Growing up, ham was a regular meat option at every meal after the holidays. Seemed like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and even sometimes Independence Day involved a huge Petit Jean ham that, try as we did, always had leftovers. Pork was what’s for breakfast, often lunch, and sometimes dinners afterward for days. And we never got tired of it. Ever.
Some of the most memorable meals happened on the weekends when Granny would make a batch of biscuits. We’d slap a slab of that ham between biscuits hot from the oven then slather that sucker in apple butter — the often forgotten but always perfect condiment for almost anything. The resulting sandwich was heaven in your hand. It was sweet. It was salty. It was flaky. it was the taste of a lazy Saturday morning in Arkansas.
I’d almost forgotten about this incredible combo until, as I skimmed through the menu at Big Cuppa in Morrilton, I saw the ham/apple butter/croissant.
It starts with golden croissant, a near-perfect substitute for Granny’s biscuits that I think Granny herself would approve of. Add some Swiss cheese and ham, but not just any ham, Petit Jean ham, and then a solid spread of that best of spreads — apple butter.
Put it all together and you’ve got the taste of a lazy Saturday morning in Arkansas, the 2018 interpretation.
Can you be be an Arkansan and not like ham?
