Buffeting a ham (or many)

Sadly, our neighbor's wife directly across the street from us passed away suddenly; she and her husband retired a few years ago and Ken, the husband, had a brain aneurysm and an additional stroke, so his wife, Martha, has been the primary caregiver for the last 4 years.  Ken also has Parkinson's too, but has been in therapy for all of it for awhile and has been able to return to limited driving.  As nature would do, out of the clear blue Martha had a bad cold and went to the doctor; it was fluid on her lungs and she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer 5 weeks ago; she passed away last night in her sleep.

Something we did at the store years ago was to prepare buffeted ham platters from whole fully cooked hams.  We would bone out the ham, separating it into 3 sections; the sirloin tip, the top round and the bottom/eye round.  We would slice them on the slicer onto an aluminum pizza pan and arrange in a circular pattern simulating the petals of a rose, and in the center we'd put a large plastic rose to decorate with, then wrap in foil and a large clear bag we had made for them.

I think I'd posted one I did a while ago, but didn't do a tutorial on it.  Today I had sense enough to take some pictures so I can relate the process.  Of course, today they have cooked boneless hams so I purchased a Corn King which is fairly lean ham loaf ham; it looks nice, slices well and is in the appropriate price range (for us!).  I also bought an inexpensive 12" steel pizza pan (99¢) to lay it into

After unwrapping, I simply cut the loaf in half and started slicing it, laying out the slices and bringing to the most outer edge of the pan, you want to see ham, not pan.



Some of the starter slices I laid in the center to build it up.  You can do it either way, the outer edge in a rounded fashion or flip the slices so it's the pointed edge.  Usually for a party (happy occasion) I display the pointed edges; for a sad party I display the rounded edges (just the way Dad taught me!).  

Keep going around and around and coming in layer by layer...



Then finish by tucking the slice under the previous layer so it looks like this:



Straighten up the slices, decorate as you like (we'd put a flower in the center, a plastic red rose - this I didn't decorate a/c somber occasion) and it makes a great gift for any kind of occasion!

I delivered the platter next door with a dozen sandwich rolls; wanted to get it there ASAP so they could serve guests as they stopped in; the ham will last for several days if necessary in the fridge so the families can munch on it.

 

Thank you all for your kind words!  We attended her service yesterday; the family and their church addressed it as their "..celebration of Martha Anderson's Life.." .. not her 'funeral'.  We were super impressed with the pastor and the service; we're going back to the church this Sunday for services!  It is a half-hour outside of Fort Worth in the middle of the country which is good; more home-town folk to enjoy and fellowship with!