Honey, Bake Me a Ham

One of the original spiral-ham slicers being used in front of customers in the Honey Baked Ham Company store.

My respectable Southern grandmother would cook a ham for many a Sunday dinner and during the holidays. When the ham was golden brown she would garnished the top of it with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries adorned in the middle of each pineapple ring. She would never have thought to buy a precooked ham but that was when Southern women took pride in cooking for their families: it was homemade. But that was about 50-plus years ago. That was during a time when my grandmother would have been a busy homemaker but also a time when Harry Hoenselaar had already designed and patented (1949) what was called at the time an “apparatus for slicing ham to the bone” what we now refer to as a spiral cut. It wouldn’t be until October 1957 that Hoenselaar was able to buy the first Honey Baked Ham Company located in Detroit, Mich. and not until the 1970s when the first HoneyBaked Ham store in Georgia opened on Buford Highway in Atlanta.

Advertisement for the first HoneyBaked Ham store in Atlanta.

Today it seems that the norm is to be busy, busy with most families eating out more than they eat in or eating take out meals at home. There’s a demand for quality and quick products especially for holiday dinners, parties and entertaining. This is no surprise that this will be the busiest week of the year for HoneyBaked Ham stores that have over 400 stores nationwide including about 48 stores in Georgia (20 stores in Atlanta metro alone).

HoneyBaked Ham uses the finest quality bone-in ham, cures it in a secret marinade that’s smoked for hours over a unique blend of hardwood chips that insures its tenderness.

After a recent visit to the Atlanta HoneyBaked Ham corporate headquarters I learned that now more than ever HoneyBaked Ham makes it easy for customers. In addition to its original and largest-selling product: the spiral-cut HoneyBaked ham with its secret marinade, HoneyBaked Ham Company offerings also include boneless hams, mini hams, ham bone, whole turkeys and turkey breasts, Cornish game hens, pork loin chops, stuffed pork loin, beef tenderloin and bacon; choice heat-and-serve side dishes including sweet potato soufflé, cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole and cinnamon apple slices to name a few; appetizers likes ham & cheese bites and glazed pecans; and of course desserts including pies (my favorite was the new sweet potato crunch pie), layer cakes, cheesecakes with a New York Style sampler of four varieties of popular cheesecakes, cookies and fudge.

Need a lunch while finishing your last minute holiday shopping? HoneyBaked Ham stores in Georgia offer lunch including soups and sandwiches since Atlanta was the test market for the line extension of soups that will rollout nationwide after the new year. I like the soup and sandwich combo options.

So let HoneyBaked Ham make your busy holiday week and busy life easier. For more information on all of the HoneyBaked Ham products go to HoneyBakedHam.com or shop online at HoneyBakedOnline.com.

You’ll notice by the one little piece left that the Sweet Potato Crunch Pie was a big hit at our bloggers’ lunch.