No wonder I didn't sleep last night!

[Paper Roses]

I went grocery shopping yesterday and picked up a few things I don't usually buy. Most are to serve when my daughter arrives this weekend. I also bought for myself, a Cook's ham slice.

I have not bought a ham slice for years but figured that divided, it would be 3 meals worth of meat.
I browned up a small section for dinner. Sliced the remaining into 2 portions. Fine.

I went to bed at about 9:30 and read for a while. Lights out an hour or so later. I kept waking up every 15-20 minutes dying of thirst. I do keep a glass of water on the bedside table but had to get up and fill it 4 times.
Awful. I could not figure out what the heck this new affliction was.

Just found out.

I just went through the trash for the label on the ham. Nutrition facts: 1230 mg's of sodium.
No wonder I was so thirsty.

Do you think it would be OK to soak the other 2 portions to try and leech out the salt? I'd rather not have to throw it away but I'll never buy one of these again.

[Kali]

1. I would think an overnight with a couple changes of water to cover

would remove a lot of the salt, but may pull some of the other "flavor" as well. I use about a half of one of those to flavor (and salt) a whole big pot of soup sometimes.

[pengillian101]

2. I know what you mean, for sure.

I love me some ham. The saltiness bothers me also.

I never really looked around on google before about it - but here's a link.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-ham-steak.htm

[Phentex]

3. Yep, it's always salty but...

I try to cook it with something that needs salt like potatoes and green beans or a soup like the others said. There's always ham and eggs, lol!

[flamin lib]

4. Try using it as an ingredient, not a main course.

Three ounces sliced very thin used in a cream sauce on pasta with green peas works well to feed two.

Black eyed peas with diced ham.

Any kind of bean with diced ham.

Flavor greens with it.

edit to add:

Freeze the left overs. Freezing ruptures cell walls letting the water run out when it thaws. That water will take a lot of salt with it. It changes the texture and flavor a little but it still tastes like ham.

[hvn_nbr_2]

5. That was my thought too.

Split pea soup with ham chunks.

I do the same things with a hot dog or two sometimes. I hardly ever eat hot dogs, but Omaha Steaks makes hot dogs that I really like. Don't like them enough to buy them at their prices but sometimes hot dogs are included in a package that is priced somewhere near sanity. They're really good but have about 800 mg of sodium, so I slice it up in a pot of greens or in some kind of beans.

[grasswire]

6. I thought of another possibility.

I really really like ham loaf, which is ground ham mixed with ground lean pork and some seasonings and then basted with a vinegar sauce while baking in the oven.

So you could grind the ham and mix it with ground lean pork to make any variety of dishes. Meat balls, Ham loaf patties, etc.

[catnhatnh]

7. Well one cure for oversalted foods...

is to cook with potatoes which absorb a lot of salt. Children-can you say "ham chowder"? Good-I knew that you could.

[spinbaby]

8. I had the same problem a while back

Someone here suggested mixing the ham with fresh pork to make a ham loaf. Worked beautifully and cut the salt. If you're just working with a little bit of ham, you might want to treat it as a seasoning rather than a meat and put a little into dishes such as scalloped potatoes or mac and cheese.