Now that we're firmly into back-to-school season, people might want some ideas about how to mix things up in the lunchbox department. That means it's time to post some sandwiches from a time when home cooks thought just about any random odds and ends between two slices of bread could be a perfectly fine sandwich. From The Pocket Cook Book (Elizabeth Woody with Gertrude Lynn and Peg Heffernan, originally published in 1942, but mine is the 1960 edition), we have some recommendations for that lunchbox favorite (unless your school has a peanut ban!): peanut butter sandwiches!
If I had to name just two foods I love, cheese and peanut butter might just be the two I picked. That doesn't necessarily mean I want to eat them together, though.
Especially if the cheese is American (which is mostly just good for grilled cheese sandwiches). And I'm not really sure why you'd need to "Moisten with mayonnaise or salad dressing," as the peanut butter seems like it would work well enough on its own.
Alternatively, you could mix sweet pickle relish into the peanut-butter-mayo mixture.
Not that I have any idea why anyone would want to do that....
Or, if you're nice and just want to class up a more traditional PB&J, you could make your own Thyme and Grape Jelly.
And then the kid could complain that the jelly tastes weird. The upside is that any of these combos might just encourage the kid to pack their own damn lunch. (At least, once they enjoy a couple really interesting food swaps and the other kids wise up and refuse to trade with them anymore.)
Those sandwiches would definitely prevent other kids from stealing your lunch. Of course they would also prevent you from eating your lunch. I love how they always wanted to needlessly moisten things. Perhaps the suggestion to moisten with mayonnaise was to increase the chance of food poisoning and further decrease the chance that someone would ask you to make them a sandwich.
ReplyDeleteThat could be it! My serious guess is that this was before no-stir peanut butter, so it was less cohesive then. I'm still not convinced that meant it needed to be moistened with mayonnaise, though.
DeleteYeah. I also feel like there was a fear that dry food was somehow unhealthy or dangerous to eat. Just like how vegetables and beans needed to be cooked for hours until they disintegrated. Since moisture is subjective, some women probably didn't bother moistening anything while others thoroughly lubed anything they ate.
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