Q: I'm stuck with a very delicious dilemma. I made a 9 pound glazed ham as a part of the spread at our holiday cocktail this past weekend, and it was absolutely delicious. Last night I broke down the leftovers (slices for sandwiches for the fridge, froze small diced pieces for casseroles, etc.) and now I've got this huge ham bone with lots of delicious fat and meaty bits still attached.
I know I should use the bone for some kind of stew but was hoping you'd have some good suggestions. What would you do if you were in my spot?
Sent by Caroline
Editor: Caroline, I would definitely recommend the soup pictured above; it's delicious! Here's the recipe:
• Ham Bone, Greens, and Bean Soup from Melissa Clark
Readers, what else would you recommend?
Related: Help! How Can I Use Up Holiday Ham?
(Image: Faith Durand)

Comments (19)
Roast it a bit more and make a giant batch of ham stock? That way you could have that delicious, hammy flavor for pots of beans, greens, and stews, instead of just one pot.
If you're interested in Scandinavian traditions, we always had a giant pot of split pea and ham soup for Tjuegondedag Knut (Jan. 13th - last day of Christmas where you eat up all the leftover goodies, dance around the tree one last time, take all the ornaments off, and then throw it out in the snow). I miss that holiday. And I love split pea soup, so that would definitely put that hambone to good use.
Otherwise collard greens cooked Southern-style require a ham bone and bean-type-things like black bean soup generally use ham hocks or ham bones to flavor them. Really, you can't go wrong with ham and legumes and/or greens.
I would put it in a slow cooker with beans and grains, tomatoes, broth, maybe a beer, spices and let it stew all day. Makes a great chili. We do this about once a week with a ham hock.
Split Pea Soup
Oh hey! It's my parents Denby dinnerware, I love that stuff.
Make a choucroute. Basically ham hock, sausage, bacon, sauerkraut, apple cider/chardonnay, and cabbage.
I second the idea of putting it in a slow cooker with beans- you can make a chili, or just have delicious beans as a side dish, or use them as taco/ quesadilla filliing.
Red Beans! It's pretty traditional down here in south Louisiana to use the Christmas ham bone in a pot of New Year's red beans and rice.
Soup, creamy wonderful soup. Beans, white or black or red with onions, celery and whatever a good recipe calls for --Soup!
I recently made a really good soup with one of those bags of mixed dried beans and some kale and carrots. I put bacon in it, but it would have been even better with a ham hock. Similar to that Melissa Clark recipe, but with a mix of beans. It was DELICIOUS!
I made this ham and lentil soup recipe in the slow cooker last week and threw in a ham bone. Came out great!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-lentil-and-ham-soup/detail.aspx
Barley soup with ham and vegetables!
Beans or a bean soup. Any bean will benefit!
Chowder with corn, potato and caramelized onions.
My mom uses a ham bone in her borscht (with shredded beets, cabbage and tomatoes) and it's my favorite soup in the world.
White beans (one kind or a bunch of them) and a ham bone were meant to go together. My mother-in-law cooks the most delicious navy beans, and always always puts a ham bone, or hocks or something ham in the pot. Yum. Now I need to go buy something hammy.
Split pea soup with potatoes.
Red Beans and Rice, split pea or navy bean soup, (or any kind of bean soup), black beans for Morros Y Cristianos, Hoppin' John with Collards for New Years Day, ham noodles (essentially ham soup with veggies and long, noodle-shaped dumplings).
A ham bone in the freezer is like gold in the safe deposit box !
Soup beans! A bag of lima beans, soaked for half a day...ham bone, maybe a few pieces of salt pork or bacon. Cook until the beans are falling apart. Comfort food!
Korean spicy pork bone soup! Kam Ja Tang! Meaty bones with huge chunks of potatoes. It is epic!
Baked beans. I made a batch of slow cooked Boston style baked beans in a dutch oven, just threw the ham bone in there and let it slow roast with the beans. When the dish is finished cooking, you can pick up the bone and scrape all the leftover meaty bits off.