Another early 20th century collection from Arnold Shircliffe at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Originally published in 1930, this book was put together from the notebook the head caterer created over the years.
The Edgewater Beach Hotel was one of Chicago’s fanciest hotels in the first half of the twentieth century. Arnold Shircliffe was the catering manager in the 20’s and 30’s and his collection of recipes reflects the art deco focus of the time - using sandwiches as a focus.
Our focus at Booklady Cooks is on stories as well as recipes. Sometimes, though, the story is in the recipe itself. In how a particular set of ingredients or their arrangement can take us back to another time and another place.
Check out some of these amazing creations in The Edgewater Sandwich and Hors d’Oevres Book:
French Toast Sandwich (Open)
French toast, turkey, bacon, tomato, cress
On a slice of French toast, cut in two diagonally before frying and then placed on a small platter in shape of a diamond, place three slices of cold turkey on one-half of toast and three strips of broiled bacon on other half. Garnish with tomato and cress. Serve a little Thousand Island dressing on side. Two thin slices of bread spread with cream cheese and bar le duc, then pressed together, trimmed and dipped into egg and milk (like you would in making French toast), and fried like French toast makes an exceptional item. Marmalade and cream cheese makes a good filling also for a sandwich such as the above.
Cream Cheese Roll
Pullman bread, cream cheese, lettuce, radishes
Cut with a very sharp knife extremely thin slices of Pullman bread, freshly made. Cover the entire slice with a thin spread of cream cheese and then roll up very neatly. Trim ends and serve on leaves of lettuce or in fancy folded napkins. Garnish with lillied radishes. The rolls can be tied with various colored baby ribbons. Any fine sandwich paste or mixture may be used as a spread. After sandwiches are rolled they may be wrapped carefully in a damp napkin or cloth and held until needed. The fresh bread may be wrapped in a damp towel, placed in icebox until needed; then when bread is cut it is in a better shape to roll. Caviar and all the herb and fruit flavored butters are excellent fillers for these fancy little bundles of sustenance.