After Easter I found a couple of hams on sale very cheep and I bought them and put them in my top freezer. These were turkey hams that were already cooked. All you needed to do was warm them and slice. I took the last one out and cooked it. There was plenty left over so I made ham salad. It is easy to do if you have a meat grinder. Soon after I bought my kitchen aid mixer 15 years ago, I insisted that I have the attachment package that included the grinder. When I was a child my mother had a hand crank grinder that she clamped to an old table in the basement and she used it to can with and grind meat. One of the things she did was make ham salad from left over ham. It is hard to mess up ham salad.
Historically, ham salad was made from left over deli or canned ham in Western Pennsylvania. Meat markets offered a deli meat that was chopped ham which was called chipped ham that was thinly sliced to order. The leftover ends was then chopped up and made into a salad the same way tuna. When I was a child, baloney was sometimes called mincemeat in Western Pennsylvania and was also made into ham salad by the deli’s. You can now find ham salad all over the country but chipped chopped ham is still a regional favorite of Northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.
There is no real recipe to measure out because it depends on how much meat you have to grind up as to how much of the mayonnaise and other things you put in it. It is like making tuna salad without the hard boiled eggs. Whatever you enjoy in your tuna salad you will like in your ham salad.
Basic Ham Salad
Basic Ham Salad
- Ground ham or finely chopped
- Chopped celery
- Chopped onion small amount
- Sweet pickle relish to taste
- Chopped finely red sweet pepper
- Mayonnaise or salad dressing
Mix all these ingredients to ground up ham to taste. Chill and serve.
You can also prepare this with cooked deli ham. Just have them cut a couple of pounds of very thick slices for you of inexpensive chopped ham. Then all you have to do is chop it up on a chopping board and mix up the other items.
Very simple. It is a nice cool summer dish that can be served on mixed greens or in a sandwich. It doesn’t take long to disappear. When you are out of ideas and low on money, you can turn a inexpensive pound of bologna into a great meal by making into ham salad.
Momoe's Cupboard 
do you think this recipe would work with canned salmon?
I cut down on bread and plan to eat my salmon salad with crackers.
The celery, the onion, the relish…
I think it will work.
I just wonder if you ever worked with canned salmon.
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I don’t see why not. Throw in a hard boiled egg or two. If you are not using salad dressing, you could dress it up with tomatoes and lettuce.
I found a special dry yeast for whole wheat flour today. Hodgest Mills makes it. It comes in a little package like Red star yeast for $.49. I am going to give it a try because I have trouble with heavy flours like whole wheat and rye to make a nice loaf. If it works out well. I will have to send some to you so you can kill it.
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One cracker has 25 calories in it. A slice of bread is under 100 calories. Is it glutan you are worried about? Or calories?
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No one cracker is 10-12 calories. So I have 8-10 crackers with my meal/snack. The problem with bread (80-100 calories) is that I would end up always having a sandwich and a half. So I would be adding upwards of 250-300 calories.
That is my problem with bread.
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OK I will look for some low cal dishes for you.
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Mr. Day, here is a quick recipe for salmon patties using the canned stuff.
Drain the salmon, remove larger spinal bones and skin. The small pin bones can stay — they are soft from the canning process and mash up into nothing while at the same time adding calcium to your diet. Some folks leave the skin in. I don’t because it’s just too gross. 🙂
Mash/flake the salmon a bit. Add one raw egg, about a tablespoon of prepared mustard, about 2 tablespoons of mayo/miracle whip, a dash of Worcestershire sauce if you have it. Mix well. Add enough crushed crackers to make the mixture stiff enough to form into patties. Usually about half a sleeve of crackers.
Fry like a hamburger in a small amount of oil or bake in the oven. You can make a sandwich out of them or just eat them like a hunk of meat. They go especially well with wild rice — or any kind of seasoned rice — and a few spears of asparagus.
This is a good meat stretcher recipe and the leftover cooked patties will keep in the fridge for a few days. Just reheat. Or, if you lived at our house, you’d get up in the middle of the night and eat them before anybody else has a chance. 😉
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Oh, yeah. I’ve sometimes added a plop or two of liquid smoke. Adds a nice outdoorsy flavor.
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Thanks Flower for the recipe. I have been thinking about making a salmon loaf.
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Your ham salad sounds really refreshing. As hot as it has been I am looking for some lighter meals…..
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Thank you. I have been cooking on the light side lately too. Please stop by again. My door is always open.
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I will!!!!
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My mom also had one of those hand cranked, attach to the table meat grinders. She still uses it today. I don’t have one, and that ham salad looks really good, and I have part of a ham in the freezer. I can’t eat bread or crackers, but I bet it would be really good on a lettuce leaf. I bet I could use my food processor.
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I would pulse it until I had it chopped the way I wanted. You could roll it up in lettuce like a spring roll. Thanks for stopping by.
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Reblogged this on Once Upon a Paradigm and commented:
Another cool summer meal idea.
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