Holiday Tip #2

Well what do you know? The holiday tip list is longer than one item. Ha ha.

Here's the tip:

If you'll be baking a ham for Christmas or New Year's, don't forget that you can use all parts of that ham. This particularly applies to bone-in hams. 

image:https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/glazed_baked_ham/

Four parts of a bone-in ham to make sure you use

1-Obviously, all of the meat is useful as is.

2-Liquid drippings from baking. Drippings are a combination of caramelized meat juices and liquified fat. This liquid makes a delicious gravy, even if you don't plan on using the gravy with the meal for which you baked the ham. The gravy would be wonderful on biscuits or mashed potatoes another day. Like other parts of the ham, the drippings can be frozen until needed.

3-Ham bones make delicious, flavorful stock. I like to oven-roast the bone after just about all of the meat has been picked off of it.  I place the bone on a baking sheet with raised edges and roast at about 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Then I place the bone into water and simmer for several hours. The baking sheet may have some fat on it from roasting the bone. I pour that off into a container and save it in the fridge to use in cooking. Once the bone has simmered in the water for a few hours, I remove it from the heat, cool and pick the remaining meat off to use in soup, pouring the stock into freezer containers. 

Most folks dispose of the bone at this point. However, there is such a thing as "second stock," where the now-spent bone is simmered with vegetables and herbs in fresh water, extracting the last bits of flavor and nutrients (such as collagen). Second stock can be used as liquid in soups and stews, or as cooking liquid for vegetable dishes (where ever you might splash a bit of water). Second stock can also be used to dilute and stretch a first-run batch of stock when making soup.

Ham stock is really great in split pea and navy bean soups, as well as to make a nice binding sauce for casseroles when combined with some milk, flour, and seasonings. If you can't make the stock the same week that you bake the ham, wrap the bone in foil and/or plastic and toss it in the freezer to do later.

4-And finally, all of the fat on the ham can be rendered to be used in cooking later. I store our rendered ham fat in the freezer and chop off a bit as needed when cooking. 

To render the fat from a ham, dice the ham fat into 1/4-inch dices. It doesn't matter if there's a little bit of meat on the fat. Dice it all. In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the fat dices over low, stirring occasionally. The fat will liquify slowly. When the fat is just about all rendered, you will have both liquid fat and small, dark and crispy bits, known as the cracklings. Cracklings are tasty for topping bowls of soup, fresh salads, added to cornbread or biscuit dough, or topping creamy pasta dishes, adding flavor much like bacon bits. Any cracklings that I'm not using right away I store in the freezer. Also, if you don't think you'll get to rendering ham fat in a timely manner, you can cut off and freeze the pieces of fat until a day that you do have time for rendering. 

We use ham fat for sautéing veggies, cooking egg dishes, and pan or oven-frying. If the ham fat seems to have too over-powering of a taste for a particular dish, I dilute it with part vegetable oil for that dish.

Years ago I posted about rendering ham fat for use in cooking later. See this post. I get many clicks on this post during the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Years. So I thought some of you might also be interested in these how-to's.

I feel that using as much of a meat product as possible not only saves some money, but it's also a respectful thing to do for the animal used for cooking, and it spares other foods in the chain for the global population. *stepping off my soap box now*

I was at WinCo this morning. Their hams are priced at $1.89 for a butt portion bone-in ham. Fred Meyer has bone-in hams on sale this week for 97 cents/ lb with a $25 purchase. If I can think of $25 worth of food or household goods to buy at Fred Meyer, that may be the way to go. Will you be baking a ham this holiday season?

What Was in My Grocery Cart for November 2024?

Nov 4  I did my shopping at Walmart this week. I bought a pint of whipping cream, head of cabbage, bunch of bananas, 1 can of apple juice concentrate (for making spice cider on Thanksgiving, mixing in some crabapple juice and a sliced tangerine), 4 packs turkey snack sticks, 2 3-lb boxes elbow macaroni, 1 gallon milk, 2 2-lb bags powdered sugar. Spent $34.62

Nov 10  Fred Meyer after church for instant decaf coffee. We also got 1 bagged salad for free with coupon, and 2 bags of tortilla chips. Spent $10.47 

Nov 17 My husband and I stopped at Fred Meyer after church for milk While there we also checked the clearance aisle. I bought 1 marked down jar of coconut curry sauce (my husband wanted this -- it'll make an easy meal), 4 dented cans of green beans, 5 large cans of mixed nuts (no idea why these were marked down, but they were a steal), and a bunch of bananas. Spent $34.11

Nov 18 My daughter was near WinCo in the AM, so she stopped in and picked up some apples for us. spent $4.

Nov 23 My big shopping for the month at WinCo. 10-lb bag of all-purpose flour, 5-lb bag bread flour, 10-lb bag potatoes, 1 acorn squash, turkey breakfast sausage, 1 lb sliced pepperoni (for pizzas), natural peanut butter, salt, frozen fish sticks, mayonnaise, 5 lbs carrots, 8 lbs butter, dried dates, 2-pack pork sirloin roasts, celery, bananas, mushrooms, tangerines, apples. Spent $97.88

Nov 25  I needed to get just a couple of last things for Thanksgiving Day. First I stopped at Grocery Outlet 12 oz frozen sausage (for stuffing), 12 oz bacon. Spent $5.49 at GO. Across the street, Walmart 2 packs turkey snack sticks, 1 canister onion powder. Spent $8.44 at Walmart.

My total in person spending for November was $195.01. Eek! That's a little more than I'd planned. We also paid for our next batch of beef this month, even though we won't receive it until December. That cost $359.00 So, my total spending for groceries in November came to $554.01. December's spending will be a lot lower, even with Christmas and New Year's to shop for, simply because December won't be a beef month for the budget.

What I bought:

fresh, frozen and canned produce

head of cabbage

3 bunches of bananas

bagged salad mix

several pounds of apples

10 lbs potatoes

celery

bag of tangerines

fresh mushrooms

5 lbs carrots

acorn squash

frozen apple juice concentrate

4 cans green beans

dairy

pint whipping cream

2 gallons milk

8 lbs butter

meat

6 packs turkey snack sticks

turkey breakfast sausage

sliced pepperoni

fish sticks (for busy days, cheaper than fast food for a family)

2 sirloin pork roasts (for smoking)

pork sausage

pork bacon

large order of beef

pantry foods

6 lbs dried pasta

4 lbs powdered sugar

jar of instant decaf coffee

2 bags tortilla chips 

jar coconut curry sauce

5 large cans mixed nuts

10 lbs all-purpose flour

5 lbs bread flour

mayonnaise

dates

small jar onion powder

from the bulk section

natural peanut butter

salt

This was a very heavy meat purchasing month. Not only did we pay for our next batch of beef, but I also bought a few pounds of pork, lots of sausage (for Thanksgiving sausage and for daily breakfasts), and enough pepperoni for 5 pizzas. The turkey snack sticks add up. But I'm willing to buy them because they make a healthier snack than carb-heavy cookies, cakes, and breads. 

I also stocked up on butter this month, adding to the stash each time I found it on sale. I now have about 20 lbs of butter in the freezer. If it's still at it's lower price of $3.48/lb later this week, I may buy another few pounds, enough to get us through all of the holiday baking and tide us over till Easter sales. 

There are some foods we could do without (like the tortilla chips). However, a little fun food goes a long way in keeping spirits upbeat. For example, I used almost one entire bag of tortilla chips to make beef and bean nachos one night for dinner. I was using up some of the last of the garden tomatoes and green onions in this meal, too. My family loved having nachos as the dinner that night.

I didn't buy a whole lot specifically for Thanksgiving, as I've mentioned before. I figure I save quite a bit by cooking so much from scratch for this holiday. As Thanksgiving is "just" a meal holiday in preparations (as opposed to gift-giving with birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays), I can find the time to cook for a week leading up to the big meal.

That wraps up November. How did you fare with grocery shopping this past month? How much butter is too much to keep on hand in your household?