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Potted Ham Sandwich No. 2
Toast saltine biscuit, lightly butter, and spread with potted ham. Put two together, serve as soon as made. Garnish with a pickle.
A cracker sandwich of the kind served with soup, tea or cards rather than as a meal. The whole thing hinges on timing: toasted crackers spread with a moist paste go soft within minutes.
- Saltine biscuit"Biscuit" here means the cracker, not a raised quick bread. Ordinary square saltines are what is meant.
- Toasting crackersThe recipe gives no method or temperature. A short spell in a moderate oven until they colour faintly at the edges is enough; they scorch quickly, so watch them.
- Potted hamAt the time this meant tinned spiced ham paste of the deviled-ham type, sold by Underwood and others, or a home preparation of cooked ham pounded with butter and mace and sealed under clarified butter. Canned deviled ham is the direct descendant; a food processor will turn 8 oz cooked ham, 3 tablespoons soft butter, a pinch of mace and a little mustard into something closer to the homemade version.
- Butter lightly, and mean itThe butter is a moisture barrier between the toasted cracker and the paste. Too much and it slides; the paste should be spread thin as well, or the sandwich will crumble under its own weight.
- "Serve as soon as made"This is the one instruction that matters. Assembled crackers soften quickly. Toast ahead, keep the paste covered, and put them together at the last moment.
- YieldTwo crackers make one sandwich. The recipe gives no quantities or number of servings.
- The pickleA gherkin or small sour cucumber pickle, whole or fanned. The acid is doing real work against a paste that is largely fat and salt.
Potted meats were the practical end of a long preservation tradition: cooked meat pounded fine with butter and spice, packed into a pot and sealed under a layer of clarified fat that kept air off it. By the time this book appeared, the technique had been industrialised, and small tins of spiced or deviled ham were sold ready-made, which is why a sandwich book could simply say "spread with potted ham" and assume the reader knew what to buy. The cracker base places this among the lighter offerings of the period, the sort of thing put out for afternoon callers, card parties and invalids rather than at table.