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Turkey Club Sandwich
Toast three thin slices of white bread and butter, on the lower slice lay cold white breast of turkey; cover with another slice of toast; on that lay a thin slice of hot broiled ham; cover with another slice of buttered toast and press together. Serve on a lettuce leaf. Garnish with small pickles.
A three-decker built while the toast is still warm, with hot ham against cold turkey. The temperature contrast is the whole point, so assemble it at the last moment.
- Thin slicesThree slices of standard sandwich bread stacked makes an unwieldy sandwich by modern loaf standards. Cut a sturdy white pullman loaf at about 3/8 inch, or use pre-sliced bread and accept a taller build; cutting the finished sandwich into quarters on the diagonal and pinning each with a pick is the usual solution.
- Butter, not mayonnaiseThis version uses butter and omits the mayonnaise and tomato of the club that later became standard; versions with mayonnaise, tomato and bacon were already circulating by this date. Butter both cut faces of the middle slice as well, or the interior goes dry.
- Broiled hamA thin slice of cured ham under a hot broiler for a minute or two per side until the edges color and the fat runs. Country ham or a thick-cut deli ham both work; do not substitute bacon here unless you want a different sandwich.
- Cold turkey breastProbably written with leftover roast bird in mind; carve from the breast in wide thin slices. Two or three slices per sandwich is right; shaved deli turkey will slide out when pressed.
- Press togetherWeight the assembled sandwich briefly with a plate before cutting, otherwise the layers shear apart under the knife.
- Small picklesGherkins or cornichons. Serve on the plate, not in the sandwich.
- YieldOne sandwich, one serving.
The club sandwich turns up on American hotel and clubhouse menus by the 1890s, and its origin is traditionally traced to the gambling and resort clubs of the northeast, Saratoga Springs among them, though no single documented invention survives. What is clear from early printings like this one is how unfixed the formula still was: no tomato, no mayonnaise, no bacon, and turkey rather than chicken. What defined it was the third slice of toast, a small structural extravagance that marked the sandwich as club food rather than lunch-pail food. Eva Greene Fuller's collection, published in 1909, catalogues hundreds of such combinations at a moment when the sandwich was moving from tea table to restaurant menu.