I look forward to this simple, traditional cheese ball every year. It has been served during family Christmas Eve parties since before my time. The ingredients are few and inexpensive, and might be made year-round, but I reserve this one special appetizer for the holidays only to maintain its specialness. I love to serve Ritz crackers with the cheese ball to bring out its savory flavor.

Traditional Christmas Cheese Ball

1 ½ (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

(2.5 ounce) package thinly sliced smoked beef, chopped

Vidalia

Worcestershire sauce,

walnuts

Mix the cream cheese, beef, olives, onion, and Worcestershire sauce together in a bowl until evenly blended. Keeping the mixture in the bowl, scrape it into a semi-ball shape. Cover, and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.


Place a large sheet of waxed paper on a flat surface. Sprinkle with walnuts. Roll the cheese ball in the walnuts until completely covered. Transfer the cheese ball to a serving plate, or rewrap with waxed paper and refrigerate until needed.


My daughter makes this every year for Christmas & New Year's Eve.We leave the olives out & add some galic powder to it. Very easy & good!!!

The dried beef is made by Hormel and is sold in a small clear glass jar. Ask for help finding it. It's an old product that's been around for a long time.

This is a good basic savory cheese ball. I mixed everything together in a food processor and it was super-easy. Just make sure the folks you will be serving it to like green olives.

This was so delicious! Everyone absolutely loved it and it was gone in no time. It tasted great on its own but I have also tried adding extra sharp cheddar cheese for some extra flavour and this was just as delicious. It gave it some extra flavour making the taste of the cream cheese a little fainter (although don't get me wrong I love cream cheese). All in all I loved this recipe (as is)!!! Will be making MANY times again. It's now a favourite for parties.

I make this every year but add 6 oz blue cheese and add a couple of dashes of garlic powder and onion powder diced fine green and red pepper and also diced black olives and a cap full of lemon juice. Easy on the olives as they can be over powering. I do not use nuts - just put it in a bowl and serve with several kinds of crackers. It is always the first appetizer to be gone. Chilling overnight is best.

I made this for two Christmas parties this year (2011) and it was a huge hit! I don't eat meat so I substituted smoked salmon instead. Amazing!

This is one of the best all time cheese balls everyone likes it. It also makes alot. Get out the crackers and enjoy.

I couldn't find the smoked beef at the grocery store which gave me the idea to use summer sausage from my husband's deer. I chopped it in the blender and it processed to perfection. I also used chopped pecans instead of walnuts. I didn't get a chance to try to original recipe but my what I did have was great. Thanks for sharing.

traditional christmas cheese ball

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Total: 2 hours, 25 minutes

Servings: 12

Cost: $1.93 /serving

Author : Love2Cook87

Ingredients

Instructions

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