Turkey needs stuffing. Everyone knows that. Beef gets potatoes. Lamb and rice. Chicken and rice. Or chicken and stuffing.
Where am I going with this? Ham.
What’s the side that goes with ham? Oh sure, I always put something with ham, but there’s never been anything guaranteed to pop into my mind when I think of ham. Until now.
Now whenever I think of ham, I’ll think of pineapple stuffing.
Ingredients
3/4 of a pineapple, crushed
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
8 eggs
10 slices firm white bread
Directions
You can do this with canned crushed pineapple. But if you can get it fresh you should. Peel and dice it like I showed yesterday.
After the dicing, I realized the bowl I was using was much too small to do the mashing in, so I transferred to a larger. Someday I’ll learn my lesson and start every recipe in my largest bowl.
Using a potato masher — or the Pampered Chef Mix N Chop, which I find ridiculously useful — crush the pineapple.
Slice the bread, then cut into large cubes.
Add the butter and sugar and mix with the beater until combined.
If you’re doing this by hand … well, good luck. No, actually just let it come to room temperature first. Doing this by hand with cold butter is asking for a sprained wrist.
Beat the eggs into the butter / sugar mixture one at a time. If you’re using a stand mixer, just crack them in while it’s running.
Once all the eggs are incorporated, pour that into the pineapple and stir.
Gently fold the bread cubes into the wet ingredients. You don’t want to mash the bread.
The wet mixture is very dense, which is why I suggested a firm white bread. Fluffy-soft sandwich bread will turn to mush in this.
Pour everything into a 9×13 baking dish.
Don’t worry about greasing the dish, there’s more than enough butter in there to keep it from sticking.
Bake at 400° until the top starts turning golden brown, about an hour.
Serve warm with ham.
The saltiness of ham and the sweetness of pineapple has always been a winning combination.
And that’s it.
Okay, you don’t technically stuff anything with it. Don’t be picky.
The Announcement
I’m doing my next TV appearance today at 10 on That’s Life, With Robin Swoboda. If you’re in the Cleveland market, you can see it live on Channel 8. Otherwise, check back tomorrow and I should have a link to the segment on their website.
Update:
