I made a crustless quiche last week using small strips of ham cut from a leftover chunk. No reason why sliced wouldn't be just fine.

Crustless Ham & Cheese Quiche

1 large onion, thinly sliced

butter

1 1/2 cups thin strips of ham

1 1/2 cups grated cheese — cheddar and Swiss or Gruyere

6 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

S&P

Saute onion in butter till soft. Set aside.

Grease pie plate with butter.

Combine eggs and cream with dry mustard, S&P.

Place half of onions, ham, and cheese in bottom of dish. Top with egg mixture, then remaining onions, ham, and cheese.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean.

Rest for 5 minutes before serving.

If you don’t want cubed or chopped, I’d be inclined to use the strips in Judi’s recipe. Seems better for quiche than whole slices.

To be clear, these are deli meats. Sliced for sandwiches. I suppose I was not clear on that point.

So they’re fairly thin, right? The strips will still be fine. Any reason you don’t want to just cut them up for quiche?

I'm totally on board. I I'm game for this quiche. I'm glad y'all agree

I mostly make vegetable quiches, and they work best with chopped so there's room for the custard and the fillings don't seaparate. The sliced is no issue, but I'd tear, rather than cut, into 1/2 inch pieces or smaller, so they stay suspended rather than sliding out. Either way, it'll taste fine. Of course, take the salt into consideration.

I would just cut in small pieces with my kitchen shears.

I don't use a recipe for quiche. You can put in anything you fancy. Sliced or cubed ham is neither here nor there. I rarely have ham in the house so normally use bacon.... or no meat at all. And I rarely use cream either.

Not using shears, I'd stack the slices and cut both lengthwise and then crosswise to form short strips.

And yes, I have used sliced ham in dishes like that, but not recently.

I’d actually prefer sliced and cut up over cubed, in a quiche.

But I’m trying to imagine a quiche without cream. Isn’t a creamy custard the whole point?

Cream makes a luxurious quiche but it isn't necessary. I'd only use it for a special occasion, not for an everyday quiche.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/65852/recipe/quiche-lorraine

FOAS, custard, yes, creamy, if that's what you're into. Nothing wrong with milk custard, Depending on your filling, and the fat content of the milk, it can run watery, however. I keep a glass bottle quart for cooking, which lasts well without picking up fridge flavor. It's super rich, however. Regular milk, 3.5% fat, is usually fine for quiche if there's nothing watery in the filling. If there are vegetables, even cooked down some, you might end up with a watery quiche. Not bad, just not perfect The crust will absorb some, but not all. You can scald the milk before making the custard to reduce the water to fat ratio. I keep cream around, however, and it works fine for quiche even if it's trying to be mascarpone, though if it's all the way there, it'll eat greasy, opposite milk's wateriness.

How does one 'keep cream around?' The stuff I buy goes off if kept more than a few days in the fridge. I have to buy it specially when required.

I'd rather cream and skip the crust.

The cream I buy can't be frozen.

So I guess that answers your queation.

Evaporated milk, even low fat, makes decent quiche. Fluffier because of less fat. Basically what scalding does, but you have to have a can or three of milk for that, and evaporated milk doesn't really keep well considering it's canned.

Floral, cream is mostly fat. Fat freezes really well. I have put it in a container designed for freezing and tossed it in the freezer. It does need stirring when thawed, but it works fine. Perhaps if you leave it too long, it could go weird.

The cream I buy is organic, pasteurized heavy whipping cream in a coated paper carton. I store it near the cold air fan in the coldest part of the fridge. I don't know if it being a very fancy fridge helps. Unopened cream holds for at least a month, but eventually turns into mascarpone if abandoned there. Now and then it'll go moldy before it turns to cheese, and then sours, but most of the time it keeps in some form.

I daresay if your cream isn't pasteurized it might go off sooner.

I was curious, too, and everything I found offhand said raw, unpasteurized cream could be frozen. This is primarly from raw milk proponents, including European. Even if the texture goes off a bit to where you wouldn’t want it in your coffee, I’d have to think custard would be fine, no?

Don't forget that cheese has plenty of butterfat. I've never made quiche with heavy cream, but I've used half & half. Whole milk has enough butterfat without going overboard.

I've frozen heavy cream, and it keeps just fine, but has a curdled texture when thawed, so I've only used it for cooked things.

The "curdled texture" doesn't always happen, but I can't say why.

FOAS, good to know about raw. I wonder if whipping lightly would restore the texture? The whisk attachment for my stick blender does a great job of whipping small amounts.

My everyday quiche recipe (or, perhaps to be specific in case "quiche" is not a general term, savory custard pie recipe) calls for milk and cream. Not exactly half-and-half, but that would probably be a good substitute. I will do all cream if I don't have any milk, or if I want to use up the carton, but I might add an extra egg to thin it down a little. But my all time favorite Julia Child recipe is three cups heavy whipping cream to 6 eggs. Plus dabs of butter, which I omit!

I follow ATK’s custard proportions which is also 1:1 whole milk and cream. I’ve used half and half in its place. And yes I did see mention of whisking a bit. But I was more trying to find sources saying not to freeze it, than reading about how to deal with freezing it!

I do not use cream in quiche (although I will use deli meats that I cut into small squares), but I do keep powdered (dehydrated) cream on hand for baking and other recipes, including smoothies. It tastes the same as fresh cream but is not appropriate for whipped cream, although I have used it in some ice cream recipes that also contain egg. I often add powdered cream to pancake batter, to give it a richer flavor and make it fluffier.

I never make crustless quiche, but I do make frittatas. I like making pie crust.