Ham and turkey bring to mind the holidays in a way nothing else quite can. But once the big meal is over, the family’s all gone, the dishes away, the question looms: What on earth will we do with all this leftover ham?!? (Or turkey.) And also, why don’t we eat ham more often?
Since using leftover ham in food fights, as building materials, or putting them somewhere to see what grows on them aren’t appealing if you’re old enough to have finished middle school, here are some leftover ham recipes that might make you a little more enthusiastic about all those leftovers, and a few ideas for adding ham to your long-term storage.
Long Term Storage and Ham
If ham is an important part of your holiday meals, you can add it to your long term storage. Canned ham is easy to find, but that just risks making a salty food even saltier. A better option is freeze dried ham, which is nearly identical to fresh. When food is freeze-dried, it is flash-frozen (frozen super quickly so ice crystals don’t form), then the moisture is removed and it is packaged, allowing it to retain the original size, shape, and color. It is much less temperature-sensitive than most foods, is extremely light-weight, and can be returned to it’s original state just by adding boiling water, even decades later.
You can also make jerky. It’s not just for beef.
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Breakfast Ham Recipes
Use your leftovers to try something new for breakfast, like a quiche cup or a breakfast skillet. If you’re not a morning person, either muffins or green eggs and ham can be started the day before.
The names are self-explanatory, and the results are delicious!
Green Eggs and Ham – Making green eggs requires advance prep because they are canned.
Ham and Cheese Breakfast Muffins
Soup, Salad and Sandwiches
Ah, yes, the Ham Sandwich, a staple of post-holiday leftovers. These recipes elevate it to a yummy treat instead of a slapped-together tolerable way to fill your stomach. I’ve included links to some freeze-dried veggies to make things even easier. If you’ve run out of fresh carrots, for example, just scoop out a few freeze-dried and you’re good to go
Cheesy Ham and Potato Soup – Dehydrated potato dices and carrots are great additions to long-term storage.
Beans and Ham Soup
Slow Cooker Cream of Broccoli and Ham Soup
Ham Salad – Dehydrated onions and celery make it easy to whip up this recipe even if the cupboard is nearly bare.
Hawaiian Ham & Swiss Slider –Â The recipe calls for King’s Hawaiian Bread. Yum!
Dinner and Snacks
We all know beef and venison can be turned into jerky, but have you ever tried ham jerky? Perhaps it’s time you did!
Do you have a holiday party coming up? Some of these make great appetizers – and you can use leftover Christmas ham for New Years Eve party appetizers.
There is one recipe for a pizza with ham, but there are lots of other ways to top a pizza with ham – including Hawaiian pizza!
Ham Fried Rice – If you like fried rice, you should definitely have freeze dried peas in your long-term food storage.
Ham, Gruyere, and Shallot Pizza
How does your family use your leftover ham? What great recipes can you share?
Updated from a December 21, 2014 article.Â
We love ham and took advantage of a large one that was sold very inexpensively before Christmas. There are only two of us to eat it all, so I vacuum packed the large amount of left overs with my Food Saver and froze it. We will enjoy it weekly for a long time! I always enjoy a new recipe or two, so thanks!
If you have a lot of leftover ham, a great way to preserve it and make it into a great portable jerky snack would be by starting off by stripping the ham apart. After you have collected the ham you wish to make into jerky, I prefer to put it into a smoker for 2-3 hours. I don’t do this to cook it, I do this to add flavors that jerky commonly has. If you don’t have a smoker this is not absolutely necessary. After smoking you will notice that your ham will be slightly drier and darker in color, this is good. And lastly use a food dehydrator to completely dry out the ham strips. Now what I do for storage is vacuum seal individual servings with my food vac. What you would be left with is a whole bunch of little snack bags of ham jerky that stays good for up to 5 years. Great for people who spend a lot of time outdoors. Just throw some in your pack and your good to go. Enjoy!!!
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I liked several of your suggested recipes. Have you considered using SPAM instead of Ham?
Elbert