As you might have guessed from the spirit of this site, it’s not always about being “traditional”, but mostly feeding ones-self in the best and cheapest way there is.
So imagine this; you just got off a plane, returning from god knows where, spending the whole week in a shady hotel and working all day so all you need is to feel a bit fancy and human again, but you don’t wanna spend an arm and a leg for a steak. Also, you need to get some proper sleep and motivate yourself to start over the next day.
You go to the nearby supermarket and grab a baguette (because of course, you return in an ungodly hour), a bit of butter and some ham – the juiciest the better.
Then you go home and cut the baguette in half, add a French load of butter to it, and stuff it with ham. Then you hope that the open bottle of wine in the fridge has not gotten worse.
Now sleep.
Your final result should be a juicy sandwich – so when in doubt go for the French way, add more butter.
ingredients
- The original French jambon-Beurre sandwich that you can find in the streets of Paris
- A more normal way to handle it
The original French jambon-Beurre sandwich that you can find in the streets of Paris
- Find a ficelle baguette (these are the thin ones – grab them from the bakeries. German bakeries for example usually make the thick ones. Aim to find some sort of French place – if you are in Europe, there are plenty around)
- Some room temperature butter. Aim to get the simplest and most rustic butter that you can find. If you are in Europe, as I am, and especially Germany where butter is an institution, it’s not that hard
- Some very nice, good looking ham. Aim for a ham that is especially moist. Again, not that hard to find.
- Slice the baguette, put them together and eat.
A more normal way to handle it
- The bread challenge is to find something that is not very “rustic” and very crunchy on the outside. That’s why the baguette is the best solution. You can get also some sort of panini bread. Aim for white bread as it tends to get better results. If you think that the bread that you have chosen is not up to par, give it a quick toast – it always makes things easier. But obviously, it was not easy for me.
- Just grab some normal butter – none of that Can’t believe it’s not butter BS or “light” butter – how the hell can butter, which is technically a form of fat, be “light”
- You do not need to go overboard with the ham. The reason why ham exists is that it is very very easy to find and cheap. Aim for something in the middle. As always = it needs to be very thin.
- If you feel that you need to add a bit of acidity – the French usually add some pickles (those small French pickled cucumber). A bit of tartness – just add some rucola. If you feel a bit cheesy – add some cheese. A little note though: this is your sandwich and you can do as you please – BUT the more you add stuff or change stuff, the less jambon beurre baguette it is.
