Ham - any tips for cheap but not nasty?

Lunar_Eclipse

Morning

I've just read on a packed lunches thread about someone buying 50 slices of ham for £1.40. That is incredibly cheap and so I guess is probably value/bargain ham that I wouldn't eat myself, but it's made me think.

We love ham sandwiches in our house and I make 3 packed lunches/day. Does anyone have any tips for reasonable value but high quality ham? I can't bring myself to buy ham in packets since anything that looks vaguely edible costs £2/pack upwards for about 4 small slices. I therefore buy from the deli and get about 6 wafer thin slices (3 sandwiches worth) for about £1 if I'm lucky. Once I asked for 10 slices and it cost just under £4. Ouch!

So I've thought that the obvious thing is to roast a ham myself. But I don't have good cutting equipment (I like it thin) and presumably couldn't eat it before it went off. Am I missing something, or does it need to be a case of putting aside a few slices from a weekly roast?

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Penelope_Penguin

This is the thread you want - ham economics

Penny. x

FairyElephant_2

Oh me too!

I can get DH to economise on most things, but ham is one where he won't budge (and I have to say I don't like the cheap ham either). His argument is that if he didn't take sandwiches he'd have to buy lunch, which would cost even more, so he's gonna have decent fillings in 'em!
He also doesn't eat fish or pate or lots of other 'sandwich fillings' - it's basically ham, cheese, corned beef or sliced roast beef......

I do buy the 'whoops' stickered stuff whenever poss, and you can freeze it if you get a good deal on larger packs (I bag up a couple of slices at a time so it's easy to defrost just what you need). Have done this with ham & beef slices, and even cheese when it's been near the date!

sb44

I can't see it on their website but we used to buy tins of Tesco Premium Ham.

You can buy them in singles but I used to buy a double pack for about £1.99.

Look for small dark red tins in a red coloured cardboard sleeve, obv in the cooked meats aisle, normally on the top shelf.

These were quite good quality and slice quite nicely for sandwiches.

sb44

FairyElephant wrote: »

I do buy the 'whoops' stickered stuff whenever poss, and you can freeze it if you get a good deal on larger packs (I bag up a couple of slices at a time so it's easy to defrost just what you need). Have done this with ham & beef slices, and even cheese when it's been near the date!

I always thought you had to freeze meats etc in some kind of gravy, is it ok to freeze them dry then?

WestonDave

I tend to buy Asda's in store ex deli packed ham which normally works out at about £4 for 500g and usually consists of ten decent thickness slices. Its normally in a just a clear base with film over and a label on it stating the type of ham and sell by date. I tend to go for the oak smoked which is that price but the breaded is also nice. In the Asda near work they normally have a seperate fridge full of it with a number of different types.

Obukit

You can also slice a gammon joint with a normal knife as long as it's very sharp rather than using a slicer. Because gammon is a very dense meat it's easier then it sounds.

newlywed

I buy lidl wafter thin - no added water ham.

Not slimey like most cheap ham - it's like proper meat - and costs a couple of quid for a big pack -just need to check how long the dates have on them when you buy them

CoD_2

buy a big gammon joint, roast and then slice thinly, i then froze in packs of 2 slices and got one out each night. cost £6 for 1.8kg which gave me about 1.5kg of meat average ham from deli cost c1.20 per 100g so £18 of sliced ham for £6 (plus cost of oven and glaze (honey)

Bella79

i use lidils premium roast ham i think its about £2.30 but its is lovely and u gert loads

webitha

in my tesco, they have a bowl of ham ends, basically all the bits of ham that have been cut and cant sell so they sell them dirt cheap, i can get a huuuge bagful for about £2