Fresh Ham Salad Made at Home.

Fresh made ham salad on a saltine cracker.

Brian loves fresh ham salad so I have just enough today to make up a batch.  It made 5 cups so he can take sandwiches to work next week for a nice change.  Here is how I make it:

1-1 1/2 pounds left over baked ham trimmed of fat and rind
4 hard cooked eggs
1/2 small onion
1 washed and trimmed stalk of celery
1/2 C. sweet pickles
4 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 C. mayonnaise
1/4 C. sweet pickle juice
pinch kosher salt
large pinch freshly ground black pepper

I use the food processor to make this but if you have not done this before you need to really watch so you DO NOT over process or you will be unhappy with the consistency of the finished product.

Start with the ham.  Dice it into chunks of uniform size.  Place the ham in the bowl of the processor and pulse until it is a rough chop using the chopping blade.  Dump the ham into a large mixing bowl.  Next repeat the process with the onion and celery.  Dump them into the bowl with the ham and repeat with the sweet pickle adding it to the ham bowl. 

Now change to the shredding blade and shred the cheddar cheese then dump it into the growing bowl of salad ingredients.  Peel the hard cooked eggs and hand chop them into the ham salad.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the mayonnaise and the sweet pickle juice and stir well tasting when well combined and correcting the seasoning.  You may add additional mayonnaise or pickle juice if the salad is too dry.  Serve on bread or crackers or on a lettuce leaf as a salad.  It is also good used as a celery filling. 

Note:  Coney Island salad can also be made using bologna instead of ham.