The culinary preparation entails combining shredded or diced cured pork, typically pre-cooked and glazed with a saccharine coating, with mayonnaise or an identical emulsified dressing. This combination is then complemented with varied elements akin to celery, onion, candy pickle relish, and spices to create a chilly, spreadable dish sometimes served on bread, crackers, or lettuce cups. A generally referenced iteration makes use of a selected model of pre-cooked ham famend for its distinctive preparation methodology and candy flavoring as its main protein supply.
This sort of preparation gives a handy and palatable methodology for using leftover vacation ham. The dishs creation minimizes meals waste whereas concurrently offering a comparatively cheap and easy lunch or snack possibility. Its roots possible stem from the broader custom of meat salads, which turned fashionable in the USA through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as developments in meals preservation and refrigeration made processed meats extra accessible.