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Have been searching, and there are so many different recipes, thought I'd ask here first. Do you have a favorite?
Tried some recently that were so good, I am hungry for them again. These seemed to have corn flakes in them.

Thanks!

Karen - here's one I'd really like to try.


http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ham-loaf-ii/Detail.aspx

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wannaquilt2,

I haven't made these in a long time, I may just have to do now that you've jogged my memory of them
Ham balls:
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1-1/4 cups quick-cooking oats
2-1/2 pounds ground fully cooked ham
Sauce:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
1-3/4 cups pineapple juice
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3 tablespoons cider vinegar 4-1/2 teaspoons dijon mustard
Combine eggs, milk, oats, and ham mixing well. Shape into 1-1/2 inch balls .
Place in a greased 15x10x1 baking pan.
In a saucepan combine the brown sugar, cornstarch, and cloves.
Stir in pineapple juice, corn syrup, vinegar, and mustard until smooth.
Bring to a boil over medium heat; cooking and stirring for 2 minutes.
Pour over ham balls
Bake; uncovered at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until browned.
Serves 10

I have never heard of this recipe. I have heard of it made as meatballs with beef but never ham. The only recipe I have is for sweet pickle and ham sandwich filling.

quote:

Originally posted by flboy:
I have never heard of this recipe. I have heard of it made as meatballs with beef but never ham. The only recipe I have is for sweet pickle and ham sandwich filling.

Really?...well now you're going to have to try them I was at a market a couple weeks ago and saw ground bacon for the first time. I guess it makes sense to grind it, I just never would've thought of it.

Years ago I developed this recipe myself from research of many other recipes and have been preparing them and sharing the recipe ever since. I now prefer the second sauce but it is rich.


Hawaiian Ham Loaves
With 2 variations of sauce
Makes 16 individual loaves

Ingredients for ham loaves:
1/3 pound graham crackers, crushed fine (11 oblong whole or 22 squares)
¾ cup or one small can 6 ounce size tomato juice
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 pound ground lean ham
1 pound ground pork
1 pound lean ground beef

2 – 20 ounce cans pineapple rings, drain & reserve juice
Maraschino cherries, whole

Method:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the tomato juice, milk, eggs and graham cracker crumbs until smooth. Add ground meats and combine lightly until mixture is combined fairly evenly, however, do not overmix or this makes meat loaves tough.

Depending on size of the individual loaves you prefer, portion out the mixture and shape into round balls with one flat side. (I use 2/3 cup of mixture per serving).
Place the loaves on pineapple ring and arrange in large baking pan. Top each loaf with one cherry.

There are 2 sauce variations to choose from:
Basting Sauce #1
Reserved pineapple juice, add water if necessary to equal 1 & 1/3 cup
½ cup vinegar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
¾ cup brown sugar
Combine the basting sauce ingredients together and spoon over top of loaves. Cover with foil and bake at 325˚ for 40 minutes. Remove foil, baste loaf tops with sauce again and continue baking for 30 minutes longer, uncovered.

Barbeque Sauce #2
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 ¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
In medium bowl combine all sauce ingredients together until smooth. Spoon sauce generously over loaves. Bake uncovered at 350˚ one hour, midway through baking time, baste sauce over loaves again.
This mixture also works well for cocktail size meatballs or 2 large loaves. Adjust baking time accordingly.

Variation: use spiced apple rings instead of pineapple rings, made a smaller loaf, about 1/3 cup to ½ cup of the meat mixture. Bake the loaves by themselves and set them atop the apple ring when ready to serve.

Variations:
For a large loaf instead of individual loaves - shape mixture into two or three loaves as you would for any meatloaf, you can omit pineapple and cherries if you prefer. Bake with sauce of choice as directed. Slice when ready to serve.

Shape the mixture into round balls and omit the pineapple and cherries.
Bake with the sauce of your choice as directed.

That's what I'm doing, research!
Like flboy, I'd never heard of them before, tho I've used a ham loaf recipe for many years. It was love at first bite.

I've found recipes that have soda or butter crackers, bread crumbs, oatmeal, corn flakes, and graham crackers. The meats usually ground pork and ground ham, but sometimes beef, too. Most if not all have mustard in some form. The glaze ingredients also vary are sweet/sour combo.

Lurah, do you always use graham crackers? I haven't tried them, yet, but wonder about the something special they bring to the mix, and even tho I always use tomato in meatloaf, haven't tried a 'red' version of ham loaf/balls...yet. Thanks for sharing all your research. The variations sound great!

While we're at this, any suggestions for healthiest but tastiest versions?

ETA Ice cream scoop works great shaping the ham balls.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wildcatmom,

Wildcatmom - I always use graham crackers. It was a common denominator to several recipes when I researched. I use all different kinds of crumbs for various and assorted baking: Gingersnaps, chocolate wafers, rusk, vanilla wafers, soda crackers, plus the obvious graham crackers, bread, seasoned or plain dry breadcrumbs. Try cinnamon graham crackers for a pie crust.