Stuffed Potato Surprise: or, Are you plagued with leftover ham?

Autumn is upon us! Inflatable ghosts and witches have sprouted in many people's yards. The supermarkets are replacing the beach balls and picnic sets with pumpkins and plastic skeletons. Large hams are once again migrating into the meat section. For those who will soon struggle with the problem of leftover ham crowding out the drinks in your refrigerator, Helping the Homemaker is here for you!

Stuffed Potato Surprise 4 baked potatoes* 2 tbsp cream ¼ tsp paprika ¼ tsp onion salt ¼ tsp celery salt ½ cup chopped cooked ham 2 tbsp butter Heat oven to 375°. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop out centers while still hot, and mash. Stir in rest of ingredients and beat until fluffy. Scoop this mixture back into the potato cases. Bake 10 minutes. *Even if you usually don't like microwaving your potatoes, it's fine for this recipe. They will get crisp after baking them again. "Helping the Homemaker;" Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram; October 17, 1934; page 5

Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram; October 17, 1934; page 5

Based on old refrigerator ads, leftover hams used to be quite the problem in earlier decades. Those of us who only purchase a ham for various large holidays will never know the struggle of earlier homemakers, who had to figure out how to get their grousing husbands and whining children to eat the rest of the extra-large ham that took up an entire shelf in the refrigerator. (As a reminder, most 1930s "family size" refrigerators and iceboxes were the size of the mini-fridges that college students put in their dorm rooms today. People did not have the space to casually let leftovers sit for a week.)

Getting to today's recipe, I like to make twice-baked potatoes as a way to stretch meat. However, I tend to be a little more extravagant than Helping the Homemaker, adding such expenses as chopped green onions and bell peppers. But even with such wanton grocery spending as fresh produce, twice-baked potatoes let you get four or even six economical servings out of a single pound of beef.  Helping the Homemaker is using the same method to make a single slice of ham serve four people.

 

I have to credit Helping the Homemaker for writing such an easy recipe. After scooping out the insides of the potatoes, we were halfway done. Also, the paltry amount of things in the mixing bowl is a harsh reminder that there was a depression on. We don't even have fresh onions-- just onion salt.

The quarter-teaspoon of paprika in this recipe is doing a lot of the work in making these potatoes look like we loaded them with rich ingredients. You would almost think I mixed in so much ham that the spuds can barely hold themselves together.

You will note that for one of the potatoes, I went off-recipe and added cheese on top. We all know that ham and cheese go together like pumpkin-spice and lattes. But because cheese may have been too expensive for the economizing household of 1934, I left it off the other spud. After all, it's silly to make big changes to a recipe without first trying it as written (unless you're omitting the walnuts from brownies, of course).

The cheese-topped potato had a certain "institutional cafeteria" pallor to it after baking, but a minute or two under the broiler would have solved that had I the patience.

I don't think I need to tell you that these were really good. It's hard to argue with ham and potatoes. Also, you can slap these together really quickly. They make a good hot lunch on a chilly day (when we get around to having those), and are also a nice light supper for when the rest of the day was full of rich, heavy foods.

I do love when the good recipes are also the easy ones. This one may seem too simple to be worth writing down, much less putting in the newspaper. But I had never thought to put ham into twice-baked potatoes before. As the season of leftover ham approaches, spuds are a great way to serve it.