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Ham Sandwich No. 2
Chop ham fine, mix with a little mayonnaise dressing, and place between thin slices of lightly buttered white bread. Garnish with parsley and a pickle.
A two-line formula that assumes a cook already knows what ham spread should look like. The proportions are left entirely to judgment, so the useful work is in the details the original leaves out.
- ProportionsAbout 1 cup finely chopped cooked ham to 2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise gives a mixture that holds together without weeping into the bread. Add the dressing a spoonful at a time; ham varies a great deal in how much it absorbs.
- "Chop fine" means choppedThe period text assumes a knife or a hand-cranked food chopper, which leaves a coarse, distinct texture. A food processor turns the same ham into paste in seconds, so pulse briefly or chop by hand if you want the sandwich to eat like ham rather than pâté.
- Which hamA cooked, mildly cured ham of the ordinary boiled or baked sort is the likeliest candidate for leftovers in a kitchen of this period. Country ham or prosciutto will overwhelm the mayonnaise and the thin white bread; if you use one, cut the quantity and stretch it with more dressing.
- Mayonnaise dressingIn books of this era "mayonnaise dressing" generally means the emulsion of yolk, oil, vinegar or lemon, often with mustard, and tends to be thicker and sharper than jarred mayonnaise. Commercial mayonnaise works; a little mustard and a squeeze of lemon brings it closer to the intended flavor.
- Butter is structuralThe thin coat of butter on the bread is not seasoning but a moisture barrier between the dressed ham and the crumb. Skip it and a sandwich made an hour ahead will be soggy.
- The breadThin slices from a close-grained white sandwich loaf; roughly 1/4 inch is a reasonable reading of "thin." Trimming the crusts and halving on the diagonal is how such sandwiches were often served at teas and luncheons.
- Yield and holdingThe quantity above fills about four sandwiches. The filling keeps refrigerated for two days; assemble no more than a couple of hours ahead and cover with a damp towel.
- The garnishParsley and a pickle are plate furniture, not an afterthought — the finish suggests this sandwich was meant to arrive on a plate rather than in a hand. A gherkin or a spear of dill pickle supplies the acid the rich filling wants.
Books of this kind proliferated in the first decade of the twentieth century, when the fashion for ladies' luncheons and afternoon teas helped turn the sandwich from a tavern item into a genteel one. The numbered variations — Ham Sandwich No. 1, No. 2, and so on — are a convention of the genre: the same protein worked through mustard butter, chopped pickle, hard-boiled egg, or, as here, mayonnaise, so a hostess could vary a platter without varying her shopping. The recipe also reflects a plain economic fact of the period, that a boiled or baked ham was a large purchase and its remnants were expected to reappear for several days.<br><br>The garnish instruction is worth noting: parsley and a pickle appear at the end of many entries in books like this one, a finish that suggests the sandwich belonged on a plate at table rather than wrapped in paper for a lunch pail.