Picked up at Paddington on my way to the South West for work, the Marks & Spencer Ham Hock and Golden Beetroot Piccalilli sandwich from their extensive range certainly wins the prize for the most over-packaged sandwich. A huge cardboard box and a massive wodge of plastic to separate the two halves. Whilst somewhat of a deviation from turkey, it’s hard to deny that a nice hunk of ham isn’t a Christmas staple, although possibly not quite in this form. I have to say my dear old gran would find it rather hilarious that “ham hock” is in any way posh, it being pretty much the cheapest cut of gammon, only really good for broth making (mind you, she made a cracking broth!), certainly not suitable for a Christmas table or any sort of sandwich making.
Unlike the promotional pic, my sandwich was somewhat lacking in any greenery, with just a couple of stray fronds of spiky lettuce of some kind. There were decent sized chunks of ham hock though, although it was a bit flavourless. The Piccalilli is quite zingy, but again, why it’s made from golden beetroot somewhat mystifies me.
The bread was fine, decent bloomer, if a bit crispy at the cut edges, but then, if you pick up a sandwich at half five, you take what you get.
I have to say it went rather well with the Ilkley Oatmeal Stout I picked up at the same time.
The sandwich was put in the shade somewhat, by the classic turkey and stuffing combo served up to me in the college canteen today though. Really good soft white bread, good solid chunks of well-seasoned turkey, clearly left over from the in-house, student-staffed restaurant’s last service (and all good turkey sandwiches are made from leftovers), stuffing mixed nicely with enough mayo to lubricate it properly and at £4.20 with bag of crisps and bottle of pop, you can’t really complain.