Easter is just about here—and it's time to finalize your menu, make your list, and head to the grocery store. One question trips us up every year: How much Easter ham do you need per person? We asked an expert so you won't come up short on April 5.
As you're hustling and bustling for the holy day, Sam Sifton, the food editor at the New York Times, has decided to make yourmenu plans just a little bit easier. He put together a handy dandy guide for preparing the perfect Easter ham—plus, exactly how much you'll need to purchase per person.
You'll save loads of money, you won't end up with a ridiculous amount of leftovers, and you won't face the nightmare of running out of meat halfway through the meal!
"Determining how big a ham to buy is by no means a precise science," Sifton says. "Appetites vary, and people will eat less at a buffet than at a dinner table."
With that in mind, here is a good starting point to figuring out how much ham to buy for your Easter dinner.
- 3/4 to 1 pound of bone-in ham per person
- 1/2 pound of boneless ham per person
That means for a 10-person Easter dinner, you'll need a bone-in ham that weighs between 7.5-10 pounds or a 5-pound boneless ham.
If you're serving country ham, though, you'll need way less of it. Although it is delicious, the saltiness will prevent people from heaping it on their plates.
For more tips on how to cook a ham, check out the entire New York Times guide. Hopefully these expert pointers will let you sit back, relax, and enjoy a refreshing cocktail(or two!) this year.
