Christmas or Easter ham is pretty standard and canned is a type. There might even be ham on the table on Thanksgiving.
I didn’t expect Christmas ham to have its own wikipedia page.
Given the availability of baked hams in supermarkets and even a chain store (Honey Baked Ham Company) that specializes in them, maybe the time of canned hams is past?
No doubt we have more and probably better options for ham* than a hundred years ago but a cooked, ready to eat hamloaf must have been a neat thing in the early days of meat packing. It does seem old fashioned and near the end of decline, though, maybe like salt or Virginia ham. Canned is almost the same product as a lot of deli sliced or coldcut ham for sandwiches so it’s probably easy to keep the supplies going.
I wonder why the five pound hams are sold refrigerated but the one pound cans are shelf stable.
*& salad dressing and apples and kettle chips and shortening and charcoal and probably every other grocery store item
The last one I had was given to us at Christmas in a Christmas basket. Kept it for months before we finally opened it, just knowing we had backup food if necessary.
I don’t see any 5 lb. ones locally, but Walmart sells a 3 lb. one. (And that may be the one we ate.) The rest seem to be 1 lb. or less.
I have at least a year’s worth of SPAM® (11 cans) in the cupboard. Also 11 cans of escargots. I appreciate back-up foods.
There’s a video on YouTube about canned hams—which ones are shelf-stable and which ones are not.
In the early Aughts, we had a vendor in Iowa that would send us multiple canned hams for the holidays. I believe 3 pounders, not small and not big. I think more than once we had a ham scented box delivered to us due to can damage.
So do I. It’s been there for at least five years!
I also have a year’s worth of Spam in my pantry. One can.
I should have also said “One can”. Because, who would have more than one?
Bah! Pikers the lot of ya! I can make my supply of zero cans of SPAM last a decade!
That’s the impression I get as well. Granted this is 40-50 year old memories, but I recall refrigerated/frozen hams being a seasonal thing from Thanksgiving through Easter, and then being unavailable the rest of the year. And I do recall canned hams being fairly prominent on store shelves.
Over time, hams are more available year round, and the prevalence of canned hams has gone down. I’d bet those availabilities are the inverse of each other, but that’s just speculation.
Weren’t canned hams pretty much inferior in all ways to the more modern refrigerated ham, except maybe shelf life and storage conditions?
They were certainly inferior to the spiral hams everyone puts out at holiday buffets today.
Assuming you were lucky enough to find a 5-lb canned ham at your grocery store, would the meat department slice it for you?
I seem to remember that was part of the appeal of the ham. They’d slice it (at no charge) and (I think) put it back in the can. You could then put it on a platter (heated or not) and maybe add a little decorative vegetation (celery curls, radish roses, etc.) Voila! Buffet main dish done, giving more time to prepare the potato salad and baked beans.