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Ham and Eggs Sandwiches
Mix the yolks of six hard boiled eggs with one tablespoonful of French mustard to a smooth paste, then add one cup of finely chopped cold boiled ham. Spread a good layer of this on a slice of buttered bread, cover with another slice, and press firmly together, trim off the crusts, and cut into neat shapes.
A straightforward sandwich filling from the era before mayonnaise came out of a jar. Two things need attention: the paste as written is dry, and the recipe silently discards six egg whites.
- French mustardIn American cookbooks of this period the term generally meant a smooth, vinegar-based prepared mustard in the French manner, rather than a coarse grain or the bright yellow ballpark sort. A tablespoon of Dijon is a reasonable substitution.
- The paste will be stiffSix hard-boiled yolks and a spoonful of mustard alone make a crumbly, chalky mass. Work in softened butter or a spoonful of mayonnaise a little at a time until it spreads without tearing the bread.
- The leftover whitesNothing is done with them. Chop them fine and fold them into the ham for texture, or reserve them for a salad; six whites is too much to throw away.
- Cold boiled hamAny good cooked ham off the bone works. Avoid watery pressed deli ham, which will weep into the bread. A cup finely chopped is roughly 5 to 6 oz.
- Bread and trimmingUse a close-crumbed white sandwich loaf sliced thin; open, airy artisan bread collapses under pressing. Trim the crusts with a long serrated knife after pressing, not before, so the edges stay square.
- YieldProbably around six sandwiches, depending how thickly the filling is spread, or roughly two dozen small tea-sized shapes once the crusts are off.
- KeepingFilled sandwiches made with ham and egg should be assembled cold, kept covered and chilled, and eaten the same day.
Hot-weather cookery books are often said to have been a small publishing genre around the turn of the twentieth century, written for households with a coal range they were reluctant to fire up and an icebox that could only do so much. Their answer was the cold table: composed salads, jellies, and sandwiches built from meat and eggs already cooked, which may be why this recipe assumes both the ham and the eggs are leftovers. The trimmed, shaped sandwich is generally traced to the same moment — the fashion for crustless sandwiches cut into rounds, triangles and fingers is said to have spread with the afternoon tea table and become a standard of ladies' luncheons and picnic baskets. Mustard here is doing double duty as seasoning and as a little moisture for the dry yolks.