1437 | Canapés à la Edw. Van Volkenberg.
—Have four ounces of lean cooked ham, thoroughly pound it in the mortar; add to it now one ounce of hard fresh butter, mix well together; add four fine, small Antwerp anchovies; the juice of a small sound lemon, or the juice of one lime, if at hand, and not quite the third of a saltspoonful of cayenne pepper; pound the whole well together again. Remove it from the mortar, place on a dish in the ice-box until further action.
Cut out from an American stale bread six round pieces four inches in diameter and an inch thick, place them on a tin baking-pan, sprinkle a very little clarified butter over each, and place in the hot oven for four minutes, or until they have obtained a good golden color. Remove from the oven, and cool for one minute. Have in a saucepan on the fire two tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese and a tablespoonful of grated Swiss cheese, with a tablespoonful of sweet cream, and continually stir until thoroughly dissolved. Remove it then from the fire, and let slightly cool off.
Take the preparation from the ice-box, and equally divide it over the croûtons, giving them a dome shape, and then equally divide also the cheese over the preparation. Place them in a baking-dish, and bake them in a very hot oven for three minutes. Take from out the oven, dress on a hot serving-dish with a folded napkin over it. Have six stoned olives, turn half a small anchovy around each olive, place one on top of each canapé upright, decorate the dish with a few parsley greens, and serve.