And Now For Something Completely Different…

I can not remember how we got on the subject, but a few years back Mr. Food It Yourself and I realized that if you make a Monte Cristo sandwich with SPAM instead of ham you could call it a Monte Python. This weekend, we finally tried them.

In case you have not heard of a Monte Cristo sandwich, it is basically a toasted ham and cheese on French toast. Check out the Wikipedia page for a full run down of this cafe classic. In case you have not heard of Monty Python, I am not sure I can explain them. A bunch of their stuff is on Netflix. Have a binge-watch and get back to me.

I picked up a loaf of sliced Vienna bread, a can of SPAM, and extra eggs from the grocery store. We have plenty of home-made raspberry jam. Only the cheese required some careful thought. Mr. Food It Yourself and I had a long discussion about what type of cheese would be best for this application. Swiss is the traditional Monte Cristo choice, but Mr. Food It Yourself does not care for it, and it is far from my favorite. We considered red Leicester, Tilsit, Caerphilly, Bel Paese, red Windsor, Stilton, Gruyere, Emmental, Norwegian Jarlsberger, Liptauer, Lancashire, white Stilton, Danish blue, double Gloucester, Cheshire, Dorset blue Vinney, brie, roquefort, Pont-l’Eveque, Port Salut, Savoyard, Saint-Paulin, Carre-de-L’Est, Boursin, Bresse bleu, Perle de Champagne, Camembert,Gouda, Edam, Caithness, smoked Austrian, Japanese sage Darby, Wensleydale,Greek feta,gorgonzola, Parmesan, mozzarella, Pippo creme, Danish fimboe, Czech sheep’s milk, Venezuelan beaver cheese, cheddar, ‘Illchester, and Limburger. We decided that good old deli sliced American would be just fine. Mr. Food It Yourself requested the yellow version.

Here is what we did.

Mr. Food It Yourself sliced the SPAM thinly. I bought the “LITE” version, mostly for the reduced sodium content.
We fried the SPAM crisp in a skillet. Evidently SPAM can be eaten cold, but neither of us was interested in the possibility of cold SPAM in the middle of a sandwich.
While Mr. Food It Yourself fried the rest of the meat, I started construction. I spread some spicy brown mustard on each slice of bread, topped them with cheese, and added two slices of SPAM to each. After a dip in an egg/milk mixture, we grilled them up using a sandwich press. Yes, the pictures are out of order. You get the point though, I’m sure.
Here are some of the finished sandwiches, along side some raspberry jam.

The result was surprisingly good, considering I don’t like SPAM. The jam really makes the sandwich. That little bit of sweetness perfectly off-sets the saltiness of the meat and cheese. Mr. Food It Yourself suggested soaking the bread with more of the egg mixture, and I agree that would improve the overall texture of the sandwich. We are most certainly going to make this again.

An interesting point- I was convinced that someone else must have invented this sandwich before we thought of it. Monty Python has been popular (among some of us) for decades. Both Mr. Food It Yourself and I scoured the internet and could not find another Monty Python sandwich like the one we made. We did find this post on the blog Uncle Jerry’s Kitchen for a “Full Monty Python” sandwich. A different variation on the same fandom theme.

So, what is the most pun- based, or fandom inspired food you have tried? Share in the Comments!

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Category : Cook it yourself
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