How Ham Salad Went From A Funeral Food To A Southern Sandwich Staple

If you've ever met anyone who associates simple, tasty ham salad with sadder times, there's a reason: The dish was once well-known as a funeral food. The reasons ham salad became popular in the first place are the same factors that made it ideal for post-funeral luncheons. It's a crowd-pleaser, but it's quite easy to make, and affordable to do so. In a time when a family is already taxed by emotional and mental burdens — not to mention many other expenses — ham salad made it easy to feed many mourners at once. Again, however, the dish's effortlessness and salty, creamy, crunchy appeal helped it move from being funeral fare to an all-around southern sandwich staple.

Some fascinating history predates ham salad's turn as a funeral go-to. A 14th-century recipe for ham cooked in a gelatinous broth is seen as a sort of medieval lead-up to ham salads. A couple of centuries later, vegetables still used today like onions and celery entered the mix; then, eventually, mayonnaise started replacing the gelatin. In the United States, meatpacking plants proliferated after the Civil War, and canned, salted, ready-to-eat hams began popping up at stores around the country. Once so many Americans had access to prepared ham, recipes began appearing for chopping it up and mixing it with things like vinegar or mustard and hard-boiled eggs; mayonnaise re-entered the ham salad scene by the start of the 20th century, and people began adding the now-classic celery and pickle relish.

Right as the general public was settling into a groove of combining chopped ham with mayo and pickle relish — and sometimes adding in other popular extras like Dijon mustard, onions, celery, and hard-boiled eggs — the country entered into the Great Depression. It became more vital than ever to make use of every bit of food, and try to make that food stretch to feed as many people as possible. Ham salad was a great way to do so. People could chop or grind up every last ham trimming and make it into something creamy with the mayo and crunchy with the relish — a salty, rich delight with a hint of acidity and brine. And they could easily make larger quantities, toss it all into a container, and bring it to a loved one's house with crackers or white bread, which is how the dish became essential at funeral luncheons.

Today, baked dishes that serve a crowd — like Utah's "funeral potatoes" casserole — may have upstaged ham salad at repasts, but ham salad has remained a favorite, especially in the southern United States, where you can find it in diners or served up at home gatherings in biscuits or atop deviled eggs. That's because it's still a snap to whip up a classic ham salad, a great option for something like a big barbecue or family reunion. And that hard-boiled egg addition can stretch ham salad even further.