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Published in 1909, The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book by Eva Greene Fuller is not so much a cookbook as it is a manifesto of edible modernity. As America adjusted to a faster, more mobile life—punctuated by picnics, socials, and the rise of the department store tearoom—Fuller responded with 400 precisely composed sandwiches: rolled, layered, triangular, and tied with baby ribbon. From oyster loaves stuffed with deviled seafoods to ribboned egg purées pressed between rounds of bread baked in baking powder tins, her sandwiches chart a taxonomic universe of texture and taste. But the book also reads as a subtle argument for domestic performance and feminine control; a cucumber sandwich is never just that, but rather a stage set for cool elegance. Like a Beardsley drawing rendered in mayonnaise, Fuller’s work is ornate, fastidious, and filled with sly turns of taste—at once deeply practical and oddly luxurious.
Published in 1909, The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book by Eva Greene Fuller is not so much a cookbook as it is a manifesto of edible modernity. As America adjusted to a faster, more mobile life—punctuated by picnics, socials, and the rise of the department store tearoom—Fuller responded with 400 precisely composed sandwiches: rolled, layered, triangular, and tied with baby ribbon. From oyster loaves stuffed with deviled seafoods to ribboned egg purées pressed between rounds of bread baked in baking powder tins, her sandwiches chart a taxonomic universe of texture and taste. But the book also reads as a subtle argument for domestic performance and feminine control; a cucumber sandwich is never just that, but rather a stage set for cool elegance. Like a Beardsley drawing rendered in mayonnaise, Fuller’s work is ornate, fastidious, and filled with sly turns of taste—at once deeply practical and oddly luxurious.