Q: My husband and I have about 20 pounds of smoked ham and are looking for suggestions on how to deal with it. We expect to do a fair bit of slicing for sandwiches, and could freeze some (it is quartered), but since it is local and juicy, we'd prefer to eat as much of it "fresh" as we can.
Any guidance on favorite dishes using ham? Thanks very much!
Sent by Anna
Editor: Anna, your question reminded us of the dish cooked in this week's Kitchen Tour. Patricia layered potatoes and ham to make a ham and potato gratin. Yum! We like gratins like these a lot, especially since they are as good for breakfast and lunch as for dinner. Here's one recipe you could try:
• Ham, Artichoke, and Potato Gratin at Epicurious
That's just one suggestion, though! Readers, what would you suggest for Anna's ham?
Related: Recipe: "Ham and Cheese" Breakfast Casserole
(Image: Jill Slater)

Comments (24)
My neighbor makes the most amazing, simple frittata.... Here's her recipe:
3/4 cup orzo
6 eggs
10 oz diced ham (or any other meat you'd like)
1/3 cup ricotta (I use part-skim)
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup yukon gold potato, medium dice
1 garlic clove, minced
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 cup baby spinach
1/4 cup Italian parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Pre-heat oven to 375. Undercook orzo in boiling water, it'll finish cooking through in the oven. Saute diced potatoes until slightly softened, set aside. Add onions to the pan until translucent and add garlic for about a minute. Add baby spinach until wilted and let the veggies cool down. Whisk eggs in a large bowl, add all of the ingredients together. Transfer into 1 1/2-quart baking dish and bake for 25 minutes. Then turn on broiler until the top slightly browns. Let cool and then enjoy!
That recipe by mangabanga [above] looks good. Ham is kind of difficult to deal with because it is so.... hammy... hard to bend it into other cuisines. Someone gave me one for the holidays and after about 2 weeks, I never wanted to see another ham for....
Nonetheless, I froze some and thawed it out about 60 days later and I was pleased how well it had behaved.
My advice to you would be to go ahead and freeze much of it before you get burned out on ham.
I would do a week of hot sandwiches--I loooove hot sandwiches. Croque-monsieur:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Croque-Monsieur-105077
or a Cubano:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/cuban-sandwich-recipe/index.html
Frittata is a great idea, mangabanga.
I'm in a crazy NOLA kick now, but you can use some for Jambalaya! Smoked Ham is the best.
Generic (but tasty) recipe here:
http://www.chefpaul.com/site.php?pageID=300&cat=19&view=228
Homemade mac & cheese using smoked Gouda. Mmmmmmm!
Pea soup is an obvious one, but you can also combine it with any other bean. For example, cube it up and throw it in some stewed lentils.
Cube and use in omelets.
Collard greens! Use it instead of a ham hock or smoked turkey leg.
I know you already had plans to slice some of the ham, but these little sweet potato biscuit and ham sandwiches are really tasty:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sweet-Potato-Biscuits-with-Ham-Mustard-and-Honey-356312
Other than these, when I think ham, I think quiche. You could add ham to almost any quiche, but I'm partial to this crustless version from Gourmet:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Crustless-Quiche-241749
Yellow rice with pigeon peas and ham is one of my favorites. There's a recipe on the About.com site....
http://latinfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/ricegandules.htm
Here it is. And trust me - the more ham, the merrier. :)
I just recently bought a whole ham (I live alone) and cubed most of it. Then I froze an ounce of ham, an ounce of cheese and an ounce of cooked mushrooms in little packets so that I have "semi-instant" breakfasts in the morning. I heat up a small pan and a little oil, whip two eggs with a little milk and a little salt, pour it in and add the packet. Drop a lid on it and five minutes later breakfast is ready!
I agree with phoxx, though, it is awfully hard to blend ham into other cuisines.
I'm a huge fan of ham in soups. My favorites are cheesy potato & ham and split pea. In fact, I'm craving them right now!
Hawaiian pizza!
Also: lentil stews, pea soup, sandwiches, omelets, macaroni and cheese (add it), Cobb salad/other salads, soups, quiche, frittata, egg and ham on an English muffin (freeze it for when you want one), sliced and served alongside potatoes a vegetable or vegetables, in potato salad, etc.
HAM AND CHEESE SCONES! Delicious!
I love soup too with ham. Specially if there are peas in it.
Real simple grilled sandwich : honey-dijon mustard, ham, cheese of choice, slice of pineaple.
This time of year, we'll mix cubed ham and fresh asparagus in a light white/cream sauce on some of our favorite pasta.
My grandma and mom make "ham noodles" for my sister, who threatens other members of our family if we even look at her ham noodles. It is basically chicken and dumplings, but instead of dumplings, they use homemade hand-rolled, hand-cut egg noodles, about 3/4'' inch wide and 1/8'' thick, and instead of chicken, shredded or cut leftover ham. The noodles thicken the soup until it's more saucy than soup. Grandma always uses a hambone to make the stock, but Mom will make it with just cut-up leftover ham.
I haven't eaten meat in three years but wow, I'm making myself hungry!
Oh god. I'm so jealous of the excess of ham.
Things I would make with excess ham.
Fried rice: ham, onion, peas, spring onions, egg, pineapple, chilli.
Rice Noodles: ham, rice noodles, fresh corn, grated carrot. Serve as a salad or with a broth.
Steaks. Cut into thick steaks and serve with potato mash or potato salad on the side and some vege.
Mac and cheese with ham.
Soup: ham and pea soup. Ham and potato leek soup.
Quiche.
I'm drooling now.
(Exposing my mid-western roots!) Surprised that ham salad sandwiches haven't been mentioned yet. Totally bad for you, but so delicious. Chop the ham fine, food processor good tool for this, combine with mayo, sweet pickle relish, pepper, salt if needed, and personalize it with celery, pimento, green onions, pineapple, whatever sounds good to you. Skip the healthy bread and load it on to white dinner rolls. Yum! Now go hide the bathroom scale, quick!
There's nothing wrong with a good omelette! I also like cutting it into ribbons and mixing it into pasta with a nice alfredo sauce, or butter and cheese. One way my fiancé and I have ham is to cut it into thick steak-like slices and caramelize one side in a skillet (brush on a little olive oil, and heat until it's brown but not burnt). Serve with rice and asparagus and/or mushrooms--it is so good!
We get a ham every year from my husband's company and two of my fave things to do with it besides freezing a lot of it is eggs benedict and 7 bean and barley soup with ham. The trick with the soup is to take the bone out and boil it for a couple of hours to make stock with lots of 'hammy' flavor. Saute up all the veggies in olive oil and what ever else you want in it....add the beans and barley and then the stock. The VERY last thing to add is chopped up ham. Don't boil it with the soup because it just turns to rubber and is tasteless. Add it into the soup right before you serve it. The soup and a grilled cheese are a delicious comfort-food meal!!
You've got to make a ham and leek gratin, it's so amazingly simple and so surprisingly good. Perfect for cool spring evenings. We posted a recipe a couple of weeks ago, you can check it out here: http://www.the-dogs-breakfast.com
Ham is wonderful in vegetable soup. I'm not a big fan of beans, so I use it in a bean-less vegetable soup (sort of like minestrone - I use tomatoes, green beans, carrots, etc.). But I think ham would work in any kind of vegetable soup, and it's classic paired with beans or peas. If you have the hock, you can use that to make the stock for the soup. You have to be cautious about salt - the typical grocery store ham isn't that salty so you can add more ham without worrying about the salt level, while saltier country hams need to be added in smaller amounts - taste as you go.
I think ham is also great in fried rice and stir-fries. I make a ham and cheese alfredo pasta that's very yummy. Ham freezes extremely well, so you can also freeze it for future use. When ham goes on sale around Easter, I often buy one or two and freeze slices for use in sandwiches.
My cousin found this recipe for brined (?) ham in an old home ec teacher cookbook, and it's a nice change from the usual flavor. If you search brined hams you can find variations with different flavors.
Baked Ham
Plunge a 10 to 12 pound ham into a kettle of boiling water. The ham must be completely covered. Then add the following:
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
3 cloves garlic or 1 button
1 cup vinegar
1 cup white sugar
Let remain in kettle over very slow heat for 3 ¼ hours. Do not let liquid boil, but you can see the bubbles underneath in the liquid. Turn off heat but let ham stand in the liquid and seasonings for at least four hours or overnight. Take ham from the liquid, remove skin and surplus far and blend the following and pat into ham:
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
Put ham in a baking pan and add ¼ cup vinegar and ¾ cup water. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, basting frequently.
I appreciate the question as I also picked up a few hams to freeze after Easter for $8.
Somewhere I have a cheesy potato and ham recipe that's great comfort food.
From my grandmother's collection of recipes - we make this any time we have a big family dinner involving ham:
--
Sauce For Ham - Delicious
Harriet Hansen, 1964
(Red Oak, Iowa)
3 egg yolks, well beaten
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1/2 cup tomato soup
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, melted)
1/2 cup sugar
Cook in a double boiler until it coats the spoon.
--
By "tomato soup" she means the canned soup concentrate, undiluted. White or apple cider vinegar are fine.
The result is super tangy and it is really tasty with ham. We always joke that you can clean the silver with the leftover sauce.
My grandmother's hand-written recipe card says "Sauce for Ham - Delicious" but over time we've gotten to just calling it "Sauce for Ham Delicious."
Eat it alongside this pineapple casserole...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pineapple-casserole-recipe/index.html