What Do To With Leftover Boneless Ham?

[Bart]

Does anyone have a recipe or any ideas what to do with a bunch of leftover ham?

All the soup recipes I've seen don't use a whole lot of ham in the first place, and require the ham bone.  I'd like to use much more ham and save the bone for stock making later.

[Josh]

I faced this problem after getting a huge ham as a gift from a relative. I ended up just making a pot of beans (large limas from Rancho Gordo) with aromatics, and then adding diced ham near the end to make a more than decent ham and bean soup.

I also crisped some of the ham with shallots and spinach in butter and served over grits with a red eye gravy. Pretty dang good if I say so myself.

[ktmoomau]

We have been eating a lot of ham recently to finish up my pig from last year and clear the chest freezer for beef.  It is great put in scrambled eggs, breakfast for dinner style.  I also like it cubed in a soup with kale and white beans, last night I made grilled ham and cheese with homemade tomato soup.  Cuban or football sandwiches were my next thought.  You could also do chicken cordon blue, a classic cobb salad, casserole, quiche or put it on pizzas?

[Bart]

Thanks to both of you!  I'm leaning towards soup just to get rid of a lot of it quickly and just picked some Swiss Chard......it will probably sub in nicely for the kale.

[LauraB]

This Black Bean Pumpkin Soup is really good and calls for 1/2 a pound of cooked ham.  

[Katya4me]

We were in the same boat last week and did some panini sandwiches as well as ham fried rice.  You could also use up a lot in ham tettrazini or a similar casserole type dish.

[DonRocks]

I would think you could slice some ham off, and put it into multiple, individual freezer bags for later use as sandwich meat - that thought just popped into my head as I read Katya4me's reply, so this is not something I've been pondering.

That said, I suspect you've already done what you're going to do.

[Bart]

That said, I suspect you've already done what you're going to do.

Not really Don......it's slowly getting eaten the old fashioned way (sandwiches, etc). I still have some weird shaped hunks from the parts near the bone that may get converted into soup but this is turning into less of a problem than I originally thought.

[Josh]

I don't know that I'll ever eat ham again.  We got yet another ham as a gift from friends.  I might have to tap out or re-gift or something.

[DonRocks]

I don't know that I'll ever eat ham again.  We got yet another ham as a gift from friends.  I might have to tap out or re-gift or something.

Alas, poor Yorrick, you merely need a smaller ham.

[JSnake]

I don't know that I'll ever eat ham again. We got yet another ham as a gift from friends. I might have to tap out or re-gift or something.

I'll take it!

[Josh]

I'll take it!

Argh! Just moments before getting this notification, my wife made plans for a brunch party with hammy quiche.  If, in some sort of cosmic joke, I receive another ham, it is yours.

[Sundae in the Park]

Ham doesn't seem to last very long in our house when it is pre-cut into slices and can be snacked on straight from the fridge. We just learned that cold ham slices/chunks make great salty road trip food (fits easily in a small cold bag). Also, as said above, it goes great in fried rice and freezes well to be eaten later. I threw a bunch into a batch of lentil soup and it mostly negated the health value but was easily the tastiest batch I've ever made (usually it is a vegetarian soup). You could bake it into buns like they do in Chinese bakeries, if you are bored of regular sandwiches. 

[ktmoomau]

As Don noted, it does freeze very well too.  I froze half of mine after our NYD dinner (large boneless so a LOT of ham leftover for just two people).  I will thaw it when we are over our, "No, no, not ham, please for the love of god," phase.  I think if I do a breakfast scramble this weekend we will be though the part I didn't freeze.  I was maybe too ambitious in what I thought we could handle.

[MsDiPesto]

No mention of ham salad?

[dcandohio]

Yesterday I made a pot of red beans with some boneless ham. I held back on salt until the ham had simmered in the beans for a while. As it turns out, I had to add more, but the ham (I used just about 3/4 lb. for a lb. of dried beans) delivered luscious flavor. It's going to be wicked cold here next week. Beans and rice will be the perfect antidote to the freeze!

[Bart]

Ham doesn't seem to last very long in our house when it is pre-cut into slices and can be snacked on straight from the fridge. 

A shockingly large amount of my ham went bye-bye this way.  So much so that I did end needing to or making the soup I bought ingredients for.......looks like another ham may be in order!    

[squidsdc]

ham bone = jook (congee) base

[DaveO]

For at least 2 decades I've turned excess roasts, fish and fowl into a hash.  Corned beef is not the only hash alternative!!!!   Diced ham goes well with a hash and you can flavor and spice it to your hearts content.   Cripes I even found a hash cookbook.   (nuts I should have done that....I've been hashing for decades)

I also crisped some of the ham with shallots and spinach in butter and served over grits with a red eye gravy. Pretty dang good if I say so myself.

Really not that different in theory than what Josh did with grits.  Endless variations.

....and then the reference brought me back to a favorite winter dish from my youth...thick split pea soup with ham.   Its the kind of dish that makes cold weather tolerable.