Ham Salad — The Southern Spread for the Late-July Sandwich Week

Late July. The Sonic kitchen at ninety-eight degrees most afternoons. Hailey threw up on a Wednesday afternoon during the lunch rush, the same way she had thrown up last July, and Carlos sent her home with full pay the way he had last year, and the rest of us kept the kitchen moving until eight the way we had last year, and I want to put on the page that the second summer is teaching me how the rhythm of a year repeats and shifts at the same time. The repetition is a thing I had not noticed before. The repetition is, in some ways, what makes a year a year.

And the recipe Sunday was ham salad, the Southern spread my mama has been talking about for years and I have never made until now. The trigger was the leftover ham from the church potluck two weeks ago. Mrs. Tilford had insisted I take home the heel of the breast that nobody had carved — about a half pound of cooked turkey ham — and I had been holding it in the freezer for the right recipe.

The right recipe arrived in the form of a Sunday afternoon when the savings envelope was at $230 and the wallet had $45 in it and the protein for the week needed to come from the freezer. The ham salad was the answer.

The recipe: about half a pound of cooked ham, finely chopped. A third of a cup of mayo. Two tablespoons of sweet pickle relish. Two tablespoons of fine-chopped onion. A teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Salt and pepper to taste. All combined in a bowl into a spreadable salad. Total cost: about $3.40 for ingredients beyond the leftover ham. The ham salad fed Mama and me for three lunches as sandwiches on white bread with iceberg lettuce.

The technique I want to keep is the chopping of the ham. The traditional way is by hand on a cutting board with a sharp knife, fine-chopped to the texture of coarse meal. The Mrs. Henderson’s-food-processor way is short pulses, four or five at a time, watching the texture so it does not become a paste. Both work. I did the food-processor way Sunday because the food processor was on the counter and because I had eight other things to do with my hands.

You combine the chopped ham with the mayo, relish, onion, and Dijon in a bowl. Stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving so the flavors meld.

You spread on slices of soft white bread with a leaf of iceberg lettuce on top. The ham salad sandwich is, I have decided, the most underrated sandwich in the South. The salad is creamy, slightly sweet from the relish, slightly sharp from the onion and Dijon. The cold spread on the soft bread with the crisp lettuce is the kind of summer lunch that does not weigh you down before a hot kitchen shift.

Mama had a sandwich Tuesday for lunch and said, baby, my mama used to make this exactly like this. The repetition is the inheritance.

The recipe is below. The trick is the chopping — finely chop, do not paste. Use sweet pickle relish, not dill. Refrigerate for at least an hour before spreading.

Ham Salad

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 cups cooked ham, diced small or pulsed in a food processor
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 2 tablespoons celery, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon onion, finely minced
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Prep the ham. Trim any excess fat from your leftover ham and cut into small chunks. Pulse in a food processor until finely chopped but not pureed — you want some texture. Alternatively, dice by hand into very small pieces.
2. Mix the dressing. In a large bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish, yellow mustard, garlic powder, and black pepper until well combined.
3. Combine. Add the chopped ham, diced celery, and minced onion to the dressing mixture. Fold everything together until the ham is evenly coated. Taste and add salt if needed — remember the ham is already salty, so go easy.
4. Chill. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors come together. Ham salad tastes best when it’s had time to sit.
5. Serve. Spoon onto bread or rolls for sandwiches, scoop onto crackers, or serve over a bed of lettuce. Keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 195 | Protein: 15g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 3g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 980mg