Ham Size Calculator — What Size Ham to Buy
Enter your headcount, cooked ham per person, and bone-in or boneless. The calculator totals the cooked ham needed and divides by the typical edible yield (bone-in ~50% after bone and trim; boneless ~95%) to find the ham size to buy. Hams are usually pre-cooked, so the loss is mostly bone and trim — not cooking shrinkage. Both serving size and yield are adjustable planning estimates.
What this calculator determines
It estimates the ham size to buy for a crowd by totaling the cooked ham needed and dividing by an adjustable edible yield for bone-in or boneless ham.
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Examples
12 people, bone-in, ⅓ lb each
12 people, 0.33 lb cooked each, bone-in (50% edible)
Calculation
- Cooked = 12 × 0.33 = 3.96 lb
- Ham to buy = 3.96 ÷ 0.50 = 7.92 lb
≈ 7.92 lb bone-in ham
Assumptions & Conventions
- Edible yield is a variable planning estimate
- The default is ~50% edible for bone-in and ~95% for boneless; hams are usually pre-cooked, so loss is bone and trim rather than cooking shrinkage. The yield is user-adjustable.
- Servings per person is a default you can change
- The calculator starts with a default of ⅓ lb cooked per person, which you can change; it is not a universal recommendation.
- No purchase rounding
- The ham size is calculated to two decimals, not rounded to a whole-pound purchase size.