How to Stretch One Ham Into Four Frugal Meals for a Hungry Family
One bone-in ham, four dinners: the roast itself, a breakfast strata, a pot of bean soup from the bone and biscuit sandwiches.
A bone-in ham is one of the best buys in the meat case when it is on sale, and stores discount them heavily around Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. One ham does not have to be one dinner. With a little planning, the same ham feeds a large family four times, and the last meal is made from the bone.
Here is how that works for a family of seven with several teenagers, a household where food disappears quickly. Four dinners, including all the side dishes, came to about $2.39 per person per meal. A smaller family will stretch it even further.
Before you start: pick the right ham
Buy bone-in, not boneless. The bone is the base of meal three, and bone-in hams are usually cheaper per pound. A shank or butt half from the regular meat case is fine; you do not need a spiral-sliced holiday ham, though those work too.
Most hams sold in US grocery stores are already fully cooked and only need reheating. Check the label: “fully cooked” or “cook before eating” tells you which you have.
Meal 1: Baked ham with filling sides
Start with the ham itself as the star of the table. Bake it according to the label (a fully cooked ham from a sealed package reheats at 325°F to an internal 140°F; USDA advises 165°F for leftover or store-repackaged ham), and glaze it for the last 20 minutes if you like with brown sugar, mustard and a splash of pineapple juice.
With a big family, the sides do the heavy lifting. Au gratin or scalloped potatoes and a pan of roasted broccoli make the plate filling without slicing into more ham than you need. Carve only what the family will eat at this meal.
After dinner, do the work that makes the next three meals possible:
- Slice a pile of thin pieces for sandwiches.
- Cut 3 to 4 cups of ham into small cubes for the strata.
- Leave a generous amount of meat on the bone for the soup.
Refrigerate everything within 2 hours of serving.
Meal 2: Farmer’s strata, breakfast for dinner
A strata is a make-ahead casserole of bread, eggs, milk, cheese and meat, and it is one of the cheapest crowd-feeding dinners there is. Layer cubed day-old bread in a greased 9x13 pan with diced ham, a little cooked bacon or sausage if you have it, and shredded cheddar. Whisk about 8 eggs with 2 1/2 cups of milk, salt, pepper and a spoonful of mustard, pour it over, and refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350°F for 45 to 55 minutes until puffed and set in the middle.
For a big family, make two pans. There is no need to double the meat or the cheese; the ham flavor still comes through, and that is where the savings are. Serve it with fruit and a pan of hash browns.
Meal 3: 15 bean soup from the ham bone
This is the meal that makes the ham pay off. Put the bone, with its meat still attached, into a large pot with a bag of dried mixed beans. Hurst’s HamBeens 15 Bean Soup is a common brand, and most stores sell a store-brand mix too. Follow the package directions: soak the beans, cover them with water, add onion, a can of tomatoes and the seasoning packet, and simmer until the beans are tender. Pull the bone out, strip off the meat, chop it and stir it back in.
A pot this size feeds a big family with leftovers. Serve it with a loaf or two of homemade bread or a pan of cornbread. If you would like to change things up, a can of drained hominy stirred in near the end adds a chewy, corny bite; see what hominy is and how to use it.
Soup freezes very well. If the pot makes more than one dinner, freeze the extra in flat quart bags for a future busy night.
Meal 4: Ham biscuit sandwiches
The last of the sliced ham becomes sandwiches on warm biscuits. Refrigerator biscuits from a tube bake up tall and fluffy enough to split, which makes them easier than homemade for this job. Split, add ham and a slice of cheese, and serve with homemade salsa and tortilla chips or a bowl of fruit.
What it costs
| Meal | Main cost items | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Baked ham | Ham, potatoes, cheese, broccoli | Ham is the big purchase; buy it on sale |
| Strata | Eggs, milk, bread, cheese | Uses day-old bread; no extra meat needed |
| Bean soup | Bean mix, onion, canned tomatoes | Bone and scraps are free at this point |
| Biscuit sandwiches | Biscuits, cheese, chips, salsa | Uses the last of the sliced ham |
To figure out your own cost, total the receipt for all four meals, sides included, then divide by the number of people and then by four. For a family of seven that came to about $2.39 per person per meal. That number will be different where you shop and when, but the pattern holds: one big cut, planned on purpose, costs less per plate than four separate trips to the meat case.
More ways to use the last of the ham
If your family would rather skip the biscuits, the sliced and cubed ham works in plenty of other cheap dinners:
- Ham and cheese quesadillas with a side of beans
- Fried rice with frozen peas, carrots, scrambled egg and diced ham
- Macaroni and cheese with ham and peas stirred in
- Split pea soup, using a small piece of the bone
- Ham and potato chowder
- Omelets or scrambled eggs on a busy school morning
Each one uses only a cup or two of ham, which is exactly the amount that tends to sit in the refrigerator after the big meals are done.
Keeping leftovers safe
Cooked ham keeps 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator, so plan the strata and sandwiches within that window. If the week gets busy, freeze the cubes and slices in labeled bags and freeze the bone on its own. It can go straight into the soup pot frozen.
When you thaw frozen ham, do it in the refrigerator overnight and use it within a few days. Even after four dinners, there is often ham left for lunches. That is the kind of leftover nobody complains about.
For more ideas that stretch a single purchase across the week, see the guide to frugal meal planning, browse the budget recipes, or, if you want the ham dinners ready in the freezer, fold them into a monthly freezer meal plan.
Questions, answered
How long does leftover ham last in the fridge?
Cooked ham leftovers are good for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator at 40°F or below, according to USDA guidance. Wrap the meat well or store it in covered containers. If you will not use it within that window, freeze it in meal-sized portions right away instead of waiting until day four.
Can you freeze leftover ham?
Yes. Cut it into slices or cubes, portion it into freezer bags with the air pressed out, and label the bags. Frozen cooked ham is best within 1 to 2 months for quality. Freeze the bone separately in its own bag; it goes straight from the freezer into a pot of soup with no thawing.
What size ham do you need for four meals?
For a family of six or seven, a bone-in ham of about 8 to 10 pounds covers the roast dinner, a breakfast casserole, a pot of soup and a round of sandwiches. For a family of four, a 6 to 8 pound half ham is usually plenty, with some left for lunches.