Can you freeze a cooked whole ham?

by Bear
(wm, la, usa)

Question: I have an extra cooked whole ham left over. Can I freeze it?

Answer:
I freeze ham all the time. My preference is to cube up leftover ham and freeze it in small zip-style baggies to use in other recipes such as quiche, scrambled eggs, or jambalaya.

Personally I have not frozen a whole ham before but you can do it. My suggestion would be to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then place the whole ham inside a large jumbo sized zip style bag, and squeeze out as much air out of the bag as possible before sealing and placing in the freezer.

Ham can be frozen for 1-2 months, so make sure to write the date on the outside of the bag (sharpies work great for this)

When you are ready to use the ham, I would suggest thawing it in the refrigerator and then reheating in the oven at 325'F.

Ham tastes best when it is moist. If you have already heated or cooked this ham prior to freezing it could become more dry when you heat it again. After thawing, I would suggest heating it up in a covered pan with a little water added to it. One method you could try is to place a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil in a deep baking pan, start to bring the foil around the ham and then pour about 1/4 cup of water over the ham, bring the rest of the foil up and around the ham and seal tightly leaving some air space around the ham. That will allow the ham to warm up in a way that imparts some moisture back into the ham.

Good Luck and let us know how it works for you!