Onion Sandwich

Since I was a child, my late mother served these. I have always loved them. Her version which she ascribed to Mr Beard used unsalted butter in lieu of mayonnaise. I much prefer these buttered.

Duke's Mayonnaise is my choice.. tangy and sharply textured... If you're a Yankee, you've probably never had Duke's... But down in Charleston, SC- where I cooked professionally for a few years, it's indispensible.

Mayonnaise? Brioche? Parsley? Heaven to Betsy. "Mr. Ray's opinion of sandwiches without crusts matched Mrs. Ray's opinion of tea on Sunday nights...The butter had been put to soften, and...if nothing else was available he made his sandwiches of onions. He used slices of mild Bermuda onions, sprinkled with vinegar and dusted with pepper and salt."

I've been making a variation of this recipe for decades, based on Graham Kerr's recipe, using dark rye/pumpernickle bread with sweet onions & mayo.

25 years ago we were told to make these with Pepperidge Farm thin white bread...now it's challah or brioche. Recipe evolution!

My mom had a different spin. 8oz cream cheese, tablespoon of mayonnaise (H'man's), one huge grated onion, dash of lemon. Four ingredients and simplicity beyond compare. Uae as a dip/spread or in tea sandwiches.

Do they mean a 2.5" cutter? A 1.5" sandwich is not pictured, not in most standard sets of circular cutters, and would be too small for most onion slices.

If no Vidalia in house use red onions or white, but soak for 5 minutes in cold water to do away with the sting of raw onions, but not the deliciously bad breath

I agree with notlikely! Butter, not mayo. Though I love mayo. And - we’re from the Northwest, so Walla Walla sweet onions, please. Expatriate serves a delicious version of these, and I hope to god they are able to reopen soon so that I can have one with a Pegu Club, even if it’s past the season for watermelon salad. Another amazing James Beard recipe appeared in the Oregonian in the late 1970’s or early ‘80’s. Chocolate orange ice cream. It was amazing!

Mine are quite different. Take one slice of bread. Butter half of it. Favorite mustard swished on the other half--currently using horseradish mustard. Put two thin onion slices on the buttered half, sprinkle with salt and coarse ground pepper, fold and bite. Yum!

Our version used cottage cheese instead of mayonnaise. One of my comfort foods.

Helman's Mayo tastes better than Duke's, IMHO. Duke's tastes bland and lacks the acidity of Helman's.

I have never made these - the parsley on the outside rim looks inviting ( I guess ), but it also looks like it might turn out messy while eating, with parsley falling all over the place. One Beard hors d’oeuvre recipe that I think is wonderful has some similarities....little sandwiches of dark rye with a generous filling of sweet butter and thinly sliced radishes. It's better to assemble them close to serving time, and the radishes must be super fresh.

I make these every year with a thin slice of leftover Thanksgiving turkey and unsalted butter. Perhaps I'm just making a turkey sandwich but the origin is definitely Beard's onion sandwich.

WHen I was first married, in the early 1960s, I made these sandwiches (without the parsley, squares rather than circles, butter rather than mayo) for every picnic, every road trip my husband and I made. I learned to cook from James Beard as much as from Julia Child, not to mention Elsie Masterton (Blueberry Hill), Peg Bracken (I Hate to Cook Book) and other popular cooks of the time.