I like to experiment, and when I came across a YouTube video on homemade deli meat, I was intrigued. This led me down a rabbit hole of other videos, all with the same conclusion: homemade deli meat was significantly less expensive and more delicious than the stuff that you buy at the deli counter. All I needed was a “ham press,” a device that would let me make deli meat, and they were only around $25! I was in.

I’m using a lot of my gadgets, but you absolutely don’t have to be gadget-rich. I’ll list alternatives in the photos below. I’m following a recipe that came with the ham press, but there are many, many variations on this theme. My results were… well, I’ll get to that. Let’s get into the recipe, shall we?

These are the dry ingredients. Other recipes are much simpler. All of the spices were at 1teaspoon, and the unflavored gelatin was at 2 teaspoons.

I used this ground turkey. It was around $3.50 a pound, but if I had gone to Aldi, it would have been $2.50 a pound. If my experiment worked out, I could eventually make deli turkey for $2.50 a pound. In my area, the real stuff is between $10-12/pound, so that could be a real savings

I mixed the spices, gelatin, and meat in my KitchenAid. However, you could absolutely do this by hand.

Per the instructions, I added 2 teaspoons of olive oil.

I then pressed the mixture into the ham press. The press provided plastic liners, but in the YouTube videos, the demonstrators just pressed the meat mixture directly into the cylinder. Some used a little cooking spray to help with removal.

Here are the other parts that came with the ham press.

This spring contraption “presses” the meat mixture during cooking.

You have to force the lid against the spring. The milling of the ham press parts is pretty rough, so I wound up cutting myself.

Here is the complete assembly. You need to cook the meat at a low simmer, so I’m using a Sous Vide at 185°F (85 °C). You cook until the thermometer inserted into the press reaches… well, some recipes say 165°F and others say 185°F. I went with 170°F (77°C), as poultry should be cooked to at least 165°F (74°C). You absolutely could nix the sous vide and just use a pot on the stove with the water simmering. It took around two hours to reach the desired temperature.

I then placed the press in an ice bath to rapidly cool it. After that, it went into the fridge overnight.

I used a meat slicer to slice the loaf. True confession: I bought this slicer during COVID, but this is the first time that I used it. I’ll probably do a review on it in an upcoming post. Of course, you could just use a knife.

Here is the result, Yep, not picture perfect. The slices taste pretty good, actually better than traditional deli meat, as that is overly salty. But the texture? Could be better. So the verdict on this meat press is pending. I’m going to try it on some chicken breasts when they go on sale, as the problem may have been in the ground turkey tube slop. At this point, I can’t recommend making your own deli meat, but stay tuned for trial number two.

Mike