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Sandwich (Chop olives and cold boiled)
Chop olives and cold boiled chicken livers fine; mix with mayonnaise and spread on thin slices of whole wheat bread. Put the slices together.
A three-line filling that depends almost entirely on proportion and texture, neither of which the original specifies. Two adjustments do most of the work: cook the livers properly rather than boiling them to dust, and keep the olives from overwhelming everything.
- QuantitiesNothing is given. About 1/2 lb chicken livers to 1/3 cup pitted green olives and 3-4 tablespoons mayonnaise makes roughly a cup and a half of filling, enough for six to eight sandwiches.
- "Cold boiled" liversPoach them gently in lightly salted water or stock until firm and cooked through, with no pink remaining, then cool completely. A prolonged hard boil turns liver grainy and metallic.
- OlivesThe recipe does not specify; brine-cured green olives, plain or pimiento-stuffed, are the likely intent. They carry all the salt in the recipe, so salt the livers lightly and taste before adding more.
- Chop, do not pureeThe instruction is to chop fine, not to pound to a paste. Hand-chopping keeps the olive distinct against the soft liver; a food processor will emulsify the whole thing into something closer to a pate.
- MayonnaiseAdd it a spoonful at a time. Liver absorbs dressing and then abruptly turns loose and greasy, and there is no bread that holds a sloppy liver filling.
- The breadWhole wheat is what the recipe calls for, and its nuttiness offsets the brine. Cut thin, butter both faces lightly to seal the crumb, and assemble no more than an hour or two ahead.
- KeepingCooked liver spoils quickly and this contains no acid beyond the mayonnaise. Refrigerate the filling and use it within a day.
Sandwich books proliferated in America in the 1900s and 1910s, driven by afternoon teas, card parties, club luncheons and the new fashion for packed lunches, and they are full of exactly this kind of entry: two or three assertive ingredients, chopped fine, bound with a dressing, spread thin. In a household cookbook of this period mayonnaise was generally made at home from yolks and oil rather than bought ready-made. Chicken livers were a thrifty by-product in any kitchen that bought whole birds, and pairing them with brined olives is a straightforward salt-and-richness trick that appears across the period in canape and "savoury" recipes as well. The whole wheat bread may mark its moment too: brown bread was gaining acceptance at the tea table in these years.