Ham how much to buy

Watch our Video Recipe to learn how to score the ham, make and apply the glaze, and how to whip up a sauce using the pan juices. What is a ham? These are called city hams, as opposed to uncooked country hams, which are cured by rubbing the meat directly with salt and sugar.

Pretty much all the cooked hams you see in the supermarket are going to be city hams. Most producers today brine their hams by injecting them with a curing solution of water, salt, sugar, and usually phosphates and nitrites as well.

The two highest grades of ham are sold as either whole or half hams. For up to 14 people, a half-ham is sufficient. The butt half is the upper part of the ham.

Its meat tends to be very tender and flavorful—but it often contains part of the hip bone, which makes carving a little awkward. The shank half is the lower part of the ham. I prefer bone-in hams over boneless. I find that any meat cooked on the bone has better flavor, and in the case of ham, it also has better texture.

This can give boneless ham a bit of a spongy texture. If you can only find boneless ham, try to pick one that has the natural shape of the leg, which indicates that it was minimally tumbled. Already a subscriber? Log in. Get the print magazine, 25 years of back issues online, over 7, recipes, and more. Start your FREE trial. For a bone-in spiral-cut ham , you need to account for the large bone that's making up a good bit of weight in the total you see printed on the label.

Save that bone to make the best soup. The ham's saltiness and intensity will likely keep your guests' portions small. Keep in mind, appetites vary. In a buffet presentation, guests may go for smaller portions than if they're serving themselves from the table. And if you want your guests to have some ham to take home—or you need it for a traditional morning-after breakfast casserole—go ahead and factor in the higher side of these estimates.

If you have a lot leftover , divvy that up among your guests, and send them home with a ham care package. Buying a Christmas ham is a big job, both literally and figuratively.

Not only are you responsible for the stunning key to the Christmas meal, but you need to make sure you have enough pig to feed your entire crew, and then some, because you know people are always picking for seconds. Whole Foods Market recipe developer and food editor Molly Siegler suggests planning for one-quarter to a half a pound per person for a boneless ham and one-half to three quarters of a pound per serving for a bone-in ham.