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Sardellen Sandwich
Clean, bone, and mash smooth, one-half pound sardellen, mix with one tablespoonful of creamed butter, and juice of half a lemon, a dash of white pepper, and a half-teaspoonful of prepared mustard. Spread on thin slices of round toast, cover with another slice, and garnish with a pickle.
A German-style anchovy butter, thick enough to hold between two rounds of toast. The whole thing depends on how salty your fish is when it comes out of the tin or tub.
- What sardellen areSardellen is simply German for anchovies, and in a book of this vintage it means whole salt-cured anchovies packed in barrels or jars, not the oil-packed fillets sold today. Half a pound of whole salted fish yields roughly 5-6 oz of usable flesh once head, backbone and tail are gone.
- Desalt firstBarrel-cured anchovies need a rinse and a soak — 20 to 30 minutes in cold water or milk, changed once — before they are edible in this quantity. If you substitute oil-packed fillets, use about 4 oz, drain them well, and taste before adding anything else; they are already far milder than what the recipe assumes.
- BoningSalted anchovies split along the belly with a thumb and the spine lifts out in one piece. The fine pin bones are soft enough to break down when the fish is mashed smooth, so they need no separate picking out.
- Creamed butterOne tablespoon of butter to half a pound of fish gives a very forward, intensely salty spread. Two to three tablespoons, beaten soft first and then worked into the mashed fish, makes something that spreads without tearing thin toast.
- Prepared mustardIn a book of this period this meant a mild, vinegary table mustard of the American or German type, not Dijon and certainly not English mustard powder mixed to paste. Half a teaspoon of a sharp mustard will overwhelm the lemon.
- Round toastEither bread cut into rounds with a cutter or slices taken from a round loaf; the text does not say which. Toast it lightly and let it cool before spreading, or the butter melts out.
- SaltAdd none. Between the cure and the mustard there is more than enough.
- YieldEnough paste for about a dozen small round sandwiches, which is a party quantity rather than a lunch. The butter keeps covered in the refrigerator for several days and firms up considerably when cold.
Anchovy butter and anchovy paste were fixtures of the late-Victorian and Edwardian sideboard on both sides of the Atlantic, used on toast, folded into sauces, and spread under grilled meat. The German spelling Sardellen in an American sandwich book points to the strong central-European influence on the professional cooking of the period — hotel and club kitchens in New York, Chicago and Milwaukee were staffed heavily by German and Austrian cooks, and their vocabulary came with them. Sandwich books proliferated around the turn of the century as afternoon tea, card parties and the bridge luncheon created demand for small, sturdy, highly seasoned food that could be made ahead; a salt-fish paste that keeps for days and needs no cooking was exactly suited to it.