How big a ham do you need?

Published 10:07 am Tuesday, March 30, 2010

With Easter coming up, it’s a good time to talk about how much ham you need per person for dinner.

I’ll try to resist the old saw about the definition of eternity being “two people and a ham.”

Most people will eat 6 to 8 ounces of meat at a sit-down dinner that has other side dishes. So with most meats, you figure on ½ pound, or about 8 ounces, per person.

But ham is trickier to figure, because the bone takes up part of the weight. For 10 people, you should probably aim for a 7- to 10-pound ham. Spiral-cut hams have very little waste, though. If that’s what you’re getting, aim for the 7-pound range.

The good news is that there is a lot you can do with leftover ham. If you figure wrong, it shouldn’t take long to use up the extras.