Girl Dinner: Jambon Buerre

 

One night, during one of my usual bouts of insomnia, I watched a short documentary of French butter. It was as thrilling as you would image a French butter documentary to be, but it did pique my curiosity of whether or not French butter is superior to other countries' butters. So we went to the most expensive grocery store in our area (Whole Foods) and found some beurre d'Isigny to try. It wasn't the Bordier featured in the documentary, but French butter beggars can't be French butter choosers.

It was certainly creamy and rich and velvety-easy to spread when softened but, honestly, there are many butters out there that are just as good, and a good butter is essential for this simple af sammich.

Good butter*, softened 

Good ham, thinly sliced

Good baguette

Split the baguette. Spread a thick layer of butter on both halves. Arrange the ham. Eat and pretend you're picnicking on a lovely Alpine meadow. Comme c'est pittoresque!

We added slices of Havarti and some tart cornichons on the side to round out the meal a bit but, if you start with good quality butter and ham, there's no need for additional ingredients.

*Salted or not is your preference. The beurre d'Isigny was peppered with crunchy salt crystals and would've likely been too salty if we used it exclusively, so we cut it with unsalted Presidente.