I attended a family wedding this weekend (and more about that later), which got me thinking about the kind of food that used to be served at post-wedding gatherings. Tea sandwiches and chicken croquettes and that sort of thing, which is fine when people are standing around being polite for half an hour and then get to go home and take their shoes off, which is how wedding receptions used to be. Nowadays with all the bouquet-tossing and garter-removing and dancing and other strenuous exercise, a full meal has become the norm.
Checking my copy of Joy of Cooking (the 1964 version and my favorite because opera creams and opossum are next to each other in the index), I found this take on cucumber sandwiches. I am going to have to try it in about three weeks, when the cucumber population in our vegetable garden really gets going, but with horseradish instead of hot pepper sauce. The recipe style is Mrs Rombauer's own.
Mash with a fork:
2 packages cream cheese, 6 oz.
Into a fine sieve or cheesecloth bag, grate:
1 medium-sized cucumber
1 onion
Press out the juice and combine with the cream cheese. Add:
Salt to taste
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce.
Now add until of spreading consistency:
Mayonnaise.
yum! I bet sweet philly chilly cream cheese would add a real oomph to those sandwiches...
ReplyDeleteMaybe weddings would have less chance of a Bridezilla if we went back to the old style reception.
ReplyDeleteOf course, a billion dollar industry* would be dead....
*I'm just guessing. Don't want to bother citing a source today.
Oh how I envy your '64 Joy of Cooking. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI've been scouting library book sales for years to find a version printed before they made it all healthy and modern.
You know, I've read books where they talked about cucumber sandwiches for many years now, and I never knew that this is how they were made! I always envisioned slices of cucumber on little rounds of bread with mayo or something.
ReplyDeleteThis recipe sounds a bit more appetizing, even though I'm not a big fan of cucumbers.