Notable Sandwiches Special: 1909 Edition
Selections from “The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book: 400 Ways to Make a Sandwich”
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series in which I, alongside my editor David Swanson, stumble through the strange and ever-shifting document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches, in alphabetical order. This week, at the suggestion of a reader, we’re making a slight departure from the usual: in honor of National Sandwich Day, we decided to check out 1909’s immortal classic “The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book.”
Eva Greene Fuller, the author of 1909’s The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book: 400 Ways to Make a Sandwich, does not fuck around.
There’s no cutesiness to this book at all, no front matter, author bio, epigraph, or composed, winsome daguerrotype of the enigmatic author. The foreword, seven short paragraphs of eminent practicality, begins thus: “The first requisite in the preparation of good sandwiches is to have perfect bread in suitable condition.” Undoubtedly true, in a way that echoes across a century, but a sober truth, bereft of gaiety.
The only concession the book makes to fashion is its cover, which features a raven-haired ingenue in black stockings carrying a picnic basket, presumably stuffed with up to four hundred sandwiches. The New York Times absolutely roasted the cover in 1909, practically accusing the book of spurious advertising for somewhat inscrutable reasons: “Quite frivolous as to its general appearance and mystifying as to its cover design ‘The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book’ (A.C. McClurg & Co.) would surely be guilty of false pretenses if it had not its name in large black letters across its rosy face,” wrote an acid-tongued anonymous reviewer in 1909.
Still, the book does deliver precisely what it promises—400 sandwiches, divided into the categories Fish, Egg, Salad, Meat, Cheese, Nut, Sweet, Miscellaneous and Canapés, and laid out in crisp directives of notable brevity. (I list myself under both “Nut” and “Miscellaneous” as a matter of course.) The book found general acclaim among readers in its day, advertised as an “Inexpensive Small Gift Book” by its publisher. “It will astonish anyone who looks through the book to see how great may be the variety of the simple sandwich and how much it may add to any entertainment,” wrote The San Francisco Chronicle. “The commissariat for future picnics will rejoice to see this book,” added the Decatur Daily Review. Another edition, even more up-to-date, was published in 1927, unchanged but for the addition of a supplement containing 155 more sandwiches, such as "pineapple salad" and "avocado pear and mayonnaise"
So, like the intrepid sandwich researchers we are—and in honor of yesterday’s National Sandwich Day***—we took a dive into Fuller’s masterpiece and came up with a selection of sandwiches for your delectation, or general puzzlement.
***Incidentally, I got into quite a tizzy trying to puzzle out the origins of National Sandwich Day. Google, which is now so full of robotic SEO-hogging content as to be almost unusable, gave me a lot of fluff: it’s supposedly on November 3 to celebrate the birthday of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, although he was born on November 13. I could not find out when the celebration was established, although the earliest print reference appears to be in 1981, and I couldn’t find it in the Congressional record either. “National Sandwich Month”—August—was founded by a consortium of baking and flour companies in 1952, chiefly the Chicago Wheat Flour Institute. In 1987, Ziploc sponsored a National Sandwich Day contest judged by Dom DeLuise, and won by a Texan fifth-grader’s “Berry Bananawich.” I would love to announce this as a pat, corporate origin story, but the event is mentioned in print six years beforehand, and National Sandwich Day remains a mystery/convenient vehicle for sandwich-chain promotions. My lack of a conclusive set of facts here remains an open wound, liberally spread with kosher salt, like a good tomato sandwich.
Without further ado, here’s a sampler of 1909’s primo sandwiches. Offered without comment, if with considerable bafflement. (One note: “smilax” is the common name of a variety of edible greenbriar that’s also called sarsaparilla.)
Dream Sandwich
Cold chopped boiled sweetened prunes, mix with English walnuts chopped fine, moisten with a little of the prune syrup, and place between thin slices of lightly buttered white bread. Garnish with a spray of smilax.
Peanut Mayonnaise Sandwich
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a pan and add the juice of a lemon. Season with salt and pepper. To this gradually add a well-beaten egg, thinned with sour cream, adding it slowly, stirring the while to prevent it from curdling. When it begins to thicken, remove and stir in enough ground peanuts to make a good spreading butter. In preparing sandwiches of this, cut bread thin, spread with the mayonnaise; and lay between the slices a crisp lettuce leaf. Dainty for noon-day luncheon.
Oriental Sandwich
Mix one cake of cream cheese with a little maple syrup, then add sliced maraschino cherries. Place between thin slices of lightly buttered bread. Garnish with a spray of smilax and a cherry.
Aspic Jelly Sandwich
Soak one box (two ounces) of gelatine in one cup of chicken liquor until softened; add three cupfuls of chicken stock seasoned with a little parsley, celery, three cloves, a blade of mace, and dash of salt and pepper. Strain into a dish and add a little shredded breast of chicken; set in a cold place to harden; when cold, slice in fancy shapes and place on a slightly buttered whole wheat bread. Garnish with a stick of celery.
Almond and Lemon Sandwich
Grate the thin yellow rind of one lemon, being careful not to rub off any of the bitter white pith; blanch and pound one-half pound of almonds, adding slowly the juice of one lemon. When a smooth paste is formed, add the grated lemon rind. Rub the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs to a smooth paste, add the almond mixture, and spread over thin slices of lightly buttered white bread. Cover with another slice of bread and cut in triangles.
Violet Sandwich
Cover the butter with violets over night; slice white bread thin and spread with the butter; put slices together and cover with the petals of the violets.
The Sword and the Sandwich is a newsletter about serious extremism and equally serious sandwiches. Please consider supporting this work with a paid subscription:
Mexican Sandwich
Put large square salted crackers into the oven to heat. When warm, put on each cracker a large tablespoonful of baked beans that has been mixed with a little catsup heated with butter and highly seasoned.
Rice Sandwich
Creole rice may be shaped to a circle, in which make a cavity; leave this to stand in a cool place until firm; when so, cut in half, horizontally. Spread peach preserves neatly on lower ring, mask well with syrup. Put on the upper ring and mask well with the syrup. Put in a cool place until ready to serve; cut V-shape and serve with unflavored cream.
Olive and Nut Sandwich
Chop olives and English walnuts fine, add a dash of mayonnaise dressing, and spread on lightly buttered brown bread.
Hot Creamed Codfish Sandwich
Between toasted and lightly buttered slices of white bread place hot creamed codfish. Put a table-spoonful of the codfish on top and sprinkle finely chopped hard-boiled egg over the codfish and garnish with a sprig of parsley and a pickle. Serve as soon as made.
Ham Canapes
Mince and mash to a smooth paste half a pound of cold boiled ham, add two tablespoonfuls of currant jelly, one tablespoon of soft butter, and a half a teaspoon of curry powder or half this amount of paprika if the latter be preferred. Spread this paste on round pieces of toast and garnish with chopped, cooked eggs, whites and yolks separate, minced pickles, green peppers, and olives.
Excursion Sandwich
Chop cold boiled tongue fine. To each cupful, add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a dash of red pepper, and one half-teaspoonful of onion juice. Mix and spread on very thin slices of white bread, cover with another slice, and serve with a pickle.
There are three hundred and eighty-eight more recipes in the full book, which you can find at the Internet Archive here. I’m off on an excursion to shake an archivist by the lapels until he finally coughs up the answers to the mystery of National Sandwich Day, and I’ll be sure to bring plenty of onion juice, smilax, violet butter and ham-and-currant-jelly paste with me to keep my strength up.
Happy weekend!
Tal
No wonder the US needed immigrants to teach us what good food tastes like.
I smiled at the creamed codfish one. Creamed peas or tuna on biscuits or toast was a common meal in my dad’s house when he was growing up (in the 60s and 70s).