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Sandwich (Thin slices of lightly) (II)
On thin slices of lightly buttered brown bread. spread cream cheese; over same sprinkle chopped cucumbers that have been mixed with a little French dressing. Cover with another slice of lightly buttered brown bread.
A tea sandwich with two things working against it: cucumber releases water and dressing adds more. Control the moisture and the rest is assembly.
- Drain the cucumber firstPeel, seed and chop the cucumber, toss with a little salt, and let it sit in a sieve 20-30 minutes, then press dry in a towel before dressing it. Undrained cucumber will soak through the bread within minutes.
- Dress sparingly"French dressing" in this period usually means a plain vinaigrette of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, whisked fresh rather than emulsified. Period proportions vary, from about two to three parts oil to one of vinegar, and some versions add paprika or mustard. A teaspoon or two for a whole cucumber is enough.
- Cream cheese, then and nowIn an American book of this date "cream cheese" most likely means a commercial fresh cheese of the sort sold in blocks today, though the term was still applied to home-made fresh curd cheeses. Modern brick cream cheese spreads better if beaten with a splash of cream first; whipped tub styles are too loose and will slide.
- Brown breadProbably a wholemeal or graham loaf, though American books of the period also paired cream cheese with steamed Boston brown bread, so the term is ambiguous here. A dense whole wheat sandwich loaf cut thin is a safe substitute, and slightly stale slices cut cleaner than fresh.
- Butter is structuralThe thin film of butter on both slices is a moisture barrier, not a flavour note. Spread it right to the edges of the crumb, softened but not melted.
- Assemble lateThese are meant to be made close to serving. If they must wait, keep them covered with a damp cloth under plastic in the refrigerator for no more than an hour or two.
- Yield and cuttingThe recipe gives no quantities; as a rough modern guide, one cucumber and about 4 oz of cream cheese will dress six to eight sandwiches. Trim the crusts and cut into triangles or fingers after filling, with a long thin knife wiped between cuts.
Eva Greene Fuller's collection belongs to what is often described as a vogue for single-subject sandwich books in the years around 1910, when afternoon tea and card parties had made the sandwich a respectable dish for hostesses rather than only a labourer's dinner. Cucumber sandwiches were already the emblem of the genteel tea table in Britain, and pairing them with cream cheese and a whole-grain loaf reflects a distinctly American twist: commercial fresh cream cheese was widely available in the United States by the 1880s and 1890s and turns up constantly in books of this sort, where it does the work of both spread and binder. The brown bread is also of its moment, as graham and whole wheat loaves carried a mild reputation for wholesomeness in the period's domestic-science writing. This recipe is given in a single unbroken paragraph without quantities, on the assumption that the reader already knows how much filling a slice of bread will take.