Best hams to buy online for holidays and special occasions

Whether you're hosting a holiday feast or need a show-stopping centerpiece for your dinner party, there's nothing quite like a juicy, spiral-cut ham. While you can run to the grocery store to pick up any cut of meat, if you're looking to leave everyone begging for seconds, it's worth it to go all out with one of the best hams.

We picked the best places to buy ham online, whether you prefer glazed or unglazed, boneless or bone-in, or city or country. Our top pick is the Kurobuta Ham from Snake River Farms, a delicious, heritage-breed option with optimal marbling. It's also sold as a half ham, if you're not cooking for a crowd. For smaller groups, we picked the Duroc Boneless Country Ham from Omaha Steaks. It's a juicy, flavorful ham that serves five to ten people.

Our top picks for the best hams

Best overall: Snake River Farms Kurobuta Whole Ham - See at Snake River Farms

Best boneless: D'Artagnan Berkshire Best Boneless Smoked Ham - See at D'Artagnan

Best for small crowds: Omaha Steaks Duroc Boneless Country Ham - See at Omaha Steaks

Best glazed: Cajun Ed's Cajun Honey Glazed Ham - See at Goldbelly

Best smoked: Smoking Goose Peach Smoked Duroc Ham - See at Zingermans

Best overall

Much like using different grape varieties will lead to two very different red wines, different breeds of pig result in different ham experiences. Industrial meat production generally uses pig breeds that get big quickly and inexpensively. Heritage breeds, on the other hand, typically take longer to mature but offer a more unique flavor.

This humanely-raised ham from Snake River Farms, one of the best meat delivery services, is 100% Kurobuta, a Berkshire breed. This breed is known for impressive marbling, a more saturated color of meat, and rich flavor. The sizes range from 6.5 pounds to 21 pounds, depending if you opt for a whole or half ham. Both varieties are bone-in and smoked over hardwood for even more flavor. If you're looking for one of the best hams for a special occasion, consider this Kurobuta option.

Check out more options at Snake River Farms.

Best boneless

Longtime food lovers may recognize D'Artagnan, which has been sourcing humane, sustainable meat for more than 35 years for ethical reasons and because it believes it's more flavorful. Its Berkshire Pork Boneless Smoked Ham is a testament to that belief. You can order it fresh or frozen and apply a glaze of your choice about 30 minutes before it's done re-heating.

Another heirloom breed meat, this ham is made from Kurobuta (Berkshire) pork that was raised sustainably on pasture and smoked over applewood. Seasoned with raw cane sugar and sea salt, it's free of nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, and artificial fillers. This is our boneless pick because it offers the convenience of boneless with exceptional texture. It is one of the best hams to buy solely based on texture.

Check out more options at D'Artagnan.

Best for small crowds

The only issue with some of our other picks is that they're best suited for a crowd (or someone with plenty of room for leftovers). If you're looking for a ham for a smaller group, consider the Omaha Steaks Duroc Boneless Country Ham.

Made from Duroc pork, a breed known for its juicy, super savory flavor, this ham is beautifully marbled and slow-smoked for up to eight hours over hickory. This one doesn't come spiral-spiced, which may make it a little trickier to portion (you'll have to slice it yourself), but it will make storage easier if you do have leftovers.

Check out more options from Omaha Steaks.

Best glazed

There's something so comforting about a honey-glazed ham. For us, it's less about having a super sweet ham and more about using sweetness as a foil for the super savory, hammy flavors. That's why Cajun Ed's Cajun Honey Glazed Ham is so great. A bit of Cajun spice in each bite brings out the honey and the savory, meaty flavors in a way that's the best of all worlds.

The ham is spiral cut and arrives frozen and packed with dry ice. It takes 40 minutes to reach serving temperature, which you can spot by the appetizing, burnished glaze.

Check out more options from Goldbelly.

Best smoked

Zingerman sources this exclusive offering from the beloved Smoking Goose in Indianapolis. The Smoking Goose Peach Wood Smoked Heritage Ham is first procured from nearby Gunthorp Farms, which raises its heritage Duroc-breed pork on pasture. It's cured with pepper, coriander, mustard seed, honey, bay leaf, and mead from Arvins Acres meadery in nearby Delphi, Indiana. Then, it's smoked over peach wood, imparting a sweeter smoke flavor.

The thing with smoked ham is that it can quickly become all about the smoke. Sometimes the smoke can be a way to distract from the meat's lack of inherent flavor. This is our pick for the best smoked ham because, while the smoke certainly adds flavor, it's in concert with the cured flavor of exceptional heritage breed pork.

Check out more options from Zingerman's.

Our top picks, compared

How to choose the best ham

Everyone has their favorite type of ham, likely based on what was served in their home growing up. That said, there are a few objective categories to look at when assessing ham online.

Sourcing: Ideally, the best hams should be sourced from responsible farmers who ensured the animals led happy, pig-like lives, which entailed plenty of roaming around on a pasture. Not only does this make eating meat a little easier on our consciences, but it also makes for tastier meat. This type of meat costs more but is infinitely tastier and better for the planet.

Style: Cooked ham should be tender and flavorful. If a ham says it's smoked, it should be smoked over wood rather than adding smoke flavoring. Ideally, it should be cold-smoked for maximum tenderness. Honey-glazed ham should actually taste like honey.

Reviews: Ham is the food of the people. There aren't ham sommeliers peeking over your shoulder, telling you how to enjoy it; you know exactly what good ham tastes like, and you probably know within a few seconds whether you're eating great ham. There will be a consensus on whether ham is good or not. Thus, reviews were considered to ensure that our picks were well-loved.

Ham FAQs

How many pounds of ham do you need per person?

If you're serving a bone-in ham, plan for about half a pound per person. For boneless hams, a third of a pound should be plenty to go around.

Is spiral ham better than regular ham?

A spiral-cut ham is a bone-in ham that's been pre-sliced by a special machine to create neat, even spirals—making it easy to serve and great for presentation. The tradeoff is that those pre-cut slices can dry out a bit faster in the oven. A whole, unsliced ham usually stays juicier since it's sliced fresh after cooking.

What's the difference between city ham and country ham?

The main difference is how they're cured. City hams are wet-cured, meaning they're soaked or injected with brine, while country hams are dry-cured with salt and left to age.

Because of this, city hams are almost always pre-cooked (and most online options fall into this category). Country hams, on the other hand, can be sold cooked or uncooked, since dry curing makes them safe to eat. You'll also find city hams far more commonly available across the U.S.

Should I buy an unglazed or glazed ham?

Most of our favorite hams come unglazed, which gives you more flexibility. You can serve it as-is to let the ham's natural flavor shine, or brush on a homemade glaze for a personal touch. You can even glaze half and leave the rest plain if your guests have different tastes.

If you already know you want a sweet, sticky finish, a pre-glazed ham saves time and effort — just heat and serve. But skip adding extra glaze to one that's already coated.

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