This glazed ham ball recipe is pure Midwestern comfort food—sweet, savory, tender, and baked in a caramelized brown-sugar glaze. Grammy made these ham balls for every holiday and potluck, and they were always the first dish to disappear. Here’s how to make this old-fashioned favorite the traditional way.
My husband's mom had this ham ball recipe nailed. She could whip out a pan of delicious ham balls the whole family loved. Grammy made no secret that she did not like to cook, but the woman had perfected a few dishes she could serve when company came over, and this was one of her best. She could knock this recipe out of the park.
I don't think Grammy ever called them Iowa ham balls like I always do, but my husband's family on his dad's side all came to Nebraska from Luxembourg by way of Iowa, and I was born there. About a third of the pork we eat in the US comes from Iowa, so it is with great pride that Iowans have come to claim this tasty dish as theirs.
Recently, I posed a question to my Facebook friends, asking what cozy food they'd like me to discuss. We just had the first real snowstorm in years (about a foot of snow), and everyone was feeling all "nesty" and hungry for comfort food.
Some answers were shepherd's pie, meatloaf, potato soup, chicken chili, and HAM BALLS! I knew right away I had to make Grammy's ham ball recipe! I had some leftover ham in the freezer from Thanksgiving and some ground pork from the last time I made Frikadeller, which is also a comforting dish from Denmark.
It's such an easy recipe! Crush graham crackers to make one and three-fourths cups of crumbs. As a rule of thumb, you will need seven or eight full sheets of graham crackers for each cup of crumbs. So, figure on about twelve or thirteen full rectangles. It's a speedy task in a food processor.
This ham ball recipe is an excellent way to use leftover ham. If you have one, grind or chop the ham using a food processor or a meat grinder. Begin by cutting the ham into cubes, then grinding it. If you use a food processor, stop while there is some nice texture; don't over-process it into a pasty consistency.
Put the ground pork, ham, eggs, instant minced onions, and milk in a large bowl and mix until well combined. I found my Danish whisk is the perfect tool for this job!
The meat mixture should be moist enough to scoop and firm enough to hold its shape when formed into a ball. I used a #12 ice cream scoop (you will find the number printed on the side) to measure about one-third of a cup of meat into ham balls and lined them up in a baking pan, like little soldiers.
This ham ball recipe yields twenty-four ham balls, each approximately the size of a mandarin orange. I placed nine in a square baking pan and fifteen in a nine-by-thirteen pan for sharing. If we weren't lucky enough to have kids in town, these yummy ham balls would freeze well, too!
Bake the meatballs in a 350°F oven for about 45 minutes, then remove them from the oven and brush them with the glaze made from ketchup, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar. Return them to the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the glaze has slightly browned. It just might be the best part of the recipe!
Serve these meatballs with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable for a perfect "farm food" meal! You can also make them much smaller and serve them as appetizers, but be sure to bake them in a single layer.
You may be surprised to see Graham crackers as an ingredient, but their slightly sweet flavor pairs well with the ham. If you want, you can substitute saltine crackers for all or part of the crumbs, but please do try the graham crackers at least once! They are perfect in this dish. You might also try using Ritz crackers for all or part of the crumbs to achieve a more savory flavor profile in this ham ball recipe.
Tasty meatballs made of ground ham and ground pork in a sweet and tangy glaze of ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and dry mustard.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the ground ham, pork, eggs, graham cracker crumbs, milk, and minced onion in a large bowl.
3. Mix the ham ball ingredients gently; do not overwork the mixture.
4. Shape into balls using a large cookie, ice cream scoop, or ⅓ cup measuring cup for an entree-size portion.
You can shape the mixture into smaller meatballs to serve as an appetizer.
5. Arrange in a single layer in a 9x13-inch baking dish. I needed to use a second smaller pan to hold all the meatballs.
6. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
7. Whisk the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.
8. Remove the meatballs from the oven after baking for 45 minutes and brush with the glaze.
9. Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes or until the glaze browns slightly.
This recipe yields a large quantity of ham balls, but you can easily halve the recipe or freeze some for later use. This might be a great dish to serve for a holiday instead of a traditional ham. Kids love them!
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🥕 Dilled Carrots: A beautiful side dish. Crisp-tender sliced carrots with the perfect amount of onion and dill in a slightly sweet, buttery glaze. Our grandkids always ask for this dish!
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🌽 Jiffy Corn Casserole: A classic corn casserole, also known as spoonbread, was developed by the Jiffy Foodservice company in the 1960s and is still as popular today.
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Love, GB (Betty Streff)
Real food. Real kitchen. Real easy.
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I always thought ham balls were a Lancaster PA tradition.It is the standard company meal when you are invited home from a Mennonite church for Sunday dinner. When you get away from Lancaster county everyone gives you a puzzled look when you say you are making ham balls. There is a local meat shop that makes the mix of ham and pork and you can buy it fresh in 5 pound sleeves or frozen in a loaf pan. It's known as Wengers ham loaf in our area and it is famous. No locals buy any other kind. I found your recipe because I usually don't glaze mine but want to for Easter. Glad to if I visit Iowa I can find one of my favorite foods.
Oh how I love this!! There's a sausage shop in Eustis Nebraska that sells a German meatloaf mixture like that!! It's fabulous and the recipe is a secret!! Check out my article about German sauerkraut here on my blog and it will tell you more about our adventures in Eustis!!