Bavarian Ham Sandwich
I’ve partnered with Hormel and Collective Bias to create this Bavarian Ham Sandwich.
Mix up with your Thanksgiving leftovers with this tasty sammich!
#ForTheLoveOfHam #CollectiveBias
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Oh, hey there Cyber Monday shoppers! Were you online at 3am to score some epic deals this morning? We were up at 3am. But we weren’t shopping online. We happen to have a newborn who likes to spend time with us in the middle of the night. He’s just such a caring little guy. I mean he misses his parents so much that he just likes to tell us hello at 3am. And since he’s awake, he usually decides he wants a little snack, too. It’s ok, little guy, I do the same thing. Nothing like a sandwich in the middle of the night, right?
I hope everyone here in the States had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend! I know we did. We hung out with family and ate all of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes. (Yes, mac and cheese is a Thanksgiving staple around our house…and it’s one of the most popular side dishes. Go figure.) One of the best parts about Thanksgiving is all of the leftovers. You know exactly what I mean here! We have friends who order a Thanksgiving spread just for leftovers every year. That’s legit leftovers right there!
As much as I love my leftovers (and not cooking for a week), I still have to mix it up a bit. You can’t eat Thanksgiving meal leftovers for every.single.meal…or can you? Hmmm… I love taking leftover Thanksgiving dishes and turning them into delicious treats…especially delicious sandwiches. Or sammiches as I like to say. This year, the leftover creation was this Bavarian Ham Sandwich, and it was a huge hit around our house. This sandwich is essentially just the older, more sophisticated cousin of the classic ham + swiss sammich.
But this isn’t just any Bavarian Ham Sandwich. I normally reserve the quick-pickled cucumbers and red onions for Cuban sandwiches, but my wife had the genius idea of adding them to this sandwich, too. And you know what? It worked! The cucumbers (i.e. cukes) and red onions provide a bit of a crunch to the sandwich. And the sweetness combined with the saltiness of the pretzel buns creates one heck of an awesome leftover snack! All I need now is a football game and a couch for napping.
The real star of this sandwich is of course the ham. I grabbed a Hormel Cure 81 bone-in ham on a recent Walmart run, and this ham didn’t disappoint! We have a house full of family thanks to the new baby, and everyone was circling the kitchen as I was cooking this ham. I got the Cherrywood Smoked version, and the house was filled with mouth-watering aromas as it cooked in the oven. Even the dogs were circling the kitchen island like sharks. Fortunately, we had plenty of leftover ham for these sandwiches, so we are all set for a week of football and leftovers on the couch. And maybe a couple more visits with our son at 3am.
Black Friday or Cyber Monday?
What is your favorite way to use Thanksgiving leftovers?
Bavarian Ham Sandwich
Ingredients
For the Pickled Cucumbers and Onions
- ½ pound pickling cucumbers cut into ¼” slices
- 1½ tsp salt
- ½ red onion thinly sliced
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup white vinegar
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
For the Sandwich
- 8-12 slices Hormel Cure 81 ham prepared according to package instructions
- 8 slices Swiss cheese
- 4 Tbsp spicy brown mustard
- 4 pretzel buns homemade or store-bought
Instructions
For the Pickled Cucumbers and Onions
- Place cucumbers in a colander over the sink or another bowl. Add salt, toss and let drain for 20 minutes. Rinse cucumbers and place in a medium heatproof bowl. Place sliced onions in a separate heatproof bowl. (Note: These can be placed in the same bowl, but the onion will turn the pickles pinkish in color. They’ll taste the same either way, though!)
- Meanwhile, using a medium saucepan, add both vinegars, water, brown sugar, garlic, mustard seeds, dried dill and red pepper flakes. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.
- Divide the hot liquid into the two bowls, making sure the liquid completely covers the cucumbers and onions. (If necessary, add more water until the cucumbers and onions are covered.) Stir and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
For the Sandwich
- Slice each pretzel bun in half.
- Spread 1 Tbsp of spicy brown mustard on top half of each bun.
- Layer bottom bun with Swiss cheese, ham and another slice of Swiss cheese. (Optional: toast bottom bun just until cheese melts.) Top with pickled cucumbers and onions. Place top bun on each sandwich and serve.
I have so much leftover ham, it’s crazy . . so this ham sandwich is perfect!!!! I remember those nights waking up at 3am, hang in there. . it gets easier! and that’s right! I almost forgot today was cyber Monday!!!!! HA! 😛
Isn’t that the best part about Thanksgiving, Alice…the leftovers? 🙂 And thank you for the encouraging words. I think my wife and I are both running on fumes right now…fumes and delicious ham sandwiches!!
This year I opted out of Black Friday – and I wasn’t up at 3 am to check out Cyber Monday deals (though that’s kinda what I’m doing now) wish I had this sandwich to keep my tastebuds happy! I know Lil Shashi would love to have made this sandwich too – but she finished all the leftovers by eating them at EVERY meal since Thursday and doesn’t have any ham left anymore! Her excuse was working 12 and 10 hour shifts made her loose track of what day/time it was! Mrs. Spiced strikes again – love her idea to add quick-pickled cucumbers and red onions to this sandwich!
Lil Shashi! She polished off all of the Thanksgiving leftovers? Hmmm…guess you’ll just need to go get some more ham, right? 🙂 But then again, 10-12 hour shifts definitely deserves leftovers. That’s brutal! I hope you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving, though…sounds like the food was definitely up to par!
We didn’t have ham this year, but seeing this delicious sandwich makes me wish we had. I kind of want to run out and get one now! Those sleepless nights with a new baby seem to last forever, but let me tell you that time flies right by!
Hey, who cares that Thanksgiving is over? You can still run out and grab a ham just to make delicious ham sammiches! 🙂 Yeah, I know we need to appreciate these times with the little one in the house, but man we’re seriously in need of some sleep, too. We’re running on fumes and ham sandwiches right now!
I didn’t make any ham this year, but I am sure I’m going to make some just to have this wonderful leftover sandwiches! so yummy!
Tell me about, Gaila! I’m seriously tempted to go get another ham just so we can have more ham sandwiches. 🙂 Thank you!
Hi David! I can pickles and also pickled red onions so I’m half way there! Our friend brought over a 16 pound ham a few days before T-day and two days later he gave us an 8 pound prime rib – all that as well as the 8 pound turkey breast I already had! I’m leftover central! 🙂
You are indded half-way there, Dorothy! And it sounds like you’ve got some leftover ham, too. You just need some pretzel buns, and you’ll be in business! (And it sounds like you’ve got one heck of an awesome friend, too!) 🙂
I guess Mac & Cheese is a big thing on the East Coast because I have never seen it out here for Thanksgiving. I saw something the other day on Thanksgiving side dishes nationally and it said Salads were the thing for West Coast. Not in my family!
We usually just do the turkey deal and ham is always around Easter. The pretzel buns here are perfect to this meaty sammie and I love the picked onion addition… that’s one smart Mrs. Spiced!
I don’t know if mac & cheese is an East Coast thing, or just a David thing. I agree it’s an odd addition to the Thanksgiving lineup, but we’ve had it ever since I was a kid…so I can’t imagine Thanksgiving without it now! Salads? For Thanksgiving? No thanks! Salads are fine any other day of the year, but not on Thanksgiving! Thanks, Kevin…hope you guys had a great holiday! 🙂
There’s a recipe in Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook” for turkey hash that is the best use of Thanksgiving leftiovers I’ve ever tried. What’s so Cyber about Monday? Isn’t every day Cyber Day? The most important day following Thanksgiving, as far as I’m concerned, is the day that you eat the last remaining piece of pumpkin pie. It’s a national day of mourning in our house. We keep our Cool Whip at half mast for 48 hours afterward.
Hah. That’s a really good point, Jeff. Pretty much every day is cyber-day now. I remember way back when I first heard about Amazon. And I remember thinking, “man, that will never work.” Guess I was a little off on my prediction there! And the end of the pie is most definitely a day of mourning. We do pecan pie here, and we savored every last crumb on our plates the other day. Hmmm…maybe we can make another one for Christmas! Hope you had a great holiday, my friend!
What a great way to use up leftover ham…I think if I tell my kids that we’re having leftovers one more night, they may revolt. This would be a DELICIOUS way to get past that. Looks so yummy. #client
Haha! No revolting in this house…unless we’re all out of ham. Then it might be a straight mutiny. 🙂 Thanks so much, Kristi!
How considerate of baby spice stopping you from the Cyber Monday sales! Oh well, his loss. No fancy toys for Christmas 😉
I love the homemade pickles in this- Paired with ham, this is my kinda sandwich!
Haha! No burp cloths or diapers for you this year, Robbie! (Oh wait, we already have a closet full of both…)