Ham balls are a Midwest holiday tradition. And maybe an acquired taste.
The first time a friend from Iowa tried to describe the deliciousness of ham balls, I nearly threw up in my mouth. I could not imagine that mixing ground ham and ground beef with graham cracker crumbs would be anything but disgusting.
Yet here I am, a decade or so later, making ham balls for the holidays, incorporating a longstanding Midwest tradition that originated in Iowa or Nebraska as my own.
I had to be coached by my stepdaughter the first time I tried to make them. She was tutored by my Aunt Gene, who got the recipe from a late great, second cousin, Nancy Crow.
Nancy served as the cook for many years at Wakarusa School and became most famous and beloved for her cinnamon rolls. (It must have been some kind of rule that schools had to serve the rolls with chili, at least in Kansas and Missouri.)
The cinnamon roll-chili combo takes a page from the ham ball playbook with the sweet graham crackers in the meatballs melding deliciously with the brown sugar in the sauce they’re baked in.
My ham ball touting friend from Iowa said the lore surrounding the dish had cooks rushing around to be the first on the block or quarter-mile gravel road to produce their holiday ham balls. And if you know anything about Midwest gardeners taking giant vegetables to the local newspaper to be photographed, you’ll recognize this quaint drive for bragging rights.
If I tried to grind the meat with my old-fashioned, hand-crank grinder it would take me until New Year’s Day.
Before I share our extended family recipe, here are a few pointers:
Do not attempt ham balls unless you are a lazy cook like I am and have access to a local meat locker, smokehouse or a butcher. A few weeks before Christmas I give Herman’s Meat & Smokehouse in north Topeka, KS a call and place my standing order for 2-1/2 pounds of ground ham, 2 lbs. of ground pork and 1 lb. of ground beef. In my defense, they’ve got big machines that do the heavy lifting! If I tried to do it with my old-fashioned hand-crank meat grinder it would take me until New Year’s Day.
It also helps to have a heavy-duty stand mixer with a dough hook to incorporate the graham cracker crumbs into the meat.
And for the certifiably lazy cook, you can just use frozen meatballs and cook them in the special sauce; although I doubt that will get you any rave reviews from your family.
Here is your gift for Christmas, my family’s recipe for what Nancy called Memorial Day Ham Loaves. At least that’s the heading printed in the Community Favorites II cookbook compiled by Wakarusa Presbyterian Church. Some of my family members probably regretted that title because the Auburn, KS Alumni Association requested a whole bunch of these for a reunion a few years ago. Since then my relatives who catered the event probably never want to see another ham ball.
To keep them from throwing up in their mouths if they read this, I’m giving it a different heading.
Nancy Crow’s Holiday Ham Balls
2-1/2 lbs. ground ham
2 lbs. ground pork
1 lb. ground beef
3 eggs
3 ups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups milk
Salt to taste (since ham is usually pretty salty, I omit this. Who wants to taste raw meat anyway?)
Grind the meat (or have your butcher do it for you). Use a food processor or blender to finely crumb the graham crackers. Put a third or half of the ground meat into a large stand mixer bowl. Using a dough hook, start incorporating the eggs, milk and graham cracker crumbs into the meat. Gradually add the remainder of the meat and other ingredients.
Using disposable food grade gloves sprayed with Pam and a large scoop (also sprayed with Pam), start forming the meatballs, placing them in cake pans or Pyrex baking dishes. This recipe makes at least 36 meatballs, so you will need an extra-large pan or maybe two smaller ones. Alternatively, you can make one pan and wrap the rest of the meatballs individually in waxed paper and freeze them for later use).
Sauce:
1 can of condensed tomato soup
1/3 cup vinegar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 cup brown sugar
Mix the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and place over medium heat, stirring until it comes to a boil and turns a dark red-brown color. Cool for a short time before pouring over the meatballs.
Put the meatballs in pre-heated over at 350 degrees for one hour. I cover the ham balls with foil and bake for 45 minutes, removing the pan and taking off the foil. I spoon the sauce over the meatballs then put it back in the oven to continue baking. The sauce will form a glazed crust over the ham balls.
Be sure to let them cool for ten to 15 minutes before serving.
I take no credit for these hints or this family recipe. I’m just continuing the holiday tradition and sharing the family legacy.