Saturday, January 12, 2013

Recipe for Ham loaf

One of our family favorites is ham loaf - which was one of my Grandma Slagenweit's recipes. The start of which was always 2-3 lbs of ham loaf from Rhodes's Meat Market in Martinsburg, PA. Since you probably won't be in that area any time soon - I think probably a 50/50 ratio of ground ham and ground pork would work. Or you might want to check at a local meat market and see if they may have something similar to that ratio.
To 2lbs of ground meat you add:
1/2 tsp of season salt
1/4 tsp of accent
1Tbs. dried onion flakes or 1/8 cup chopped onion
sprinkle with parsley flakes
1 egg
1/2 package of crushed saltine crackers that have been soaked in milk (here I don't know the amount - just enough that the crackers are soggy)

Mix well and form into a loaf in a baking pan.

Mix the glaze together and pour over ham loaf.
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 Tbs. mustard
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup water

Cover and Bake at 350 for 60-75 minutes. Remove the foil the last 5 minutes to brown the meat a bit. Pan drippings can be thickened for gravy - it's a somewhat sweet gravy which some may or may not like.

Hint: Do not put the glaze on until ready to place in the oven. I made the mistake of making it one Saturday night and putting the glaze on so that all I had to do Sunday morning was put it in the oven. The glaze had so soaked into the meat it was inedible. Of course I also had company that day :o) Thankfully mishaps like that don't happen often!

2 comments:

Faithe said...

When we lived in Florida we couldn't buy hamloaf so I called Rhodes Meat Market to find out how they made theirs. They told me the ratio, and I had it custom-ground in a meat market nearby. But it never tasted like what I was used to having. Even the texture was different.

Now we have a meat market nearby that is every bit as good as Rhodes' -- and they already have the ingredients added....ready to bake. All I have to do is make the glaze. Thanks for the heads-up not to add it until just ready to bake. I didn't realize it would not work to put it on the night before. I'll learn from your "mistake."
As for my family, they LOVE the gravy. But I do think that's partially because they grew up with the flavor.

You're right, it was one of Mom's favorite dishes. So many reunions and family dinners just weren't complete unless she brought it.

Wonderful memories!!!

Down Blueberry Lane said...

I've had loaf a couple times and really like it. The glaze sounds wonderful! Thanks for sharing.