The Trader Rater Rating: 8.9

Review Summary: This Uncured Ham was a pleasant surprise. It was tender, not overly salty, and very flavorful - with a touch of sweetness. The perfect Christmas treat!

Full Review:

We love the Christmas holiday season. It’s the perfect time to reconnect with friends and family, and, of course, there’s so much festive food to enjoy.

In our opinion, when the nights grow long and the air gets chilly, nothing brings out the holiday spirit like a roasted ham for dinner.

This year was the first time we tested a ham roast from TJ’s – usually we opt for one of our tried-and-true online purveyors. But you can’t beat the in-store convenience, and this ham has all the right attributes: uncured (i.e. no nitrates), no antibiotics, no hormones and never fed animal by-products.

It’s also priced right – at $4.99 per pound. (Even though there’s a sizable bone included, it’s a deal)

We ended up snagging the last Spiral Sliced Ham from our local Trader Joe’s, and it was a beast – weighing in at 10.57 lbs. Much more than we needed, but who doesn’t love leftovers?!

So, what did we think? For some reason, we had low expectations, but we dead wrong – this ham was delicious! It may very well have been the best Spiral Sliced Ham we’ve ever cooked! It was tender, not overly salty, and very flavorful – with a touch of sweetness.

One criticism: the spiral cuts only went down about 1″ into the ham, so it was more “spiral scored” than it was “spiral sliced”. It actually made it harder to cut. But we’re thinking this was actually a mistake, and that other TJ hams had their slices all the way to the bone (feel free to weigh in if you’ve experienced the same).

All told, we’re definitely fans of this Uncured Ham, and we’ll be back next year for our holiday feast. As for now, we’re looking forward to a few weeks worth of ham and eggs, ham sandwiches, and whatever else we can think to cook up with the leftovers (recipes welcome!).