Recipe: Ham and Potato Quiche

Here is an economical and yummy ‘meat and potatoes’ dish perfect for a Sunday brunch.

It is economical because I decided to double it and yet kept to the same amount of meat. Yet, it is full of protein with cheese and lots of eggs!

I found it in a cookbook recently purchased at a thrift shop – The All-American Potato Cookbook, 1982. Yes, I visit thrift shops weekly and am not ashamed to tell the world! Ha!

Finding tasty vintage recipes is fun, but this recipe is unique in that it enabled me to use not one, not two, but three implements used in ages past – potato slicer/French fry maker; rolling pin; pastry blender.

The vintage rolling pin is the most used of the three and sits on the top of my refrigerator to be quick at hand.

The potato slicer looks somewhat formidable but once I figured it out and applied some muscle to push the potato through the sharp edges, it produced a nice group of slices!

The pastry blender is probably not necessary as I like getting my fingers into the dough to make the crumbs, but Julia Child warns against working your hands into the dough too much as the heat from our hands can adversely affect the dough.

All three vintage items were found in thrift shops and I enjoyed using them in this recipe, although the slicer was somewhat challenging to clean.

Note: After grating the Swiss cheese on a modern handheld grater, I realized I could have used my antique box grater, making this recipe really vintage!

Next time I make the recipe I’ll pull out the old box grater and put it to good use.

Confession: This recipe required much time to prepare. See ‘My Notes’ below for tips on how to speed things up.

I don’t make quiches often and using vintage cooking methods and implements takes more time/ effort than I normally can afford. But I’m glad I made the effort. It was a joy to treat my family and I hope it will be a good recipe for you and yours as well!

Ham and Potato Quiche

1 c. all-purpose flour

½ c. vegetable shortening

¾ t. salt, divided

3-4 T. cold water

 1 ½ c. cubed, cooked ham

1 medium boiled potato, peeled and cut into 3-inch strips

1 c. grated Swiss cheese

1 c. milk

4 eggs

1 t. onion flakes

1/4 t. white pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, shortening and ¼ t. salt in large bowl; mix with fork or pastry blender until mixture is consistency of fine crumbs. (I used the pastry blender)

Gradually add water; stir until dough holds together.

Gather dough into a ball.

Roll out on lightly floured pastry cloth to a circle 2 inches larger than 9-inch pie plate.

Ease crust into pie plate; trim and flute edges. (I used the two-finger method)

Sprinkle ham, potato and cheese evenly over bottom of crust.

Combine milk, eggs, onion flakes, remaining ½ t. salt and pepper in small bowl; mix lightly.

Pour over ingredients in crust.

Bake 45-50 minutes or until center is set.

Let stand 10 minutes.

Serves 12

My notes:

1. I didn’t peel the potatoes to add nutrition.
2. More time-saving tips: Cook the potatoes in the microwave to speed the cooking process.
3. As my family is not crazy about onions, I browned an onion on the stove until it was soft. No complaints!
4. Place the pie plate on the oven rack before pouring the liquids into it. Moving it when it is full could be messy. Also, place a cookie sheet under the plate in the oven to catch overfills.
5. Not having a fresh sprig of parsley to adorn the center and add color, I used a pinch of crushed parsley in the center. I think it looked all right, don’t you?