We bought a bone-in 3.5 kilogram ham for our Easter meal. It was the first ham in big-chunk form that we’ve had in years; in fact, I can’t remember the last time we had one.
After I warmed it up in the oven on low heat for an hour, I noticed something weird about it. I checked the packaging. Hickory Smoked Spiral Cut Ham, Fully Cooked, it said, without further explanation.
When I unleashed it from the sturdy packaging, I didn’t detect any spiral cutting. But after a little cooking, there it clearly was: the entire ham was uniformly semi-sliced, with just a little bit still attached to the central bone to keep things intact.
I did not know that such a thing existed — an obvious gap in my cultural knowledge. Everyone else seems to know about it. Not me.
In case you are in the same boat, this is what you can do after the spiral-cut ham comes out of the oven. Run a knife between slices. Press a fork on one side of a slice, the knife on the other, and gently tug. A slice of ham slides out.
There are tributes to spiral cut hams, along with the requisite slamming from food sophisticates. Some links are below.
Spiral cutting makes for a convenient, tidy ham experience, supporters say. It dries out the ham and interferes with the true ham experience where you get to show off your carving skills, opponents say.
The HoneyBaked ham website says spiral-cut hams have been around since the 1950s, invented by company founder Harry J. Hoenselaar.
Our spiral-cut ham was quite decent. Not dry, not unpleasantly salty, not artificial-tasting. We might get another one next Easter.
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Here’s a YouTube video of a device doing a spiral cut — a ham spins on a spindle, a knife slowly moves up, slicing the ham. The blade bounces back and forth as it meets resistance from the bone.
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The Mystery of the Spiral-Sliced Ham
Spiral Cut Ham Originated at HoneyBaked
Star-Telegram: An Easter ham primer
Recipe for glazed sweet potato stuffed ham, where you put sweet potato slices between the ham slices
(And, I just found the spiral cut ham patent on Google. Here's the link.)
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We ate a deconstructed Easter meal, cooking and eating one course at a time, with about an hour between courses. It was a laid-back way to make and eat a feast.
It started with romaine lettuce, tomato slices, spicy sausage patties and a hot filone loaf.
Then roasted potatoes, the kind that’s cooked with lemon juice, garlic, oregano, paprika, olive oil and chicken stock. We ate the potatoes with romaine lettuce.
Then the spiral cut ham, with romaine lettuce, tomato slices and chunks of fresh pineapple.
This was followed by store-bought chocolate truffles. Romaine lettuce goes with almost anything, but we arbitrarily decided not to try it with the truffles.
We have enough leftover ham for a week of ham sandwiches.
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