Clubbing together

By Jeremy – January 6th, 2006

The traditional Christmas dinner, at least where I’m from, involves copious amounts of turkey and/or ham. You’ll find plenty of recipes and help online for cooking the Christmas turkey. But what about afterwards?

Inevitably there are leftovers - lots of leftovers. It’s become a Christmas cliché to moan about the weeks of turkey sandwiches that follow the feasting. Well, turn that frown upside-down. When life gives you leftover turkey and ham, make a club sandwich.

Club sandwich There are many different definitions of exactly what constitutes a club sandwich but they all agree on one thing: it should be made with three slices of bread. White bread works best and, in my opinion, should always be toasted — even if it’s just lightly — to give firmness and texture.

The standard club (or clubhouse) sandwich is made with turkey and bacon. For the festive leftover version, the bacon gets swapped out with ham. Other staple ingredients are mayonnaise (plenty of it), lettuce and tomato. Finding fresh tomatoes in December or January isn’t going to be easy so you’re either going to have to settle for cardboard-like out of season tomatoes or forego them altogether.

You could add all sorts of other ingredients like cheese and mustard but my advice is to keep it simple. You really want to taste how the crisp bread and generously apportioned mayonnaise brings your leftovers to life, so don’t go smothering that taste.

Comments

Just an aside, but I read somewhere (probably in one of the cookery books that my fiancee got for Christmas) that tomatoes don’t taste of anything if used direct from the fridge. To remedy this take them out of the fridge at least an hour before you use them and they will be much more tasty.

# Posted by Stuart on

As for mayonnaise, i’m not sure if you can get it here in the UK but back in Germany and Switzerland I used to get "Tommy’s" all the time…a wonderful, rich, "eggy" flavour and creamy consistency. I’m really not a friend of the weird consistency and acrid taste of Hellman’s, but that might just be me…

hrm…. so yummy..

# Posted by elsakawai on

Regarding tomatoes: I fundamentally never put them in the fridge because they seem to go mealy when they’re chilled. I just keep them on my windowsill where they continue to ripen up before I use them. Of course, in the winter, our whole kitchen is about the same temperature as a refrigerator…

Patrick, is Tommy’s the same as Thomy? If so, that’s a very tasty mayo, particularly on French fries/chips/frites. But I admit to being partial to Hellman’s as well - probably because it’s the mayo from my childhood!

# Posted by Jessica on

yup…i just spelt it wrong :)

Sorry. Comments are closed.