While eating some spiral-cut ham this weekend, I wondered when spiral-cutting was invented. I know it’s a big selling point for HoneyBaked Ham, which is where our Xmas swine came from. It’s also available at Costco, and I assume many other places. But I don’t remember it from my '70s childhood, though that may just be because my relatives served crappy canned ham at holidays.
When was spiral-cut (or spiral-sliced) ham invented? By whom? When did it sweep the nation?
This site claims that the patent for the spiral-slicing machine was registered in 1949. It was invented by the guy who started Honeybaked Hams.
And as a result, Honeybaked has developed some hellacious hockey players.
We live in a great country!
It starts appearing nationally in the early 1980’s.
Glad to hear I wasn’t just out of it as a wee lad.
Is any meat other than ham generally spiral-cut? Offhand I can’t think of one that would make sense, but lord knows it’s a strange world.
Well, for the right price, you can do your own spiral-cutting of any slab of meat you desire. Follow this linky-link right here for the juicy details. 
As for spiral-cut meats in the retail world, in my experience I’ve only seen spiral cut hams, but I’m sure with enough searching one could find spiral-cut beef and pork roasts. I’ll bet they’re tasty given the fact that seasonings could penetrate deep into the meat. Yummy! 
LiQUiDBuD