Ham for Christmas?

[smplyswt0712]

So, we almost always fork over the cash for a honeybaked ham on Christmas, but I'm desperately trying to cut some of the frivolous spending out of our budget. Do any of you have an alternative? Am I better off just getting one from the grocery store and making some kind of glaze myself? Do you know if any of the grocery store delis have prepared hams, kind of like they offer turkeys for Thanksgiving?

I like for Christmas to be lower stress than Thanksgiving, so we can enjoy the day together instead of cooking, but the cheapest Honeybaked Ham I can find is around $58 with a $5 coupon, and that just seems like tooooo much.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Kellydelly]

I don't know where you live, but I am in the state that I think is HBH headquarters. Instead of going there, I save a couple dollars a lb and get a Dearborn ham (they sell these at Kroger as well as their own stores). Same thing, different price . Some of the grocery store hams, like Smithfield are not bad. Definitely not HB, but tasty anyway. Not the gross ham my mom used to cook when I was a kid, LOL.

 

[Pigeon]

I never got the appeal of Honeybaked Hams. I don't think they taste any better than other hams, but they are ridiculously overpriced.

Making a glazed ham is slightly more difficult than making toast. I would just buy a grocery store ham and make a glaze. Mix brown sugar, mustard, a little marmalade or apricot jam. Thin with brandy if needed. Glaze for the last half hour or so.

Our local supermarkets offer ham dinners, at both Christmas and TG, similar to the pre-cooked turkey dinners. But given how simple cooking ham is, I don't see the point.

 

[verleniahall]

you can purchase a spiral cut ham at a grocery store, and they usually come with a glaze packet that you can make. I have made those several times and they taste great.

Good Luck with whatever you choose!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Aldi has a spiral cut ham that I think tastes better than a Honeybaked Ham for a fraction of the price. We get one every year.

 

[undertheradar]

So, we almost always fork over the cash for a honeybaked ham on Christmas, but I'm desperately trying to cut some of the frivolous spending out of our budget. Do any of you have an alternative? Am I better off just getting one from the grocery store and making some kind of glaze myself? Do you know if any of the grocery store delis have prepared hams, kind of like they offer turkeys for Thanksgiving?

I like for Christmas to be lower stress than Thanksgiving, so we can enjoy the day together instead of cooking, but the cheapest Honeybaked Ham I can find is around $58 with a $5 coupon, and that just seems like tooooo much.

Thanks for the help!

We get a spiral sliced ham at Costco. I glaze it with brown sugar when it goes in the oven, then use the included glaze about 30 minutes before the ham is done. Makes for a very nice ham.

Have also done this with store spiral sliced hams and have always been happy.

 

[Praying Colonel]

The glaze in this recipe is awesome and works well with just about any ham.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Aldi has a spiral cut ham that I think tastes better than a Honeybaked Ham for a fraction of the price. We get one every year.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

We get one from Sam's Club.

It comes with the packet and is incredible.

 

[scrapquitler]

So, we almost always fork over the cash for a honeybaked ham on Christmas, but I'm desperately trying to cut some of the frivolous spending out of our budget. Do any of you have an alternative? Am I better off just getting one from the grocery store and making some kind of glaze myself? Do you know if any of the grocery store delis have prepared hams, kind of like they offer turkeys for Thanksgiving?

I like for Christmas to be lower stress than Thanksgiving, so we can enjoy the day together instead of cooking, but the cheapest Honeybaked Ham I can find is around $58 with a $5 coupon, and that just seems like tooooo much.

Thanks for the help!

Honeybaked ham is good, but not so good that it is worth the $$$, at least in my family's opinion. I always buy a ham at the grocery store and make it myself, and never spend more than about $15 and they like it better (this is a regular, not spiral cut type). It's not hard to do at all.

You can buy a spiral ham at any grocery store and just reheat the day you want to serve it, it's not a lot of work, and to be honest, you have to reheat the HBH anyway, so it's not any more complicated.

 

[disneyhand]

We get a spiral sliced ham at Costco. I glaze it with brown sugar when it goes in the oven, then use the included glaze about 30 minutes before the ham is done. Makes for a very nice ham.

Have also done this with store spiral sliced hams and have always been happy.

Ditto the Costco recommendation, it's delicious!

 

[mrodgers]

Butcher. I have a place that cures their own hams. Hams from a grocery stores have the texture of a sponge, soft and airy. It only costs about $10 more for a good ham and the quality is x100.

We're talking real ham here as in a 20 lb. chunk of bone-in meat. Not that perfectly round packaged stuff.

 

[Kae]

Butcher. I have a place that cures their own hams. Hams from a grocery stores have the texture of a sponge, soft and airy. It only costs about $10 more for a good ham and the quality is x100.

We're talking real ham here as in a 20 lb. chunk of bone-in meat. Not that perfectly round packaged stuff.

And I think spriral ham drys out with being precut. Once you cook and glaze your own I don't think you will go back to the Honey Baked. Very easy. And you can change up the glaze as you want try FoodTV's website for recipes.

Kae

 

[3boymthr]

you can purchase a spiral cut ham at a grocery store, and they usually come with a glaze packet that you can make. I have made those several times and they taste great.

Good Luck with whatever you choose!

This is what we do. It's delicious. And I grew up on a farm with fresh ham every year (Dad butchered the pig in the barn it was FRESH and organic - fed tomatoes and other left over veggies out of the garden). The store spiral cut hams are just as good as any other ham out there - except that nasty canned stuff

 

[smiths02]

I buy the cheapest spiral ham I can and use this recipe every Christmas Eve (I throw out the glaze packet that comes with them)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/dijon-maple-glazed-spiral-ham-recipe.html

I like it better than Honeybaked Ham because it is warm and delicious when we eat it.

 

[pens4821]

We get one from Sam's Club.

It comes with the packet and is incredible.

This is what I was going to say. It tastes just as good as a honey baked at a quarter (or more) of the price.

 

[mrsbicewdw]

I will pay a bit more for a spiral cut ham so I don't have to hack it to pieces myself, but then I dress it up with homemade glaze. Glaze is so easy. I would never shell out $60 for a ham.

 

[DisneyHardin]

My stepmom got a Kirkland brand one at Costco for Thanksgiving. It was great. Couldn't even tell that she didn't get Honeybaked.

 

[aprilchem]

I made a ham on Thanksgiving that was awesome - I used a recipe I found on a website and just changed it up a bit. I bought a spiral-sliced, non-smoked ham, threw away the glaze packet, and put the ham in my crockpot. I poured about 2 cups of pineapple juice over it and then rubbed it all over with a bunch of brown sugar. I cooked it on low from about 9 am to 1 pm when we ate. It was delicious - so much so that my DH has asked me to make it again instead of going out to a nice dinner on Christmas Eve.

 

[drcmk]

I'll be the sole voice of dissent. We love a Honey Baked ham. The few times that I bought a Costco ham to save money, I regretted it. We ended up throwing away most of the Costco ham. I guess it was edible, but it wasn't nearly as good at Honey Baked and the leftovers weren't as good in my bean soup or sandwiches. I'd rather cut back on holiday decorations, liquor, desserts than buy a lower quality meat.