Ham substitute

Best substitute

Smoked turkey (breast for slicing, leg or thigh for cooking)

Use the same amount by weight as the ham you are replacing

Best for sandwiches

Different texture

What ham brings to a dish is salt, smoke and savoury depth plus firm chewy protein, so pick a substitute based on which of those you actually need. For diced ham in a quiche, omelette, pasta or bean soup, Canadian bacon or smoked turkey swaps in at 1:1, while regular bacon works at about two thirds the weight because it is far fattier and saltier. For deli slices in a sandwich, smoked turkey breast is the closest. For a glazed holiday centrepiece, be honest with yourself: nothing uncured will give you the pink colour and cured tang, and the closest options are a smoked pork shoulder or a whole smoked turkey.

Other ham substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Canadian bacon or back bacon
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Cured pork loin rather than leg, so it is genuinely ham-like in flavour but leaner and less sweet, with no fat edge, and it comes in tidy rounds that dice neatly.
What changes
Best for
quiche, eggs Benedict, omelettes, pizza, pasta, diced into potatoes
Excellent wherever ham is diced or layered. Brown the pieces in a dry pan before adding them to a dish, because unlike ham it can taste a little flat straight from the package and browning wakes up the cured flavour. Buy the thicker-cut version if you can, since paper-thin slices curl and dry.
3Bacon or pancetta
Taste and texture differ
About ⅔ the weight of the ham called for
Much saltier, fattier and considerably smokier, and it crisps rather than staying soft, so a potato gratin made with bacon tastes bolder and more assertive and the little pieces snap instead of yielding.
What changes
Best for
quiche, pasta, gratins, bean soups, salads, greens
Use less than the recipe's ham weight or the dish will be overwhelmingly salty, and hold back the added salt until you taste. Render the bacon, drain most of the fat, and reserve a tablespoon of it to cook the aromatics in. Pancetta is unsmoked, so it is the better choice if you want the fat and salt without smoke taking over.
4Prosciutto or other dry-cured ham
Taste and texture differ
Half the weight of the ham called for
Far more intensely salty and complex than cooked ham, with a silky rather than chewy texture, so a little goes a long way and too much makes the whole dish taste aggressively cured.
What changes
Best for
pasta, wrapped around vegetables or meat, salads, sandwiches, finishing a soup
Add it off the heat or at the very end, since prosciutto turns leathery when cooked hard. It is a poor substitute for a bulk ingredient like diced ham in a casserole and an excellent one where the ham was there for flavour. Cut the recipe's salt substantially. Serrano ham and speck work the same way.
5Smoked pork shoulder or smoked picnic
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The closest thing to a real ham for a large cooked centrepiece, because it is still cured and smoked pork, though it is fattier and more richly flavoured and pulls into shreds far more readily than a leg ham slices.
What changes
Best for
holiday main, glazed roast, greens and beans, pulled pork sandwiches, soup base
Look for a cut labelled smoked picnic, smoked pork shoulder or cottage roll, all of which are cured. Glaze and roast at 325F until heated through, about 15 to 18 minutes per pound if already fully cooked. If you are looking at an uncured fresh pork shoulder instead, understand that it will taste of roast pork rather than ham, with grey-pink rather than rosy meat.
6Spam or canned luncheon meat, diced
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Salty and pork-flavoured in the right general direction but softer, more uniformly springy and without real smoke, so a fried rice or a breakfast hash works well while a sandwich tastes noticeably processed.
What changes
Best for
fried rice, breakfast hash, musubi, budae jjigae, omelettes, camping meals
It genuinely shines where ham gets crisped in a hot pan, because it browns hard and turns crisp at the edges. Cut into half-inch cubes or thick slices and fry in a dry pan until deeply coloured. Cut the recipe's salt, since it is saltier than most cooked ham.
7Smoked tofu or smoked mushrooms
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, plus ½ teaspoon smoked paprika per cup
The vegetarian route, and an honest assessment is that it delivers the smoke and much of the salt but nothing of the fatty, chewy bite, so a quiche or a pea soup tastes right and eats noticeably lighter.
What changes
Best for
quiche, split pea soup, bean dishes, pasta, greens, vegetarian sandwiches
Press smoked tofu, cube it and brown it hard in oil so the edges firm up, since untoasted tofu is soft in a way ham never is. For soups and beans, a piece of kombu or a spoonful of miso alongside the smoked paprika adds the savoury depth that cured pork would have contributed to the broth.

What is Ham?

Ham is Ham is pork, almost always from the hind leg, that has been cured in salt and usually smoked, then most often fully cooked before it is sold, which is why deli ham, cooked ham and a glazed holiday ham all slice cleanly and taste salty and smoky straight from the fridge.

Cooking tips

Work out which job the ham is doing before you choose a swap. In a split pea soup, scalloped potatoes or a quiche it is mostly a salt-and-smoke seasoning, so almost any smoked salty protein works. In a sandwich or a glazed centrepiece it is the actual meat, and only another cured leg or a smoked turkey will satisfy. Substituting bacon into a holiday main makes no sense, and substituting a whole ham into a quiche makes no sense either.
Adjust the salt every time. Cured products vary enormously: prosciutto and bacon are much saltier than sandwich ham, smoked turkey is usually similar, and fresh pork is barely salted at all. Add half the salt the recipe calls for, then taste at the end and correct.
Most ham sold in supermarkets is already fully cooked, so heating it is about warming and glazing, not cooking. For a bone-in cooked ham, roast covered at 325F to an internal 140F, roughly 15 minutes per pound, then glaze and blast at 425F for the last 15 to 20 minutes so the sugar caramelises without burning. A ham labelled cook before eating or fresh needs to reach 145F from raw and will take considerably longer.
The bone is worth as much as the meat. Save the bone from any bone-in ham and simmer it into a pot of beans, split pea soup or greens, where it does the same job a ham hock does. Freeze it if you cannot use it that week.
Do not try to home-cure a ham by improvising the cure. Curing recipes specify nitrite-containing curing salt at particular levels for food safety reasons, not for flavour, and reducing it, leaving it out or substituting plain salt is genuinely unsafe. If you want to cure your own, follow a tested recipe exactly, weigh rather than measure by volume, and use published guidance such as that from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the ham out?

Often yes, if the ham was there for flavour rather than substance. A quiche, a pot of beans or scalloped potatoes all work without it, but they will taste flatter, because you have removed most of the salt, all of the smoke and a good deal of the savoury depth. Compensate with a half teaspoon of smoked paprika, a little extra salt and something savoury such as parmesan, miso or a splash of soy sauce. If the ham is the centrepiece or the sandwich filling, it cannot be dropped.

What is the difference between ham and gammon?

They are the same meat at different stages. Gammon is the British term for a cured pork leg sold raw, still needing to be simmered or roasted, and once it is cooked British cooks call it ham. So a recipe telling you to boil and glaze a gammon joint wants raw cured pork, whereas a recipe calling for ham usually assumes the cooked product. If a British recipe says gammon, look for a raw or fresh city ham, a smoked picnic or a cook-before-eating ham.

What is the best ham substitute for a quiche or an omelette?

Canadian bacon, diced and browned in a dry pan first, is the closest match because it is cured pork with a similar flavour and it dices neatly. Smoked turkey works just as well if you are avoiding pork. Bacon also works but use about two thirds the weight, drain it well, and cut back on the salt, or the eggs will taste harsh.

Can I use a fresh pork roast instead of a ham for a holiday dinner?

You can serve a beautiful roast, but it will not taste like ham. Curing is what gives ham its pink colour, its firm sliceable texture and its distinctive salty tang, and no glaze or rub reproduces that in a fresh pork leg or shoulder. If you want that specific ham character, buy something already cured, such as a smoked picnic or a smoked pork shoulder. If you are happy with a different dish, a slow-roasted fresh pork shoulder is excellent on its own terms.

Is deli ham the same as the ham a recipe calls for?

For diced or chopped applications, close enough. Deli ham is cooked cured leg, usually with a little more added water and a smoother texture than a bone-in ham, so it is slightly softer and less deeply flavoured. Ask the counter for a thick cut, around a quarter inch, if you plan to dice it, since sandwich-thin slices turn to shreds in a hot pan.

What can I use instead of ham in split pea or bean soup?

A smoked turkey leg or wing is the best swap and goes in at 1:1, contributing the same smoke and salt over a long simmer. A ham hock or a couple of strips of bacon also work. For a vegetarian pot, use a half teaspoon of smoked paprika per quart plus a spoonful of miso or a strip of kombu, which supplies the savoury backbone the pork would have given the broth.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Ham substitute

Other ham substitutes

2Canadian bacon or back bacon

3Bacon or pancetta

4Prosciutto or other dry-cured ham

5Smoked pork shoulder or smoked picnic

6Spam or canned luncheon meat, diced

7Smoked tofu or smoked mushrooms