Garde Manger II:
Sandwiches and Hors d’Oeuvres
Section Objectives
Upon completing this section, you should be
able to:
• Discuss the fundamentals of garde manger:
nnsandwiches and hors d’oeuvres
Sandwiches
• A sandwich is often the first meal a person learns to
prepare
• Sandwiches may be served hot or cold
• Assembly can happen in advance, or à la minute
– Depends on the desired outcome
Sandwich Components
• Bread
– Firm, thick, not overwhelming or dry
– Pullman loaves, peasant-style breads, and rolls
– Flatbreads, wrappers, and tortillas
• Spread
– Moisture barrier
– Flavored butter or mayonnaise base, spreadable
cheeses, tahini, jams, and condiments
– Holds sandwich together
Sandwich Components—components
• Filling
– Vegetable or protein
• Garnish
– Textural contrast, flavor enhancers
Types of Sandwiches
• Hot (e.g., panini, melt)
– Closed
– Open
• Cold (e.g., club, deli)
– Closed
– Open
Sandwich Presentation
• Presentation is very important for sandwich service
• Assembly of sandwiches should be conducted in
an efficient and thoughtful manner
• Consider quality and presentation
Sandwich Mise en Place
• Prepare all ingredients
– Cook, mix, slice, or rinse ingredients
as necessary
• Arrange and store ingredients
– Preportion as appropriate
– Keep within easy reach but properly refrigerated
Sandwich Mise en Place—continued
• Select and arrange equipment
– Spatulas, scoops, knives, cutting boards,
heat griddles, fryers, and broilers
Cutting Sandwiches
• Sandwiches can be cut in a variety of ways to
make the presentation attractive
– Halves
– Thirds
– Quarters
• Garnish is important to the look of the sandwich
– Consider “functional” garnishes
Sandwich Sanitation
• Sandwiches, whether hot or cold, present a dangerous
environment for the spread of foodborne illness
• High protein, precooked food, mayonnaise, and
butter, along with a variety of hand contact, create
food safety challenges
• Produce sandwiches under the most stringent
conditions
Hors d’Oeuvres
• French word used to
describe small
portions of very
flavorful food items
served either before
the main meal, lunch,
or dinner, or as the
first course of a meal
Types of Hors d’Oeuvres
• Canapé: Small open-faced sandwich that may be topped
with a variety of savory food items
• Barquettes and tartlets: Miniature pie shells made from a
short pie dough and filled with a variety of savory fillings
• Choux puffs and carolines: Miniature puff and éclairshaped choux paste shells filled with a variety of savory
purées and mousses
Canapés: Banquet-Style
• Use a dense bread, such as pumpernickel or rye
(which allows elimination of toasting)
• Use Pullman loaves, approximately 4" × 4" × 18"
• These should be sliced lengthwise, no thicker than 1/4"
– If bread is extremely fresh or coarsely textured, it is
difficult to get thin, even slices
– For thin, even slices, slice bread when slightly frozen
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• Always trim crust from bread after slicing, not
before
• The evenness of slices can be improved by
using a band saw to slice the loaves
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• Soften spread by whipping or by allowing to
warm to room temperature
• Apply spread to Pullman slice with a mediumsize palette knife
• Apply filling to Pullman slice
– Select an item for the filling that can be
applied quickly and easily to the bread
– It is best if it can be applied in a single step
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• Items that can be sliced in long sheets on a meat
slicer then laid on top of the Pullman loaf work
well; these include ham, turkey, cheese, or smoked
salmon
• Fine-textured salads, such as tuna salad, salmon
salad, and chicken salad, (when the recipe is
adjusted to avoid seepage of moisture) can be
easily spread onto a Pullman slice
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• At this point, you essentially have a very large,
open-faced sandwich
• Banquet-style canapés can be—and are often—
made up to this point, one to two days in
advance
• If you are making the canapés in advance,
continue to the next step
• The canapé can be tightly wrapped and frozen,
and then defrosted and finished when needed
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• The Pullman-sized slices, spread and topped
with the filling, are coated with a thin layer of
aspic
• Aspic helps to preserve their freshness and gives
them a glistening finish
– Aspic can be applied with a brush or spray
bottle
– Aspic should be delicate, not rubbery
– It should be perfectly clear and have a good
flavor
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• The Pullman slice is now ready to be cut into
individual canapés
– Squares, diamonds, and triangles can be cut
using straight-line cuts of a long French knife
– This technique results in the least amount of
wasted product
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• Rounds and crescents can be cut using a
sharpened round cutter
– This technique results in more waste
• Special shapes, such as stars, hearts, spades,
and others, can be cut from the Pullman slice
– These cuts have the lowest yield per
Pullman slice
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• Exactness of size and shape is critical for an
elegant presentation
• Individual canapés should be lined up on a work
tray in neat “rank and file” order
– Any misshapen or wrongly sized items can be
picked out easily
Canapés: Banquet-Style—continued
• Garnish can be applied to the canapé
– The garnish should be one that can be
quickly made and easily applied
– Chose a garnish that is suitable for
the filling
Canapés: À la Carte-Style
• Basic method is the same as banquet-style
• Special techniques
– Bases with special shapes are often used
– They cost more to handle and have a lower
yield of usable product
Canapés: À la Carte-Style—continued
• A commonly produced item is the coronet, made from salami,
ham, smoked salmon, or similar food
– These are attached to a base with a rosette of basic spread
or compound butter
– The coronet is filled with an olive, sour cream, caviar, or
other suitable food
– This preparation has great eye appeal, but takes more
production time
– Garnishes are often more complex, such as a strip of
marinated red pepper tied in a tiny bow
Tartlets and Barquettes
• Prepare an unsweetened, short pie dough
• Roll out thin, 1/8" thick maximum
• Allow rolled-out dough to rest
– Freezing dough briefly will speed up resting
process
• Cut rolled-out dough into small circles, squares, or
rectangles
– These should be large enough to fully line interior
of the barquette or tartlet mold
Tartlets and Barquettes—continued
• Loosely place square of dough into mold
– It is not necessary to oil or lubricate mold
when using a short pie dough
Tartlets and Barquettes—continued
• Place a second mold on top of first, sandwiching dough
between the two molds, apply gentle pressure to bring
them together
• Trim excess dough from the edges of molds with a
paring knife
• Place molds upside down on a sheet pan
– A second sheet pan may be placed on top of the
molds to reduce tendency of dough to draw back
during baking
Tartlets and Barquettes—continued
• Bake in a 375°F (190°C) oven,
until top mold falls off easily
– It is acceptable for barquettes
and tartlet shells to be pale
and not “golden brown”
– Be careful not to overbake
• Overbaked shells shatter
easily
Tartlets and Barquettes—continued
• If a custard is to be cooked in shells, dough should be
raw or just blanched when filled with custard
– Shells can be made up to a week in advance
• If barquette or tartlet is to be served cold, coat inside of
prepared shell with a spread or compound butter
– This will help keep crust from getting soggy or
warped
– Fill and garnish as you would for a canapé
Choux Puffs and Carolines
• Choux puffs
– Use a straight #6 or #7
pastry tube
– Pipe the paste into a
small ball, about 1-11/2"
in diameter
– After baking, the
diameter of the choux
puffs should be no more
than 2"
Choux Puffs and Carolines—
continued
• Carolines
– Use a straight #5 or #6 pastry tube
– Pipe paste into lengths of no more than 2"
– Bake as you would any item made from
choux paste
– These shells should not be prepared more
than 3 to 4 days in advance
Choux Puffs and Carolines:
Preparing the Filling
• Fillings suited for choux puffs and carolines
are purées or mousses of meat, fish,
or vegetables
• The content of filling, including garnishes,
needs to be small enough to pass through a
pastry tube
Choux Puffs and Carolines:
Preparing the Filling—continued
• Be careful not to overcook fish or meat for
purée
• If overcooked, it will give a grainy-mouth feel
to filling
• This cannot be masked by the addition of
velouté or mayonnaise during processing
Choux Puffs and Carolines—continued
• Make a small hole in the bottom of the puff
with the tip of a small pastry tube and pipe in
the filling
– In some cases, in order to fill the puff,
simply cut off the top of the puff
• The cavity within the puff is then filled
with the desired filling
– Fill puffs as close to service as possible;
they tend to become soggy when held
Choux Puffs and Caroline—continued
• Choux puffs are not usually garnished
• They can, however, be garnished like a canapé
• Carolines, after filling, are often topped with
a suitable chaud-froid sauce in the style of the
chocolate on an éclair