Spiral Honey Baked Ham for Our Christmas Dinner

Our main dish again this year for our Christmas Dinner is the spiral honey baked ham. We will have 9 adults and one child for dinner this year. Yesterday, I already purchased a 5 lb ham at our local Honey Baked Ham store, to avoid the long lines. But I was mistaken about avoiding the waiting in line. I still waited for 35 minutes to be served since there were about 60 customers ahead of me. The store carries also glazed turkey breast besides the honey bake ham. If you wait to buy your ham today, expect a line from 2 to 3 hours and wait outside the store in the cold. This year though, the parking at the back of the store was well organized. The store hired a parking attendant directing the in and out traffic caused by the hundreds of ham and turkey buyers this week.

Every year I am always wondering why this ham is very popular compared to other hams. The reason is explained in this short posting from the Honey baked ham website as follows:

"The spiral ham had its origins at Honey Baked Ham Company over 50 years ago. Harry J. Hoenselaar opened the first Honey Baked 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 Honey Baked 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 $6.99 per pound for the ham I purchased yesterday. It is not a bad buy since it is a delicious meat dish. 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 and pumpkin pies, Hawaiian sweet rolls and steam rice. Again my dear readers, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Safe New Year.