A dish from James Beard

Onion Sandwich

Beard's gloriously plain onion sandwich — sweet onion, buttered bread, and a whisper of mayonnaise.

Makes 1 sandwich

By James Beard

Beard liked to scandalize people by calling this his favorite sandwich. It is barely a recipe: good bread, sweet onion, butter, and a little mayonnaise, made only when the onions are at their mildest.

Ingredients

Produce

  • 1 sweet onion

Dairy & Eggs

  • butter

Bakery

  • 2 slice white bread

Pantry / Durable

  • mayonnaise

Spices & Seasoning

  • salt and pepper

Method

  1. Butter both slices of bread thinly, then spread one with a little mayonnaise.

  2. Peel the onion and slice it as thin as you can manage. Pile the slices on the mayonnaise side and season with salt and a good grind of pepper.

  3. Close the sandwich, press it gently, and cut it in half. Eat it soon, before the bread softens.

Adapted from Beard on Food. View a published recipe at NYT Cooking (opens in a new tab)

Served at

Oysters and talk · Greenwich Village, New York

Lunch at the Zodiac Room · Dallas, Texas

A bread day in Indiana · Bloomington, Indiana

A reunion in Boston · Boston, Massachusetts

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