Pappa Dukes' Famous Ham Salad

Ham salad in a sweet soft roll

So far I have brought you two hit recipes by Momma B. I am now presenting to you another family favorite: the ham salad, by none other than Pappa Dukes. If you know anything about the B-clan you know that Pappa Dukes is the resident chef in the household. Any major holiday he is your go-to guy. He cooks the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and many of the other 362 dinners a year.

I love love LOVE this ham salad. First of all, I like ham (how can I not!), but I am obsessed with pickles! Ham meets pickle, pickle falls in love with ham, ham and pickle live together happily ever after. To me this recipe is a match made in heaven! It's sweet, it's salty, it's juicy, soft and crunchy. It's perfection. Pappa Dukes serves it in a soft sweet roll but as far as I am concerned I could just spoon it out of the dish and eat it just like that. What?!? I don't see anything wrong with that!

SB actually is not a huge fan of ham but he looooooves this ham salad. It's that good.

Here we go:

• 2-3 lbs of boneless sugar (or honey, or maple) cured ham, not the sliced deli meat, get a whole chunk
• 1 (16 oz) jar of gherkin pickles
• Hellmanns mayo

Cut the ham into big cubes. Add the ham and pickles into a food processor and pulse together. Don't puree - you don't want it to be mush. You still want to know and see what you are eating. Transfer mixture into a bowl and stir in the entire jar of pickle juice (I KNOW!! How awesome!! Music to my ears!!). Stir in Hellmanns mayo until the salad is moist (about 1/4 cup). Use your judgment. You don't want the mayo to overwhelm the salad. It really is only there to bind the ham together. You want to err on the side of less rather than more. You can always add but not take away! There you go! Serve in a sweet bun and you are ready to eat! YUM!!!


This ham salad keeps for about 7 days in the fridge.

Happy eating!!

JThis entry is dedicated to executive chef Pappa Dukes