To carve a holiday ham, work off the bone instead of around it. Find where the bone runs, cut the meat away from it in large boneless sections, and slice each section across the grain on a cutting board. A spiral-cut ham is mostly sliced already: cut around the bone to free the slices, then take off what is left in sections and separate them.
Carving a ham whole at the table, with a long knife and a lot of hope, is how slices end up ragged and half the meat stays on the bone. Taking it apart first is faster and wastes nothing.
Know which ham you have
Read the label. A ham marked fully cooked only needs warming. Illinois Extension gives the reheating target as 140°F for cooked hams packaged in USDA-inspected plants and 165°F for all others. A fresh ham, or a smoked ham sold uncooked, needs 145°F and a rest of at least three minutes, the figure both Illinois Extension and the FDA give for uncooked ham.
Shank or butt. Bone-in hams are often sold as one end of the leg. America’s Test Kitchen recommends the shank end because it contains less gristle and fat and is easier to carve than a butt-end ham. Either one carves by the same rule: find the bone first.
Warm it gently. Ohio State University Extension advises setting the oven to 325°F for ham. Keep a fully cooked ham wrapped in foil or covered while it warms so the cut face does not dry out, and check the center with a thermometer rather than trusting the clock. Add any glaze in the last stretch of heating.
Set up two surfaces
A bone-in ham is too big and too heavy for an everyday cutting board. Rest it and carve it on a large carving board or a rimmed sheet pan, where it can sit flat and the juices have somewhere to go. Each boneless section then moves to a smaller board for slicing.
Set out:
- A long carving knife or a sharp 8-inch chef’s knife
- A paring or boning knife for working close to the bone
- A carving fork, or a folded towel, to steady the ham
- A damp towel under each board so neither slides
- A warm platter
Sharpness matters more than the type of knife. A dull blade drags through the glaze and tears the slices. If your knife needs attention before the holiday, how to sharpen a knife at home covers the method.
How to carve a bone-in ham
Let the ham rest for 15 to 20 minutes after it leaves the oven, loosely tented with foil. A rested ham is firmer, and the glaze sets enough to slice cleanly.
- Give it a flat base. Set a half ham cut side down. For a whole ham, lay it on its side and cut two or three slices off the thinner side, then turn it onto that flat face so it cannot rock.
- Find the bone. Probe with the tip of the paring knife until you feel where the bone runs and where it bends.
- Take off the largest section. Cut straight down alongside the bone, keeping the blade against it, and lift away the biggest piece of meat in one block.
- Turn and repeat. Roll the ham onto the new flat surface and remove the next section the same way. Three or four sections usually leave a bare bone with some meat clinging to it.
- Slice on the board. Lay each section flat side down and slice across the grain, about a quarter inch thick for a dinner plate, thinner for sandwiches the next day.
- Trim the bone. Pare off the remaining scraps for leftovers and keep the bone.
Slicing a boneless section is calm work. It sits still, every slice comes out the same shape, and you can stop when the platter is full and leave the rest unsliced, where it stays moister.
How to carve a spiral-cut ham
A spiral ham saves most of the slicing but not all of it. America’s Test Kitchen notes that, despite the name, spiral-sliced hams are not fully sliced: the slices are still attached at the bone. Its method:
- Cut around the bone. With the ham on its side, run a paring knife around the bone to free the attached slices.
- Remove the top section. Switch to the carving knife and slice horizontally above the bone to lift off the whole top section.
- Slice along the bone. Turn the ham cut side down and cut down along the bone to remove the remaining meat.
- Separate the slices. Cut between the slices where they are still joined.
Because the slices are already open to the air, keep a spiral ham covered until the moment you carve, and carve it close to serving time.
Where the board earns its place
Slices coming off a warm ham carry glaze and juice with them. A board with a juice groove keeps that on the board instead of on the tablecloth, and the drippings can be spooned back over the platter.
A 12 × 9 inch WONAMU. bamboo cutting board is the right size for one boneless section and its slices, with a perimeter juice groove around the edge. The whole ham stays on the big carving board; the small board does the slicing. Why the groove matters is explained in what is a juice groove.
Serving and leftovers
Fan the slices on the warm platter, overlapping, with the glazed edges facing out. Set the bone-in remainder on the side of the carving board for anyone who wants a second round carved at the table.
If you pick up a hot, cooked ham from a store, Ohio State University Extension advises keeping it hot, at 140°F or above. The FDA’s rule for leftovers is to refrigerate within two hours, or within one hour if the room is above 90°F. Divide the meat into shallow containers so it cools fast. Ohio State gives three to four days in the refrigerator for ham cooked at home, and for best quality, frozen ham is used within one to two months.
The bone goes into a pot of split pea or bean soup. More ways to use the rest of the dinner are in what to do with Christmas leftovers.
Glaze is sticky and ham is fatty, so the boards need a proper wash afterward: hot water, dish soap, a good scrub, then a towel dry and an upright night on the rack. The full routine is in how to clean grease off a cutting board after carving.
The short version
Check the label: a fully cooked ham from a USDA-inspected plant is warmed to 140°F, a fresh or uncooked ham is cooked to 145°F and rested. Rest it 15 to 20 minutes, give it a flat base, find the bone, and cut the meat off in large sections.
Slice each section across the grain on a smaller board, a quarter inch thick. For a spiral ham, cut around the bone, lift off the top section, then cut down along the bone and separate the slices.
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The WONAMU. bamboo cutting board — 12 × 9 inches, bamboo, with a perimeter juice groove and a cotton care cloth in the box — is available on Amazon.
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