We have returned from the wilds of Pittsburgh, where we ate many fine foods prepared by other people. My mother always throws a big party on Boxing Day, with eight million tasty treats she's prepared over the last week or two up through the day itself: three kinds of cookies and a Linzer torte and deviled eggs and marinated olives and white bean dip and cream cheese with pickapeppa sauce and little sandwiches and homemade bread and savory palmiers and and and. My contribution was some very tasty little cucumber sandwiches.
Normally cucumber sandwiches are pretty blah, I think, but if you make 'em right, they can be really great. They are delicate and ladylike, yet filling. They taste good and have a terrific textural thing going on. They are easy to make in great quantity, and cheap, too. There are 3 secrets to making good cucumber sandwiches:
(1) Slice the cucumbers very, very thin. If you have a mandolin, now would be a good time to use it, though a sharp knife will do the job just as well. A dull knife is hopeless. The object is to have translucently thin and flexible slices, not opaque disks.
(2) Spread the bread with tasty herb butter--on both slices, please.
(3) Wrap the plate of sandwiches in a damp but well-wrung-out tea towel for at least an hour before serving, right up until the moment when you serve them. This makes the bread nice and moist, gives the cucumbers time to give up a little moisture (the salt in the butter will effectively salt your cucumbers for you), and helps the sandwiches to meld properly.
It goes without saying that you should use a thinly pre-sliced white sandwich loaf, and trim those crusts off. Crusts have no place on a tea sandwich. If you like, you can use cookie cutters or a biscuit cutter to cut the bread into pretty shapes. Triangles are also nice. If you are feeling really fussy, you can butter the edges of your sandwiches and roll them in chopped parsley. English cucumbers are nice, because you don't have to peel them--if you wind up with a thick-skinned, waxy customer, though, you'll have to peel it. One decent-sized cucumber will go a long way, because you will be cutting it so thin.
For the herb butter, you will want a stick of nice soft salted butter, or unsalted butter plus a generous pinch of salt, and about 2 tablespoons of very finely minced fresh herbs. I think it is best to include one oniony herb, either chives or garlic scapes. Other nice herbs to include are thyme, italian parsley, and marjoram. Be careful not to let any woody stem bits in. Mash your butter and herbs together thoroughly, and spread every slice of bread with a nice thin (but not skimpy) coat right out to the edge. Overlap the cucumbers about one layer deep (that is, two slices deep where they overlap, one deep elsewhere, no blank spots) in each sandwich, stack the sandwiches in a nice pile on a pretty plate, and then wrap with the aforementioned big damp tea towel. Refrigerate.
Normally cucumber sandwiches are pretty blah, I think, but if you make 'em right, they can be really great. They are delicate and ladylike, yet filling. They taste good and have a terrific textural thing going on. They are easy to make in great quantity, and cheap, too. There are 3 secrets to making good cucumber sandwiches:
(1) Slice the cucumbers very, very thin. If you have a mandolin, now would be a good time to use it, though a sharp knife will do the job just as well. A dull knife is hopeless. The object is to have translucently thin and flexible slices, not opaque disks.
(2) Spread the bread with tasty herb butter--on both slices, please.
(3) Wrap the plate of sandwiches in a damp but well-wrung-out tea towel for at least an hour before serving, right up until the moment when you serve them. This makes the bread nice and moist, gives the cucumbers time to give up a little moisture (the salt in the butter will effectively salt your cucumbers for you), and helps the sandwiches to meld properly.
It goes without saying that you should use a thinly pre-sliced white sandwich loaf, and trim those crusts off. Crusts have no place on a tea sandwich. If you like, you can use cookie cutters or a biscuit cutter to cut the bread into pretty shapes. Triangles are also nice. If you are feeling really fussy, you can butter the edges of your sandwiches and roll them in chopped parsley. English cucumbers are nice, because you don't have to peel them--if you wind up with a thick-skinned, waxy customer, though, you'll have to peel it. One decent-sized cucumber will go a long way, because you will be cutting it so thin.
For the herb butter, you will want a stick of nice soft salted butter, or unsalted butter plus a generous pinch of salt, and about 2 tablespoons of very finely minced fresh herbs. I think it is best to include one oniony herb, either chives or garlic scapes. Other nice herbs to include are thyme, italian parsley, and marjoram. Be careful not to let any woody stem bits in. Mash your butter and herbs together thoroughly, and spread every slice of bread with a nice thin (but not skimpy) coat right out to the edge. Overlap the cucumbers about one layer deep (that is, two slices deep where they overlap, one deep elsewhere, no blank spots) in each sandwich, stack the sandwiches in a nice pile on a pretty plate, and then wrap with the aforementioned big damp tea towel. Refrigerate.
