If you live near Pittsburgh, or in Western Pennsylvania in general, you probably are familiar with chipped chopped ham. If you think we are just making up names of food, it’s understandable, Pittsburgh has a language of it’s own.
Basically, chipped chopped ham (chipped ham for short, or Isaly’s for shorter) is thinly sliced ham (like paper) found in most delis or grocery stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. It’s mainly used for lunch sandwiches (Declan has one everyday) but can also be used on pizzas, omelets, and our favorite alternative, ham barbecue sandwiches!
If your deli does not sell chipped ham, ask for regular ham sliced extremely thin, the Pittsburgh way. If people start looking at you funny…well that’s not really our problem. Just kidding, if you can’t get paper thin slices, regular slices of ham will do just fine.
Pittsburgh Ham Barbecue Sandwich
This is an adaptation of this recipe. There are so many variations of how to make this that it’s almost impossible to mess up…unless you forget the ham.
- Servings – 4 to 6
- Prep time – 10 minutes
- Cook time – 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 pound chipped ham
- 12 ounces of Heinz chili sauce (should be one regular bottle)
- 1/4 cup of Heinz ketchup (optional – if you want a little more sauce)
- 8 ounces of Coca-Cola (you can eyeball 2/3 of a regular can or measure out 1 cup)
- 1 medium dill pickle finely chopped
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 celery stalk finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons of brown sugar
- Hamburger buns
Protocol
1.) Put all of the ingredients (except the buns!) into a pot and let simmer for 45 minutes uncovered or until the sauce is however thick you prefer.
2.) Stir and taste every 10 minutes or so. Make any adjustments if needed (i.e. if it’s too sweet, add more ketchup. If its too spicy, add more ketchup).
3. Serve on hamburger buns and enjoy!
-D&E
Cooking in College 
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