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Walnut Sandwich
Spread thin slices of lightly buttered white bread with currant jelly and sprinkle with finely chopped English walnut meats. Cover with another slice and cut in oblong shape.
A three-ingredient tea sandwich that lives or dies on the bread and the set of the jelly. A few notes on translating it.
- "English walnut"The common walnut, Juglans regia, as distinct from the American black walnut, which was still widely gathered at the time. It is simply the walnut sold in every supermarket today; black walnut, with its much stronger resinous flavour, would overwhelm the jelly.
- Currant jellyRed currant jelly, not the jam and not dried currants. It is firm-set and tart, which is the point here: a soft jam soaks into the crumb and the sandwich collapses. If you cannot find red currant, a firm-set tart jelly such as quince or crabapple behaves the same way.
- Butter is structuralThe thin butter layer is a moisture barrier between jelly and bread. Have it soft enough to spread without tearing the slice, and cover the bread edge to edge.
- The breadA close-grained white sandwich loaf, sliced thin. Day-old bread cuts cleaner than fresh. Chilling the loaf briefly before slicing helps if you are working with a soft modern loaf.
- Chop the nuts fineCoarse pieces make the top slice slide off when cut. A knife gives a better texture than a food processor, which quickly turns walnuts to paste and oil.
- "Cut in oblong shape"Trim the crusts, then cut each sandwich into two or three narrow fingers. Oblong fingers were one of the common tea-table shapes, alongside triangles and rounds.
- Yield and holdingReckon on three fingers per slice pair and four to six fingers a person at tea. Assemble no more than an hour or two ahead, cover with a damp cloth or plastic, and refrigerate; the jelly will begin to wet the bread beyond that.
Sweet sandwiches occupy a full section of turn-of-the-century sandwich books because the sandwich had moved from tavern food to the afternoon tea table, where it was expected to be small, crustless and closer to a confection than a meal. Jelly and chopped nuts was one of the standard pairings, alongside dates, figs, maraschino cherries and sweetened cream cheese. The specification "English walnut" is a period marker: American cooks distinguished the imported thin-shelled walnut from the native black walnut they could gather themselves. Books of this kind existed largely to supply hostesses with enough variations to fill a tiered plate.