While browsing through a hundred-year-old cookbook, I came across a recipe for Open Cheese and Bacon Sandwiches, and decided to give it a try. I was intrigued because this toasted bacon and cheese sandwich recipe called for a topping made of soft cheese (I used pureed cottage cheese) and eggs, plus a little ketchup, paprika and cayenne red pepper which gave the topping a bit of a zing. The cheese and the bacon worked well together, and made a delightful sandwich that was a nice change from the typical grilled cheese and bacon sandwich.
Here’s the original recipe:
I decided to use cottage cheese when I made this recipe since it would have been readily available a hundred years ago. I put it through my Foley mill to make it smooth.
I’m not exactly sure what the old cookbook is referring to when it calls for table sauce, but when I made this recipe, based on the previous suggestions of some readers, I decided to use ketchup.
I skipped the salt since the bacon and cheese already contained salt, and I didn’t want an overly salty sandwich. I cooked the bacon until it was lightly crisped before assembling the sandwich since I thought that it would be too greasy if I put the bacon on top of the cheese without cooking it. I put the sandwich under the broiler to cook.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Open Cheese and Bacon Sandwich
8 – 12 slices of bacon (cut in half) (If the slices are wide use 8 slices, if narrow use 12.)
3 eggs, beaten
12 ounces soft cheese (cottage cheese, chevre, feta, Brie, ricotta, etc.), grated or pureed ( I used cottage cheese, and put it through a Foley mill to make smooth.)
1 1/2 teaspoon ketchup
1/2 teaspoon paprika
dash cayenne (red) pepper
8 slices bread
Put the bacon in a skillet; arrange so that each piece is flat. Using medium heat, cook until lightly crisped, while turning frequently. While cooking, periodically press the pieces with a spatula or back of a spoon to flatten and make thinner. When lightly crisped, remove from the heat and drain on paper towel towels.
In the meantime, put eggs, soft cheese, ketchup paprika, and cayenne pepper in a bowl; stir to combine.
Put the bread slices on a baking sheet, and put under the broiler until lightly browned. Remove from oven/broiler, and flip. Spoon the cheese and egg mixture on the bread, and spread to the edges of each slice. Top with 2 – 3 slices of cooked bacon, and put back under the broiler until the cheese is melted and the bread is lightly browned. Remove from oven/broiler and serve.
Well, as a Brit, I can’t entertain anything other than a plain bacon toasted sarnie: no cheese please!
I think we’ve identified another difference between the U.S. and Britain. Bacon and cheese sandwiches are fairly popular here – though they aren’t typically made using a soft cheese.
This is probably better for you, but I like the bite of sharp cheese. It made interesting reading.
Both types are good, they are just different.
That is a very interesting sandwich. It would work for any meal.
My husband and I actually had this for two meals because I made more of the topping than needed. The first meal (the one where I took the photo for this post) included bacon in the sandwich as described in the old recipe. For the second meal, I put the cheese topping on the bread – but skipped the bacon. The sandwiches were good both ways.
An unusual sandwich, but it sounds really delicious! Many possibilities here Sheryl!
It was a nice alternative to the typical bacon and cheese sandwich.
I sure enjoyed reading this original recipe, Sheryl, and I pondered what “table sauce” might be, just as you did. This looks so delicious to me, how can you go wrong with toast, cheese and bacon?
I agree! You can’t go wrong with toast, cheese, and bacon.
P.S. Ignore the parts where Grok thought there were typos in the recipe. That was my fault. I just did a quick highlight and copy/pasted of the original recipe when I fed it the recipe, not proofreading noticing that it wasn’t able to copy/paste the fraction numbers correctly (like 1 1/2 and 3/4), and so it made up it’s own thing instead for those numbers. My bad!
It’s interesting how you ran this through AI. Sounds like it’s still important to double check what comes out.
I’ve never heard of this. VERY interesting! I’d give it a try too. It looks and sounds delicious!
It was yummy. Until I saw this recipe, I never would have thought of using a soft cheese to make a toasted cheese and bacon sandwich.
Hehe! I always equate the open faced sandwich with end of the month stretching of the paycheck!!
I never really thought about this before, but somehow open-facded sandwiches often seem a little fancier than sandwiches made with two slices of bread to me, though I definitely can see how these sandwiches could be a way to stetch a paycheck.
Sounds like a wonderful sandwich! Pizza sauce works good in place of ketchup,I’ll have to give ketchup a try.
Good idea, pizza sauce would work well in this recipe.
We used to do a similar open-faced sandwich – without the eggs. Good old cheese and bacon. Yum.
Bacon and cheese sandwiches are yummy.
mmmm…bacon and cheese!
It’s tasty.
I could taste it as I read through the recipe. That way I was spared the sodium!
I’m glad you were able to spare the sodium. 🙂
I think that table sauce in many instances was akin to Worcestershire sauce. There was a brand called Halford Leicestershire Table Sauce dating back to I think the late 1800’s.
Thanks for the info. It can be challenging sometimes to decipher old recipes. Worchestershire sauce sure has been around for a long time.
Hi Sheryl – I am new to your website and am enjoying it! But can I please make a suggestion? 🙂
I HIGHLY suggest you start using asking AI when you can’t find the answer to any questions for these old recipes, because not only did you use the wrong sauce for this recipe, but you also used the wrong cheese (but that one for the life of me I can’t figure out why you went with cottage cheese, because the recipe specifically says that you need to grate it or chop it in a food chopper).
Whether you use Grok on X (formerly Twitter) / or the Grok app, or use Chat GPT website, or the “search assist” option near the top of your web browser, use at least one of them! Because it would be so much better for your project to keep things as authentic as possible, yaknow?
Grok explained to me that they likely used Worcestershire sauce for this recipe, and they also likely used a mild cheddar or American cheese for the cheese.
It said:
_____________
If you want to recreate it faithfully: – Use Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins or equivalent) — start with 1–2 teaspoons and taste, as it’s strong. – A dash of A.1. steak sauce or a thin mushroom-based sauce could also approximate older “table sauces.” – Avoid heavy sweet ketchup unless the cookbook specifically says “tomato catsup.” “Table sauce” was essentially the era’s catch-all for “that bottle of savory stuff we keep on the table to perk up food,” much like how people today might vaguely say “hot sauce” or “steak sauce.” Worcestershire is the safest and most historically supported bet for this kind of recipe.
### What “Soft Cheese” Likely Meant in 1922 In early 20th-century American cookbooks, “soft cheese” in this context usually referred to a mild, moist, easily grated or ground cheese that wasn’t rock-hard or overly aged/sharp. It needed to blend smoothly with beaten eggs into a spreadable mixture without becoming stringy or grainy when baked/broiled. The most probable options, based on historical usage and what was common and affordable at the time: – American cheese (the early processed or “factory” mild cheddar-style cheese). By the early 1920s, Kraft and others were producing mild, meltable American cheese that came in blocks and grated easily. It was inexpensive, widely available, and often described as “soft” compared to sharp aged cheddars. This fits perfectly for a luncheon/supper dish meant to be quick and economical. Modern recreators of similar 1920s cheese toasts and rarebits frequently default to a mild American or mild cheddar for this reason.
– Mild cheddar or a young/medium cheddar. “Soft” often distinguished younger, milder cheddar (which has higher moisture and grates/breaks down more easily) from hard, sharp, crumbly aged versions. Cheddar was the dominant everyday cheese in American households then, especially outside big cities. A mild one would melt nicely under the bacon without overpowering the paprika, cayenne, and table sauce (Worcestershire-style).
### Practical Modern Substitution For the closest authentic result: – Use mild cheddar or American cheese (the deli-sliced or block kind, not the individually wrapped singles if possible). Grate it fresh. – Start with about 12 oz (¾ lb) and adjust if the mixture seems too thick/thin. – The goal is a creamy, spreadable paste that melts into the bread under the thin bacon strips, creating a savory, slightly spicy open-faced toast. This dish is essentially an early, bacon-topped version of a cheese rarebit or “cheese dream” — simple, thrifty, and flavorful with the seasonings. If you try it, the “soft cheese” choice makes a noticeable difference in texture: milder and moister cheeses give a smoother, more cohesive topping.
Cheers Sheryl!
It’s fascinating to see what you got when you ran this through AI. I did this post back in 2022, and I don’t think that I was even aware of AI at that time. That said, I don’t use AI when writing this blog. I have very mixed feelings about it.
Just to see what I would get from using AI regarding what the term “soft cheese” meant in 1922, I asked the AI connected to the Edge browser, “What was considered soft cheese in 1922?”. The AI response I got said:
“In 1922, soft cheeses included a variety of types such as Brie, Burrata, Camembert, Chevre, Feta, Gorgonzola, Halloumi, Mascarpone, Mozzarella, and Provel. These cheeses were known for their high moisture content and spreadable texture, making them popular choices for various dishes and desserts.”
It is interesting how different AI tools come up with responses that are quite different.
Well, you asked it an open ended question without context, so that’s why it gave you those options. If you had asked what “soft cheeses” were used back then that could be grated or put in a food chopper that were likely used in such a recipe, and also either uploaded a screenshot of the recipe, or copy/pasted the text of the recipe (I don’t know about android, but in my iphone/ipad, I can take a screenshot of anything with text in it, then go to the Photos app where it gets saved, and then press down on the text and highlight all of it to copy it to my clipboard, where I can then easily paste the text into the grok’s ai text field), then I guarantee you no Al program would come back with soft cheese suggestions like Brie, Feta, etc (because that can’t be GRATED or CHOPPED in a food chopper! Hahah Those were the key words in that recipe, which is why cottage cheese was most definitely not used for it either).
Al is incredibly useful – it’s all about HOW you use it. I try to be very precise with it and the questions I ask it. I did forget that you uploaded this back in 2022, but going forward I sincerely hope you reconsider using it when you’re questioning or in doubt about something in a recipe (or at the very least compare what your research/solution is that you come up with to what AI comes up with, and make a final decision then), because AI truly is a super helpful tool — and quite time saving too!
very similar to a Welsh Rarebit