This is from the Good Housekeeping 1958 #13 Breads and Sandwiches. Here is a two page spread of how to make sandwiches look like a cake. I've discussed this odd trend before, but the directions on this one are hilarious.
The top middle picture with the bread: With sharp knife, trim all crusts from top, bottom, and sides of day-old loaf unsliced white bread. Now lay loaf on side; slice lengthwise into 5 equal slices (about 1/2 inch thick). It may help to use a ruler as a guide to keep slicing straight and even.
So - 1. day old bread is good for nothing else but these weird machinations. 2. We have just been advised to use a ruler to slice bread perfectly. Where to begin commenting on this one? Better to keep going.
Bottom left photo: Spread first (bottom) slice with sharp-cheese spread. Spread second slice with half of Chicken-Salad Filling; top with tomato slices, trimming as necessary to cover filling. Spread remaining Chicken-Salad over tomato slices.
Middle photo on bottom of page: Place second slice on first slice. Spread third slice of bread with Egg-Salad Filling. Place on Chicken-Salad layer. Do not press layers together too firmly, as mixture may ooze. (Great description for a recipe, right?) Spread fourth slice with Ham-Salad Filling.
For those of you keeping count that is three fillings - chicken salad, egg salad and ham salad. I don't know about the combo. I also don't know what ham salad is and don't want to find out.
Third photo: Place fourth slice on top of Egg-Salad layer. Top loaf with last slice of bread, rounded-side up. Gently shape loaf with hands to all sides are even. Then with spatula, frost top and sides with Susan's Cream-Cheese Frosting.
Final photo on right: Top loaf with sliced radishes; sprinkle with snipped parsley. Refrigerate several hours or overnight (wouldn't bread then be two days old?) . At serving time, place on platter; garnish with water cress.
Why not just offer guests a platter of three different kinds of sandwiches and hold the nasty cream cheese frosting? Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the cholesterol in this sandwich-cake thing?
I like my cakes without ham.
9 comments:
ham salad - my mom would make it using a hand cranked meat grinder. I think she used spam - but can't quite remember (it was 20 years ago). It was brought out for bridal/baby showers or my greatgrandmother's birthday at the town hall - - - fun times. The ham salad is like tuna salad - just replace tuna with spam or a chunk of ham (unsliced - then through the grinder.) We never had the fancy cream cheese spread though...
i love these things! i have an old collection of cookbooks, not in reach right now but I will get you the name, that are full of these kinds of things - hilarious! One of them has smeared a cream cheese "frosting" which was then studded delightfully with peanuts... food isn't as much fun anymore, it must have been so amusing back then ey?
Hand cranked Spam! Oh boy. I imagine it was sort of festive, in a sense.
I appreciate these comments - anything to give these lovely old cookbooks perspective. They do make my meal preparation seem easy a lot of times. Hand cranking anything seems beyond hard!
I, too am an avid cookbook collector. I noticed in this recipe it includes egg salad. It seems like any casserole or sandwich from this era included boiled eggs in some form! Good blog.
You are right - I have somewhere here a vintage cookbook on 250 ways to use eggs or something like that!
Thanks for the compliment.
I made this sandwich loaf when in one of my Home Economics classes back in the day when I was in high school. I know, I am dating myself, but it brought back warm fuzzies after I readd your post.
Amazing! I love old cookbook recipes like this!
MPPL: How funny that you made this for a grade. I'm hearing from a lot of folks that this was a favorite treat at showers.
Thanks, Alisa! The cookbooks are a lot of fun. I continually marvel at how the women who bought these and tried to do these things had time.
My grandmother passed away on Tuesday. In 1999, she and my mom put together my baby shower for my first child. This was what she served at my shower. And I think she served it at my mom's shower when she was pregnant with me, in 1971. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I'm going to tuck it away and think of Grandma.
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