|
October is National Country Ham Month, which inspired us to contemplate a good ham sandwich—the kind you only get by baking a ham and slicing it yourself.
Country ham is one made by rubbing the raw meat with salt and hang-drying it in a controlled environment of 75°-80°F or higher.
The results are a firm and very flavor-concentrated meat with a dark burgundy color. Customarily, country ham is smoked and tends to be saltier than most hams; it is enjoyed in paper-thin slices.
Here are the different types of whole hams. But on to the sandwiches!
Today’s tip is inspiration for a more creative, yummier, ham sandwich.
Check out the different types of sliced ham in our Ham Glossary.
TYPES OF HAM SANDWICHES
It’s easy to throw slices of ham and cheese on sliced bread or a roll, at mustard or mayo and dig in.
But there are numerous superior ways to enjoy a ham sandwich, as you’ll see below. If you don’t want cheese on your ham sandwich, just check out all of the different substitutes below.
Every country that raises pigs has a version of a ham sandwich. Here are a few we’ve selected—some we’ve made up—for you.
Apple or Pear: Add sliced apples to the sandwich, with arugula or watercress.
Banh-Mi: A Vietnamese sandwich on a baguette, with meat and local vegetables (photo #7). Here’s the recipe.
Chicken Cordon Bleu: Chicken cordon bleu is ham and cheese stuffed into a chicken breast. Here, add sliced chicken to the ham and cheese sandwich and place it in the broiler/microwave to melt the cheese.
Croque Monsieur: A fried or grilled sandwich of ham and gruyère topped with Mornay sauce (photo #2).
Cubano: From Cuba, a grilled ham and cheese with pork, pickles, and mustard on Cuban bread (a baguette shape with an airy “white bread” interior (photo #5).
Dagwood: On thick, crusty bread, pile “the kitchen sink” atop the ham: lettuce, arugula, tomato, one or more types of cheese, pickles, other pickled vegetables (including jalapeño), few dill pickle slices, fresh cucumber slices, pimento or peppadews, pitted olives. Spread mustard on one side, mayo (especially spicy mayo) on the other.
Fondue: Deconstruct the sandwich. Cube the ham, cube the bread, and dip it on skewers into cheese fondue.
French: Jambon du Bayonne (substitute prosciutto), brie, honey mustard on a baguette.
German: Black forest ham, drained sauerkraut, grainy mustard and spinach leaves, grilled.
Greek: Add ham to a Greek salad in pita: lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, red onion, kalamata olives and feta cheese with a sprinkle of oregano.
Grilled Cheese/Panini: Choose your cheese, choose your bread, and grill away.
Hawaiian: Ham and soft cheese with sliced pineapple on Hawaiian bread (like King’s Hawaiian).
Hoagie/Submarine: Use three different types of ham, e.g., Black Forest, boiled, deviled/ or ham salad, hickory-smoked, honey cured, prosciutto/serrano. Add the lettuce, tomatoes, and other vegetables of choice, plus condiments.
Mexican: Ham and Mexican cheese quesadillas with salsa, sour cream and guacamole.
Monte Cristo: A variation of Croque Monsieur (see above) that uses pan-toasted French toast as the base for a ham and cheese sandwich.
Roll-Ups: Grab a tortilla or a lettuce leaf and roll your ingredients.
Southern: Ham and pimiento cheese on cornbread, with sweet pickles and marmalade.
Spanish: Belota or other Iberian ham, manchego cheese and chopped pimento or peppadew. Add arugula or other green (photo #3).
Stromboli: Ham and other Italian cold cuts and cheeses and vegetables wrapped in Italian bread dough or pizza dough.
Tuscan: Prosciutto and burrata or ricotta, with arugula and a drizzle of EVOO, on ciabatta.
MORE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR SANDWICH
Bread: Choose bread that contributes key flavor and texture, rather than a sliced loaf from the supermarket. try buttermilk biscuits, challah, ciabatta, croissants, Ezekiel or other sprouted grains bread, French toast, Hawaiian, pita, pretzel roll (photo #4), pumpernickel, toaster waffles or walnut/walnut raisin bread.
Cheese: Beyond cheddar and Swiss, there’s a cornucopia of cheeses, from blue and goat to pimento cheese and smoked cheeses. Check out your store’s cheese counter. Consider flavored cheeses: carraway, chipotle or jalapeño, horseradish cheddar, etc.
Egg: fried, poached, sliced hard-boiled or pickled.
Fruit: Add texture and flavor with apples, dried apricots-cherries-cranberries, fig, pineapple (rings or crushed), stone fruits (in season) and pickled fruits (you can make them in an hour).
Jam: fig jam, honey (look for spicy honey), sour cherry jam, marmalade, pepper jelly.
Mayonnaise: Check out flavored mayo: garlic (aïoli), chipotle, chive, horseradish, lemon, sriracha, etc. You can buy bacon-flavored mayonnaise, or dice cooked bacon and mix it in. You can purée pimento, or anything else that appeals to you, and mix it into mayo.
Meat: bacon, chicken, pork.
Mustard: Dijon, grainy, flavored, honey.
Onions: fried, pickled, raw.
Vegetables: Beyond lettuce and tomato, consider arugula, basil leaves, bell pepper slices, giardiniera, grilled vegetables, kimchi, pepperoncini, pickled vegetables, scallions/sweet onions, spinach, watercress.
Relish & Spreads: Bean spread, chow chow, chutney, hot pepper, hummus, onion relish, pesto, piccalilly, pickle relish, tomato and other vegetable relishes.
Ham it up!
|
|
[1] Ham on a cheddar biscuit (© National Pork Board).
[2] Croque Monsieur, a fried ham and cheese sandwich topped with mornay sauce (photo © Dovecote | Orlando).
[3] A sandwich with belota ham and manchego cheese (photo © Belota.com).
[4] The least you can do is use a creative bread, like a pretzel roll (photo © Hillshire Farm).
[1] A Cubano, made with ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard, and sometimes salami, on Cuban bread (photo © A.G. Kitchen | NYC).
[6] Ham and cheese on French toast (photo © Dietz & Watson).
[7] Banh-mi, a Vietnamese sandwich (photo © Good Eggs).
|
