Ham Salad Recipe
Ham Salad Recipe
Easy to follow, step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe for an old fashioned, southern style ham salad.
Southern Ham Salad
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Ham Salad
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Most folks will end up baking a ham sometime throughout the year. Whether it’s for Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, or Christmas; baked ham usually ends up on the table at one or the other holiday.
I might need to clarify that we’re talking about “City Ham” as opposed to “Country Ham” for this recipe. What’s the difference you ask?
City ham is what you’ll generally find in your butchers case at the supermarket. It’s often wet cured and sometimes cold smoked for a deeper flavor. You’ll find a whole ham, ham shank, or butt ham which are usually sold fully cooked and ready to eat.
Ham steaks are also available this way and could easily be purchased just for making ham salad if you don’t happen to have any leftovers.
Country ham is dry cured, either in salt, sugar or both. It can be smoked for added flavor, and will be aged for several months to several years before serving. It usually needs to be soaked overnight to remove a lot of the salt brine before cooking to even taste good.
So, now that we have that out of the way, the next thing is whether or not you’ll actually end up with enough leftovers to make our Ham Salad once your big meal has been served.
After slicing most of the meat from the bone, I pick the smaller remaining pieces and trimmings and set them aside for making ham salad. It’s really easy to make, and makes a great sandwich or spread for crackers.
I prefer to use my homemade sweet pickles (Mama’s recipe) but you can easily use a store bought sweet pickle relish if you have it. I just prefer the sweet and salty combination of flavors mixing the sweet pickles with the already salty taste of the ham.
Ready to give it a try? Alright then, let’s grab that ham bone, pick it dry and head to the kitchen.
Let’s Get Cooking!
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Southern style Ham Salad: You’ll need these ingredients.
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We’ll begin by chopping up the leftover ham. You can chop it as fine as you’d like, or do like me and leave it a little bit chunky.
It only takes a minute or two with a good knife to get these results, but if you prefer, chop it in your food processor. I’d just rather wash my knife and chopping board as opposed to the food processor. Smile.
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Place the hard boiled egg in a medium sized mixing bowl, and mash it up with a fork.
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Toss the chopped ham into the bowl on top of the egg.
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Add the chopped celery.
TIP: Keep celery in your refrigerator much longer by wrapping it in a couple of layers of paper towel, then wrapping that in aluminum foil. You’ll be amazed at how long it will stay fresh.
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Place the sweet pickle relish in the bowl.
I’m using some of my homemade sweet pickles, as I do in just about all of my “salad” type recipes. You can just use a regular sweet pickle relish if that’s what you have on hand.
I like the salty-sweet combination that comes from the cooked ham and then the pickles.
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Add the mustard.
Now, before you go laughing at me using this little packet of mustard, let me explain. I drained the bottle in making the glaze that I used on this ham when I baked it. I just haven’t had the chance to pick up another bottle since then and didn’t think about being totally out until I’d already started setting up my ingredients for the first photo.
That’s when I remembered I might have a packet laying around somewhere from one of my drive-thru, bring it home, take out orders. And of course, I could only find ONE of those, but its all I needed.
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Add the black pepper.
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Then, add in the mayonnaise. Hopefully you’re using my favorite brand… Duke’s.
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Using a large spoon, mix all the ingredients together well, until it’s fully blended.
If you’d prefer a little creamier salad, feel free to add a bit more mayo and pickle juice.
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Scrape down the sides of the bowl and pack it all together so all the flavors can blend together.
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Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour or two. Overnight will be better if you can possibly wait that long. Smile.
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Enjoy!
My favorite way to enjoy this Ham Salad is by just spreading a good amount between two slices of white loaf bread.
You can also use it as a spread for crackers, or on a stalk of celery.
If you make it in a food processor, you can make it thin enough to use as a dip. Either way, it’s good.
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Ham Salad Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: Varies
- Category: Salad
- Method: Refrigerator
- Cuisine: American
Description
Easy to follow, step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe for making this old fashioned, Southern style Ham Salad. Great for sandwiches, on crackers, or chop it really fine and use as a dip with crackers and vegetables.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Ham, chopped as desired
- 1 Hard Boiled Egg, chopped
- ½ cup Celery, finely chopped
- ½ cup Duke’s Mayonnaise
- 2 Tablespoons Sweet Pickle Relish
- 1 teaspoon Yellow Mustard
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- ½ teaspoon Sugar, optional, depending on your relish.
Instructions
- Chop the ham as finely as desired.
- Place boiled egg in a medium sized bowl and mash with a fork.
- Add the chopped ham.
- Add chopped celery.
- Add mayonnaise.
- Add pickle relish.
- Add yellow mustard.
- Add sugar.
- Add black pepper.
- Use a wooden spoon and mix together well.
- Add more mayo or pickle juice for a creamier ham salad.
- Taste and season with salt if needed.
- Refrigerate for an hour or two before serving.
- Enjoy!
Notes
The pickles I use are homemade and very sweet. Store bought pickles and/or relish will probably not be as sweet. That’s why I added the option of adding a little extra sugar to the recipe if you’d like. Experiment a bit and make the recipe your own.
Keywords: southern ham salad recipe, made from scratch, ham salad, pork, easy
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Your Comments:
Have you ever made your own Ham Salad?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on our recipe. It will only take a minute or two for you to leave your comments in the section below.
Just remember, all comments are moderated. That just means that I personally read each and everyone before they are approved for viewing on our family friendly website. Thank you in advance for sharing.
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Be Blessed!!!
Steve
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You might also like this recipe: Southern Chicken Salad
Or, maybe this one: Southern Potato Salad
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Category: Main Dishes, Pork, Salads, Sandwiches
This is a good way to use up the left over ham, my husband is a big fan of Ham in any form. Thanks for your recipe, really appreciate the time you put in for your fans.
Hi Marilyn, Guess I’m in agreement with your husband, I like about any type of ham recipe myself. I’m happy to share the recipes, and you are part of the reason I do it. Thank you for your visits and I hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve
No Dukes in AZ. Best Foods is the best or your Hellmeans Mayo. S.C Boy
Hi Grover, You can order Dukes Mayonnaise online. Just do a search for their website. It will be worth the effort. Smile. Thank you for your visits and I hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve
I’m from NYC I thought hellman’s was the absolute best until I moved to Alabama and tried dukes omg delicious only mayo I use
Hi Victoria, Thank you for the smile today. And, welcome to Duke’s. I’m proud of you. Smile. Duke’s is the only mayonnaise that I use as well. Thank you for sharing your comment and for your visit today. I do hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve
Your Ham Salad recipe looked interesting. Of course, people tweek recipes to suit themselves, and I made three tweeks. The most important was to add 1/4 cup finely chopped onion–I seldom eat any salad which does not have onion. A fairly important change was increasing the sweet pickle relish from 2 tablespoons to 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup). The least important change was reducing the 1/2 cup finely chopped celery to 1/4 cup. By the way, if you are using prepared sweet pickle relish you will probably not need the 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.
Thanks for offering this very good recipe, and I encourage your readers to modify it to suit themselves as I did.
Gene Moore
Melbourne, Florida
Hi Gene, I always encourage our readers to make our recipes their own. I’m glad you have done just that. My mothers pickles are very sweet. That’s why I suggested the addition of sugar. That would make it more like what I prepared I think. I do appreciate your suggestions and that you took the time to comment. Hope the weather is good in Florida. Thank you for your visits and I hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve
Made your Atlantic pie from last week and my wife and I really enjoyed it. It’s amazing what you can do with saltine crackers and my wife said if she didn’t see me make it she would not have known. Also, it was not sweet but very flavorful.
Thank you sir!
I knew you were a great guy because Dukes is our mayonnaise as well.
Hi Kerry, Three cheers for Duke’s Mayonnaise. I’m glad you guys like it as well. I’m glad you tried the Atlantic Beach Pie recipe. I seriously doubt that I would have ever guessed the crust was made from saltine crackers if I didn’t know it myself. I’m glad you liked it. Thank you for your visits and I hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve
Thank you so much for the enjoyable newsletter you publish every week. I usually have breakfast while reading it.
I look forward to trying your Ham Salad recipe. It sounds good.
I am so sorry I never got my Mom’s recipe before it was too late. It was yummy, as were a lot of dishes she prepared as we were growing up. Please remind your readers to write down the recipes they love while you have a chance. That chance will be gone before you know it.
Hi Judi, I’m sorry you never had the chance to save your moms recipe. You make a very important point about saving the old recipes. That’s one reason I post what I do here on Taste of Southern. Hopefully many of our readers will heed your suggestion. Thank you for your visits and I hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve
I love reading your blog. Your posts always make me smile .
I just made some ham salad last week. I did not use a hard boiled egg, but I will try that next time. Otherwise, my recipe was similar to yours, with the addition of some chopped onion and Dijon mustard rather than regular yellow mustard.
Have a great day!
Hi Sandy, I know a lot of folks like to add onion, but I just left it out of this version. It’s a good addition though. Thank you for reading our recipes. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your visits and I hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve
Good morning Steve,
My recipe is pretty much the same except that I like my ham salad to be more spreadable. My Mom used a hand-cranked food grinder to make hers. I inherited it and used it until we lost it in a house fire. Now I am older and lazier and I use the food grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. Sometimes when ham was too expensive, Mom would make Spam salad and it is just about as good. I still make it occasionally when nostalgia strikes. We always ate ham salad on white toast.
You won’t believe this but it snowed for a while this morning here in Richmond VA. Enough already!!
Keep up the good work!
Herb
Hi Herbert, We ARE having some interesting weather for this time of year. I’m glad we didn’t see any snow here. Four times in one year is more than enough for me. I’m really sorry you lost your mom’s meat grinder. I have one I picked up at an auction but haven’t used it. I want to make some homemade sausage with it one day. I’m sure the Kitchen Aid would be much less work though. Smile. Thank you for your visits and I hope you’ll stop by again… real soon. Be Blessed!!! -Steve