Don’t know whether to buy your ham bone-in or boneless for your Easter meal?
The three most important things to consider are your party size, whether you want soup and your abilities with a carving knife.
Whole smoked boneless hams top out at about 16 pounds, according to Joe Maffei, owner of Grant Park Packing in Chicago, “while bone-in smoked hams can be up to 25 pounds.” The bone-in also has more skin and fat, which is important to some people who prefer a juicier ham with a crisp skin.
“A lot of people love the bone-in because they know how to utilize the leftovers,” Maffei said, “such as [in] split pea soup.”
If you’re not too good with a knife, you might want to go boneless. “The boneless is cleaner and a lot less work,” Maffei said, “and it’s all meat and no waste.”
Still, if you’re dreaming of homemade pork and beans or that split pea soup, there’s an increasingly popular option just for you: the spiral sliced ham. A stationary blade is held against a rotating fully cooked ham, cutting the meat all the way to the bone, allowing perfectly sized slices to come right off.
One small detail to keep in mind: Spiral sliced hams tend to dry out more quickly than non-sliced hams. If you’re heating them in the oven, take care not to overcook them. Follow the package directions and check the ham 10 to 15 minutes earlier than suggested.
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Sliced to perfection
Oh, that troublesome bone. It’s often why people buy canned ham. But fear not; there’s an easy way to get the ham off the bone that actually uses the bone to your advantage.
1. Set your ham on the cutting board as if you’re about to slice it. Now, turn it 90 degrees so that the bottom is toward your knife hand. Cut a thin slice from the bottom. Now you have a nice flat surface on which the ham will rest with stability. Turn the ham back onto the flat bottom.
2. Holding your knife so that the blade is parallel to the cutting board, position the edge against the ham just above the bone. Use the bone to guide you as you cut horizontally about 80 percent of the way to the back of the ham. Make sure the side of your blade is barely touching the bone.
3. Now cut quarter-inch slices from the top of the ham to the bone, slicing straight down and moving the knife backward as the pieces fall away.
4. Cut the last 20 percent away, then flip the ham over and repeat. You’ll be left with the bone with two pieces of meat stretching out on either side — kind of like an airplane made of ham. Just run your knife down either side to remove the meat to be sliced or diced. Be sure to make some split pea or bean soup with the bone.
— J.D.
