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Cheese and Celery Sandwich
Mince the tenderest, crispest of celery stalks fine and chill on ice. Add the same amount of grated cheese and enough whipped cream to make the mixture spreadable. Just before using, spread on dainty squares or triangles of thin bread, white or brown.
A cold sandwich filling with no measurements at all, which is workable once you fix the proportions and know which cheese was meant.
- ProportionsEqual volumes of minced celery and grated cheese, then cream by feel. About 1 cup each of celery and cheese with 3-4 tablespoons of whipped cream fills roughly 12 small sandwiches.
- The cheese"Grated cheese" in a book of this period most likely means a dry aged cheddar or a similar firm store cheese, grated on the fine side. A young supermarket cheddar shreds into damp threads and can turn the filling greasy rather than light.
- Whipped cream, not softened cheeseThe cream is whipped first, then folded in, which is what keeps this a pale airy spread instead of a paste. Unwhipped cream makes it loose and it will soak the bread.
- Chill the celery dryMince the celery, then chill it spread out on a plate rather than sitting in its own liquid. Wet celery thins the cream and can make the filling separate.
- Just before using means itWith whipped cream in the mix this holds perhaps an hour under refrigeration before it weeps. Assemble close to serving and keep the sandwiches covered with a damp cloth.
- SeasoningThe original gives none. Salt, white pepper and a little paprika are period-appropriate and the filling is flat without at least salt.
- The breadThin bread here suggests a close-crumbed loaf sliced thin, which is why it can carry a soft filling; a day-old loaf cuts more cleanly. Modern soft sandwich bread compresses under the knife; chill or lightly freeze the loaf before slicing.
Celery was a fashionable and comparatively expensive vegetable in late nineteenth-century America, served upright in tall cut-glass vases at the table and eaten raw as a course of its own. This recipe belongs to the sandwich boom that followed: as afternoon tea, card parties and picnic luncheons became fixtures of middle-class entertaining, cookbooks acquired whole chapters of thin-bread sandwiches whose point was daintiness rather than sustenance. The whipped cream is characteristic of the moment too.