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Wich (Peel radishes and chop very)
Peel radishes and chop very fine; place on ice until needed; then mix with a very little whipped cream; spread the mixture between thin oblongs of brown bread, dust a little grated Parmesan cheese over the top before the second slice is put on.
A three-ingredient tea sandwich that lives or dies on moisture control. The chilling step in the original is not fussiness — it is the whole technique.
- The hinge: radish waterChopped radish sheds liquid within minutes and will soak the bread through. Chop fine, toss with a pinch of salt, let stand 10 minutes in a sieve, then press dry in a towel before it goes anywhere near the cream.
- "A very little whipped cream"Cream whipped to soft peaks, unsweetened, used as a binder rather than a filling — roughly a tablespoon or two per cup of chopped radish. Enough to hold the pieces together and no more.
- Brown breadIn an early-twentieth-century sandwich book this means a dark loaf: graham, whole wheat, or steamed Boston brown bread. Steamed brown bread slices cleanly when a day old and chilled; a dense whole-wheat sandwich loaf is the easier modern stand-in.
- Thin oblongsSlice about 1/4 inch, trim the crusts, then cut each slice into two or three fingers, as the original's 'thin oblongs' implies.
- ParmesanGrate it fine from a wedge; the shelf-stable powdered kind is too salty and too dry against the cream. A light dusting is the intent — it is seasoning the filling, not forming a layer.
- Assemble lateThese will not hold. Make them within half an hour of serving, cover with a damp cloth, and keep them refrigerated; whipped cream on bread collapses quickly at room temperature.
- YieldAbout a cup of prepared radish, enough for 8 to 10 slices of bread, giving 12 to 15 small sandwiches.
Sandwich books were a small publishing boom in the first decade of the twentieth century, feeding the fashion for afternoon tea, card parties and ladies' luncheons, where the point was a great variety of very small things rather than any one substantial dish. Radish sandwiches turn up repeatedly in that literature, often as buttered radish on brown bread, which recalls the French habit of eating radishes with butter and salt. The whipped-cream binder here is in keeping with American recipes of the period, which used unsweetened cream as a lightener in savory fillings, and the Parmesan is barely more than a seasoning.