Supreme Ham Sandwiches

If you love to grill out and want a new twist on an old favorite, this is a fun recipe from "Start Your Ovens: Cooking the Way it Ought'a Be," the official cookbook of the Bristol Motor Speedway.

The book suggests packing these sandwiches in a cooler and warming them over hot coals on race day. What a fun way to grill a meal at the track or in the backyard! I love the addition of poppyseeds to the sauce. My mom would toss poppyseeds in with buttered noodles -- yum!

Supreme Ham Sandwiches

Mustard poppy seed sauce
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 ½ teaspoons poppy seeds
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

For the sauce: Combine butter, onion, prepared mustard, poppy seeds and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and mix well.

Sandwiches

8 large hamburger buns, split
12 ounces shaved or sliced cooked ham
8 slices Swiss cheese

For the sandwiches: Spread the sauce on the cut sides of the buns. Layer the bun bottoms with the ham and cheese. Top with the bun tops. Wrap each sandwich individually in foil. Heat at 400 degrees foe 10 minutes. Serve hot.

May prepare the sandwiches several hours in advance and store in the refrigerator. Heat just before serving. Yield: 8 sandwiches.

Start Your Ovens: Bristol Barbecue

The combination of vinegar, pepper sauce, garlic and onion will intoxicate you. This recipe is ridiculously easy and will feed a crowd – you will easily get a dozen sandwiches from this recipe. It’s no wonder this is a favorite from “Start Your Ovens: Cooking the Way it Ought’a Be” the official cookbook of Bristol Motor Speedway. The track is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2011.

If you are a barbecue fan, mix up this recipe and let the slow cooker do the work.

Bristol Slow-Cooker Barbecue

2 small pork tenderloins, trimmed
¾ cup white vinegar
½ cup ketchup
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon minced onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika

Cut the pork into 2=3 inch pieces, and then place in the slow cooker. Combine all the barbecue ingredients, mixing well; then pour over pork.

Mix all ingredients well, cover and cook on high for 3 hours.

Reduce the heat to low and cook for 3-4 hours longer. Shred the meat.

To serve, mound the barbecue onto soft sandwich rolls using a slotted spoon. Top with coleslaw if desired. Also good as an entrée served with potatoes, rice or baked beans. Serves 10-12.

Yes, this sandwich is a sloppy mess, especially if you add coleslaw (which I love!) Just use a paper plate and toss it when you are done.

Carolina-style pork with a twist

Pulled pork barbecue, with a heaping scoop of crunchy coleslaw, is a lifelong favorite. I can eat it on a soft, hamburger-style bun, or skip the bread altogether. But I definitely want some hot sauce, coleslaw and a splash of vinegar. I am a Carolina style fan and I shun saucy or sweet barbecue. I want vinegar and red pepper, and little else.

When I was a child, my family frequently visited Pardner’s Barbecue in Rocky Mount, N.C. It was a good stopover for dinner when we were traveling from Norfolk, Va., to Raleigh, N.C. to visit my maternal grandparents and extended family members. The restaurant featured Carolina-style pork barbecue, crisp coleslaw, corn sticks and Brunswick stew. My favorites were the pork and Brunswick stew, a thick blend of tomatoes, lima beans, corn and chicken. I loved the corn sticks, too. They were a special treat (versus cornbread) and required a special pan to bake.

Who knows how many times we ate dinner at that restaurant, but it was an unspoken promise that we were stopping there on our trips to Raleigh.

I made a hybrid sauce for a pork picnic that I recently fixed in the slow cooker. I used saucier ingredients to keep the meat moist, while trying to stay true to the Carolina style. It contained ketchup and sugar, along with hot sauce, vinegar and red pepper. The pork was moist and tender after about 8 hours of cooking in this glaze; it easily shredded with two forks and paired perfectly with coleslaw.

In a medium bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients: ketchup, vinegar, sugar, hot sauce, garlic, black pepper and red pepper.

Pour the mixture over the pork, which has been put in a 6-quart slow cooker.

Cook on low for 8 hours. This is a better method than cooking on high for four hours. The roast needs to cook slow and low. After 8 hours, remove the pork from the crock – use two spatulas because the meat will be falling apart tender.

Use two forks and shred the meat into small pieces. Try to stay focused; the savory smell is keenly distracting!

Pile the pork high on soft hamburger style buns. If you are making one for me, you must add coleslaw and extra hot sauce. Dig in!

My coleslaw was falling out all over the plate, just the way I like it!

Here’s the recipe:

Savory pulled pork

4 pound pork picnic
½ cup ketchup
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon hot sauce (Frank’s Red Hot)
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

Spray a 6-quart slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray; place the pork inside. Combine all the sauce ingredients and pour over the pork to cover completely. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove the pork from the slow cooker. Use two spatulas because the meat will be so tender it is falling apart. Shred the meat with two forks. Pile high on soft buns with a dollop of cole slaw and extra hot sauce and/or vinegar. This feeds a crowd; certainly enough for 10 sandwiches.

Holbert's special hotdogs

Ronnie Holbert of Morristown, TN offered this fun recipe that he and his wife enjoy. It’s a different twist on the Monte Cristo sandwich -- a fried ham and cheese sandwich that typically is made with Swiss cheese. The recipe varies regionally and sometimes is made from French toast, with jam or jelly spread inside. Here is Holbert’s interpretation, with beef hotdogs.

Holbert’s “Monty Cristo” Hotdog

2 beef wieners
1 1/2 hotdog buns
3-4 slices Swiss cheese
Strawberry jelly

Slice the wieners lengthwise, but not in two. Place the wieners, cut side down, on a non-stick griddle and cook to desired doneness. Flip the wieners so the cut side is facing up. Place Swiss cheese slices on the wieners. Open hotdog buns and place face down on griddle; cook until toasted. Spread the grilled side of the buns with strawberry jam. Once the cheese has melted on the wieners, place them on top of the strawberry jelly-covered hotdog buns. This makes 1 serving, to be eaten with a fork.

Ronnie recommends Oscar Meyer Bun Length beef wieners or Hebrew National brand beef wieners. He also recently tried a local Polish sausage and aims to use it in this recipe in the future.

Ronnie also says he prefers strawberry jelly over jam or preserves. (The difference? Jelly is smoother since it is made from juice. Jams and preserves are made from crushed fruit and contain more fruit pieces.)
And what of the ½ bun in this recipe? He uses 1 ½ buns for one serving, but his wife loves this recipe, too. Find a friend to try this dish, use three buns, and avoid wasting any bread.