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Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "People's Drug, 7th and E streets N.W." Among the nostrums on the shelf at left: "Catnep and Fennel (The Children's Remedy)" and "Dr. Pierce's Smart-Weed (Water Pepper)." National Photo Co. View full size.
Ham was "a dime a dozen" back then. Pork was the cheapest meat there was. Chicken was expensive. This is why Herbert Hoover talked about a chicken in every pot. Back then it was something special you had for Sunday dinner.
Everyone seems to have missed that the sandwich is Olive "Mayannaise," not mayonnaise. Mayannaise was yellow and came with a small packet of white coloring you had to mix in.
Oh, how I miss Mayannaise. It was much better than Miracle Whip which replaced it.
I think.
[As I recall, there was also a little packet containing a grain of salt. - Dave]
but is that container in the middle of the counter, marked "Suncrush Orange," really Orange Crush?
I'll have one a those "Welch's Hi-Balls".
Go ahead, keep the change.
Listen.... you have any idea where a stranger in town might be able to buy the real thing???
As A. Tipster states, it appears that both the use of black olives in olive-and-egg sandwiches and mayo rather than butter as a sandwich lubricant may very well be a geographical pattern. In which case, I'm glad I was a westerner because green olives turn my stomach. I did occasionally encounter buttered sandwiches, either by trading school lunches or perhaps an experiment by my mother, and while I felt it was a violation of the natural order of things, as a big butter fan I was strangely intrigued and secretly enjoyed them.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if those hand-lettered signs were done by a member of the staff. On my first job out of high school 40 years ago, the crusty old bookstore owner did elegant hand-lettering and boy howdy, if he had you do a sign for him, it had to meet that standard. No shortcuts, no crazy, modern styles, just good old classical sho-card lettering. A lost art.
tterrace, you aren't alone. Maybe it has something to do with both of us being Californians. Olives were and are a mainstay for me too, with HB eggs just making it better. Bet you didn't put butter on the bread either.
Having grown up in Hudson County, New Joisey, in the 50's, I can tell you it wasn't a sandwich without butter. Except for liverwurst, can't have butter on that.
I still put butter on everything, not margarine, butter.
Real butter.
"I'll have that Taylor Ham, egg and cheese on a round roll with butter, please."
After some of these sandwiches, one might want to reach for those Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablets on the lower left shelf.
Butter is used to keep sandwich fillings from soaking into the bread if it is packed to take to work or school or on a trip. I grant you it also tastes wicked good, but there is a logical reason behind it.
My maternal grandmother taught me the joys of a saltine spread with butter and topped with a little white sugar, similar to what our UK friend mentioned. It was quite a rich treat during the 30's. Dad enjoyed gravy bread. This revolts most people I know, but I indulge in it now and again. Everything in moderation is just fine, people.
Buttered gravy bread, that's the ticket.
One of my discoveries in high school at a local diner (here in Western NY) was the egg & olive sandwich, made with green olives. Although I don't think it had any butter on it. Is it lunchtime yet?
Some one mentioned the dye packet that used to come with margarine -- I remember my mother telling me when she was a child going to the local dairy & buying that! She later worked at the same dairy in high school, and it's still doing a brisk business today.
Since everyone else is ordering, I'll have a ham sandwich, a maple nut sundae, a slice of that cake, and a Welch's Hi-ball. I've got 50 cents burning a hole in my change purse. And for the record, my mother put butter on every sandwich she ever made, and she's from Michigan. Maybe mayo used to be an extravagance? With its limited shelf life in homemade form, butter might have been a healthier choice.
Hmmm. I wonder if Shorpy should publish a recipe book, based on contents of photos and comments on the same.
The central NY egg and olive sandwich was made with green olives. I still love that sandwich and, of course, no sandwich could be made without butter.
Forty years after this picture in the mid 60's I would get a real milk shake and a grilled cheese sandwich at the Corner Drug for 35 cents. Forty years later I don't think I could get the same deal for 5 bucks.
Buttered white bread with cold, leftover spaghetti and meat sauce.
Even seen out of focus, those eyes are a noteworthy distraction. Easy to understand.
All this talk of butter or no butter for sarnies is a mystery to me,
everyone puts butter or marg on here in the uk (well, at least north of watford).
As kids we had a slice of buttered bread with a healthy coating of granulated sugar.
Chewy, crunchy, sweet n greasy. Yum.
My grandmother put butter on absolutely every piece of bread. I ate peanut butter & jelly & butter sandwiches. Ham & butter etc. I thought I was the only one. I still have a secret taste for butter and jelly sandwiches but butter and lunchmeat is vile.
Was I the only kid whose mother made chopped olive and egg sandwiches? Black olives, chopped hard-boiled eggs and mayo. Yum.
I've heard the remarks about butter on sandwiches before, but only from people who hail from Maryland or D.C. All of these people are insistent that a sandwich is not a real sandwich if it doesn't have butter on it (or for Pete's sake, at least margarine). Without the butter, it's just a random food stuck between two slices of bread.
Of course, I live in the South where tea isn't tea if it isn't sweet tea, and it isn't sweet tea if the sugar wasn't brewed in. Funny how certain regions latch onto certain food and drink recipes in a generational way.
To me the most interesting thing is the zig zag cut on the vertical member inside the shelf case on the left. Insert a trapezoidal piece and bingo...adjustable shelves with no hardware.
When I was a small child (pre WWII) our mother always made sandwiches with butter: Roast beef and butter, ham and butter, salami and butter, bologna and butter. The cheese and butter wasn't too bad. A favorite of mine was honey and butter. But she had to switch to mayonnaise reluctantly during WWII when butter was rationed, and the margarine of the time (which was white and had to be mixed with a little dye capsule that came in the package) was, as she put it, "wretched." Finally, no more teasing by other kids about my sandwiches.
...We've gone from Lozak to Prozac. Not an improvement, if you ask me!
Notice how the blender plugs into what I believe is a (Edison?) light socket. Gotta love the cloth cord.
I have a sandwich book from around that era that was my grandfathers. It has literally hundreds of recipes in there. Some of them quite bizarre. I couldn't imagine being able to stock all the ingredients at one time to cover them all.
That olive and mayonnaise sandwich recipe -- whoever thought that up was obviously drunk. I mean, no butter? How can you have a sandwich without butter??
Personally, I have always been partial to black olive and cream cheese sandwiches. The following list of recipes opens up new possibilities....
Sandwiches of All Kinds
Ham is not the only material for making a good sandwich, as well be seen from this list:
Sardine sandwiches Take the contents of a half-pound box of sardines, remove bones and skins and chop them fine; add two hard boiled eggs, chopped and seasoned with one-half teaspoon of French mustard and one-half teaspoonful of grated horseradish. Mix this well and spread between thin slices of buttered bread or cold biscuit.
Cottage cheese sandwiches Chop and mince some sprigs of tender watercress; mix with cottage cheese; season with salt and pepper; spread on buttered bread; cover as usual and cut into two-inch strips.
Cheese sandwiches Chop eight olives: mix with highly seasoned cottage cheese and spread between buttered slices of bread.
Olive sandwiches Ten large olives, two heaping teaspoonfuls of mayonnaise and cracker dust. Pour boiling water over the olives; let them stand five minutes, then drain; cover with ice water. When cold and crisp wipe dry, stone and chop fine with a silver knife. Have the mayonnaise very stiff; chop and blend together and spread on thinly sliced unbuttered bread.
Salmagundi sandwiches Wash, skin and bone one Holland herring and chop very fine; add the chopped breast of a roast fowl, two hard boiled eggs, one-third cupful of chopped ham, one minced anchovy and one small grated onion. Mix together and blend with French dressing. Spread between buttered bread sliced very thin.
Oyster sandwiches Remove the muscles from a pint of solid raw oysters and chop fine. Add one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth of teaspoonful of pepper, and a dash of cayenne. Put into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter and three tablespoons of cracker crumbs. Heat until steaming. Add one-half cupful of thick cream, in which have been beaten two yolks of raw eggs, and stir until the mixture thickens. Remove from the fire, add ten drops of lemon juice and more seasoning, if liked. When cold spread between slices of buttered bread.
Washington Post, Jan 24, 1897
Mmmm - the thought of a grape juice & olive oil tonic certainly sounds very "cleansing."
"There is a deliciousness and health in every bottle of Naboth Grape Juice. It is not only nourishing, but scientists say that it has a great tonic effect. Excellent to take olive oil with. We recommend Naboth because it is pure and unfermented."
What is Lozak, you ask? Why, it is "lacto-Bulgarian milk." (It's also 5 cents a glass.) And how is it made? Click below. (And how can it be "Bulgarian milk" if it's made in Atlanta? Shut up and drink.)
I see that Naboth Grape Juice was a popular item at the counter. I'll bet it was made here:
More info here.
I've eaten these all my life (now a fairly long one). It's simply chopped olives mixed with mayo and applied to bread. Magnifique!
I find it interesting that the chicken salad sandwich is 20 cents and the sliced ham sandwich is 10. I would have thought the ham would be more expensive. And what would an olive and mayonnaise sandwich be?
[It would be 10 cents. - Dave]
Nice to notice that the labels on the remedies are redolent of an era earlier than 1921 - that guy with the chinbeard looks like he was from the 1870s or 1880s.
My grandmother (she was a maid) always complained about her employer's love of chicken salad sandwiches. It was WASP soul food!
[Let's not forget their equally zesty offspring, the egg salad sandwich. - Dave]
...is a joy forever. Yeah, there's lots of dust on the ceiling fans, even cobwebs, but the brilliant composition of all shapes and sizes of different forms of crystal containers, mixed tri-colored citrus of oranges, limes and lemons, nut cake, purple grape advertisements, mirrored walls, etched globe lights, cherry smash, strawberry smells, marble, chrome, etched light globes, shiny chrome gadgets, more sparkling glass sundae glasses, just an endless and fascinating display of the way we were. This wonderful picture makes me glad that I am old enough to remember these familiar childhood sights. Even the snake oils are recalled i.e. catnep and fennel (for pregnant women), from our local Rexall since up north we did not have Peoples Drug. I really like this nostalgic flashback.
[Cobwebs? Time to clean your screen. - Dave]
Okay, I'm curious: What is the recipe for an Olive Mayonnaise Sandwich? Cut green olives and mayo? This local delicacy has appeared before on Shorpy but has passed from common usage.
I'll have an olive and mayo sandwich. What's a Newport? They have strawberry, chocolate and caramel.
The gal seems to have caught the soda jerk's eye!
1) What are the roundish objects in the bowl on the bar at left? I was guessing brown-shelled hard-boiled eggs, but there seem to be white-shelled eggs in a jar behind the barman.
2) What are the white eggs used for?
[1. Limes. 2. Eating. - Dave]
I'll take a Welch Hi-Ball please.
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