Smoked Ham Salad and Onion Soup

[solaryellow]

I stumbled across an interesting recipe for onion soup this week and that set the gears in motion for this weekend's activities. The recipe is actually very simple which is what caught my eye. I think we might be able to make this on the smoker for events. Here is the original recipe. http://www.cookingsgood.com/?p=837

I modified it somewhat and was pleased with the results. I used beef broth instead of veggie broth. The Tamari soy sauce was good. The recipe doesn't specify the amount of thyme to use, but I found 2 TBSP to work for 6 lbs of onions. I also used half sweet and half yellow onions.

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• solaryellow
• Nov 10, 2012

But what I was most pleased with was the smoked ham salad I made. Ham salad is not easily found in the south. I haven't had it in almost 10 years. My baseline is this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ham-salad-spread-2/

The changes I made were to use 1/2 sour cream and 1/2 mayo. I am not a big mayo fan. I used a medium plate to grind the ham, eggs, and celery. In hindsight, I should have used the large plate. I also used dijon mustard at twice the amount of the prepared yellow mustard. It may be tempting to substitute the sweet relish with dill relish, but I can tell you that the sweet relish is what it needs. I ended up running out to get a jar of sweet relish after the first try.

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• solaryellow
• Nov 10, 2012

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• solaryellow
• Nov 10, 2012

 

[daveomak]

A good onion soup is hard to beat.....  The ham salad brings back memories....  There was a small diner I used to eat lunch at in the early sixties....  A ham salad sandwich and soup was often my choice for lunch.... I think it cost about $0.85....  Those were the days....  Dave

 

[solaryellow]

I couldn't agree more Dave. What is really still impressing me is how much the hickory smoke adds to the flavor of the ham salad. I just had another sammich with lettuce and tomato. That makes 3 since I made this stuff yesterday. It isn't gonna be around for very long at this rate. :biggrin:

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Lookin' good Joel!!!!!

I've been a ham lover all my life, but for some reason, when I was a kid I wasn't especially fond on ham salad....thank God that's changed!!!!


~Martin

 

[solaryellow]

Lookin' good Joel!!!!!

I've been a ham lover all my life, but for some reason, when I was a kid I wasn't especially fond on ham salad....thank God that's changed!!!!


~Martin

Ain't that the truth Martin. I hated egg salad and ham salad as a kid, but I absolutely love it now. Same with meatloaf, now that I think about it. :biggrin:

 

[daveomak]

Joel, When did you smoke the ham ??? when cubed or after grinding ???  Dave

 

[solaryellow]

Joel, When did you smoke the ham ??? when cubed or after grinding ???  Dave

The ham was a spiral cut that I double smoked Dave. After letting it rest in the fridge overnight, I cut it into strips that the grinder could handle.

 

[solaryellow]

Had leftovers for dinner tonight. :biggrin:

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• solaryellow
• Nov 11, 2012

 

[venture]

Now that makes me hungry!

Onion soup and ham salad.

My folks were frugal and ham was a treat.  Not a shred of meat or bone went to waste.  Mom made the best ham salad sandwiches.  The bone went into the bean soup.

I also acquired my taste for egg salad sandwiches later in life, but it wasn't uncommon for ham to be accompanied by scalloped taters and deviled eggs which I always did love as a young'un.

What memories!

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[chef jimmyj]

That all looks great! Now I got a jones for Ham Salad. The most important step in making Onion Soup that the recipe does not cover is Caramelizing the Onions. I use 10 lbs of Onions and with a stick of Butter and cook those Onions over medium/low heat 1 hour or more until they are the color of Milk Chocolate. Then add the rest of the ingredients, it makes a huge difference. I got a late start one time and just got them barely golden, like the pic in the recipe. The flavor of the soup was flat, no richness at all, there was a noticeable lack of sweetness and I caught a TON of Crap from my family. Sometime it's tough having trained Cheffie Daughters! I never made that mistake again...JJ

 

[bmudd14474]

Looks great Joel

 

[boykjo]

Nice Joel.............

 

[smokinhusker]

Don't know how I missed this! That's a great looking meal.

Can't find ham salad here much at all, so I've been making my own for years from a recipe my gramma handed down.  Another good one to make with leftover double smoked ham is Ham Loaf!