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Cheese Sandwiches (Made by laying a wafer-like)
Cheese sandwiches are made by laying a wafer-like slice of cheese between two thin slices of bread, from which all crust has been removed. Drop into deep boiling fat and fry quickly to a golden brown color. Lay the sandwiches for a moment on tissue paper in a hot colander, then pile upon a folded napkin on a small platter.
A deep-fried cheese sandwich, closer to a fritter than to a grilled cheese. The whole thing depends on the fat being hot enough that the bread colors before the cheese has time to leak out.
- Fat temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature; "deep boiling fat" is a period phrase for fat hot enough to brown food quickly. In modern terms this is roughly 375F. Much cooler and the bread drinks oil and the seams open; much hotter and the outside browns before the cheese softens.
- Seal the edgesThe original assumes bread thin enough to press together. Trim the cheese slightly smaller than the bread and press the borders firmly, or the cheese will escape into the fat. A brief chill before frying helps the sandwich hold its shape.
- Choice of cheeseA firm, dry cheese that melts cleanly is wanted -- aged Cheddar, Gruyère, or the American "store cheese" of the period. Fresh mozzarella and other high-moisture cheeses steam and burst.
- BreadCut from a close-grained white sandwich loaf, about 1/4 inch thick. Modern airy bakery loaves absorb fat quickly; a day-old firm loaf fries much better.
- Tissue paperThis is unglazed absorbent paper of the kind used for draining fried food, not modern gift tissue. Paper towels do the same job, and the hot colander is simply so the sandwiches drain without steaming in their own oil.
- TimingUnder a minute a side. Turn once, lift as soon as the color is even gold, and serve immediately -- these collapse into greasiness as they cool.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; make as many as needed, allowing for a small savory or luncheon portion rather than a main dish. The folded napkin on the platter is period presentation; it also keeps the bottoms from sitting in oil.
Fried cheese sandwiches turn up under a range of names in late nineteenth and early twentieth century American cookbooks, often filed with sandwiches or with "savouries" -- the small hot cheese dishes an English-influenced household served at the end of dinner or at supper. Their appearance here seems to reflect two things about the period kitchen: deep fat was already in constant use for croquettes, fritters and doughnuts, so a kettle of hot fat was nothing special; and cheese appears frequently to have been treated as a cooked dish rather than something eaten plain from the board. The instruction to remove all crust and cut the cheese "wafer-like" is characteristic of turn-of-the-century sandwich chapters, which seem to have prized delicacy and thinness -- sandwiches were expected to look dainty on a napkin-lined plate, not to make a meal.