Deviled ham, not to be confused with its distant cousin SPAM, is one of those items you’ll find in the canned meats section of your local grocery store. Basically it’s the ground up pieces of ham that the slaughterhouse couldn’t find any other use for so they blended it with a bunch of spices, threw it in a can and marketed it to the general public. To me, the end product looks way too much like wet cat food to be considered for human consumption.

The most popular of the canned variety of deviled ham belongs to The William Underwood Company that started selling the product as far back as 1868. You’re probably familiar with their logo. The can is encased in a white wrapper that bears the image of a devil replete with a pointed tail wielding a pitchfork and looks like he’s dancing. They trademarked that image way back in 1870 and it holds the distinction of being the oldest food trademark still in use here on our golden shores.

I’m pretty sure that Satan himself would be a little leery about eating a product whose shelf life is more than two or three years.

But, I’m not here to denigrate or endorse canned deviled ham. No, I’m here to provide you with a recipe of your very own in order to salvage the leftover bits from either your Easter or Christmas ham.

Here’s what you need.

Here’s what you do.

In a large bowl, combine the mayo, relish, Worcestershire, Tabasco and cayenne pepper and give them a quick stir. Set the mixture aside and wait for the main ingredient.

If you have a food processer take the chunks of ham and ground them for a few seconds. Then add the yellow onions and continue the process in small doses until a thick paste forms. (If you don’t have a food processor I guess a blender might do in a pinch. If you don’t have either, I guess you can stop reading.)

Scrape the ham concoction out of the processor/blender and add it to the bowl with the spices. Stir that until you think it’s evenly combined and presto, there you have it, your own fresh deviled ham.

You can usually spread this on crackers or toast and it will keep in the fridge in a closed container for 3 or 4 days.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.