Homemade Deviled Ham {Leftovers Recipe}

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A classic in Southern cooking, homemade deviled ham makes a great sandwich spread, cracker topping, or mix in! This is a great way to use leftover spiral ham.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate ugly food, darlings. Deviled ham definitely isn’t beautiful, but it is versatile, and delicious. Deviled ham takes me back to church potlucks and my mother’s first forays into making deviled eggs (thanks to said potlucks). Her recipe for deviled eggs was to dump a can of deviled ham into some egg yolks, mash, and scoop back into the whites. Deviled eggs must have deviled ham, right? There was no google back then to search for and compare recipes for “authenticity”, so this seems like a plausible conclusion, right?

A few years after we moved out of the South, I wanted to make my mama’s deviled eggs. I found a slightly dusty (but not expired) can of deviled ham and mashed a little with some egg yolks, but it was so salty. I knew there had to be a way to make a better version. the idea sat on a list for a while until we found ourselves with loads of leftover ham from this recipe. There are only so many leftover ham sandwiches and ham-topped salads one can eat. It was finally time to make homemade deviled ham. Shame on me for not trying this sooner. It’s still not beautiful food, but not everything beautiful is delicious and not everything delicious is beautiful. Homemade deviled ham makes a great filling for tea sandwiches or topping for crackers, which is mostly how we enjoyed it.

Interesting side story for closing… The Godfather swore he never had deviled ham growing up because his neighborhood was definitely not “Southern” in any way. Wasn’t he surprised when he realized the Cuban bakeries that sell the trays of bocaditos (little sandwiches) are just filling them with creamier deviled ham and pimiento cheese? Good food gets around, darlings. 😉 Enjoy!