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Olive and Nut Sandwich
Chop olives and English walnuts fine, add a dash of mayonnaise dressing, and spread on lightly buttered brown bread.
A three-ingredient spread from the era when a sandwich book could reasonably run to four hundred entries. The whole thing rests on proportion and on chopping fine enough that the filling holds together.
- ProportionsThe original gives none. Roughly equal volumes of pitted olives and walnut meats works well, with the mayonnaise added a teaspoon at a time until the mixture just coheres. Too much dressing and it soaks the bread.
- Which olivesIn 1909 this most likely means brined green Spanish olives, the queen or manzanilla sort sold loose from a barrel or in glass, though canned California ripe olives were also available by then. Modern canned black olives are far milder and will read as bland here; green olives in brine, pitted yourself if need be, give more of the punch the filling wants.
- English walnutsThe ordinary walnut of the supermarket. The name distinguished it from the American black walnut, which is stronger, more resinous, and would overpower the olives. Toasting the meats briefly and rubbing off loose skin removes some bitterness.
- Mayonnaise dressingIn a period cookbook this normally means a hand-beaten oil-and-yolk mayonnaise, though cooked boiled dressings were sometimes used in its place. Commercial jarred mayonnaise is a fair substitute and is made with pasteurized egg; if you build your own from raw yolks, keep the sandwiches cold and eat them the same day.
- Brown breadMost likely a whole-wheat or graham loaf rather than the steamed Boston brown bread of the New England tradition, though the recipe does not specify. A dense wholemeal sandwich loaf is closest. The thin film of butter is functional: it waterproofs the crumb against the dressing.
- Salt and holdingBrined olives bring their own salt, so taste before adding any. The filling can be made a few hours ahead and refrigerated, but spread it just before serving.
- YieldRoughly two cups of filling from 1 cup olives and 1 cup walnuts, enough for a dozen or so tea sandwiches with crusts trimmed, or eight full slices.
This comes from Eva Greene Fuller's The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book, published in Chicago in 1909, one of a small crowd of American titles that treated the sandwich as a subject worth a volume of its own. The occasion was the tea room and the ladies' luncheon: bread cut thin, crusts off, filling smooth enough to spread. Olives and walnuts both carried a note of modest luxury at the time. Spanish olives were imported and sold as a relish, while shelled walnut meats were sold by the pound at the grocer and turned up in salads, cakes and sandwich pastes alike. The pairing of a salty pickle with a rich nut, bound by mayonnaise, was a familiar formula of the period.