Ham balls are a Midwestern favorite: Hearty ham and pork meatballs baked with a sweet and tangy tomato-based sauce + extra sauce for serving. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

I always giggle when I hear the name of this dish: Ham balls.

Frankly, they don’t sound good. But this is one of those you’ll-have-to-trust-me recipes that has been in my family for generations – and I often forget how good it is! 

But if you like meatballs – and if you like typical Midwestern comfort food that are hearty and made with simple ingredients – I think you’ll like these.

Meatballs can be made out of a variety of meats – not just ground beef! Give these nontraditional meatballs a try.

What Are Ham Balls?

Ham balls are meatballs that are made with ground ham and typically another type of ground meat (like ground pork and/or ground beef).

My mom has always made ham balls with strictly ground ham, but this recipe calls for a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of ground ham and ground pork.

You’ll find recipes online for Iowa ham balls (usually made with graham cracker crumbs as a binder), but ham balls aren’t strictly an Iowa thing – my Minnesota family has been making these for generations!

What You’ll Need

The ingredient list for these ham meatballs is pretty basic. You’ll need:

Ground ham: This is a great recipe to use up leftover ham from Easter. You can use a meat grinder or food processor to grind up the cooked ham.

Ground pork: Available at most grocery stores.

Bread crumbs: Regular breadcrumbs or panko bread crumbs will work. I used gluten free panko for this recipe.

Eggs: You’ll need two large eggs for this recipe.

Milk: A small amount of milk makes these meatballs juicy and helps hold them together.

Seasonings: The seasoning and spice list is pretty short. Keep in mind that the salty ham provides quite a bit of the flavor so I’m only recommending adding a pinch of salt and pepper, as well as Italian seasoning to these meatballs. I also threw in some fresh parsley, which is optional.

The ground meat mixture is shaped into balls, using about 1/3 of the mixture per meatball.

Note: This recipe makes between 20 and 22 meatballs.

To make gluten-free meatballs: Use gluten-free panko or breadcrumbs, and make sure the tomato soup is gluten free.

About The Sauce

While you’ll find a lot of recipes for ham balls on the Internet, this one is a little different.

How? 

I’ve doubled the amount of sauce from the original recipe.

The sauce makes the ham balls, in my opinion. The ham balls are meaty, hearty, and salty. But the tomato soup-based sauce adds some sweetness and tang to the whole dish. It’s the perfect match.

The ham balls are baked in the sauce, and extra is poured on upon serving.

To make the sauce, you’ll need:

• Boxed tomato soup: Look for non-concentrated tomato soup in a box (a 32-ounce container). This will likely be cheaper than buying individual cans of condensed tomato soup.
• Brown sugar: It seems like a lot, but the brown sugar adds the perfect sweetness to the dish that compliments the salty meatballs.
• Onion: The onion is chopped and cooked in butter.
• Additional seasonings: You’ll need Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. 

So instead of just baking the ham balls in the sauce, this recipe makes a double batch so you can pour more of the sauce/gravy over the ham balls and whatever you’re serving them with (rice, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, etc.)

Looking For More Meatball Recipes?

I love meatballs because they’re affordable, easy to make, and feed a crowd without much fuss or effort.

Here are some other meatball recipes to try:

Swedish meatballs

Paleo confetti chicken meatballs

My Norwegian grandmother’s meatball recipe

Paleo zucchini meatballs with a creamy tomato sauce

Chicken banh mi meatballs

Pesto-Parmesan meatballs

Spinach-ricotta “meatballs” (vegetarian)