How is Boneless Ham Made - Eat Like No One Else

Ever wonder how a boneless ham is made? Learn how it's done and the different types boneless hams. Should you even consider buying a boneless ham?

Farmland Hickory Smoked whole boneless ham and portion hams at a grocery store.

Ham is a choice of many households, whether it be for Christmas or Easter dinner. What is not to love about something that will feed a lot of people and can be had for a couple to a few dollars a pound.

The supermarkets are packed full of different types of ham. You may see them advertising a ham that has no bones. If you see such a ham should you buy it or run for your life?

Learn what a boneless ham is and how it is made.

Jump to:

❓ What is a Boneless Ham?
🐖 Types of Boneless Hams
👍👎 Pros & Cons
⭐ Recommendation
🐽 More Ham Posts

Kirkland Master Carve Boneless Ham cooked and covered with a glaze in a roasting pan.

❓ What is a Boneless Ham?

Simply it's a ham with no bones. The reason behind them is to make it easier to carve for the home cook. However it's not as simple as that anymore. In recent years a different type of boneless ham has come on the market.

Farmland Hickory Smoked Boneless Ham & water Product at the grocery store.

🐖 Types of Boneless Hams

Here are the two types of boneless hams.

Reconstituted Ham - meat is removed from the bone and then shaped into the shape of a log, contains modified food starch. Either comes in a whole ham or portions of. These hams are labeled as ham & water product.
Carving Ham - the meat is cut off the bone without the shape of the ham being altered. Kirkland Master Carve is one example. I have also gotten this type of ham at ALDI and Kroger. Often considered a ham in nature juices.

👍👎 Pros & Cons

👍 Pro - Easy to carve

Since there is no bone to carve around, these hams are simply just sliced like you would a stick of butter!

👎 Con - No bone for soup

One of the best things about having a ham bone is to make soup with it later on. You will be denied this by getting a boneless ham.

👍 Pro - Easier to store in the fridge

Either type of boneless ham is going to be easier to fit into the fridge because of their flatten shape.

👎 Con - In the case of reconstituted hams, you have to add non-natural ingredients to them to keep them together.

This is a point that Alton Brown made on an episode of Good Eats, if the ham is boneless what is holding the meat together? A "carving ham" is different in that you just need to remove it from the bone just like a boneless ribeye steak.

👎 Con - The price of some boneless hams can be more than a traditional bone-in ham.

You will often pay more per pound for a boneless ham in either style. The extra labor involved with making them is why.

Kirkland Applewood Smoked Master Carve Half Ham in package at a Costco store.

⭐ Recommendation

A reconstituted boneless ham I find lacking in flavor. And the texture is different. It's more manufactured. The modified food starch added to jell the meat, make it more like ham jelly! I don't recommend them.

However the carving style ham that just has the bone removed, can be a good option for your dinner table. They still taste like a real ham and they are simple to carve. Even though they often are more expensive per pound, you are getting all useable meat. They don't have lots of fatty pieces.

I never recommend boneless hams at all until I first had a "carving ham". Now we often get them as Costco sells them for a good price that sometimes is cheaper than their bone-in spiral ham. I do still cook up a bone-in shank ham from time to time.