Spiral Honey-Baked Ham for Christmas, Again

Our main dish again this year for our Christmas Dinner is the spiral honeybaked ham. This has been our family tradition since my retirement to Northern California in 2002. I have purchased a 5 lb ham ( we will have only 8 adults and one child for dinner this year) three days ago, to avoid the long lines. But I was mistaken. I still waited for 45 minutes to be served since there were about 100 customers ahead of me. If you wait to buy your ham today, expect a line from 1 to 3 hours.

I was wondering why this ham is very popular compared to other hams. The reason is explained in this short posting from the Honeybaked ham website as follows: "The spiral ham had its origins at HoneyBaked Ham Company over 50 years ago. Harry J. Hoenselaar opened the first HoneyBaked Ham Company store in Michigan. He made hams one at a time - and made sure every one met his exacting quality standards. He'd start with only the best quality bone-in ham, marinate it in his secret curing recipe, smoke it for as long as 24 hours over select hickory embers, slice it and then glaze it with his now-famous honey sweet and crunchy glaze. At that time, the spiral ham was born, Harry patented the unique spiral slicer he invented and the rest is history.

There are a number of benefits to spiral sliced hams. For one, spiral slicing is convenient. You don't need to worry about carving your ham when you buy a HoneyBaked spiral ham. Secondly, spiral slicing creates uniform, perfectly sized servings of our moist and delicious ham. Third, the spiral cut makes the ham more attractive when it's placed on your table. Plus, because Harry spiral sliced his ham first and then added his delectable sweet glaze, none of the glaze is lost during the slicing process".

I have tasted Chinese ham and other brand of smoked hams before. They are more salty compared to the honey baked which has a sweet taste and indeed really delicious. I paid about $6 per pound for the ham I purchased three days ago, not a bad buy. Of course besides the ham we will have other dishes such as Dungeness crab omelet, chicken macaroni salad, Filipino noodles ( pancit), chicken adobo with salad greens, mango ice cream, peach pie, Hawaiian rolls and steam rice. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Safe New Year.