Ham Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 0.5 cup butter
• 1 tbsp mixed mustard
• 1 tbsp salad oil
• a little red or white pepper
• a pinch salt
• 1 egg yolk
• chopped ham
• thin slices of bread
• melted butter

Method

Cream the butter at room temperature until it's pale and fluffy — about three minutes with a wooden spoon or whisk. This isn't decoration; you're incorporating air that will lighten the final spread and help it bind with the other wet ingredients. Once the butter breaks down into a light, aerated paste, add the mustard, salad oil, pepper, and salt. Work these in thoroughly until you see no streaks of mustard left in the mixture.

Now add the egg yolk. This is where emulsification does the heavy lifting. The yolk's lecithin acts as an emulsifier, forcing the fat (from butter and oil) and the water (from the yolk) to form a stable, creamy paste rather than separate into greasy pools. Stir until the colour is uniform — a pale, almost neutral beige. If the mixture looks broken or slick, you've either warmed it too much or added the yolk too quickly; start again with fresh butter.

Fold in the chopped ham gradually, stirring as you go. Add it in three additions, checking after each that the spread stays cohesive and spreadable. The ham should be finely chopped — uneven chunks will tear the bread during spreading and create punctures that leak. You want something that resembles coarse pâté, not a studded paste. Stop when you can spread the mixture onto bread without resistance but before it becomes granular from overmixing.

Spread the mixture generously and evenly onto thin bread slices — a butter knife warmed under running hot water will slide across the surface without dragging. If you choose to omit the salad oil and use melted butter instead, add it after the egg yolk while the mixture is still warm, then let it cool to room temperature before adding the ham. The choice between oil and butter is one of flavour: oil keeps the spread neutral and lets the ham speak; melted butter enriches it and softens the mustard's bite. Pick your anchor flavour and stay consistent. Cut the sandwiches on the diagonal — the classic format for sandwiches of this era — and serve within two hours so the bread doesn't stale.