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Russian Sandwiches
Spread thin slices of Boston brown bread, stamped out in oval shape and lightly buttered, with neufchatel cheese or any cream cheese. Spread also an equal number of slices, stamped out and buttered with fine chopped olives and pimentos mixed with mayonnaise dressing. Press together in pairs with a crisp heart leaf of lettuce between each pair.
A closed sandwich of steamed brown bread with cream cheese on one side and an olive-pimento mayonnaise on the other. Nothing here is difficult; the details that matter are the bread and the moisture.
- Boston brown breadThe steamed, molasses-sweetened rye-and-cornmeal loaf, traditionally cooked in a can and sold today in cans in the same cylindrical shape. Canned loaves slice into rounds rather than ovals, so cut the slices from a home-steamed loaf if the oval shape matters to you.
- Slicing it thinBrown bread is moist and crumbles under a dull blade. Chill the loaf first and use a thin serrated knife, or dip the blade in hot water between cuts.
- "Stamped out"Cut with a cutter, the way you would cut biscuits. An oval or round cookie cutter does the job; a small drinking glass works for rounds.
- NeufchatelAmerican Neufchatel is a soft fresh cheese, essentially cream cheese with about a third less fat, and is still sold as such. Either it or plain cream cheese works; let it come to room temperature so it spreads without tearing the bread.
- The olive fillingChop the olives and pimentos fine and drain them well before mixing with the mayonnaise, or the brine will soak the bread within an hour. Bind with just enough dressing to hold the mixture, not enough to make it loose.
- Butter firstThe light buttering is not decorative. It seals the crumb against the wet fillings and is what lets these stand on a tray for a while.
- Assembly and holdingAdd the lettuce heart at the last moment; it wilts and weeps quickly against mayonnaise. Cover the finished sandwiches with a damp cloth and refrigerate if they are not going straight to the table.
- YieldA 16-oz can or small steamed loaf gives roughly 16 to 20 thin slices, or 8 to 10 sandwiches, depending on the size of your cutter. Figure two or three per person as a tea or reception sandwich.
The name has nothing much to do with Russia; by the turn of the century "Russian" was attaching itself to almost anything involving mayonnaise mixed with chopped vegetables or pickles, following the internationally popular "Russian salad" of diced vegetables in mayonnaise (Russian dressing itself is usually dated somewhat later, to the 1910s). The rest of the sandwich is thoroughly American: Boston brown bread is a New England steamed loaf of rye, cornmeal and wheat sweetened with molasses, and cream cheese in the domestic form found here had become widely available by the 1880s and 1890s. Fancy sandwiches like this one belong to the era's rage for afternoon teas, card parties and church receptions, where the point was small, tidy, two-color food that could be cut ahead of time and carried on a tray. The cutter-stamped oval is the tell: a sandwich shaped for a plate rather than a lunch pail.