ladies' luncheons in the first years of the twentieth century, when the sandwich stopped being a working lunch and became a decorative course. Ribbon, checkerboard and pinwheel sandwiches all come from this moment, and all exploit the same convenience: the square-sided pan loaf, whether commercially or domestically baked, which could be sliced into identical geometric pieces. The pairing of white with graham bread also carried a faint dietary respectability, graham flour being associated with the nineteenth-century health reform movement, though here it is doing purely visual work. Currant jelly is high in pectin and sets reliably without commercial pectin.