Page:Hill - Salads, Sandwiches, and Chafing-Dish Dainties.djvu/159

 SANDWICHES.

term "sandwich," now applied to many a fanciful shaped and encased dainty, was formerly used in speaking of "two slices of bread with meat between." In this sense, the word had its origin, about the end of the eighteenth century, from the fact that the fourth Earl of Sandwich was so infatuated with the pleasures and excitement of the gaming-table that he often could not leave it long enough to take his meals with his family; and, on such occasions, a butler was despatched to him bearing "slices of bread with meat between."

The fillings of savory sandwiches may be placed between pieces of bread, crackers, pastry, chou paste or aspic jelly. When preparing sweet sandwiches, these same materials may be used, as also lady-fingers (white or yellow), macaroons or sweet wafers.

Bread for Sandwiches.

As a rule, bread for sandwiches should be twenty-four hours old; but fresh bread, which is more pliable than stale, is better adapted to this use, when the sandwiches are to take the form of 115