Brown Bread-and-Butter Rolls with Pimento (1925)
Reader ratingsBrown bread-and-butter rolls with pimento, cocktail fare from a London book of 1925: thin slices, crusts off, buttered and rolled around a strip of red pimento, then cut small.
- Recipe makes
- 16 small rolls, 8 servings
- Prep
- Total
Chill the wrapped rolls for 30 minutes so they hold their shape when cut.
Rolled brown bread-and-butter with a strip of pimento in each.
The story behind the recipe
Toye and Adair give this one in a single line. In Drinks: Long and Short, published in London in 1925, they end their list of what to serve with cocktails with “small rolled slices of brown bread-and-butter, with or without a tiny strip of pimento in the middle.” Before it on the list come “very small and thin” sandwiches of pâté de foie gras or caviar “with the merest squeeze of lemon on each,” then olives, salted nuts, plain or cheese biscuits and cheese straws.
Why brown bread-and-butter?
The authors wanted the food with the cocktail kept light, “in order that the palate may not be spoiled” for the wine at dinner. On the next page they say how to manage it: provide something to eat with the cocktail, choose the cocktail with the dinner wines in mind, and leave a short interval before dinner. Rolled up small, a slice of bread-and-butter is something to eat in one bite with a glass in the other hand, and plain bread and butter suits that. The pimento, the sweet red pepper sold ready roasted in tins, adds a stripe of color. Why the London hostess worried so much about her wine is told in What Did You Nibble With a Cocktail in the 1920s?
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Rolling the slices flat, the jarred peppers and the chill before cutting are our choices. Use a close-textured brown or whole wheat sandwich loaf, sliced thin. Cutting off the crusts and rolling each slice flat with a rolling pin makes it supple enough to roll without cracking. Soft butter spreads thinly without tearing the bread. Chilling the rolls before cutting sets the butter, so the spirals stay neat.
They share a plate well with Stuffed Celery with Roquefort (1922), another cold bite made ahead.
... small rolled slices of brown bread-and-butter, with or without a tiny strip of pimento in the middle.
Recipe makes: 16 small rolls, 8 servings
Ingredients
For 16 small rolls, 8 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 16 small rolls, 8 servings.
- Thin slices brown bread8
- Butter, softened60 g
- Roasted red peppers (pimentos) from a jar, drained50 g
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 8 thin slices brown bread
- 60 g butter, softened
- 50 g roasted red peppers (pimentos) from a jar, drained
Equipment
- Bread knife
- Rolling pin
- Butter knife
- Plastic wrap
Instructions
Cut the crusts off the bread. Roll each slice firmly with the rolling pin until thin and flat.
Spread each slice thinly with the butter, right to the edges.
Cut the pimentos into strips about 5 mm wide. Lay a strip along one short edge of each slice and roll the bread up tightly around it.
Wrap the rolls tightly in plastic wrap, seam side down, and chill for 30 minutes.
Unwrap and cut each roll in half crosswise. Stand them on end or lay them seam side down on a plate, and serve cold.
Nutrition
130calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 16 small rolls, 8 servings
- Servings
- 8
Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for whole wheat bread, butter and roasted red peppers.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
One slice of bread makes two small rolls.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Made up to 2 hours ahead, they stay soft if kept wrapped in the refrigerator until serving. For plain rolls, as the book allows, leave out the pimento. Contains wheat (gluten) and milk.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Nina Toye and A. H. Adair, Drinks: Long and Short (London: William Heinemann, 1925)