I made a ham last Sunday. The offerings were rather picked over, so the smallest one I could buy of the bone-in, spiral-cut variety was seven pounds. We had ham for dinner Sunday, ham for dinner Monday, I took ham to work for lunch on Monday, I had some ham on Tuesday… I think you see where this is going.
Now, I love leftovers. I can eat leftover every meal until it’s gone – within reason. Like, four days or so. I’ve had hot ham, cold ham, and a ham sandwich, and I’m about hammed out. Thought about a ham omelette, but I don’t think the sweet glaze would work in an omelette. I thought about ham salad, but that’s basically like a ham sandwich without the mustard and with relish. I could bag it and freeze it, but I’m not sure how well it freezes. I usually make hashbrowns one day every weekend or two. I have a feeling we’re going to have hashbrowns and eggs and fried ham.
Scalloped potatoes.
I think if you chopped it/sliced it and froze it that would work fine for later use in casseroles or the like. Maybe not for sandwiches.
Ham freezes okay, but not for long periods.
There seems to be a lot of water (fat) content and that helps freezer-burn meat.
If you freeze, then use a made-for-freezing zip-locking bag and squeeze out as much air as possible to reduce the potential for freezer-burning.
Do you eat rice?
Ham fried rice is good, though perhaps not so soon after the ham marathon.
Rice that’s been cooked then stored in the fridge for a day works best for fried rice.
The fat in the ham can glaze the pan; toss in the chilled rice, break it up, and let the fat/oil semi-toast it. Add chopped or diced or small veggies, plus whatever you enjoy for woking sauces. Serve in bowls and let everyone pig out!
Frying a slice gives you a firmer, more salty piece of ham. It would work well in an omelette.
I honestly don’t eat a lot of the city hams, but if I had extras, I’d probably try to make stock with it. Then I’d freeze it and use it to cook green beans, collards, field peas, etc. Not sure how well it would work, but I’d damn sure give it a try.
I think the SO gets tired of my beans’n’deadpig, though I normally use a ham hock and not ham.
Good idea. I’ve been thinking about making fried rice for several weeks, but never got to it. I’ll have to think about it. (Right now I have a hankering for fried catfish.)
Jambalaya; just add shrimp and chicken. I’ve seen authentic southern fried chicken recipes that call for first frying a ham steak in the fat before you fry the chicken in it.
Place bone, beans, onions, and 2 cloves of garlic in large pot and then cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 hours. Remove remove fat and bone. Add sausage. 6 or 7 shots of Tabasco. Serve over rice.
Credentials: born and raised in New Orleans and mother was full Cajun.
Well… Ok… :dubious: But I still want the yellow onion, celery, and bell pepper.
As for the bone… Someone cut it out and gnawed small amount of meat that was left on it. He – I mean this person – almost got something to dig the marrow out, but he – I mean this person – was getting ‘looked at’ for getting the bone and thought better of it.
