Well, I made it successfully past the mad rush of Thanksgiving turkey season, thank the Lord. It was a stressful three weeks leading up to Thanksgiving with our warehouse overflowing with fresh and frozen turkeys and many customers calling in last minute to increase their orders.

I was surprised to see many customers needing more big birds, above 20 pounds this year, even at the last minute. That was a change from last year. It probably means that people had bigger gatherings this year and thus families needed bigger birds.

Thank you to all the turkey growers, processors and shippers! We got all our turkeys in with no shorts from four different suppliers. Great job!

Now it’s the season for Christmas hams. We received our pre-order in this week with no shorts! Meat plants amaze me. They’re working through a labor shortage, transportation and production issues, and they still deliver the meat. They’re incredible.

I sold hams for a few years for Farmland (pre-Smithfield). Farmland taught me a lot about the different types of hams found in the marketplace. They held a weeklong class in Iowa at one of their processing plants and did a great job with product training.

The three main types of hams:

Natural-juice hams. These are the premium hams found in the marketplace. Most are whole muscle. These hams are the most expensive and taste the best for carving and serving warm.
Water-added hams. These hams have water added to reduce the cost. Some brands of water-added are very good and others, well, not so much. These hams can be served hot or cold and can be used for carving, but are normally used for slicing.
Ham and water hams. These economy hams have ham pieces ground up and added back into the hams. This ham is good for slicing and allows processors to use up scraps of hams that would otherwise be wasted. This ham is not a great ham for heating up and serving hot; it’s best use is for ham sandwiches.

If you know more about ham production than I do, feel free to share your knowledge.

Bone in vs. boneless

For Christmas hams, my best seller is a half bone-in spiral cut ham. There is something about serving the ham with the bone in it that makes its taste so much more flavorful. This is true not only with hams, but with beef and poultry also. A bone-in Ribeye (a.k.a. Export rib) tastes better than a boneless ribeye. It just does.

What is it about cooking a bone-in product that makes it taste better? I honestly don’t know. Have any meat-science majors out there ever studied this?

The best way to serve the bone-in, half, spiral cut ham for the holidays is to serve it cold. Many people heat up this ham and it dries out, so it’s no longer the ham it was destined to be.

Spiral cut hams

I know spiral cuts are popular at retailers and with consumers, but I think they are too dry and chewy when heated up. If I’m going to serve a ham warmed up, I’d rather cut my own ham than buy a spiral cut. The uncut ham, when heated, will retain its natural juices and remain moist as long as it’s not overcooked. I think many consumers forget that hams are already fully cooked when they buy them, and they don’t need to be cooked like a turkey to turn out right.

If you must heat your holiday ham, buy a natural-juice ham and follow the directions on the label for heating it up. Cover it with foil, add some water, and use a low temperature. Otherwise you’ll ruin it.

If you just must serve a spiral cut ham, serve it cold. Oh, how I know you’ll catch some flak from some in your family, but they will become true believers when they eat it.

I serve my half, bone-in, spiral cut ham cold with dinner rolls, cheese and good mustard. It’s an unbeatable flavor experience. But, I just eat the cold ham slices plain with nothing added. It’s delicious.

How about you? What are your ham tips and preferences?

A tribute to the Christmas Ham

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