The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-05-14
ESTHETIC SANDWICHES.
4 Toothsoms Dainty Favored
with the Odors Of Flowers.
Ehey Were Invented and Prepared BY the
Ladies of q Quiet English Homestead
a. Novelty for the Even
ing Meal.

they Were Invented and Prepared by the
Ladies Of q Quiet English Homestead
a. . Novelty for the Even
Ing Meal.
To speak Of an esthetic sandwich
sounds almost as unexpected and para
doxical as to speak Of an esthetic saus-
age; and yet in England the gentle
women serve, at afternoon tea, sand
wiohes 20 ambrosial that they fully JUS
tfv the paradox.
these dainty delights. SO diaphanous
tlHeA they are almost ethereal, tasted
for the hyst time at Elmswood house,
in Devon, says 8. T. Sherman In Table
1stk
Enswsoa house enjoys the distino-
tioa Of having the best-appointed five
S'eloak tea table in all England, which
IL no moasat distinction in n country
whsss aftoEneen tea Is such an indis-
psnsaSls adjunct TO everyday life.
The esthetic sandwich was invented
by the ladies OF Elmswood house, as a
novelty 10 accompany the tea, one re-
asat sunmsr; bua II proved SO popular
thea Il remained a feature Of their table
all ths ensuing winter. and finally be-
came . staple, appearing with the urn
summer and winter, year in, year out.
Suoh perfect beverage must needs
have q perfect accompaniment; SO, 70
meet this demand, the esthetic sandwich
was invented, and ever since fashion
able England has been eating violets
and roses, cowslips and orange bios
soms with her daily bread The petals
Of these blossoms are not pluclsed and
laid between the buttered slicess no
such crude method could obtain at
Elmswood house. Yet their favors are
present as distinctly as II the petals
themselves were there, and for long
time the manner Of procuring this effect
was kept secret by their patrician in
ventors, SO that the sandwiches added
to their material deliciousness the fur
ther zest Of mystery. But the secret
finally waited abroad, as such secrets
subtly will, and at the time of my Elms-
wood visit it had become such an open
one that was freely taken into the cold
stone dairy, where Miss Winnifred and
little Gladys unvailed the mystery to
me. On one of the marble shelves a
little pat of butter, wrapped in thinnest
dairy cloth, rested on bed OF clover
blossoms in the bottom of a china tureen,
and Betty, the maid, was lining the
sides Of the dish with the same fragrant
blossoms and heaping them on top OF
the pat. When the tureen would not
hold another blossom, the lid was
crushed down upon them and the ves-
sci was carried to the huge, cool, gothic
cellar to await 'the ornamental meal"
as Mr.. Olphant terms the five O'Clock
cup.
Here the butter busted itself absorb
ing fragrance, like bee In the clover.
while beside it in stone jar was the
golden crusted loaf Of bread, also
wrapped in q Aim Of dairy cloth and
packed snugly In nest OF clover bios
SONS. Here It kept cool and moist
while 1t bode its time. When that
time came It was cut with keen blade
in slices 80 thin that they were lacy
and diaphanous and had to be buttered
ON the loaf. They came to the senses
like the breath of calves and the scent
of new-mown hay at dewfaL With
such an adjunct the wonder ceases
that hot afternoon tea In summer can
seem so delightful to the English, for
all through green June it is drank with
clover sandwiches one day, or rose the
next, violet the next, and anon honey
locust blended with orange blossom and
tasting like some exquisite idealized
honey. Earlier in the season there
have been cherry blossom and apple
blossom buffers, and cowslip and mas
turtium, the two latter being the most
pungent and piquant Of all, and, as
they are very appetizing. they are
great favorites with the gentlemen. No
flowers are used with these buffers ex-
cept the edible flowers; clover, locust
and orange blossoms that the bees
have taught US to relish in honey;
roses and violets that confectioners
have taught US to relish in glaces; the
cowslip, which Goldsmith and the
Howitts have taught us to relish
in the homemade wine Of old
time fiction; and the nasturtium,
which, pungent and peppery in
pickles, becomes most unctious in the
esthetic sandwich. This last flavor was
the fayorite, par excellence, with all
the hearty and ruddy young athletes who
would drop in hungry and thirsty after
cricket, OF Rugby, or tennis, for sip
Of Elmswood house souchong and
generous dozen OF the diaphanous
nasturtium dominoes; for the shape Of
thia delicate sandwich Is q small oblong.
And under these ''dominoes" such dis
tinct howery favors lurk in such COM
plets disguise that the little feast might
be called the "Masque Of Flowers"
havs seen the uninitiated pick the SIM
pie things to pieces to find the source Of
the aroma, and then stare In baffled per-
plexity, like the king did at the apple
dumping, when he was moved to cry
- skistpEic queryt "But how. how got
the apple in?"
hwas one of the pretty conceits Of
ths Elmswood house tea table to have
tha vaaious ohamois leather tea ooseys