Everything you need to know about the Costco Spiral Ham – including cooking instructions!
My family does not always make a turkey for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter; a lot of the time my mom makes ham because it’s easier. We regularly have the Costco Kirkland Spiral Sliced Ham.
I honestly despised ham until I tried the Costco Kirkland Signature Spiral Sliced Ham. Other hams I’ve tried are fatty and greasy while being way too salty but not the spiral sliced ham from Costco.
This isn’t available all year round at Costco but is usually available around the holidays like Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas.
Location in Store
You can find the ham either in the refrigerated deli section by the sausages at Costco or the cooler section with the meat, it depends on your store. The item number is 13689.
Taste
The Costco Kirkland Signature Spiral Sliced Ham is hands down the best ham I’ve had. Sean (my husband) usually isn’t a fan of ham, but always goes back for seconds when we have this. The ham is lean without much fat and has a nice subtle smoked hickory flavor.
My favorite part about the Costco ham is that it comes with a sweet glaze that you brush on when it’s almost done. This makes the outside of the ham sweet and slightly crispy.
The ham is very flavorful. You can definitely taste the salt, which is common with ham, so get your glasses of water ready and maybe put a tad bit less salt in your side dishes. Compared to other ham I’ve had, the Spiral Sliced Ham from Costco actually tastes less salty, which is another reason why I like it.
Convenience
The best before date on the ham is about two months from the date we purchased the ham, so that means you can purchase it well before you plan to cook it and just keep it in the refrigerator until you cook it. Once you do cook it though, the packaging recommends consuming the ham within three to five days.
We use a food saver and freeze our leftovers. The ham comes in a mesh bag with an instruction booklet and glaze packet.
There’s a split pea soup recipe that comes with the instruction booklet. We’ve made the recipe before, and I highly recommend it! It’s delicious.
There are many things you can do with the leftover Costco ham, including making the split pea soup, ham a la king, using it for breakfast sandwiches and putting it in eggs (in an omelet or frittata). We get multiple additional meals from one ham.
The best part about this ham is that about half of it is already partly sliced so it’s very easy to serve nice even-sized pieces to your guests. It does take a little work to cut up the rest of the ham for leftovers but overall this is probably one of the easiest options for cooking a large amount of meat for multiple guests on a special occasion.
Cooking Instructions
I go over the cooking instructions and show myself preparing the ham in my video review, so you can watch that video on this page or click here to watch it on YouTube if you’d prefer to watch a video rather than reading through the cooking instructions.
To make the ham, you preheat your oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit, unwrap your ham and place it in a shallow baking dish with the flat side down and the round side up. Next, cover the ham tightly with aluminum foil. Then you cook the ham for 12-15 minutes per pound. Cooking the ham should take about two hours total, but it depends how big your ham is.
To make the glaze, you combine the glaze package with 45 mL of water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Once your ham has been in the oven for about two hours, remove your ham and pour the glaze over top and brush it in between the slices as well.
Once your Costco ham is glazed, turn your oven up to 425 degrees Farenheit and put your ham back in the oven uncovered for eight to 10 minutes, then let the ham sit out of the oven for about 10 minutes before serving.
Cost
The cost of the ham has gone up quite a bit. In 2021 when I originally wrote this the cost was $6.99 per kiligram. In fall 2023 it’s now $8.99 per kilogram.
This ham fed the four of us for Easter with a ton of leftovers for soup, quiche and sandwiches.
Nutrition
Calories
Nutritionally, this is high in fat and salt. A 100-gram serving is close to 200 calories, 10 grams of fat, eight grams of carbohydrates, zero grams of fibre, two grams of sugar and 16 grams of protein.
A 100-gram serving contains 950 mg of sodium, which is almost 40% percent of your daily recommended sodium intake. Generally, individuals do not eat tons and tons of ham day in and out and this is something usually served for a special occasion, so this probably isn’t the end of the world. Moderation is key, and make sure to drink lots of water!
Ingredients
The ingredients list has ingredients you’d expect to see in a ham. Pork, water, sugar, salt and preservatives! The glaze is mainly sugar, and you can tell that from the taste.
Scoring
Taste: 8.5/10
Cost: 8.5/10
Convenience: 6/10
Nutrition: 3/10
Overall
Must buy!
Overall, this ham from Costco tastes so much better than other hams I have tasted. It’s not fatty, the flavor is delicious and the cost is very reasonable. Nutritionally, definitely not the healthiest item you could serve. I would 100% buy this again and enjoy it for the holidays or other special occasions.
If you’ve tried the Costco Spiral Sliced Ham, what did you think?
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
Had this spiral ham for Easter. It is the second time we have had one and both times the ham has been excellent. This is now our “go-to” ham.
I have been buying this ham twice a year, Christmas and Easter for years. It is the ONLY ham I will buy. Have never been disappointed. I vacuum seal the leftover ham in meal sized portions, it keeps for months in the fridge! Don’t care at all for ham that has been frozen. Made ham vegetable soup yesterday in my crock pot, (don’t care for the split pea soup). Had it for supper, then sealed the rest in jars (while very hot), will keep in the fridge for months, and will have ready made soup any time I need it. I never use the glaze as my family doesn’t care for it, but I always cook it in ginger ale. Have been doing this for years, and my entire family always says it’s the best ham they have ever tasted.
I HAVE BEEN COOKING HAM FOR 60 YEARS, HAVE NEVER HAD ONE THIS BAD. BOUGHT KIRKLAND SPIRAL FULLY COOKED HAM. PLANNED ON TAKING IT TO MY DAUGHTERS FOR DINNER……TOO EMBARRASSED TO TAKE IT! BOUGHT IT AT COSTCO.
I bought this ham last week for our family Easter dinner. It was the worst ham I’ve ever cooked. The slicing amounted to about one inch in before it hit grizzle and bone. I had to slice down in chunks to get it off in bits. Every bit had grizzle in it. We were all very disappointed. I paid $38.00 for it and expected a treat.
The Kirkland spiral ham I purchased this year was way too salty. I am very disappointed.
Can u cook this ham in. Crock pot it slow cooker
Hi Carol! I can’t say as I’ve never tried cooking it that way. Let me know if you try it and if it works out.
That’s abnormal. Take it back, or complain. Take pictures so you can show the issues.
The glaze ingredients say spices. Does anyone know if cloves are in the glaze!
I smelled cloves in the seasoning packet.
Hah, I was thinking the same thing. I hate cloves! 😄 I typically toss included glaze or seasoning packets (like for corned beef) as there’s usually a flavor I don’t like. It’s easy enough to make your own brown sugar glaze.
Very useful advice within this article! ….
When I buy a ham with a packet to make your own glaze, I toss it and use Ina’s recipe for baked spiral ham: one 14 to16 lb spiral ham, 6 garlic cloves, 8 1/2 ounces mango chutney, 1/2 cup Dijon mustard, 1 cup light brown sugar packed, zest of one orange, 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice. Mince the garlic in a food processor, add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Pour glaze over ham and bake l hour until the ham is fully heated and the glaze is well browned. Makes any spiral ham even better.
I used this on a Newman Farm ham that I bought at Costco a couple of months ago. It was excellent. Hope they have that ham for Easter.
My face swelled and got red. I am allergic to flour. is there any flour in the ham or glaze mixture?
Thanks!
No flour on the ingredients list.
Is there flour in the glaze mixture?
Nope.
I believe the glaze mixture contains “wheat starch.” I have Celiac disease and had a terrible reaction from something in our Easter dinner and believe the wheat starch was the culprit.
Hi I cooked a Costco spiral am yesterday and I found when I took it out of the sealed plastic pouch it had a clear gel all over it . Instructions did not say to wash it so I wrapped it in foil and cooked it. A lot of the clear gel was still there. All 18 of us ate it but some remarked about the gel. Is this normal?
I’ve never had gel on mine!
The Costco ham spiral cut ham was wonderful and tasty. However the ham I purchased this year was only spiral cut at 50%. I had to hand cut the rest. This was a first. Was it a mistake? Did the cutting equipment stop working? I purchase spiral cut to minimize cutting and that did not happen this time. I hope it will not happen again.
Please have someone do a quality check to make sure most of the ham is spiral cut.
It’s usually only partly cut!
Excellent! Follow the instructions as is and it will turn out delicious!
How much water is 45ml?
Do you really only add 45ml of water to make the glaze???
Yes!
Dan, LMGTFY: 1.5 oz
It’s 3 tablespoons and yes it’s enough to make the glaze
Try 3 tablespoons.
Is there a nitrate free Kirkland Ham available?
You reviewed the wrong ham. The Kirkland ham you are showing can only be purchased at the Costco BUSINESS store, and you must have a business license to shop there and is a cheap ham that is very salty and does not taste good. The Non-business Costco, where you can shop without a business and with the normal Costco Yearly Membership, the Kirkland spiral ham is more expensive, is antibiotic and hormone free, is not as salty, AND tastes better.
I’m not sure where you are or where the poster is from, but this is not true in Dallas. This is the ham that is available in the regular Costco stores. Also, in Dallas, you can shop at both the business and regular stores with a regular (non-business) membership. It tastes great to me.
Also this ham is available in the Canadian Costco. The ham is delicious but very salty but have it on holidays as a treat.
Is this ham nitrate free? I have not seen it mentioned here at all.
Hi,
Thank you for your detailed review. I bought this Costco Kirkland Signature Spiral Sliced Ham two years ago and I immediately froze it (never opened it). I would like to know if it´s still good to defrost and eat it.
Thank you,
Marisol Ochoa
I personally wouldn’t, I mean, it’s probably safe but won’t taste very good.
We had one frozen for 14 months and thawed it and cooked according to instructions. It was fine.
If it is still in the original vacuum pack, it should be OK. If it was opened, it might have freezer burns, but still should be OK. Unless it was defrosted and re-frozen several times, then it is NOT OK.
If you have a pellet smoker, skip the glaze altogether! I put our ham in our PitBoss Pellet Smoker for about 5 hours. It is hands down the best ham I have ever had! (I use the Competition Blend PitBoss pellets. Available at Lowe’s.)
We have introduced this as part of our weekly rotation of smoked meats. My family loves ham night!