Bizarre 1861 cookbook includes a recipe for a ‘toast sandwich’

A bizarre cookbook published in the 19th century challenges the very notion of a wholesome snack by suggesting readers snack on a ‘toast sandwich’—really a slice of cold toast between two pieces of buttered bread—or a nice cup of ‘baked beef tea’—essentially beef broth.

The book, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, was published in 1861 and served as an exhaustive guide on how to run a household in the Victorian era. Isabella Beeton, a magazine writer and columnist from London in the UK, became a household name thanks to the volume, which sold 60,000 copies in its first year.

But the former best-seller hasn’t aged all that well, and many of Beeton’s recipes seem out of place in the modern eating repertoire.

Bread on bread: A cookbook published in the 19th century includes a recipe for a ‘toast sandwich’—really a slice of cold toast between two pieces of buttered bread (file picture)

Volume: The book, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, was published in 1861 and served as an exhaustive guide on how to run a household in the Victorian era

Volume: The book, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, was published in 1861 and served as an exhaustive guide on how to run a household in the Victorian era

In order to make ‘toast sandwiches’, the author recommended using ‘thin cold toast, thin slices of bread-and-butter’, and, of course, salt and pepper to taste.

TOAST SANDWICH: RECIPE

Ingredients: Thin cold toast, thin slices of bread-and-butter, pepper and salt to taste.

‘Place a very thin piece of cold toast between two slices of thin bread-and-butter in the form of a sandwich, adding a seasoning of pepper and salt.

This sandwich may be varied by adding a little pulled meat, or very fine slices of cold meat, to the toast, and in any of these forms will be found very tempting to the appetite of an invalid.’

Source:  Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management

Those wanting to try out the carby snack were then instructed to ‘place a very thin piece of cold toast between two slices of thin bread-and-butter in the form of a sandwich, adding a seasoning of pepper and salt’.

Beeton, who died aged 29 of puerperal fever, a postpartum infection, and lost two of her four children to illnesses, included the recipe for toast sandwiches in a section of her book called ‘invalid cookery’.

The section includes recipes that Beeton deemed especially helpful to people she referred to as ‘invalids’.

Her advice appeared to apply to a range of people coping with various injuries or illnesses, with Beeton referencing nurse Florence Nightingale and using some of the same advice Nightingale published on how to best care for sick patients.

Beeton deemed the toast sandwich ‘very tempting to the appetite of an invalid’, and said it could be spruced up with ‘a little pulled meat, or very fine slices of cold meat’—making the overall recipe much closer to that of a typical sandwich. 

Bottoms up! Beeton also instructed her readers on how to make 'baked beef tea', which seems similar to what is currently known as beef broth (file picture)

Bottoms up! Beeton also instructed her readers on how to make ‘baked beef tea’, which seems similar to what is currently known as beef broth (file picture)

TOAST AND WATER: RECIPE 

Ingredients: A slice of bread of your choice, one quart of boiling water.

‘Cut a slice from a stale loaf (a piece of hard crust is better than anything else for the purpose), toast it of a nice brown on every side, but do not allow it to burn or blacken.

‘Put it into a jug, pour the boiling water over it, cover it closely, and let it remain until cold.

‘When strained, it will be ready for use.

‘Toast-and-water should always be made a short time before it is required, to enable it to get cold: if drunk in a tepid or lukewarm state, it is an exceedingly disagreeable beverage.’  

Source: Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Househoold Management

BAKED BEEF TEA: RECIPE

Ingredients: one pound of fleshy beef, 1-1/2 pint of water, 1/4 saltspoonful of salt.

‘Cut the beef into small square pieces, after trimming off all the fat, and put it into a baking jar, with the above proportion of water and salt.

‘Cover the jar well, place it in a warm, but not hot oven, and bake for three or four hours.

‘When the oven is very fierce in the daytime, it is a good plan to put the jar in at night, and let it remain till the next morning, when the tea will be done. It should be strained, and put by in a cool place until wanted.

‘It may also be flavored with an onion, a clove, and a few sweet herbs, etc., when the stomach is sufficiently strong to take those.

Source: Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Househoold Managemeny

The ‘toast sandwich’ was also deemed to be the cheapest lunch offering in Britain by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2011, although Beeton appeared to favor the recipe not necessarily because of its cheapness, but because she thought it made for an easy meal to eat for someone with little to no appetite.

Also included in the section of the book is a recipe for ‘toast and water’, which can be made with a slice of bread and a quart of boiling water.

‘Cut a slice from a stale loaf (a piece of hard crust is better than anything else for the purpose), toast it of a nice brown on every side, but do not allow it to burn or blacken,’ the instructions read.

‘Put it into a jug, pour the boiling water over it, cover it closely, and let it remain until cold. When strained, it will be ready for use.’

Toast and water, according to Beeton, ‘should always be made a short time before it is required, to enable it to get cold.

‘If drunk in a tepid or lukewarm state, it is an exceedingly disagreeable beverage,’ she warned in her book.

The author also instructed her readers on how to make ‘baked beef tea’, which seems similar to what is currently known as beef broth.

Drink: Also included in the section of the book is a recipe for 'toast and water', which can be made with a slice of bread and a quart of boiling water (file picture)

Drink: Also included in the section of the book is a recipe for ‘toast and water’, which can be made with a slice of bread and a quart of boiling water (file picture)

Cheers! Another beverage described by the author, 'egg wine', can be made with a somewhat surprising mix of cold water, sherry, sugar, nutmeg, and a beaten egg (file picture)

Cheers! Another beverage described by the author, ‘egg wine’, can be made with a somewhat surprising mix of cold water, sherry, sugar, nutmeg, and a beaten egg (file picture)

Using a pound of fleshy beef, one and a half pint of water, and a quarter spoonful of salt, home cooks were told to first ‘cut the beef into small square pieces, after trimming off all the fat, and put it into a baking-jar, with the above proportion of water and salt’.

‘Cover the jar well, place it in a warm, but not hot oven, and bake for three or four hours,’ the recipe states.

‘When the oven is very fierce in the daytime, it is a good plan to put the jar in at night, and let it remain till the next morning, when the tea will be done.

‘It should be strained, and put by in a cool place until wanted. It may also be flavored with an onion, a clove, and a few sweet herbs, etc., when the stomach is sufficiently strong to take those.’

Another beverage described by the author, ‘egg wine’, can be made with a somewhat surprising mix of cold water, sherry, sugar, nutmeg, and a beaten egg.

‘Beat the egg, mixing with it a tablespoonful of cold water; make the wine-and-water hot, but not boiling; pour it on the egg, stirring all the time,’ she instructed.

‘Add sufficient lump sugar to sweeten the mixture, and a little grated nutmeg; put all into a very clean saucepan, set it on a gentle fire, and stir the contents one way until they thicken, but do not allow them to boil.

‘Serve in a glass with sippets of toasted bread or plain crisp biscuits. When the egg is not warmed, the mixture will be found easier of digestion, but it is not so pleasant a drink.’

While Beeton’s recipes may not sound entirely palatable nowadays, in her time, she became one of the best-known experts on household management.

The Oxford Dictionary has suggested Beeton paved the way for current domestic experts such as Nigella Lawson, and deemed the 19th-century author ‘an authority on all things domestic and culinary’.



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