Trader Joe’s Sliced Rosemary Ham

RAVE

Oh wow, this is some wonderful tasting ham with an amazing flavor, aroma (rosemary) and an amazing texture. I find this to be a superb, out-of-the ordinary sliced ham. It doesn’t say exactly where its produced so I imagine in the U.S. but to me somehow its has an Imported taste and quality. The back of my mind says “Italy” but they would state that I would assume on the package. No matter, if this is made right here in the US I’m pleased to know WE can produce this quality too here at home! This is what I would call really good “adult ham”. Its not too salty nor sweet, it has just the right balance of both salinity and sweetness. Oven roasted with rosemary. ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS. MINIMALLY PROCESSED. No Nitrates, Nitrites, its cured with all natural, real ingredients on the label that you can recognize without a dictionary, such as : Sea salt, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar cane, and of course rosemary. You get a pronounced aroma of rosemary as soon as you open the package but the rosemary flavor does not overpower the flavor of the ham, it enhances it perfectly with a lovely rosemary coating you can see on the edges. Sliced super thin, it has a super tender, fall apart melt in your mouth texture. Probably cooked for a long time, low and slow. Its so tender and comes apart so easily into shreds that if you don’t want to rip a slice as you remove it, you need to do it carefully.

I love this ham and find it to be a superb TJ product. It’s a little more expensive than the other ham I usually buy (Black Forest) at TJ ($3 for 8 oz). This one is $3.29 for a 6 oz. package, which is 6 slices. But for this quality, a bit less than $9/lb for a sliced ham this good, is not untoward and certainly worth trying. I would imagine if you are having guests and put this out on a plate rolled up into little bites with a toothpick….you would get a lot of “hey where do you get this ham ?”