As with your other reader, we made this growing up with leftover roast and NEVER with ketchup. As an adult I like to add a little crunch to it with chopped cucumber or jicama but it is great as is!

I used deli roast beef and gherkins that I chopped by hand. (I skipped the onion.) Ate it as a spread with crackers and also rolled some in an iceberg lettuce leaf. A good quick lunch.

We used to make a sandwich spread like this when I was a kid, every time we made a roast. It's better without ketchup!! We used the old meat grinders you attach to the counter, and tasted until it was right. Quartered onions, whole baby dills and just let it grind up with the meat. Then mixed the mayo, salt and pepper. A few times in later years we ventured out and added chopped peperoncinis. Different, but still no comparison to the original. We ate it on white bread, sometimes with a slice of cheese. Sometimes we spread mayo on the bread because it was easier to add that way and we used less mayo in the spread itself since some liked their sandwiches a bit drier, or healthier.

I used canned corned beef to substitute the roast beef (didn't add salt, of course!) and my husband insisted on using Worcestershire sauce, so I didn't put in the pickle juice. My husband loves beef but most of my beef dishes are too hot for lunch. This spread was a marvelously cool beefy meal on a hot summer day, so both my husband and I were very happy with it!