Homemade ham loaf is a favorite in most Amish communities around the holidays. Most Amish don't have a Honeybaked Ham store nearby so they'll dip into their own supply of home butchered pork, which includes ham, sausage, pork chops, and other cuts.
Hog butchering in most Amish settlements is done during the late winter. It's a messy, hot job that you wouldn't want to do in the middle of July, that is for sure. Most Amish do their butchering as a family, but some Amish churches make it a church-wide activity. This is a great description of the event from Gloria:
They plan to spend several days with Daniel’s brother John and his family before returning to our house for the following weekend. Tuesday and Wednesday will be the big butchering days for our church. There are 21 hogs to be turned to sausage, bologna, bacon, kielbasa, liverwurst, and the likes. It’s a major undertaking, yet many hands make work light.
The assortment of jobs is large enough that most folks can find something they are comfortable with doing, even if they aren’t fond of butchering itself. Besides the actual butchering, there is mixing pork with seasoning, then packaging the seemingly endless stream of huge bowls and totes of sausage or marking packages. Then there is always a need of hearts who are willing to scrub sticky canners and totes for hours — literally! Then there is always the need for serving the food we ladies had prepared the days before.
Oh yes, I think I forgot to mention the butchering event is hosted here at our woodworking shop since it has the needed space for all the grinders, stuffers, our 80 church folks, and so on.
An Amish homemaker typically has a pretty ready supply of meats on hand and they know how to stretch it’s use. In most Amish settlements, the meats are your typical chicken and beef. In some of the Amish settlements I have visited out west elk and even bear meat is common. Bear or elk meat can be blended with hamburger to take the edge off the “gamey” taste and stretch the meat supply. Here is a good ham loaf recipe using a blend of meats. This comes from an Amish woman in Millersburg, Ohio. As is typical of Amish recipes the instructions are a little sparse, but I think most of you will be able to figure it out.
Most Amish wouldn't use an electric food processor to grind, but you can! Most Amish would grind it by hand, a long and laborious process.
You can grind it into this....
And then plate it and pair it with some vegetables. As you can see, the ham loaf slices very well!
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🐖Ham Loaf Ingredients
LOAF
- 5 pounds equal amounts beef, ham, and sausage, ground
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1 cup white cracker crumbs
- 1 1 /2 cups milk
SAUCE
- 3 /4 cup brown sugar
- 1 /2 teaspoon mustard
- 1 /4 cup vinegar
- 1 /4 cup water
📋 Instructions
- Mix the loaf ingredients until combined thoroughly.
- Shape into loaves in baking pans.
- Baste with half the sauce:
- Cover with foil and bake at 350 for one hour.
- Remove foil and baste with remaining sauce and bake one more hour.
🥩 Additional Meatloaf Recipes
Marriage Meatloaf
Amish Biscuit Meatloaf
Amish Cheddar Meatloaf
>Amish Hot Dog Meatloaf
Rebecca Stoll's Pot Roast Meatloaf
🥩Additional Loaf Recipes
> Mrs. Stoltzfuss's Ham Loaf
> Amish Liver Loaf
> Homemade Amish Chicken Loaf
> Homemade Pizza Loaf
> Amish Fish Loaf
🖨️ Printer-Friendly Amish Ham Loaf
Amish Ham Loaf
Ingredients
LOAF
- 5 pounds equal amounts beef ham, and sausage, ground
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1 cup white cracker crumbs
- 1 1 /2 cups milk
SAUCE
- 3 /4 cup brown sugar
- 1 /2 teaspoon mustard
- 1 /4 cup vinegar
- 1 /4 cup water
Instructions
- Mix the loaf ingredients until combined thoroughly.
- Shape into loaves in baking pans.
- Baste with half the sauce:
- Cover with foil and bake at 350 for one hour.
- Remove foil and baste with remaining sauce and bake one more hour.
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