Queen Sandwich
Mince finely two parts of cooked chicken or game to one part of cooked tongue, and one part of minced cooked mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and a little lemon juice; mix and place between thin slices of buttered white bread. Garnish with small pickle.
A dry-mince sandwich filling of the sort meant to be cut small and served on a tray rather than eaten out of hand. The proportions are the whole recipe, so measure them.
- The ratioTwo parts poultry to one part tongue to one part mushrooms; the recipe does not say whether the parts are measured before or after mincing. The tongue is a seasoning here, not a filling; more than a quarter of the mix and it dominates everything.
- Cooked tongueBeef tongue, cured or simply boiled, once a standard cold cut, now mostly a butcher or deli order. Thick-cut pastrami or a mild cured ham gives a similar salty, dense counterpoint if tongue is not available, though the flavour is not identical.
- GameMeans pheasant, partridge, grouse or rabbit in this period. Dark leftover roast chicken or turkey thigh is the nearest everyday equivalent; the recipe wants meat with some character, not dry breast alone.
- The mushroomsCook them hard before mincing and let them cool. Mushrooms sweated only briefly hold water, and the filling will soak the bread within an hour.
- BindingThere is no mayonnaise or cream in the original; the butter on the bread is the only binder, so mince very finely or the filling falls out when cut. A spoonful of mayonnaise or softened butter worked into the mince is a reasonable modern liberty.
- Bread and butterButter the bread to the edges and use it soft. The butter is a moisture seal as much as a flavouring, which matters for a filling this dry.
- The pickleA cornichon or small gherkin, sliced or fanned alongside. Its acidity is doing real work against the tongue and butter, so do not skip it.
Sandwich books proliferated in the first decades of the twentieth century, when afternoon tea, card parties and railway travel all created demand for small, tidy, cut-bread food, and a great many of the recipes in them are essentially instructions for using up cold roast meat. Grand names were the convention in these collections, and the titles generally signal richness or a mixture of costly ingredients rather than any documented royal connection. What stands out here is the combination — poultry or game, cured tongue and mushrooms in one filling — since tongue was a respectable cold cut found in every good larder and mushrooms still carried a whiff of luxury.