Here's Exactly How Much Ham You Need to Buy When Preparing the Easter Dinner (2024)

Easter Sunday is coming up! (Here's when, if it's not on your calendar.)

It's a special time to enjoy with friends and family, but the holiday also comes with a long to-do list. There's dyeing Easter eggs with the kids, and creating the cutest baskets from the bunny, and of course, you'll want to prepare an impressive brunch spread or delicious dinner.

Related: Why Does Easter Change Dates? Here's What You Should Know About the Religious Holiday

As you're hustling and bustling for the holy day, Sam Sifton, the food editor at the New York Times, has decided to make your menu plans just a little bit easer. He put together a handy dandy guide for preparing the perfect Easter ham—plus, exactly how much you'll need to purchase per person.

You'll save loads of money, you won't end up with a ridiculous amount of leftovers, and you won't face the nightmare of running out of meat halfway through the meal!

"Determining how big a ham to buy is by no means a precise science," Sifton says. "Appetites vary, and people will eat less at a buffet than at a dinner table."

With that in mind, here is a good starting point to figuring out how much ham to buy for your Easter dinner.

• 3/4 to 1 pound of bone-in ham per person
• 1/2 pound of boneless ham per person

That means for a 10-person Easter dinner, you'll need a bone-in ham that weighs between 7.5-10 pounds or a 5-pound boneless ham.

If you're serving country ham, though, you'll need way less of it. Although it is delicious, the saltiness will prevent people from heaping it on their plates.

Related: Our Favorite Knock-Out Tasty Ham Recipes for Easter

For more tips on how to cook a ham, check out the entire New York Times guide. Hopefully these expert pointers will let you sit back, relax, and enjoy a refreshing co*cktail (or two!) this year.