How to Carve a Spiral Ham

There is nothing like the wonderful smell of a hot, holiday ham baking in your oven. But if you want to enhance your flavor and keep your ham moist, you have to know the right way to carve the meat. Here's how.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Cutting board
• Carving knife

1. Rest the ham on a cutting board for 5 minutes after removing it from the oven. This will allow the natural juices of the meat to settle before carving.
2. Situate the ham so that the open cut side is facing up. The best way to do this is to hold it up with your hand.
3. Slice the ham, guiding your carving knife along the natural muscle lines. These are dictated by the fat around the meat of the bone. You essentially will be cutting the ham into thirds. Carve through until your knife comes out on each side along the muscle lines.
4. Carve the bone away from the ham. At this point, the ham will loosely hang in three sections. The top and bottom of the ham will naturally pull or fall away from the bone. However, the third section, which is the smallest and fattiest, will cling to the bone. Hold the bone with one hand and carve away the meat with the other. Set aside the bone to make soup.
5. Cut your three sections of ham into equal slices. Use a meat fork may to hold the large pieces of meat in place. Note that some hams are pre-sliced, meaning you will not need to complete this step, or you only may need to slice the piece that remains on the bone.
6. Serve your spiral ham on a platter.