Boxing Day Ham Sandwiches

Boxing Day Ham Sandwiches

  • Serves: 4

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes

  • Cooking Time:

Ingredients

  • 8 slices good bread, or 4 crusty rolls
  • 400 g leftover Christmas ham, thickly sliced
  • 80 g Lush Lychees Lychee Chutney
  • 120 g aged cheddar or gruyère, sliced
  • Butter, softened
  • 2 tablespoons whole-egg mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • A handful of rocket or butter lettuce

The best sandwich of the year. Cold ham, sharp cheese, and a proper spoonful of chutney.

The day after Christmas has a very specific job to do, and this is it. The chutney is doing the work here, cold ham is salty and rich, and it needs sweetness and acid opposite it rather than more mayonnaise.

Method

  1. Stir the mayonnaise and mustard together.

  2. Butter every slice of bread right to the edges. Butter is not optional — it waterproofs the bread against the chutney.

  3. Spread mustard mayo on one slice and chutney on the other, so the two meet in the middle rather than fighting on the same side.

  4. Layer the ham in loose folds rather than flat sheets. Folded ham holds the fillings and eats better.

  5. Add the cheese, then the leaves last so they stay dry and crisp.

  6. Press gently, cut on the diagonal, and eat standing up in the kitchen like everyone else.

Tips

  • For a hot version, build it on sourdough and press it in a sandwich press until the cheese runs.

  • Slice the ham thick. Shaved ham disappears into the bread.

  • Same combination works as a toastie, on a bagel, or piled onto a jacket potato.

Boxing Day Ham Sandwiches