Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Mid-Century Menu, a small torture that I foist on my husband every week in which I find the weirdest mid-century recipe I can from my collection of vintage cookbooks, make it, and then force him to eat it. Poor Hubs.
This week’s recipe is something that I have seen around a lot in my cookbooks, and I have always wanted to try: The Frosted Sandwich Loaf.
Not quite a sandwich, and not quite a cake, this beauty was meant to inspire awe and wonder in your guests as you served them up perfectly “frosted” portions of supper. Or bridge snack, whichever you prefer.
And there was awe when I made it. But it was more like, “Awww…no! No! Really? No!”
The above cookbook is once again courtesy of my grandmother. What can I say, the lady was always on the cutting edge of food.
This picture needs no explanation. I believe the caption says it all. The sandwich. In all it’s glory, indeed.
Here is the recipe. Look at the little sandwiches. They would be cute, if they were actually cake. If.
Ok, so I need to get to this recipe, because it is really complicated. I could choose from many different fillings for the sandwich, and at right are the ones I chose. I have to admit, it was because they were the most strange.
Pickle filling? Pickle? Really? The bacon sounded a little weird, and the egg salad was pretty normal. But pickle was going to be fun.
No directions on these, guys. I just jumped in and mixed.
The pickle filling, getting ready to be mixed. And yes, that is a lot of pickles. 
I tried to half it, since I wasn’t going to be making a huge sandwich, but that didn’t work. I ended up using half the pickles and all the butter, and still it didn’t quite go together.
Next, the bacon. Once again, no directions, just ingredients.
A ton of bacon. Yum.
This one actually came together well. It really resembles a filling. Even though it is mostly bacon. 
Last, but not least, the Egg salad. Which doesn’t resemble any egg salad I have ever made, but like that has ever stopped me. 
The ingredients, prepped and ready to go. I didn’t mix this one up until right before I spread it on the bread. I don’t know why. Maybe I was afraid.
The bread split and ready to go. I didn’t remove the crusts. I was worried about cream cheese sogginess.
Notice the vintage plate. Hooray!
The sandwich being filled. Also, the egg salad in all its glory. Really.
Ta-da! The finished sandwich loaf, frosted with cream cheese and chilled. I was actually kind of proud of this one. 
A cross section of the finished loaf, every spread in its place.
This was an interesting one. I would have to say that this meal was by far the most work out of any I had made, but it was also by far the best.
The verdict: Surprisingly Good
The combination of the flavors in this one ended up being pretty tasty. I have noticed that a lot of the flavors in mid-century cooking aren’t what I am really used too, in that they can be pretty…unique sometimes. Not terrible, just different than what I am used to. This sandwich was definitely unique. I even liked the taste of the pickle filling, which I thought would be terrible. The only thing I didn’t care for was the cream cheese frosting, which was a bit thick for me and not really good. Unless you like eating straight cream cheese. Hubs thought it was good. Different, but good. He liked the cream cheese frosting, and ate three slices of the “frosted” loaf.
And! We had a guest over for dinner, too. She is totally a picky eater, and deemed the sandwich good, but also said the flavors were “interesting”. She only ate one slice, but she totally gets props for trying!
Pickle filling?! Then MORE pickles in the egg filling?! Chili sauce & Pimentos & Bacon & Mayo?! You guys are waaaay braver than I! Glad it tasted okay, and even your (very good sport) guest could eat it.
When I finally get my act together to join you in this little experiment, I’m going to have fun trying to find recipes that DON’T have bacon or hot dogs or Spam, so I’ll be able to try them along with the rest of the family.
Hooray!!! Another meal that tasted good!!! The sandwich actually does look pretty good in the pics, except for the pickle filling (I am not huge on pickles), but it probably went well in your sandwich. YEA for bacon, the more bacon the better. I LOVE BACON!!!
Heart attack city. Oh my. Yes, you two are SO BRAVE!
Good job, Ruth, but what happened with the ham salad filling? I happen to love frosted sammie loaves, but I don’t know if I would care for the bacon and pickle fillings. Ugh.
Hi all, thanks for the encouragement and general pity. 🙂
Sablemable, I decided to forgo the ham because it sounded too good. I wanted to try one of the weirder combinations of fillings. I had been dying to make some of those sandwich fillings for some time.
I love bacon too, Sara! It is one of my vices. Probably from growning up in a town that has a local company that puts out some of the best bacon and ham…
Tiki – your contribution is welcome any time! You too, Pam!
I was looking through a cookbook by the Stokeley Brothers, Company, 1933, and found some AWFUL recipes, like Molded Sauerkraut Ring and Stuffed Beets. Gag!
Ruth, Where, oh where, is this mysterious bacon and Ham town??? I must know! I am a total sucker for bacon – the crispier the better! 🙂
Ugh! Molded Sauerkraut Ring! Blargh! You might have to scan that one and send it over…
Sara – it is Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, home of Jones Dairy Farm. I believe they were mentioned in Food and Wine magazine recently for having some of the best ham in the country. My dad used to be the Quality Control guy there, and they have a great company store on the plant site where you can buy all kinds of cheap ham and bacon. Love it!
Thanks for the info Ruth! I will definitely have to go there when I make it back to Wisconsin one of these days.
Wisconsin: a cheese store and brewery on every corner! That should really be their license plate logo. I remember noticing that the first time I traveled to Northern Wisconsin. One can never have too much cheese and beer.
This looks a lot like a traditional Swedish Dish that I make every Christmas called smoargastarta, which translates as sandwich cake.
I know this is an older post, but my MIL makes this all the time and I was looking for a recipe! She makes it with just ham and egg salad. 🙂 Very rich but yummy.
Perfect. Just what we have been searching for far and wide. First off it looks like we are not going to find anyone to make one for us so this is most helpful. It is my aunt’s 99th birthday party and a sandwich loaf was always one of her favorites.
Hmm, the bacon and pimento sounds like it would make a nice sandwich. I’d use cream cheese instead of mayo and put it on pumpernickel ^.^ .