Ploughmans Toasties

A ploughmans lunch is basically cheese, ham and pickle, but there are loads of other optional extras. Messing with a classic seems like a pretty dangerous prospect, but many of these combinations are still a fairly common combination, if google is to be believed. It would struggle to distinguish itself from the straight ham and cheese, which does live on the menu at all times, but we are often asked for variations which could be regarded as a ploughmans toastie. I am a little surprised this combination has not been given a name by the Americans yet; they do love naming sandwiches. Reubens, Cubans, Patty Melts – if it’s in bread, they have a name for it. Perhaps it does and I just haven’t found it yet.

We had family staying, including several next-gen toastie tasters (our nieces), so we had a full spread of ploughmans toasties. I’ve covered the top scorers. Also on the menu were plain cheese, cheese and ham, the cheese, ham and pickle and the cheese, ham and pickled onion.

The Ploughmans Toastie – The ‘Murican Melt

• Cheddar
• A hard boiled egg
• Sliced ham

The Ploughmans Toastie – The Independance Melt

• Cheddar
• A hard boiled Egg
• Sliced ham
• Branston pickle

Taste.

Wow, ‘Murica, you are onto something good here. While cheese does go with everything, I’ve never really thought to put it with egg. But it works. In fact, it might have been better than a straight cheese and ham. I was not alone in thinking this, as my sister-in-law was equally impressed. Barny and my older brother would only go so far as to concede it was “different”, not necessarily better. 8/10

The Independence Melt was good in exactly the same way, but the pickle did not really add a huge amount. It’s great with the cheese, but got a little confused with the egg and didn’t really add much. Still, the magic of the cheese, ham and egg toastie was visible, and made me wonder what else you could sneak in to make it even better. 7/10

Appeal

Having tasted it, I’d buy it. If I’d never tried that combination then I’d need to see some serious provenance before parting with cash. Not a problem for us, as the cheese and ham is our best-sourced toastie. In summary: Yes.  7/10

Suitability as a signature.

The ‘Murican Ploughmans toastie might be too simple, but as a starting point it bodes well. I want to try it with pickled onions. I want to try it with different cheese and Grüne Soße and all kinds of things. I want more. 8/10

Difficulty Rating

I’m fairly sure everyone can boil an egg, but it is one extra stage before you eat. It would also mean a whole lot of boiling and peeling eggs if we ever bring this one to the public. Rated so-so.

A Toastie Smorgasbord.

This is the first toastie of the month that has made me hopeful that we will find a signature. It is also the first one to involve glitter, pipe cleaners and coloured feathers, due to the presence of nieces. We will need to have more experimentation, but a ploughmans toastie  may be hitting a menu near you soon.