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Sandwich (Spread thin slices of Boston)
Spread thin slices of Boston brown bread lightly a buttered, with cream cheese, mixed with a little chopped parsley. Put two slices together and garnish with an olive.
A three-ingredient tea sandwich that depends almost entirely on the bread being cut thin and the cheese being soft enough to spread without tearing it.
- Boston brown breadA steamed loaf of rye, cornmeal and wheat sweetened with molasses, traditionally cooked upright in a can and therefore round in section. Canned brown bread is still sold in New England; a homemade loaf steamed in a coffee tin gives the same cylindrical slices.
- Slicing it thinSteamed brown bread is moist and crumbly and drags on a knife. Chill the loaf thoroughly first and use a thin-bladed serrated knife, or draw a length of clean thread around and through the cylinder for clean rounds about 1/4 inch thick.
- "Cream cheese" in 1900"Cream cheese" -- in this period the term covered a range of soft fresh cheeses, including Neufchatel and drained curd cheese as well as branded factory products. Modern block cream cheese works; let it come fully to room temperature or beat in a teaspoon of cream so it spreads without lifting the crumb.
- "Lightly a buttered"Almost certainly a slip for "lightly buttered." Butter the slices thinly before spreading the cheese.
- The parsleyChop it fine and dry it well in a towel before mixing, or the water beads out and loosens the spread. Flat-leaf has more flavor; curly gives a more flecked look.
- Garnish and yieldThe recipe says only to garnish with an olive; how it is set on or fixed to the sandwich is left open. Yield depends entirely on how thin the loaf is cut.
- Holding themAssemble no more than an hour or two ahead and keep them covered with a damp cloth under plastic in the refrigerator. Brown bread stales and dries faster than white.
Sandwich books proliferated in the first decades of the twentieth century, when afternoon tea, card parties and church suppers created steady demand for something small, cold and easily multiplied. Boston brown bread with a fresh cheese was a natural pairing for that trade: the loaf was already a New England staple, sold in cans and needing no baking, and its molasses sweetness sat well against a bland salted curd. By this date factory-made fresh cheeses were widely sold under the loose name "cream cheese" alongside the home-drained curd of earlier household manuals. The olive on a pick is characteristic garnish work of the period.