Deviled Ham

[annecros]

Beebs asks:

What's the difference between Spam and deviled ham?  I've never had deviled ham, and the last time I ate spam was...20 yrs ago???  And is lunch meat just a Spam knock-off?

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Spam is some sort of compressed, canned meat product of pork with ham.

Deviled Ham - now that's a whole other thing.

We actually had it homemade when I was a child. We "deviled" it - that is to say we macerated it and spiced it up - when we were sick of eating the huge ham we had at Easter straight up,

Leftover ham was literally put through the meat grinder, then pepper, mustard, minced pickles (usually sweet), minced onion, and whatever else could be minced and tossed in were stirred up and slathered on bread, crackers, any starchy raft.

Now, there were little tins of Underwood Deviled Ham, sold with a paper wrapper, that were camping or beach food. Because we were camping at a fishing shack on the beach. That's the only time Mom let us eat out of tin cans.

Wonderful days.

[judiu]

Yum! Underwood Deviled Ham, mixed with Hellmans, minced onions, maybe with a hardboiled egg mushed in, super sandwich on decent white toast. From my days when I travelled for a living.

[Beebs]

Yum! That sounds lovely, annecros! I have no idea if we've got Underwood Deviled Ham here in Vancouver, but I'll hunt for it. It sounds perfect for lunches.

[annecros]

Yum! Underwood Deviled Ham, mixed with Hellmans, minced onions, maybe with a hardboiled egg mushed in, super sandwich on decent white toast.  From my days when I travelled for a living.

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Oh wow - with the mention of deviled ham and boiled eggs it brought back to mind a cousin who used Underwood Deviled Ham in her deviled eggs.

They were wonderful. People on the buffet line would scarf up hands full at a time. I am sure she used some binder like mayo, and probably boosted with cracked pepper and/or minced onion. They were exhausted in no time!

I was taunted by a fellow elementary school student for bringing, and eating, "potted meat" sandwiches. I didn't care, it was yummy, and better than the PBJ mix of Apple Jelly and Peanut Butter slathered on Wonder Bread that was the offering of the day.

[Marigene]

Reading this made me run to the pantry, get a can of Underwood's, mix it with a little Dijon and Hellmann's and eat it on pumpernickel! That was my favorite sandwich as a child.

[jgm]

I grew up on deviled ham and scrambled egg sandwiches. The procedure:

1. Generously spread mayo on two slices of white bread.

2. Melt 1T butter in a skillet.

3. Crack two eggs into the pan, break the yolks and stir.

4. As soon as eggs begin to set, add entire contents of 1 small can of Underwood Deviled Ham, and stir into eggs. As soon as eggs are cooked through, but still shiny, remove from heat and spoon onto bread.

It's necessary to have everything ready to go before beginning to cook the eggs, because they cook quickly, and will overcook if left in the heated pan while you're spreading the mayo on the bread.

[LindsayAnn]

I have never had deviled ham....but I love ham and I love egg salads, chicken salads, etc sandwiches and just scooped up plain or with crackers...

Anyone know if this Underwoods canned deviled ham is sold in major food/grocery stores in the chicago-area??? (i.e. Jewel, Dominick, Treasure Island????).

Please help I want to buy this and try it right away! It sounds delish...in that canned meat sorta way (winky-wink). Also - would I find this product with the other canned meats (chicken, tuna, spam?)???

[pam claughton]

Okay, now I really want to try this Underwood Deviled Ham. It's funny, I was just visiting with my 92 year old grandfather yesterday and he was talking about this stuff and how much he loves it and plans to serve it as part of an appetizer for his annual Christmas party. He showed me the can, small and wrapped in paper, and I believe it's sold at all major supermarkets. I may have to try it with scrambled eggs, that sounds like a combo I'd love.

~Pam

[zoe b]

I'm not sure if anyone who's never had Devilled Ham as a child will love it trying it for the first time as an adult.

I did love it as a kid--but if i try and pull up the taste memory of it now what i get mostly is salty.

I've always been intrigued by the idea of making my own devilled ham--there's a recipe in Joy--and a famous statement--something like--Hell is two people and a ham.

But I can always think of other things to do with leftover ham--soup and beans, scalloped potatoes.

Z

[Margo]

I have never had deviled ham....but I love ham and I love egg salads, chicken salads, etc sandwiches and just scooped up plain or with crackers...

Anyone know if this Underwoods canned deviled ham is sold in major food/grocery stores in the chicago-area??? (i.e. Jewel, Dominick, Treasure Island????).

Please help I want to buy this and try it right away! It sounds delish...in that canned meat sorta way (winky-wink). Also - would I find this product with the other canned meats (chicken, tuna, spam?)???

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Yes, you'll find it in all major supermarkets, right with the canned fish and other potted meats. Enjoy!

[annecros]

I always associate it with warm weather and the Easter Ham. In the winter, yeah the beans got the bits of ham. It kept the house warm with a pot of dried beans simmering, but in the warmer months, nobody wanted to heat the house up with a stove.

Should be able to find it shelved, usually up top, with all the other canned meat.

[Mayhaw Man]

I love deviled ham.

When I was growing up there were several things along this line that came in kind of a pecking order.

1) Potted Meat-This is a finely ground mixture of whatever is not good enough to go into cut rate hot dogs. Very smooth, very salty, and very good on saltines. It doesn't make much of a sandwich, as it's a bit much for that, but it's great dipped out of a can with a half of a premium saltine. I ate mound of it over the years, usually sitting on the tailgate of a truck in the back of a cotton field or as I rode, for miles and miles and miles, 6 rows at a time, in fields that were a square mile in size (that's 640 acres for you keeping score at home). It's pretty hard to beat, but, as was said above, everything I am mentioning here may well be an acquired taste, and this would probably be at the bottom of the pack for neophytes.

2) Vienna Sausages (pronounced, correctly, as "VIE-eena)- now these are delicious, though, perhaps, an acquired taste. Happily, I acquired it in the front of a 12 foot boat being piloted by my grandfather as we FLYFISHED (believe me, this alone, made the whole thing odd. Flyfishing for bass, especially in the 60's as your only method of catching, was beyond unusual and it still is today. He was a well known master of the craft. I'm sure it was especially nightmarish for him, as having a kid slinging a 14 foot rod with a very heavy popping bug around is not exactly approved by the National Fishing Safety Association. Then again, we had stuff to drive that went as fast as cars when we were 12, so I guess it's all about degrees of safety and choosing your moments). We would have Vienna's and Tom's Peanut Butter Cheese Crackers as a side dish. I would wash them down with Delaware Punch, a highly underrated drink, IMO) and he would have some coffee out of his cool, state of the art for back then, stainless thermos (which, as I type, is behind me on the top of the kitchen cabinet and still works like a champ-cork stopper and all). All of the fish went into an aluminum Jax Beer cooler (that I still have, and, while fishing, served as my seat in his junky ass boat) and, later that morning, the bounty was split between us and my other grandparents (who conveniently lived next door to them). Lunch would be, always, fried bass and a selection of fresh vegetables. I would give up 10 years just for one more long morning like that. And I'm not kidding one bit. I knew they were special then, but today, 30 years later, I know exactly what they were and I miss them more than I will ever be able to express in words. That kind of thing only comes around once in life.

3) Deviled Ham-Now, I have a great appreciation for the canned product. It's kind of the classier cousin of potted meat. Not nearly as smooth and full of spices that, I gather, are a bit much for the potted meat crowd. This stuff, on light bread with a thin sliced tomato, some thinly sliced sweet pickles, and a slather of Blue Plate Mayo, makes a fine sandwich. A really fine one.

But it gets better when you make your own out of some smoked ham, homemade mayo, red onion, celery, alot of black pepper, a little salt, and a little cayenne. If you take this, put it on some really good, crusty bread, with a homegrown, fully ripe tomato and some bread and butter pickles, even some food geek like Thomas Keller or Steven Shaw would be axing for mo'.

And that's the story. I'm sticking to it.

Edited November 25, 2008 by Mayhaw Man (log)

[mizducky]

I think I can count the times I've bought any Underwood product on the fingers of one hand, but I have fond memories of their TV commercials in the early 1970s featuring Mason Reese, the little red-head boy who mispronounced smorgasbord as "borgasmord." Particularly because he was the spitting image of one of my little cousins.

Edited November 25, 2008 by mizducky (log)

[ruthcooks]

Canned deviled ham is kinda...well....mushy at room temperature. I've been eating it for around 60 years mixed roughly half and half with cream cheese on plain bread.

Come to think of it, this mixture would be fine on a bagel for breakfast.

[Dana]

Brooks, if that was my story I'd stick to it as well. What a fine memory.

My mom made Red Devil Dip out of deviled ham, mayo, ketchup and probably pickle relish. We rarely had dip - it was quite a treat.

I had forgotten about those commercials with the red headed boy. Those were very cute.

[munchymom]

My mom used to make English muffins spread with cream cheese and topped with deviled ham, cooked under the broiler. I used to love it, but I haven't had it in decades.

[brucesw]

Deviled ham was a favorite childhood treat, on white bread with mayo (probably Blue Plate). I liked it even better than American cheese and mayo on white or canned tuna fish and mayo on white with dill pickles.

I picked up some Underwood a few years ago on a nostalgic whim. Some childhood treats are best as memories.

I picked up some deviled Smithfield ham once in Richmond, I think at the airport while waiting for a flight. It was better; I just ate it out of the jar or on crackers.

[Ktepi]

I have a home-cured country ham hanging from the loft upstairs, and now I'm definitely going to devil some of it.

In the meantime, though, I just bought my first can of Underwood deviled ham.

[annecros]

I have a home-cured country ham hanging from the loft upstairs, and now I'm definitely going to devil some of it.

In the meantime, though, I just bought my first can of Underwood deviled ham.

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That's a good start. Underwood uses something sort of nutmeggy or something? There is a seasoning in there, related to a curry sort of thing, or maybe sort of Greek profile, that hits a high point on the palate. Works with the salty/sweet sort of thing.

I haven't isolated it yet. I just don't know. And I don't think it is MSG. I really don't. I can usually pick that out of a lineup.

[AlaMoi]

our butcher does super ham hocks.  got one on the simmer, last 4 hours.....

beans (cannellini ) / onion / whole black peppercorns . . .  included.

 

there will be leftovers.

I'm thinking to process the leftover ham hock meat into "deviled ham"

any ideas / experience in doing that?

[Katie Meadow]

A blast from the past. I looked up deviled ham on line to see what the packaging looked like. I remember the spread from my college days, especially that devil on the wrapper. Not being a church going soul this would have never occurred to me:

 

The term dates to the 19th century, and it was used to refer to foods that were spicy or zesty with the addition of mustard or pepper. In some regions of the South and the Midwest, deviled eggs are also called salad or dressed eggs when they are served at a church function, to avoid the term "deviled."

 

How to avoid those pesky questions from young children. What's next after banning books? Ban the can. It won't work.The devil's in the details.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

The term dates to the 19th century

 

Indeed.
 

Quote

2.2 Grilled with hot condiments.
 

   1800 Oracle in Spir. Publ. Jrnls. (1801) IV. 253 At half past two [I] ate a devil'd kidney.    1845 Disraeli Sybil iv. x, His table cleared, a devilled biscuit placed before him, a cool bottle and a fresh glass.    1855 Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xlii, The devilled chicken tasted like saw-dust.    1881 J. Grant Cameronians I. xviii. 276 An aroma of coffee and devilled bones.

 

Although, there are earlier 18th century references to devilments which was the noun for deviled foods. The verb came later.

Edited June 4, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[kayb]

On 6/3/2023 at 3:11 PM, AlaMoi said:

our butcher does super ham hocks.  got one on the simmer, last 4 hours.....

beans (cannellini ) / onion / whole black peppercorns . . .  included.

 

there will be leftovers.

I'm thinking to process the leftover ham hock meat into "deviled ham"

any ideas / experience in doing that?

I grind up leftover ham to a fairly smooth consistency, then stir in a bit of mayo, a somewhat bigger bit of Dijon mustard, some chopped cornichons. I have been known to chop up leftover deviled eggs and combine them. Alternatively, some grated sharp cheddar makes a good add-in.

[Tropicalsenior]

15 minutes ago, kayb said:

bit of mayo, a somewhat bigger bit of Dijon

I like to add just a tiny bit of wasabi. Not too much or it can really get devilish.

[blue_dolphin]

17 minutes ago, kayb said:

I grind up leftover ham to a fairly smooth consistency, then stir in a bit of mayo, a somewhat bigger bit of Dijon mustard, some chopped cornichons. 

Ditto that, though I reserve the whole cornichons as an accompaniment instead of chopping and mixing in  

 

4 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I like to add just a tiny bit of wasabi. Not too much or it can really get devilish.

I've never tried this but i like it!