What is a Spiral Ham: Your Ultimate Guide to This Succulent Delicacy

Spiral ham, a culinary favorite, streamlines the holiday feast with its pre-cooked and pre-sliced convenience. According to the National Pork Board, ham ranks as the second-most consumed protein choice. Expertly crafted by butchers who employ specialized machinery to create a continuous, uniform spiral cut, hams of this sort require effortless serving. While the majority of spiral hams retain their bone, enhancing flavor and moisture, select butchers offer boneless alternatives for added convenience. Understanding what a spiral ham is can transform your meal preparation, offering a blend of tradition and ease that is cherished by home cooks nationwide.

Typically, butchers begin making a ham by selecting a cut of meat from the hind thigh of an adult pig. Some butchers may use a cut from the shoulder of the front leg — creating a variation known as a "picnic ham" — but this cut is less common when preparing spiral ham. A hind cut of pork always initially contains a center leg bone. Leaving the bone in makes home preparation and cutting more difficult, but since the spiraling process simplifies cutting, butchers often leave this bone in for spiral hams. Many cooks believe that bone-in hams have more flavor than boneless hams.

After obtaining a good cut of meat, the butcher fully cooks the ham by baking, curing, or smoking it. The fully cooked ham is then locked onto a rotating base. This mechanical base spins the ham around in circles while moving downward. Meanwhile, a stationary blade cuts into the side of the ham, slicing it in a spiral pattern. This process creates even slices, usually measuring roughly 0.375 inch (about 9.525 millimeters) in thickness per slice.

Since the slices are not completely cut off, a spiral ham holds its overall shape. The consumer buys the ham whole, prepares it as desired, and finishes cutting off the pre-sliced sections when serving it. A well-prepared spiral ham sold by an expert butcher or reputable manufacturer makes cutting and serving equally sized slices almost effortless, even with bone-in hams.

Consumers looking to purchase a spiral ham should select a bright pink ham with uniform color throughout. Marbling indicates how much fat a ham contains, and too much fat will negatively influence the texture and taste of the ham. High quality spiral hams should have clear, even slices that the consumer can identify through a transparent wrapping.

Spiral hams are usually fully cooked, which means that they can be eaten as is without presenting any health hazard. Most consumers prefer to warm them before eating, however, and many also prefer to prepare a glaze for the ham prior to reheating it. Many simple ham glazes combine brown sugar with some sort of fruit juice, such as pineapple or orange juice. Others combine brown sugar and other sweeteners, like honey or maple syrup. Thin glazes tend to seep in between slices on a spiral ham, and depending on the glaze used, this pre-sliced ham may soak in the flavors of the glaze more thoroughly than unsliced hams typically do.