Ideas for Picnic Sandwiches

Grandma's ideas for picnic sandwiches are wonderfully tasty, 100% nutritious, and they offer a refreshing change from today's common flavors.

These are the old fashioned sandwiches that Grandma took on family picnics in the 1950s, and they are every bit as delicious today. Be sure to try them!

Old Fashioned Ideas for Picnic Sandwiches

Mom's Recipe Scrapbooks (c.1920s)

Baked Bean Sandwiches

Mash thoroughly one cupful of plain baked beans. Add four tablespoonfuls of grated American Cheese and a dash of salt. Moisten with four teaspoonfuls of orange juice. Spread between buttered slices of white or brown bread.

Egg and Olive Sandwiches

Looking for ideas for picnic sandwiches that call for ingredients with flavor? Chop two hard-boiled eggs fine, add twelve large stuffed olives that have been minced, season and moisten to a paste with mayonnaise. Spread between buttered slices of bread.

Puerto Rico Sandwiches

4 slices bacon, 2 square slices bread, 1 ounce American cheese, 1 small cucumber pickle, 2 lettuce leaves. Cook bacon until crisp and brown. Remove crusts from bread, and spread lightly with fat left from cooking bacon.

Cover with thin slice of American cheese, then with thin round slices of cucumber pickle. On the other slice of bread place the bacon. Put the two slices together, cut once diagonally, and toast first on one side, then on the other.

Ham and Chicken Sandwiches

Ham sandwiches and chicken sandwiches are both appetizing, but when one combines the two the result is delicious.

Cream one-half cupful of butter, using a wooden spoon, add one cupful each of finely chopped cold boiled ham and cold boiled chicken; season to taste with salt and pepper and spread the mixture between slices of buttered bread. —Ryzon Baking Book

Summer Strawberry Sandwiches

Looking for innovative ideas for picnic sandwiches? The bread should be cut thin and buttered lightly for this old fashioned sandwich.

Slice large firm strawberries and spread over slice. Sprinkle with blended powdered sugar and cinnamon and cover with second slice. These sandwiches should be made just before time to serve to ensure freshness of flavor.

Cream Cheese and Walnut Sandwiches

Moisten one package cream cheese with a tablespoonful of milk. Work in one-eighth teaspoon of salt and one-fourth cup of chopped walnut meats.

Cut bread in rather thin slices and spread with filling. If a dainty size is desired, cut each sandwich in four small triangular shaped pieces.

Date and Walnut Sandwiches

1 cup dates, 1/2 cup walnuts. Put both through meat chopper and add the grated rind and the juice of 1 orange. Mix well. This is fine for whole wheat bread sandwiches.

Double Pinwheel Sandwiches

One thin slice of fresh brown bread, one thin slice of fresh white bread, cut lengthwise of loaf. Butter and place together as a sandwich.

The top of brown slice is buttered and pimento cream cheese spread on thin. Roll like a jelly roll. Chill and cut in thin slices.

Royal Sandwiches

1/2 cup shrimps, 1/2 cup cooked chicken livers, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 Bermuda onion, salt, mayonnaise dressing.

Mix and force through a meat chopper, shrimps, livers, pepper from which seeds have been removed, and onion. Season with salt and moisten with mayonnaise. Spread mixture between thin slices buttered bread and cut in fancy shapes.

Sardine Sandwiches

Looking for tasty ideas for picnic sandwiches and ingredients? You can't go wrong with this healthy sandwich if you're a sardine lover.

Remove skin and bones from sardines and mash to a paste. Add to an equal quantity of yolks of hard-boiled eggs rubbed through a sieve.

Season with salt, cayenne and a few drops of lemon juice; moisten with olive oil or melted butter. Spread mixture between thin slices of buttered bread.

Sembrich Sandwiches

Cut and spread seven slices of bread. Put between slices, finely chopped, boiled ham, moistened with cream and moistened with mayonnaise, and chopped nut meats moistened with dressing. There should be two layers of each filling.

Remove crusts, fold in cheesecloth and press under weight. Cut in slices and arrange on lettuce leaves to serve.

Open Sandwiches

Remove crusts from bread and slice about 1/4 inch thick. Cut in diamonds, spread with softened butter. Spread with deviled ham, or cream cheese, put a border of chopped olives around the edge, and a slice of stuffed olive in the center.

Club Sandwiches

Make ready the desired number of pieces of toast. Prepare each sandwich as follows: Place a lettuce leaf on one of the slices; sprinkle over it a teaspoonful of salad dressing, add the sliced chicken; put on a little more lettuce and dressing, then the bacon and tomato, and more lettuce and dressing. Finish with the second slice of toast.

Cut the sandwich cornerwise. Garnish with very small lettuce leaves or parsley and serve at once.

Florentine Seminole Sandwiches

Arrange boned sardines on a slice of buttered toast, cover with thin slices of tomato and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cover with another slice of toast, sprinkle generously with soft grated cheese seasoned with salt and cayenne and put in oven long enough to melt the cheese. Serve at once on two lettuce leaves. —Fannie Farmer

White House Cheese Sandwiches

These are extremely nice and are very easily made. Take one hard-boiled egg, a quarter of a pound of common cheese grated, half a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, half a teaspoonful of mustard, one tablespoonful of melted butter, and one tablespoonful of vinegar or cold water.

Take a yolk of the egg and put it into a small bowl and crumble it down, put into it the butter and mix it smooth with a spoon, then add the salt, pepper, mustard, and the cheese, mixing each well. Then put in the tablespoonful of vinegar, which will make it the proper thickness. If vinegar is not relished, then use cold water instead.

Spread this, and you could not require a better sandwich. Some people will prefer the sandwiches less highly seasoned; therefore, season to taste. —White House Cook Book

Cheese and Walnut Sandwiches

Roll 1/2 cup walnuts fine, add 1/2 cup grated cheese. Moisten with salad dressing of choice.

Anchovy Sandwiches

Cut some bread and butter, very thin, and in fingers. Chop some watercress, lay it on a finger, sprinkle a little Tarragon vinegar and water (equal quantities) over it, and then lay on a fillet of anchovy, cover with more cress, and a finger of bread and butter.

Put them in a pile under a plate to flatten and before serving trim the edges. —Mrs. Brian Luck

How to Make Mosaic Sandwiches

To make mosaics, use cookie cutters to cut two brown shapes and two white shapes from sliced bread. (Save the leftover crust and pieces for making a bread pudding dessert.)

Cut the centers from one of each. Put the dark cutout in the white shape and vice versa.

Spread plain shapes with your favorite sandwich filling and place a mosaic of opposite-colored bread on top.

Tasty Ideas for Picnic Sandwiches

The Enterprising Housekeeper (1900)

How to Make Cold Sandwiches

Sandwiches may be made of white, whole wheat, Graham or brown bread with any kind of meat, fish, salad, eggs, some vegetables, jams or chopped nuts, and spread with butter or mayonnaise dressing.

For ideas for picnic sandwiches that call for meats, the meat used should be chopped fine, not cut in slices, first for convenience in eating and serving, and secondly, because in this form only, is it possible to properly season the sandwich.

Fish should be flaked very fine with a fork and mixed to a paste with the seasonings.

The bread should not be too fresh to cut well, nor will actually stale bread make good sandwiches. It is best when about a day old, should be of fine grain and be trimmed to good shape before the sandwiches are cut.

The crusts should not be left on, but removed, dried, and put through the chopper for crumbs to be used later.

The butter must be absolutely fresh and good, for in softening, that the bread may be properly spread, any foreign flavor or odor will be brought out.

For meat, fish, salad and egg sandwiches the bread should be cut in squares, oblongs or triangles; for jam and nut sandwiches it is usually cut round.

How to Make Meat Sandwiches

It is usually better to spread the bread with butter before cutting off each slice; however, this is not necessary when mayonnaise dressing is used.

Chop the meat fine, season to taste with salt, pepper, chopped parsley, mustard if desired, onion or celery extract, or any of the various seasonings. Moisten, if necessary, with stock or cream or mix with a small quantity of mayonnaise dressing. Spread the sandwiches, put together and serve.

The white meat of chicken or turkey, or veal, after being chopped, may be pounded to a paste and mixed with equal quantities of the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, mixed smoothly with cream or melted butter. Season to taste.

Deviled Ham Sandwiches

1 cupful of cold boiled ham
1 teaspoonful of lemon juice
Yolks of 2 hard boiled eggs
1/4 teaspoonful of mustard
3 tablespoonfuls of melted butter

If you're looking for tasty ideas for picnic sandwiches, you can't go wrong with this one. Chop the ham fine. Rub the yolks of the eggs smooth with the butter, mix with the ham, mustard, and lemon juice, and season to taste. Spread on thin slices of bread. Fold together or roll.

Fish Sandwiches

Fresh fish should be flaked fine, seasoned with salt and pepper, chopped pickle, lemon juice, celery or onion extract, and mixed with mayonnaise dressing, or moistened with a sauce.

Anchovies, sardines or salt fish are better pounded to a paste and moistened with lemon juice.

Creamy Egg Sandwiches

Chop the whites of the hard-boiled eggs very fine. Mix the yolks smooth with well-seasoned mayonnaise dressing, add the whites, and spread on the bread.

Tasty Cheese Spread Sandwiches

Grate the cheese fine. Rub it to a paste with melted butter, season with salt and pepper; and spread on the sandwiches.

Sweet and Nutty Sandwiches

Here's some great ideas for picnic sandwiches with a sweeter taste. These may be made with marmalades, jams or jellies, or anything that will spread without running. Boston brown bread is generally used for nut sandwiches.

Chop the nuts very fine or pound them to a paste, and spread on thin slices of bread. Lemon juice or extract flavorings may be used if desired.

Vegetable Sandwiches

These healthy ideas for picnic sandwiches will taste very refreshing with cold meats. Tomatoes, lettuce, watercress, and cucumbers are vegetables most commonly used.

Tomatoes or cucumbers should be chopped and mixed with a mayonnaise. Spread the bread with butter, cut delicate slices, and spread with the vegetable. Put together and serve.

Lettuce and watercress should be shredded. Spread the bread with mayonnaise, and mix the lettuce or water cress with a French dressing.

Vegetable sandwiches should be served soon after making to enjoy their freshness.