Here's The Cut Of The Pig That Your Christmas Ham Comes From

The holidays are afoot, which means Christmas ham will be gracing many a table. That salty and delicious meat is obviously pork, but you may not have thought too much about which part of the pig it comes from. (It's okay.) If the bone-in version wasn't a clue to you meat sleuths, the truth is that the ham is cut from a pig's hind leg. But there are multiple varieties of ham, many of which you're probably familiar with, thanks to the deli.

When considering which cut of ham to buy at the store, you'll likely see black forest ham, honey cured, country, tasso, and more. Fresh ham is also a thing; just an uncured, raw cut of pork meant to be cooked for whichever purpose you like. The ham served at Christmas is almost always the cured and cooked version. Speaking of, some versions of cured ham — like the kind that go on your sandwiches — include ingredients like nitrates to preserve the deli meat (though high quality versions of ham like prosciutto generally do not). Still, all of them come from the leg of the pig.

Fortunately, that Christmas ham you picked up is already fully cooked — but I can't think of any household that would carve a whole hunk of chilled ham for Christmas dinner. In essence, all you need to do is heat it up in the oven, even if you just got one from the grocery store or via specialty mail order (Places like Honey Baked Ham come to mind). Your ham will definitely benefit from a little extra tender loving care, and we've already written some handy tips for cooking ham that might help you nail your first attempt. These tricks include details like glazing, scoring the meat, and studding it; the touches that make your ham a true centerpiece.

The fact that ham is a leg cut is secretly a good thing, because if you happen to have a bone-in ham for Christmas dinner, you should save the bone for later. You can freeze your ham bone and later use it as part of a base for soup (Simmering will unlock a lot of flavor). A pig's leg is like the real gift that keeps on giving. That millionth pair of socks you're about to get is pretty nifty too, but, you can't eat that.