"Seven Hundred Sandwiches" 1929 COWLES, Florence A. [compiled by]

COWLES, Florence A. [compiled by]

[246] pp.

Little, Brown, and Company

1929

Third Printing

7 5/8" x 5 1/4"

Jacket design by Raymond Lufkin

The contents are divided into fourteen chapters including, meat, egg, fish, cheese, fruit and nut, club and layer, novelty, open-face sandwiches and butters. Many of these sandwiches sound delicious and would be acceptable today but there are some which, to my mind, sound utterly disgusting such as the Norway filling which comprises of tinned tomatoes, chopped dried beef, cream cheese and a beaten egg all boiled together until it reaches a spreading consistency, or the Liveraisin - cooked liver, raisins, celery, grated onion all mixed up with mustard, mayonnaise and chili sauce. A very scarce volume.

*dampstaining & chipping to jacket panel condition noted*

Florence Abigail Cowles (April 7, 1878 - August 22, 1958) was an American journalist and cookbook author. She worked on the editorial staff of Cleveland's daily newspaper, The Plain Dealer, from 1917 until her retirement in 1944. Her 1928 publication, Seven Hundred Sandwiches, along with its later revisions, is a frequently cited source regarding the early development of American sandwich varieties that are now widely prepared and eaten.

Her next published book was Seven Hundred Sandwiches, a recipe book published by Little, Brown and Company in 1928. (An abridged edition, entitled Five Hundred Sandwiches, was published in London by Chatto & Windus in 1929; a revised and enlarged edition, entitled 1001 Sandwiches, was published by Little, Brown and Company in 1936.) These books were well received in their era—Good Housekeeping, in reviewing Seven Hundred Sandwiches in March 1929, names the cookbook in a problem-solving column, calling it "helpful" and praising its "multitude of suggestions", while Washington, D.C.'s Evening Star reviewed 1001 Sandwiches equally glowingly in 1936, lauding Cowles for placing "the gems of her collection at the disposal of the public" and commenting favorably on the book's "almost limitless variety". Since that time, Cowles has remained an important source of information regarding sandwich-making in this era: her work is cited multiple times in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and her recipes appear in less formal settings also, as local delis, cooking advice websites, and online magazines refer to her books for historical information about the origin or development of specific sandwich varieties.