How Long Does a Honey Baked Ham Last?

Like the best holidays (looking at you, Thanksgiving), food is one of the main attractions of Easter. Sure, there's family, friends, and church, but there's also eggs of all sorts, hot cross buns, and loads of chocolate. For many Southerners, though, the real star of Easter isn't the marshmallow Peeps, Cadbury Crème Eggs, or chocolate bunnies, but a clove-studded, glazed ham taking a starring role at the holiday meal.

While having a giant ham as a centerpiece of an Easter feast is the dream, they do take a lot of time to prepare and perfect. Sometimes you just don't have it in you to spend a day or two scoring, spicing, and dotting a ham with the perfect clove pattern before whipping up a Pineapple-Prosecco or Cola-Dijon-Brown Sugar Glaze for the finishing touches on your perfect Easter ham that was spiral cut by hand. Sure that's the dream, but reality means that sometimes you just want that perfect ham to show up at your door as if it was delivered by the Easter bunny. Luckily, that's an option thanks to The Honey Baked Company.

Getty/Cappi Thompson

Easter is a whole lot easier if you just have to open a container. Now, whether you want to tinker with that store-bought ham and add a Cherries Jubilee-Black Pepper Glaze, serve it with a Sweet-and-Spicy Mustard Sauce, or eat it as-is, that is up to you. However, the experts at the Honey Baked Ham Company suggest not heating up the entire ham, but serving it at room temperature. If you prefer your ham heated, they recommend doing it slice by slice as needed, to avoid the culinary travesty of drying out the ham.

If you happen to have leftovers, refrigerate and eat within five days. If after five days you still have leftovers, put them in the freezer where they can stay for up to six weeks. To serve after freezing, thaw in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours and be sure to eat it within the next two days. Of course, the real question isn't how long it will last, but how long can you hold off eating the whole thing?