Olive Squares
Cut thin squares of brown bread and lightly butter, adding a dash of pepper and salt. Stone eight olives, chop them with two stalks of celery, one tiny cucumber pickle, a teaspoonful of catsup, a dash of salt and pepper, and a very little mustard. Mix well and spread on the brown bread, covering with another square.
A cold relish sandwich that comes together in about ten minutes, provided the filling is chopped fine enough to stay put between two thin slices.
- Brown breadIn an American book of this period "brown bread" may mean a plain wholemeal or graham loaf, though the steamed Boston brown bread is also possible; the recipe does not say which. A firm, close-crumbed wholemeal sandwich loaf sliced thin works well; anything airy will tear when spread.
- Chop, do not diceThe filling is bound by nothing but its own moisture and the catsup, so everything must be chopped near to a mince. Coarse pieces of celery will lever the top slice off at the first bite.
- OlivesThe recipe does not say what kind; green olives in brine are the likeliest reading. Pit and chop them; if they are stuffed with pimento, leave the pimento in and cut back the salt.
- Cucumber pickleOne "tiny" pickle is a gherkin, roughly a tablespoon chopped. Sweet or sour both work, but a sour gherkin balances the catsup better.
- Catsup and mustardPeriod tomato catsup was generally thinner and sharper with vinegar and spice than modern ketchup. The recipe calls for a teaspoonful; take "a very little mustard" as about a quarter teaspoon of prepared mustard, or a pinch of dry.
- Drain before spreadingOlives, celery and pickle all shed liquid once cut. Let the mixed filling sit five minutes and pour off what collects, or the butter barrier will not save the bread.
- YieldThe quantities make enough for roughly four to six sandwiches on small squares. Assemble no more than an hour ahead and keep under a damp cloth.
Sandwich books proliferated in America between about 1900 and 1920, when the afternoon tea, the club luncheon and the packed office lunch all wanted something small, cold and portable. Fillings like this one are essentially a chopped relish, closely related to the olive-and-nut and pickle spreads of the period; the household version let a cook use up half a bottle of catsup and the last few olives. Brown or graham bread carried a whiff of healthfulness in this period, promoted by the same reform-minded cookery writers who pressed whole grains generally.