This 4 ingredient ham salad is a deli dish that I grew up on and loved! Combining chopped meat, pickles, salad dressing, and 1 secret ingredient for the best-tasting ham salad you’ll ever have!
TKW Family Love
I made thus today and it took me straight back to Isalys. Sometimes less is more! I’ve always put it on toast with a little mustard. Thanks for sharing this.
Dad’s Specialty Dishes
Growing up there were certain dishes my Dad made that no matter how hard my Mom tried, she just couldn’t make as good as him.
His City Chicken was the best I have ever EVER had in my life. If you’re not from Pittsburgh, it’s a ‘mock’ drumstick consisting of cubes of meat (usually pork and veal), breaded, placed on a wooden board, fried, then put in a roaster to steam. I can’t tell you how many times I purposely came home from college on the weekend just for that dish.
Now, the fact that we had any leftovers in our house, considering we had 8 people living there, 4 of whom were GINORMOUS non-stop-eating-machine brothers, was a pure miracle. Come to think of it, I think that’s the year he made 2-25-pound hams. Anywho, we had an abundance, to say the least, of ham. And that’s where I learned how to ‘repurpose’ leftovers into amazing ‘new’ dishes. Since we were really poor, buying pre-made stuff —even ham salad — was a luxury, so we learned to make our own, and honestly, it blew away anything you could buy in the store.
Another dish is his ham salad sandwich spread. 4 simple ingredients that literally rocked like no one’s business. Growing up we had a very famous deli here, Isaly’s, that was known for its chipped chopped ham. That was the key to ham BBQ sammiches. The other was their Ham Salad. While I never liked chipped chopped ham (still don’t), I used to love their ham salad. That was until my Dad made it using up some leftover ham we had on Easter.
TKW Family Love
This is the best and easiest ham salad I’ve ever made. I’ve made this for several people and they have liked it better than a nearby store in town that Is known for their ham salad. Thanks for sharing!
Yes You Have To Use Miracle Whip
Now I know what you’re thinking… “TKW, this has mayo in it! And you abhor mayo! What gives?” First off, this doesn’t have real mayo in it. My Dad tried it with mayo, and it was DISGUSTING (and rightly so, cause mayo is icky), but the taste was just nasty.
Then he tried the ‘competitor’ – the whipped salad dressing/spread. That was it. Now, while I won’t actively seek this stuff out to eat, I will tolerate it in certain foods, and honestly, it’s what this recipe needs for that zippy tang.
“Working Man’s Food”
This was something Dad referred to as “working man’s food” because it was easy, didn’t require much, and was cheap.
There is just something homey and straightforward about this dish. Now, it could be that it literally uses only 3-4 ingredients, or that it is very inexpensive to make and makes a bunch. This isn’t fancy schmancy or hoity-toity but it is real, down-to-earth, unpretentious, and for me, home.
It carries memories of my childhood sitting on the kitchen table watching my Dad in his white t-shirt and dickies pants cranking the hand meat grinder, telling me stories of when he was a kid. Laughing until we cried and then being the first allowed to ‘sneak’ a taste. God, I miss those days and would give up everything I have just to have one more day in the kitchen with him and Mom.
However, even though they’ve both been gone for many, many years, they are always with me in the kitchen, keeping me in line or, in a way, guiding my mixing hand.
I don’t have a hand meat grinder, but if you do, feel free to use that. I let some of my modern amenities help me out here and just used my food processor to pulse the meat and gherkins to the correct size (pay attention to the pictures— that’s the size you want; you don’t want a puree).
This came together in what, 5 minutes after I put it in the food processor, and then you can either eat it then or chill it (that’s how I prefer it).
Now, I’m sure you’ve had this — maybe with eggs, onions, or real mayo (gag) —but this is what I know and what I like. Give it a shot, and yes, the ketchup adds that certain je ne sais quoi needed to round out the flavor. Just be easy with it, as you don’t want a lot.
Deli Ham Serving Suggestions
- To serve this, we opted for crackers or simple white bread.
- Now, if you did want to get fancy schmancy with it, you could easily put this on toasted rye crostini and top each with half of a baby sweet gherkin.
- Veggies – keep it keto and serve it with veggies
- Cucumber Logs – Mom would hollow out cucumbers and fill them with it, and enjoy!
Dad’s Down Home Ham Salad Sandwich Spread
This 4 ingredient ham salad is a deli dish that I grew up on and loved! Combining chopped meat, pickles, mayo, and 1 secret ingredient for the best-tasting ham salad you’ll ever have!
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Category: bologna salad, deli dishes, ham salad, salad, spreads
- Method: no bake
- Cuisine: bologna salad, deli dishes, ham salad, salad, spreads
Ingredients
- 2 cups cubed ham (increase to 3 cups if you’re not adding bologna)
- 1 cup cubed ring bologna (Optional) – this was put in if we had extra money
- 1 cup sweet gherkins
- 1 1/3 cups whipped salad dressing (not mayo) *See note
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
Instructions
- Place the cubed ham (and bologna) in a food processor and pulse just until you get smaller pieces.
- Add in the gherkins and pulse until the pieces are about the size of rice. You don’t want it pureed; you want small pieces.
- Scrape into a bowl.
- Add in the whipped salad dressing (I used Miracle Whip) and ketchup and mix to combine. If adding in the ring bologna increase the dressing to 1 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoon
- Serve on crackers. Store in an air tight container in the fridge.
Leave a Reply