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Orange Marmalade Sandwich No. 2
On thin slices of lightly buttered white bread spread orange marmalade. Put four slices together, put under a weight and when well pressed, trim off the crusts and cut down in thin slices. Serve on lace paper doily. ¥
A pressed layered sandwich cut into fingers -- closer to a tea pastry than a lunch item. Two details carry it: the bread must be sliced very thin, and the stack must be weighted long enough to compact.
- Four slices, not twoThe instruction means a stack of four slices of bread with marmalade between them, giving three layers of filling. Butter each cut face lightly so the marmalade does not soak straight into the crumb.
- Slice thicknessOrdinary sliced sandwich bread is generally too thick for this; a stack of four makes an unwieldy block. Cut your own from a firm white sandwich loaf as thin as you can manage -- around 1/4 inch -- or ask for a thin-sliced loaf.
- Day-old breadFresh bread tears under the knife and squashes under the weight. Bread baked the day before slices thin and presses cleanly.
- PressingWrap the assembled stack, lay a board on top and weight it with a few cans or a filled kettle. Thirty minutes at room temperature is enough to bind it; an hour in the refrigerator makes trimming easier still.
- Marmalade consistencyA stiff, well-set marmalade behaves; a loose one runs out under the weight. If yours is slack, drain off some syrup or reduce it briefly and let it cool before spreading.
- Trimming and cuttingTake the crusts off with a long serrated knife after pressing, not before, so the edges stay square. Cut down through the layers into fingers about half an inch wide, wiping the blade between cuts.
- YieldOne four-slice stack yields roughly eight to ten fingers. Reckon on three or four per person at tea.
- HoldingCover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap until serving; thin bread dries out within the half hour. The lace paper doily is presentation, not technique -- a napkin-lined plate does the same job.
Pressed and layered sandwiches cut into fingers were a fixture of the Anglo-American tea table in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the sandwich had split into two quite separate things: substantial fare for luncheon and picnics, and dainty ribbon, pinwheel and rolled sandwiches for afternoon calls. Books of this kind often gave space to sweet fillings -- jams, marmalades, nuts, dates, chopped ginger -- served in quantities small enough to be eaten in two bites while standing. Orange marmalade was a natural choice for such fillings. Commercial marmalade was by then widely available, Scottish producers of bitter-orange preserves being among the best known, which is part of why a recipe like this can be a five-minute assembly job rather than a preserving project.