Crunchy Chicken-Cheesies- not fabulous

This recipe is from The 1,000 Fabulous Sandwiches Cookbook by Doris McFerran Townsend. This book was published in 1965 but I can not imagine this recipe being popular in any era. It is the second recipe in the book, so if a prospective buyer picked up the book and opened it to the front to check it out it would have been right there in their face. The book would have been quickly slammed back on the counter I think. My husband would often buy cookbooks without even looking at them so that is how I got it. No way would I have bought a cookbook with this mess right up front.

Crunchy Chicken-Cheesies
12 slices Russian rye bread
3/8 cup soft butter
2 5-oz. cans cooked chicken, drained
1 cup applesauce
1-1/2 cups chopped raw cauliflower
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1/2 cup chopped parsley
6 thin slices Swiss cheese
Butter each slice of bread. Combine chicken, applesauce, chopped cauliflower, salt, and mustard. Divide chicken mixture over 6 slices of the buttered bread, spreading to corners of each slice. Top with parsley and a slice of Swiss cheese. Cover cheese with remaining bread slices.

There are two things in this that are just wrong. Why would anyone put raw cauliflower in a sandwich? Wouldn't it fall out of the sandwich and make a mess? They needed something to bind the chicken and cauliflower into a spread so why didn't they use mayonnaise instead of applesauce. The combination of chicken, applesauce and cauliflower is totally weird.