Bread and meat: corned beef sandwich

Sandwiches have likely been around for as long as there have been bread and meat. However, the marriage of the two didn’t become known as “a sandwich” until the 1760s, according to legend, when John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich, requested meat between two slices of toast to be eaten at the game table. NPR’s Ian Chillag reports that the sandwich the Earl ate consisted of salt beef (corned beef) on toast.

Whenever I have leftover corned beef from a New England boiled dinner, I like to make grilled corned beef sandwiches with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. The reuben sandwich is admittedly more New York deli than New England Yankee, but it’s delicious, so who’s complaining? I substitute honey mustard for the traditional Russian or Thousand Island dressing.

Corned beef sandwich

Leftover cooked corned beef
Pumpernickel or rye bread
Honey mustard
Canned sauerkraut, drained
Sliced swiss cheese

Spread mustard on one side of each slice of bread. Atop one slice of bread, mustard side up, layer corned beef, sauerkraut and a slice of swiss cheese, folded. Top with another slice of bread, mustard side down, and grill the sandwich on both sides until the cheese melts.

Pumped for pumpkin cake

Pumpkin, or “pompion,” as the early English settlers called it, has long been a New England staple. The fruit grows easily—almost too easily—here, where it can take over the garden. John Josselyn found several kinds of pumpkin growing here in the late 1600s. In his New-England Rarities Discovered (1672), he writes, “They are dryer than our English Pompions, and better tasted.” Pumpkin is such a diverse fruit: It can be served as a side dish, as was the Pilgrim custom, or it can be baked in a dessert.

This moist pumpkin cake, topped with cream cheese frosting, is one of my most-requested desserts. If you use fresh pumpkin, you’ll need to cook it first and then place it in cheesecloth fastened over a bowl to allow excess moisture to drain. It’s far easier to open a can. Freshly ground clove in the frosting is the surprise ingredient that brings this cake to the next level:

Pumpkin cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

4 beaten eggs

1 15-ounce can pumpkin

1 cup cooking oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir in the eggs, pumpkin and oil until combined. Pour batter into an ungreased 9- by 13-inch pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

One 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened

¼ cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

One teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon freshly ground cloves

Using a mixer, beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until it reaches spreading consistency. Add ground cloves and mix just until incorporated.

Note: This cake must be stored in the refrigerator.