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Can I use Virginia Ham for my Ham & Cheese Calzone?

In summary, the conversation is about using the correct type of ham for a recipe for calzone. Virginia Ham is a type of smoked ham that can be used, but it may have excess moisture. It is recommended to drain and pat dry the ham before using it in the calzone. Some people have had success using pre-packaged cubed cooked ham or other types of ham, such as honey-ham. It is also suggested to use less watery vegetables, like spinach instead of broccoli, to avoid a soggy calzone.
babywings76
Gold Member
7,288
It's more of a question about the ham. (Man, it just wouldn't be dinnertime in my household w/o me having to have some sort of question about a recipe/food product!) :D The recipe says to use a smoked ham. Well, the deli guy had no idea what type of ham to give me. (that seemed kind of odd to me, but oh well...) So he gave me Virginia Ham. Now I'm looking at the recipe and at the bottom it says to use smoked, not boiled so that the calzone doesn't get soggy. So what on earth does this mean about my Virginia Ham? Should I cook it on the stove first to kind of cook off the excess water that might be in it, if in fact Virginia Ham is a kind that will have too much moisture?
 
If it were me, I'd just use whatever ham I had without doing extra steps. :)
 
Dave and i have made it twice both with pre packaged cubed cooked ham. 1 pack makes 2 calazone. We drained the ham and patted it dry. It worked well. We also added extra mustard to zip up the taste.
 
babywings76 said:
It's more of a question about the ham. (Man, it just wouldn't be dinnertime in my household w/o me having to have some sort of question about a recipe/food product!) :D The recipe says to use a smoked ham. Well, the deli guy had no idea what type of ham to give me. (that seemed kind of odd to me, but oh well...) So he gave me Virginia Ham. Now I'm looking at the recipe and at the bottom it says to use smoked, not boiled so that the calzone doesn't get soggy. So what on earth does this mean about my Virginia Ham? Should I cook it on the stove first to kind of cook off the excess water that might be in it, if in fact Virginia Ham is a kind that will have too much moisture?

I know what you mean! Everytime I get ready to make dinner I run out to the computer to search for some recipe or ask a question or something! Someday I'll get it all figured out!
 
Virginia Ham is smoked ham, as is Country Ham.

Boiled ham is usually found in a can...or as lunch meat. It's much lighter in color than a smoked ham. It's also usually a lot less salty.
 
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  • #6
I didn't do anything fancy or different to it, and it turned out great! But, next time, I'm not going to get my ham from the deli counter. It cost $4.80 to get that 1/2 in. slab of ham and I don't know...doesn't that sound kind of expensive? Maybe not, I have to look and compare it to the price of regular packaged deli meat.It was a little watery, but not the end of the world. I thought it was great. I'll definitely make it again. I had a friend and her kids over yesterday for a play date. She wrote down the recipe and said she was going to make it for dinner too. She called me last night and said it was really good. She used regular sliced pre-packaged honey-ham. And spinach instead of the broccoli. She used more cheese and also added a handful of colby cheddar cheese. She said everyone in her family devoured it, even the kids.
 
If you are buying good lunch meat ham it will be a bit more than the pre-packaged stuff but to me would be worth it because lunch meat ham like Boars Head doesn't have all the fillers and additives that the pre-packaged stuff does. I know I won't buy the pre-packaged stuff for sandwiches because there is something about lunch meat that will last for a month that grosses me out.
 
I made this tonite to try as a host wants it tomorrow night. I used mozzarella instead of the swiss. Not sure if it makes any difference. Quite a bit of liquid did come out of the calzone but it wasn't really soggy. I don't think I like the brocolli in it unless it was steamed more first...i cut the florets really really small and they were still quite crunchy. Felt too raw to me. I do think it needs more cheese but if the cheese is the watery part I dont want to make it worse.

Would it come out differently with the swiss?
Any tips on the brocolli?
 
Melissa78 said:
I made this tonite to try as a host wants it tomorrow night. I used mozzarella instead of the swiss. Not sure if it makes any difference. Quite a bit of liquid did come out of the calzone but it wasn't really soggy. I don't think I like the brocolli in it unless it was steamed more first...i cut the florets really really small and they were still quite crunchy. Felt too raw to me. I do think it needs more cheese but if the cheese is the watery part I dont want to make it worse.

Would it come out differently with the swiss?
Any tips on the brocolli?

Yes, I think the swiss would melt better, and be less watery.
 
  • #10
ok - any suggestions on getting the brocolli to not be crisp?
 
  • #11
Melissa78 said:
ok - any suggestions on getting the brocolli to not be crisp?

I'm going to try this recipe tomorrow- but how small did you cut the florets? I'd think if you had just the floret pieces and very little stalk, or very small pieces, it should cook in the time allotted. ?? I noticed the recipe does say "small floret".
 
  • #12
I'm not a huge brocolli fan so I cut them VERY small. I hate the stalk and when I do force myself to eat brocolli (trying to be good) I only like the florets. I wondered how they would cook in such a short time with so little steam/liquid to cook them. I cannot imagine having to cut smaller than I already did. I'm big on texture in food...I cannot stand onion in tuna b/c the tuna is soft and onion hard etc. I'm just worried that since I didn't care for the calzone, my guests wont tomorrow night. Luckily I will just tell myself they love the pizza since we are doing both b/c she's up to 18 guests already with more that didnt RSVP. Hopefully its just me that didnt care for the results.
 
  • #13
I've made the ham & cheese calzone twice - once at home and at one show. I bought a 1/2" slice of Baked ham at the deli and diced it myself for the one I made at home - it was delicious! For the show, the host bought a slice of ham that looked totally different from the one I bought - it even had a piece of round bone in it, but it was not country ham. It still turned out good, but the one with the baked ham was better. As for the broccoli, I pre-cooked it in the small micro-cooker for about 2 minutes, just to take the raw edge off of it for the one at home, but just used it raw at my show. Guests seemed to enjoy it.
 
  • #14
i used less stalk of the brolcolli and we all loved the al dente feel of it! We also used ham from some sandwhich meat section! So yummy! swiss all the way!!!!!
 
  • #15
When I make the calzone I use cubed ham and chop it in the food chopper then put it in the saute pan for a few mins and cook off the extra juice. It worked great and my family loved it. Cubed ham is much cheaper than deli ham and I am all about whatever is cheapest. I too added more mustard to kick up the taste as well.
 
  • #16
I used smoked ham from the deli that was sliced and I just cut it up so it was pretty thin. I did use the swiss, although I think it needed a lot more. I chopped the brocoli very very fine and it was great.
 
  • #17
ldeborah said:
I've made the ham & cheese calzone twice - once at home and at one show. I bought a 1/2" slice of Baked ham at the deli and diced it myself for the one I made at home - it was delicious! For the show, the host bought a slice of ham that looked totally different from the one I bought - it even had a piece of round bone in it, but it was not country ham. It still turned out good, but the one with the baked ham was better. As for the broccoli, I pre-cooked it in the small micro-cooker for about 2 minutes, just to take the raw edge off of it for the one at home, but just used it raw at my show. Guests seemed to enjoy it.

microcooker - great idea. I have one of those but have never used it. It simply sits in the cupboard. I tell my guests to not buy anything they won't use and here I am. :) I guess I'll read the directions and perhaps use that to soften the broccoli just a bit. Heck I'm not the one to be eating it at the show so perhaps they would want it al dente (blah). :yuck: hehe
 
  • #18
For the swiss... I made it using the sliced swiss & it worked so much better than shredded. I just layed the cheese flat (had to do a little fill in from the holes) and then did the filling on top. It was great!

I think mozerella would definitely give it a different flavor. I usually don't like swiss but I love this recipe! Making it in the morning in fact at a brunch party. :)
 
  • #19
Melissa78 said:
microcooker - great idea. I have one of those but have never used it. It simply sits in the cupboard. I tell my guests to not buy anything they won't use and here I am. :) I guess I'll read the directions and perhaps use that to soften the broccoli just a bit. Heck I'm not the one to be eating it at the show so perhaps they would want it al dente (blah). :yuck: hehe

Oh my, I love my micro cooker! I use it almost every day! I use it to heat up my son's soup for lunch, to melt butter for recipes, cook vegies, it is one of the most used things in my cupboard! You need to start using it more and you'll learn to love it! You can even cook a chicken breast in it!
I am totally with you on the al dente!:yuck: I like my vegies cooked all the way!
 
  • #20
Thanks Paula! Great minds think alike on al dente. To me, al dente can be defined as "not cooked enough". hehe (Note I hate mushy veggies too...there needs to be a happy medium)

I'm sure I would like the microcooker if I used it - just never give it thought. If I microwave soup, I do it in the bowl I'm going to eat out of (saves me on dishes), chicken I cook in my DCB or on the George Foreman...never even would have thought microcooker. Same effect as the DCB? DCB can do chicken tenders in 4min - love it!
 
  • #21
Melissa78 said:
Thanks Paula! Great minds think alike on al dente. To me, al dente can be defined as "not cooked enough". hehe (Note I hate mushy veggies too...there needs to be a happy medium)

I'm sure I would like the microcooker if I used it - just never give it thought. If I microwave soup, I do it in the bowl I'm going to eat out of (saves me on dishes), chicken I cook in my DCB or on the George Foreman...never even would have thought microcooker. Same effect as the DCB? DCB can do chicken tenders in 4min - love it!

WEll, to be honest, I always use the DCB too, but I know that you can cook it in the Micro cooker. My thing with the soup is that it doesn't splatter all over your microwave. Same with butter and like today I made canned :eek: ravioli for my DS for lunch, and I used to just micro it in the bowl to save on dishes, but then I have to clean out my microwave. Also, like with the vegies, I just dump the whole can in and then after I nuke it I just dump the liquid out and I'm good to go. I just really like it, but it's all about what you get used to. I know when I first got it I thought of it strictly as a veggie steamer type thing and I hardly ever used it, but now I use it all the time.
 
  • #22
I use my Micro-Cooker all the time. I cook soup and spaghetti-o's in it and still eat it right out of the thing...no reason not too and save on dishes! I cook veggies in it and oodles of noodles. Great for kids too!
 
  • #23
The first time I made this I "lost" 1 of my pizza dough cans (it was in the back of the fridge LOL) but I had 2 cans of crescent rolls so I used that. It was sooo good. Then when I found the lost pizza dough I made it again...we much preferred the one with the crescent rolls. The pizza dough one just felt like way too much dough - and yes, I had the thin crust ones.

Oh and I chop the broccoli in the food chopper so it's not even really florets anymore and everyone liked it that way. My kids ate multiple helpings!
 
  • #24
Ooo...I'll have to try that. The first time I made it I had to use Bisquick home-made Pizza dough. It tasted good, but way too bready and not very pretty looking!
 
  • #25
MLinAZ said:
The first time I made this I "lost" 1 of my pizza dough cans (it was in the back of the fridge LOL) but I had 2 cans of crescent rolls so I used that. It was sooo good. Then when I found the lost pizza dough I made it again...we much preferred the one with the crescent rolls. The pizza dough one just felt like way too much dough - and yes, I had the thin crust ones.

Oh and I chop the broccoli in the food chopper so it's not even really florets anymore and everyone liked it that way. My kids ate multiple helpings!

LOL - that's actually funny, because the filling for the calzone is the same filling mixture as the old ham and broccoli braid - which uses crescent rolls. It's funny how they recycled an old recipe and made it new again...and then you changed it back into the old one and liked it better!:D
 
  • #26
ChefBeckyD said:
LOL - that's actually funny, because the filling for the calzone is the same filling mixture as the old ham and broccoli braid - which uses crescent rolls. It's funny how they recycled an old recipe and made it new again...and then you changed it back into the old one and liked it better!:D

I wondered - but I hadn't looked at the braid recipes. I did look at the ham and cheese squares or something wondering!
 
  • #27
And isn't it the same as the ham and cheese puffs from way back when? (done in the mini muffin pan)

Well - I made the calzone tonite for the LARGE show I had. OMG never had over 20 people in attendance. Anyhow, after all my issues with the brocolli, I made the whole thing, put the 2nd crust on top and thought "Oh shoot" (not the word I used in my head though) - I TOTALLY forgot about the brocolli. Since only having made it once before the recipe was not engraved in my head like the pizza recipe. My guests got a huge laugh out of it as I offered them the prep bowl of brocolli. hehe

It seemed to go over well - there was NOTHING left out of a braid, a pizza, a calzone, taffy apple pizza and pineapple salsa. Hungry peeps! (no I did not make all of the above, the host made a few before i got there).

THanks all for your input on the calzone. I think I'd do it again for a show but may skip it in my own kitchen.
 
  • #28
I'm glad to see that someone's made this with crescent roll dough...I went to the store to get ingredients and that's what I got. Didn't realized it was supposed to be pizza dough until I got home!
I'm thinking of really mixing this recipe up...using turkey instead of ham, cheddar instead of swiss, and spinach instead of broccoli! I'll let you know how it turns out. (Making it tomorrow...so if you have input, please share!)
 
  • #29
I have made this calzone a ton of times. It is now one of my families favorites and I have demoed it a ton of times too. It is ALWAYS a big hit!! I love making it. I always use the smoked ham. At the grocery store by my home they sell it by the pound (like a small ham really can't think of how to explain it) and I use the Utility knife to dice it up it always comes out great. I would not use any ham that says "juices added" I had one host buy that and it was soggy in the middle I even baked it longer and it was still soggy...When it says "natural juices" I have not had any problems with it.
 

1. What ingredients do I need to make a ham and cheese calzone?

To make a ham and cheese calzone, you will need pizza dough, sliced ham, shredded cheese, marinara sauce, and any other desired toppings such as onions, peppers, or mushrooms.

2. How do I assemble a ham and cheese calzone?

To assemble a ham and cheese calzone, roll out the pizza dough into a large circle. Place the sliced ham and shredded cheese on one half of the dough, leaving a small border around the edge. Fold the other half of the dough over the filling and pinch the edges to seal. Use a fork to press down and create a decorative edge.

3. Can I use other types of cheese besides shredded cheese?

Yes, you can use any type of cheese you prefer for your ham and cheese calzone. Some popular options include mozzarella, cheddar, and provolone.

4. How long do I bake a ham and cheese calzone?

Bake your ham and cheese calzone in a preheated oven at 375°F for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

5. Can I make a ham and cheese calzone ahead of time?

Yes, you can assemble your ham and cheese calzone ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Just make sure to cover it with plastic wrap or foil to prevent it from drying out.

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