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Chicken and Ham Sandwich
One cupful of chopped ham, one cupful of cold boiled chicken meat; season with salt and pepper and moisten with mayonnaise dressing. Spread this mixture on thin slices of lightly buttered white bread, cover with another slice, and cut in halves. Garnish with a pickle.
CHICKEN AND HAM (CLUB) SAND-
A straightforward potted-meat filling of the kind that filled tea trays and lunch pails a century ago. The only real decisions are how finely to chop and how much dressing to add.
- Chop, do not grindA food processor turns cold chicken and ham into paste in seconds, which gives a filling with no texture. Chop by hand to a rough 1/8-inch dice, or pulse very briefly so the two meats stay distinguishable.
- Proportions and yieldTwo cupfuls of chopped meat plus dressing makes a little over 2 cups of filling, enough for perhaps six sandwiches cut in halves. Figure about 1/3 cup per sandwich on thin bread.
- How much mayonnaise"Moisten" is the operative word: start with 3 tablespoons and add more only until the mixture just holds together when pressed with a spoon. Too much and it slides out of the bread as soon as it is cut.
- Salt with careCured ham carries most of the seasoning already. Taste before adding any salt; the pepper is worth being generous with.
- Which hamThe recipe says only 'chopped ham', which in this period would most likely have meant leftover boiled or baked ham rather than pre-sliced sandwich meat. A thick piece of cooked ham off the bone gives the firmer bite the filling wants; thin sandwich slices go slippery when chopped.
- Cold boiled chickenPoached chicken breast or the meat off a leftover roast bird both work. Chill it thoroughly before chopping, or the warm meat will thin the dressing.
- Butter, then fillThe 'lightly buttered' bread may be doing more than adding flavor: a thin film of softened butter helps seal the crumb against the mayonnaise and slows the bread going soggy.
- The club versionThe fragment at the end is the heading of the next entry in the book, where the same pairing appears as a club sandwich. The filling here is the spreadable form of the same idea.
Eva Greene Fuller's Up-to-Date Sandwich Book appeared in 1909, by which point the sandwich was established enough in American cooking to warrant a volume of its own. Chicken and ham was a natural pairing for the ladies' lunch and the picnic hamper: both meats were often cooked in quantity for another meal, both keep a day or two cold, and the combination is the one that fills a club sandwich. The reliance on mayonnaise to bind chopped leftovers into a spread is characteristic of the period. The pickle garnish cuts the richness.