Ever Wonder Why We Eat Ham For Easter Dinner ?

Happy Easter Everybunny!

Easter Sunday is fast approaching and I'm off to Honey Baked Hams to pick up our traditional Easter ham. It's something a lot of do every year and the folks at Honey Baked are very happy about it. Heck, this year we ordered our ham online and I had to make an appointment to pick it up at a certain time on a certain day.

They must sell a million hams every year!

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Honey Baked started in Detroit in 1924 when Harry Hoenselaar created a bone-in spiral-slicer that smoked and cooked a ham. Hoenselaar built his prototype spiral slicer using "a tire jack, a pie tin, a washing machine motor, and a knife". That is one creative man!

Honey Baked started opening stores in 1957 and expanded now to almost 500 locations

Now, why do we eat so much ham on Easter?

Traditionally we ate lamb for our Easter dinner, but according to the research I have done, the biggest reason we have moved onto ham is we have become less reliant on sheep's wool. Yes, that's right, because we use less wool that means we have less need for sheep and lamb. In the 1940's America had over 70 million sheep on farms, supplying wool and all sorts of other uses and now it's down to less than 7 million. Now most of our clothing is synthetic wool and the taste for lamb has subsided over the years.

Some religions still prefer Easter Lamb like the Greek Orthodox who still overwhelming serve lamb not ham.

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Thanks to Honey Baked Hams and other companies like Smithfield most Americans prefer a baked ham on the Easter table. One reason is the abundance of hogs farms in America, some estimates say there are over 70 million at any given moment.

Hams also took over the Easter table because unfortunately for the hogs, they were taken to slaughter in the fall and were aged and cured in time for the spring and Easter dinner. So, the lamb's loss was the hog's gain I suppose you can say.

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Now you know the proverbial rest of the story and feel free to share with friends and family this Sunday, they might be impressed!

Bob BronsonEditor

Bob is a native New Englander, growing up (sorta) in Maine where his love for radio started at a young age. While in high school he hosted radio shows on a local radio station, and he has never looked back. Bob joined the US Navy and served onboard the Sixth Fleet Flagship as a radio and TV host. After serving for 3 years, it was off to Emerson College in Boston. Bob hosted shows in Boston on WMEX, WVBF and WSSH in the 80’s and 90’s before heading to radio stations in Raleigh, NC, Manchester, NH, and New York City. Bob has been married for almost 25 years to Carolyn, a Woburn gal and they have 3 daughters, Nicole, Taylor, and Bridget. Bob and Carolyn are proud first-time grandparents to baby Caroline, who they plan to spoil every chance they get! “I started my career in New England and could not be happier to come back to Boston where I can root for all the Boston sports teams and eat lots of lobster rolls and clam chowder (okay not lots)… It is an honor to host the WROR morning show with LBF and wake up the World’s Greatest City!” Bob writes about recipes and restaurants, pop culture and trending topics.