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I Ate a Whole Lot of Ham (and Maxed Out My Freezer) to Find the 7 Best Hams You Can Order Online

Whether it's spiral-cut or unsliced, we have ham options for the holidays and beyond.

Updated June 25, 2024

four mail order hams wrapped and on a wooden surface — Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

In This Article

Straight to the Point:

Our favorite boneless ham was the Omaha Steaks Duroc Boneless Country Ham; it was sweet, lightly smoky, and tender. We also liked the North Country Smokehouse Organic Uncured Maple Bone-In Whole Ham as a spiral-cut option.

My father-in-law loves ham. To put it in perspective, not only does he relish any holiday where ham graces the table, but he specifically requests it for his birthday in September, too. Lucky for him I took on the enviable task (well, to him at least) of testing mail-order hams and invited him over for a “hamboree” to try a few (like a jamboree, but with ham—get it?). And, while you might think, “How different can a hunk of ham really be?” I tried almost every type you can buy, including a prosciutto-like offering, a barbecued picnic ham, and many iterations of spiral-cut and uncut whole hams. Not only did I judge them based on how easy they were to prepare and how they tasted, but I also noted how they arrived, since no one wants to order a ham online only to find it thawed out on its shipping journey.

The Winners, at a Glance

A Moist, Flavorful Boneless Ham

Omaha Steaks Duroc Boneless Country Ham

PHOTO: Omaha Steaks

View on Omahasteaks.com

This boneless ham had a honey-colored crust, was super easy to bake and slice, and was downright delicious. It was moist, flavorful (with a touch of sweetness), and perfectly seasoned. The leftovers would be lovely cooked up in bean or pea soup.

A Showstopper Bone-In Ham

D'Artagnan Berkshire Pork Bone-in Smoked Ham, Half

PHOTO: D'Artagnan

View on Dartagnan.com

With a dark, almost bark-like exterior, this bone-in ham had my in-laws oo-ing and aww-ing. And the flavor was fantastic, too, with a faint smokiness and subtle sweetness, and a very moist and tender texture.

Another Fantastic Bone-In Ham

Snake River Farms Kurobuta Bone-In Ham

PHOTO: Williams Sonoma

$130 at Williams-Sonoma View on Snakeriverfarms.com View on Goldbelly.com

This ham emerged from the oven burnished and beautiful, with a shatteringly crisp skin (that was actually delicious to eat) and a meltingly tender interior. After testing a lot of ham, you’d think I’d give it a taste and call it a day, but I found myself sneaking back into the kitchen repeatedly to pull off more pieces.

The Best Spiral-Cut Ham

North Country Smokehouse Organic Uncured Maple Bone-In Whole Ham

PHOTO: North Country Smokehouse

View on Ncsmokehouse.com

This ham arrived frozen and tightly wrapped in a plastic coating and mesh bag. I loved its smoky flavor and the spiral cut made it easy to slice and serve.

The Best Ham for Two

Olympia Provisions Sweetheart Ham

PHOTO: Murray's Cheese

View on Murrayscheese.com View on Olympiaprovisions.com

This is a truly tiny ham and a big departure from the massive hams I tested. But though it’s small in size, it’s big in flavor, with a faintly smoky sweetness. It tasted just as good cold as it did warmed up.

Another Great Ham for Two

North Country Organic Applewood Smoked Nugget Style Petit Hams

North Country Smokehouse Organic Applewood Smoked Nugget Style Petit Hams

PHOTO: North Country Smokehouse

View on Ncsmokehouse.com

While this is a tiny ham, it doesn’t skimp on flavor—it’s lightly smoky with a little bit of sweetness.

The Best Fancy Dry Ham

Benton's Country Ham Whole Hickory Smoked Country Ham

PHOTO: Benton's

View on Bentonscountryham.com

You can often find Benton’s ham on menus at good restaurants, but did you know you can buy a whole leg of it for only $83? I'm talkin’ a near prosciutto-like, smoky leg that you can slice slivers from for cheese boards, to wrap around fruit, or to fry up in a pan with some red eye gravy and biscuits. It’ll redefine what you think ham can be.

The Tests

overhead shot of packaged ham — Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

Shipping Inspection: I inspected each package to see if the ham arrived frozen or chilled and to see how insulated it was.
Preparation Test: I followed instructions (included in the package or online) to prepare each ham, noting if it was easy to do so.
Taste Test: I had two to four people taste each ham, noting its consistency and texture, flavor, and how easy it was to slice and serve.

What We Learned

What Exactly Is Ham?

Benton's country ham on it's wrapping on a wooden surface — Hams come in all shapes, flavors, and sizes, like this dry cured, smoked offering from Benton's.
Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

If you shop for ham online or at the grocery store, you might be confused by all the labels: Fresh ham, ham, uncured ham, smoked ham, cured ham, bone-in, boneless. What do they all mean? The USDA defines ham (just plain ‘ol ham) as “the cured leg of pork,” while “fresh ham” is uncured (more on what that means shortly). Curing a pork leg simply means the leg was salted or brined (often with added nitrates, which give ham its pink color) as a preservation method. If you see ham labeled “uncured” or “fresh,” this doesn’t mean that it wasn’t salted or brined, it simply means there were no chemical additives (like nitrates) used during the process. Sometimes a brand will use celery seed instead, which manufacturers often claim is a “natural” nitrate. However, this meat still has nitrates in it, regardless of whether they are the pink salt kind or derived from a plant.

Smoked ham is another style you can look for, though intensity can vary depending on how long it was smoked and what wood chips were used. Some hams are REALLY smoky, so if you (or whoever you’re serving) don’t love that wood-chip smell and aroma, this might be something to steer clear of. We found most of the hams we tasted were low-to-moderately smoky, but Benton’s ham was really, really smoky—but they’re known for this intense hickory smoke flavor. If you’re not into smoke, look for hams that have been smoked for a shorter time, or lean on the flavors of milder wood chips, like apple, cherry, or alder.

Boneless Vs. Bone-In

a bone-in ham next to a boneless ham on a sheet tray — Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

In the end, I didn’t really find a huge difference in terms of taste when it came to boneless versus bone-in hams. Sure the bone-in hams, like this one from D’Artagnan, looked nicer—and it feels like you’re serving dinner at a medieval banquet when you carve collops from it—but they weren’t necessarily moister or more flavorful than the boneless hams. The difference was that the boneless hams had more fat marbling throughout (while the bone in hams had veins of fat delineating different sections), like in the Omaha ham, but this turned out not to be as gross as it sounds. Instead, the fat melted and kept the meat moist when the ham was heated. That said, it was more like deli meat than meat from a bone-in ham.

Most Hams Were Pre-Cooked and Easy to Heat Up

baking a ham on a sheetray with water in the oven — Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

All of the hams I tested were pre-cooked, which makes serving all that much easier. When you bake a ham, you’re just reheating it so it doesn’t pass as deli meat. Nearly all of the hams I tasted were also incredibly easy to warm, requiring only a deep roasting pan (a half-sheet pan works in a pinch, but there’s more risk of spillage) filled with about 1/4 to 1/2 to an inch of water and an oven temperature ranging between 275°F and 350°F. Some brands recommended tenting the ham with foil, which we found beneficial to ensuring the ham emerged moist rather than dry and leathery (this is especially true of spiral-cut hams, which we will get into momentarily).

The exception to this was the Benton’s ham, which was more like prosciutto than ham you might eat at Easter. You can either serve thin slices shaved fresh off the leg or, as they suggested on the included pamphlet, heat pieces up in a skillet, perhaps with a dash of coffee to make a simple red eye gravy and serve it with some grits or a fluffy biscuit.

Spiral-Cut Hams Dried Out Faster

North country smokehouse ham on a green platter on a wooden surface — Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

While spiral-cut hams offer serving convenience (especially if there’s a big bone running through the center), they tend to dry out faster than whole, uncut hams. If you like the convenience of spiral-cut hams, I recommend baking them cut side down and tenting them with foil to retain as much moisture as possible.

Comparing a Few of Our Favorite Hams
Ham	Price Per Pound	Sizes Available	Smoked	Style	Cooking Instructions
Omaha Steaks Duroc Boneless Country Ham	$24 per pound	2.5 and 5 pounds	Yes, with hickory	Boneless, uncut	Place ham cut-side down on baking sheet and fill with water, about 1/4 inch. Cover with parchment and aluminum foil and bake at 275°F for two-and-a-half to three hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 140°F
D'Artagnan Berkshire Pork Bone-In Smoked Ham	$9.29 per pound	8 to 10 pounds	Yes, with applewood	Bone-in, uncut	Place ham fat-side up on sheet pan. Fill sheet with a quarter to a half-inch of water. Tightly cover with parchment and aluminum foil and bake at 300°F for about one hour and 20 minutes (ten minutes per pound of ham).
Snake River Farms Kurobuta Bone-In Ham	$20 per pound	6, 8, and 16 pounds	Yes	Bone-in, uncut	Place ham flat-side down on sheet pan or in a roasting pan. Bake at 325°F for two to four hours, depending on the size of your ham, or until it reaches 140°F.

Texture Was Important

a closeup of three slices of Rastelli's ham on a platter — Rubbery, snappy ham was off-putting.
Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

My favorite hams had some chew to them but weren't leathery. Some hams, like the Rastelli’s, had an unpleasant grainy, chewy, and snappy texture redolent of cold-cut deli ham, but not in a good way. The Omaha ham also had a little bit of a snappy bite to it, but it was still quite moist and tender since it was boneless, with almost imperceptible ribbons of fat running throughout (don’t worry, they melted when heated and kept the ham juicy). Overall, I preferred hams with a little more texture, but one that wasn’t rubbery or overly snappy—when you cut the ham, it should tear rather than cut cleanly into chunks.

Too Much Fat Was Off-Putting

an overhead view of the Goldbelly ham, which is glazed in barbecue sauce. — While the ham from Goldbelly looked shellacked and scrumptious, it had a thick layer of fat on top.
Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

While you do want some fat in a ham to keep it moist, two of the hams were so fatty they made me feel ill. The Goldbelly PIT SMOKED BBQ HAM had a fat cap so thick, that it made up half the ham, thus making that half inedible—sad. The Holy Grail Steak Co Mangalitsa Bone-In Smoked Ham also had lots of fat running through it (to be fair, the Mangalitsa pig is labeled the Wagyu of pork), and I got queasy after eating larger pieces of it. That said, if you liked the taste and texture of fat, both hams would satisfy that craving.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Mail-Order Ham

the dartagnan ham wrapped on a wooden surface with captions: balanced flavor, tender texture, easy to heat, good packaging and shipping — Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

First, find a purveyor who knows what they’re doing in terms of shipping—no one wants to receive a spoiled ham. I liked both whole and spiral-cut hams, though the pre-cut ones tended to dry out faster. When it comes to smokiness, take a gander at the smoke times and/or wood chips used for a general idea of how smoky the ham will be (hickory tends to be more intense than apple or cherry wood). Finally, I liked hams that were fatty enough to be moist, but not SO fatty that they were nauseating to eat.

The Best Hams for the Holidays (or Whenever)