Molded Ham and Egg Salad

I’ve been dreading making this recipe ever since I saw the picture in the book.  While I do dig on swine, I don’t really care for ham. And I don’t much like hard boiled eggs either – in fact, I had to visit ehow to find out how to properly hard boil eggs in order to make this recipe. Pathetic, I know, but I never eat ’em. Anyway, I figured if I was going to have to endure this dish, it would be easier to be surrounded by friends at Jellopalooza II.

This is the first recipe I’ve made from the “Salads for the Slim Life” chapter of the book. Making the dish was pretty easy. I chopped up a ham steak, hard boiled and sliced the eggs, and chopped celery and onion. The recipe called for lemon jello, with some vinegar added to cut the sweetness. I was supposed to use a loaf pan, but I don’t have one, so I used a small cake pan.  I set a shallow layer of gelatin and then layered the egg slices. I then mixed the other ingredients into the rest of the gelatin mix and put it on top of the egg layer. I followed directions but my egg slices floated up a bit into the rest of the mix and the finished project didn’t have the neat rows of eggs like the cookbook illustration. Maybe I didn’t let the bottom layer set long enough, or maybe it’s because I used the wrong pan. Oh well, I don’t think neat rows of egg slices would have made this dish more attractive or palatable.

Surprisingly, it didn’t taste as horrible as I expected. It was edible, especially if you didn’t think about it being a jello dish and focused on the ham and egg flavor.  The look of the dish is just so foreboding, however, that it’s pretty impossible to enjoy.  My guests graded it a 1.5 on the scale of 1 to 5 (1 being disgusting, 5 being delicious).  So it came a close second to Jellied Fresh Vegetable Salad (1.4) for worst dish of the party.

Some comments…

“Even the ham and eggs aren’t tasty.” – Dave

“The look alone…” – Ron

“Ewwww! It’s horrifying to look at AND to taste!” – Sara

“I really need negative ratings” – Brian

“Just tastes like ham and egg and jello. Doesn’t go together but not bad/nasty” – Ivanna, who gave it a 3 – very generous!

“The most terrifying to behold. So meaty! Flesh n’ Jello” – Christopher

If you are wondering why the party guests in the jello cookbook photo are smiling, I would say it’s because they are sitting far away from the Molded Ham and Egg Salad and they haven’t eaten it yet.