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Tongue and Tomato Sandwich
Lightly butter three thin slices of white bread.
On lower slice place a lettuce leaf that has been dipped in mayonnaise dressing; on leaf place a slice of cold boiled tongue, then a slice of bread; on this lay a slice of tomato that has been dipped in mayonnaise dressing, topped by a third slice of bread. Garnish with an olive.
A three-slice double-decker in the club sandwich mould, built to be assembled and eaten at once. The only real work is the tongue, which the 1909 cook either boiled at home or bought sliced at the butcher.
- Cold boiled tongueA whole beef tongue is simmered roughly three hours or more, until a skewer slides in easily, then peeled while still warm (the skin comes away far more easily hot than cold); it may then be pressed under weight in its liquid overnight. Sliced tongue from a good deli counter is the practical substitute; lamb or veal tongue is milder and smaller.
- "Mayonnaise dressing"At the turn of the century this could mean either a true egg-and-oil mayonnaise or a cooked boiled dressing thickened with flour and egg; both were in household use. Either works here; jarred mayonnaise is closest to the intent.
- Dipping rather than spreadingThin the mayonnaise with a spoonful of cream or lemon juice so the lettuce and tomato take a light coat instead of a heavy clot; full-strength jarred mayonnaise is too stiff to dip cleanly.
- The tomato is the hingeLay the slices on paper towel with a little salt for ten minutes and blot before dipping. Undrained tomato will soften the middle slice of bread quickly, so the sandwich is best assembled to order.
- The breadThin slices of a close-crumbed white pan loaf, buttered to the edges. The butter is structural as much as flavouring: it seals the crumb against the dressing and tomato juice.
- Holding it togetherThree slices with slippery fillings will slide apart. Cut in half diagonally and run a cocktail pick through each half, spearing the garnish olive on one of them.
- YieldOne sandwich, cut in two. Trim the crusts if serving at tea or on a luncheon plate.
Sandwich books were a small publishing genre in the first decade of the twentieth century, when the sandwich moved from picnic food to a fixture of the ladies' luncheon, the card party and the railway buffet, and a cook was expected to produce dozens of distinct kinds. Tongue was an obvious filling for such a book: boiled and pressed tongue was a common cold larder item in households that bought meat by the whole cut, relatively cheap, keeping well, and slicing into neat lean rounds. The three-slice construction with lettuce, dressing and a garnish olive follows the club sandwich formula, generally traced to American clubs and hotel dining rooms in the 1890s, applied here to a thriftier filling than the usual chicken. The olive on top is period garnish more than seasoning.