In many hotels around the world, the club sandwich is a snack offered outside restaurant opening hours or at the bar, especially for late-night cravings.
Its origins lie in America and are somewhat older. In 1894, Sarah Tyson Rorer described ” Club-House-Sandwiches”, which existed in variations even then. Nowadays, you often come across the “New York Club Sandwich”, which contains three slices of bread, and that’s how we do it too.
There are countless variations of this classic dish and everyone is free to interpret it as they wish. Sometimes cheese is added, sometimes egg or even both. When eggs are used, they are often hard-boiled and sliced, fried or as a thin frittata. The only decisive factor for a good club sandwich is to create a balance of savoury ingredients, freshness and acidity.
Bread also plays a major role, of course. Again, everyone can choose their favourite type, from toast to sourdough. The only important thing is that it is freshly toasted and remains crispy, so the sandwich must always be served immediately, otherwise it tastes like those horrible, soggy triangles that are sold at railway stations and airports and should be a criminal offence.
Mayonnaise, one of the five mother sauces of French cuisine, is indispensable, and of course we make it ourselves because this always tastes better. And that gives you the first recipe within this recipe.
You need egg yolks, mustard (we use Dijon), a little salt, a little white vinegar (we use white wine vinegar) and neutral vegetable oil (we use rapeseed oil). The mayonnaise gets a special flavour if you replace a small amount of the neutral oil with the best olive oil (extra virgin).
In a round, sufficiently large bowl, salt and vinegar, mustard and egg yolk are added and beaten well with a whisk until a homogeneous mixture is formed. This takes just under a minute. Now two things are very important: firstly, you need to keep whisking constantly. Secondly, the oil must only be added in a very thin stream, very slowly. This is the only way to create the desired emulsion. If you are using olive oil, add it last.
After about 5 minutes, you will have a perfect, stable mayonnaise.
We make half of the mayonnaise into a simple cocktail sauce (second recipe within the recipe) by mixing it with a little mustard and ketchup. Horseradish or a splash of alcohol such as Madeira or cognac would also work very well here. There are few limits to your imagination, as the mother sauces are so called because you can always make other sauces from them, the so-called derivations.
As gherkins were already part of the original recipe and the dish needs acidity, we cut some of them into very small cubes and add them to the cocktail sauce. A little cayenne adds heat.
We continue with an egg spread, because slices of boiled eggs are too boring for us. This also goes very quickly, and you already have a third recipe in the recipe:
Eggs (room temperature) are boiled for exactly 9 minutes and then immediately cooled in ice-cold water. Then they are peeled, chopped into small cubes, mixed with heavy sour cream, very finely chopped spring onion and chives and seasoned with salt, pepper and cayenne.
Chicken breast fillet (or turkey) can be bought prepared and sliced. We cook our chicken breast ourselves by poaching it. We have described how to do this here.
We allow the poached chicken breast to cool and then cut it into thin slices. We do this at an angle of around 45 degrees, as in Asian cuisine, which changes the texture and creates a better mouthfeel.
We place strips of bacon next to each other, without overlapping, on baking paper and then on the rack to roast them in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius with convection for 10 – 15 minutes until crispy. We then leave them to cool on kitchen paper to remove any excess fat. If you prefer, you can of course also roast them in a pan.
Romaine lettuce is washed and cut into fine strips, especially the crunchy parts. Tomato is cut into thin slices.
Now all that remains is to toast the bread. Everyone should use their personal favourite, which can of course also be sourdough bread. We use brioche. We don’t recommend using standard toast, as it is too thin and doesn’t have enough flavour. We toast the bread in a pan in melted butter on both sides over a low heat.
We spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on two slices of bread and our cocktail sauce on the third.
A bed of lettuce strips is placed on top of the cocktail sauce, followed by slices of chicken fillet.
One of the mayonnaise-covered slices is placed on top of the chicken, with the mayonnaise facing downwards. Then follow egg spread, crispy bacon and tomatoes.
The last slice of bread is placed on top, again with the mayonnaise facing downwards. Gently – very gently – everything is pressed together, then we stick two skewers into the bread, each of which should hold a triangle together. With a serrated knife, we then divide the sandwich diagonally.
We serve with potato crisps.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients:
(It is not possible to give exact quantities for a specific number of sandwiches for this recipe, as they are put together according to personal preference)
For the mayonnaise:
1 egg yolk
½ tbsp mustard (we use Dijon)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar (we use white wine vinegar)
125 ml neutral vegetable oil (we use rapeseed oil)
25 ml best olive oil (extra virgin)
For the cocktail sauce:
Mayonnaise (see above)
Mustard, ketchup and/or horseradish to taste
Cayenne or piment d’Espelette
Gherkins, cut into small pieces
For the egg spread:
120 g heavy sour cream
3 medium eggs
1 spring onion
Salt and pepper
Cayenne or piment d’Espelette
Chives
Also:
Chicken breast fillet, cooked and finely sliced
Bacon strips
Romaine lettuce
Tomatoes
Bread of your choice (we use brioche)
Butter for toasting
Optional: potato crisps
