For soups and stews, use a smoked ham hock. I buy wonderfully flavorful packs of hocks at Wegmans.

Also, HoneyBaked Ham stores sell bones with some meat on them. Great value.

IMO, spiral hams taste best. Buy a small one and break down into portioned packets to freeze for later use.

Dietz & Watson ham steaks aren't bad either.

When I don't need a "beast" of a ham, I'll check the refrigerator case at Wal-Mart for an end of a spiral-cut ham (I purchased one just last week) - which are reasonably priced and small portions (nice for 2 people). It looks like a gnarled mess in the package, but once you unpack it you'll find some nice whole slices, and I cut the small portions into bite-size bits and pack it in user-friendly amounts in the freezer. I use it as breakfast meat, topping for a pizza, casseroles, Ham & Swiss Rosti..... I don't have any waste because I will use any small irregular pieces to make ham broth - even if it's just a small amount of broth.

A really cheap way to add smokey flavor is to buy smoked turkey wings.

That's part of the problem, I need to buy it in small quantities since freezer space is at a premium at my apt. BF would get a Christmas ham every year from his boss, we usually had more good ham than we knew what do do with in the freezer when I used to live with him at my house with the big freezer in the basement. Now, I buy it in small pre-packaged containers and it just hasn't been good. I live in the boonies and the only grocery stores where I can get meat are Meijers, Krogers and Spartan stores.

Yeah, this is a bit of culture shock foodie wise. Out East or in a big foodie metropolis like Ann Arbor, there's always someone behind the counter and at the farmers market they often put samples out and will help you make a selection. Here, due to tough economics, they don't have many people working and you are lucky if you can even find anyone behind the counter. A lot of times they just pre-slice the stuff and package it up to sell. Not enough critical mass of people to make it worth their while to do that kind of thing. Not that they wouldn't do it and it wouldn't be impossible to find someone to get you a sample, just not as automatic as it might be in a busy urban high end grocery. That's why it is good to know what some good brands are, thanks!

Try Hormel Cure 81 ham. I haven't had one in years but as I remember they were pretty good.

As mimipadv. said smoked turkey works great for flavoring. I use smoked turkey legs. They are meaty and I use them to make split pea and all bean soups. I use my pressure cooker with chicken broth, Turkey legs and bean soup done in 20min. Legs will be tender and I dice the meat and add back in to soup. Easier to find in stores in cooler months.

I'm not sure they offer smoked turkey legs locally. I used to see them at the Allentown Farm Market at the meat delis, but I'm not sure about around here where I live. I can look. Off to the grocery store right now actually.

We've tried Berks and do okay with Cooks. It is hard.

No smoked turkey legs and none of the brands mentioned here. I can't remember them all, will have to write them down. I got a small package of the "simple truth" brand (Kroger's attempt to be New Age) that said, "Uncured smoked ham." That is just for sandwiches. I didn't see any spiral ham ends either, just huge hams and vacuum sealed slices. Will have to try one of the other TWO stores in my two counties. Ooops, I forgot Walmart is a grocery too. Unfortunately, the entrances of my local Walmart stores smell like sweat mixed with vomit so I tend to avoid them.

Here in the Southeast, at least, the grocery stores sell scraps of country ham for much less than other cuts. They come in a vacuum sealed pouch. After a short water soak, they are very good for cooking beans.

What's country ham? I bought some vacuum sealed cubed ham of some sort, but it had zero taste. Can't remember the brand, might have been Hormel or Smithfield. I can get both of those brands, plus others but I can't remember them all.

Country hams are traditional dry cured hams from the southeast - something like Serrano or Prosciutto but saltier. Thus the need to soak in water for a bit to remove some salt. IMO, some of the best these days are from Johnsonville Hams, Smithfield, NC. (They do mail order.) Of course none are as good as the ones my Uncle Herman used to make. He had an apple orchard and would feed apples to the hogs for a while before slaughter.

"Country hams are salt-cured (and occasionally nitrite- and nitrate-cured) for one to three months. They may be hardwood (usually hickory and Red Oak) smoked, then aged for several months to 2–3 years, depending on the fat content of the meat.[3] Country hams are not fully cooked, but preserved by the cure. Smoking is not a legal requirement: some types of country ham, such as the "salt-and-pepper ham" of North Carolina, are not smoked. Smoking turns the meat a much redder color than unsmoked hams. They are usually sold in stores unrefrigerated as whole, bone-in hams packaged in rough cotton bags, with identifying markings printed on the bags. Country ham is also sold in presoaked, sliced, ready-to-cook form, usually vacuum-packaged."

A word of caution when serving ham. We had an Easter ham, and huge leftovers. Husband took ham sandwiches all week and we had a few dinners that week. At end of week at doctors appointment, DH blood pressure was so elevated they wanted to put him into hospital. Just give you dad small amounts of any cured ham . A ham slice seared or grilled will have more flavor.

there is cured ham and smoked ham....usually a ham is both cured and smoked, but some hams are just cured.
If it's just the flavor of the ham, a smoky taste you want....try using a few drops of liquid smoke...or for things like scalloped potatoes or bean soup, try a couple of slices of bacon.
Alternately you could buy some smoked hocks, or neck bones or a package of what my store calls "soup bits"...or one of those Buddig packages of honey ham....cheap and should be enough to flavor a couple of batches or scalloped potatoes and a pot or two of soup.

I'm with LindaC and mimipadv, look for smoked pork hocks if you're making beans, scalloped potatoes, corn chowder, green beans, etc. It's just the very end of the ham, cut off and sold as the "shank". My local Meijer has them, as did my small independent grocery. I also saw smoked wings and legs of turkey at Meijer a couple of days ago.

Other than that, I can't help much. I got a pretty good spiral sliced glazed ham at Sam's Club once, but mostly I raise my own pork and Wendell does the smoking of the hams and bacons, etc., so I don't usually buy ham, other than occasionally some thin sliced ham for sandwiches. I usually buy the pre-packaged stuff, whatever is on sale. It all tastes the same to me, kind of salty, kind of wet, kind of gelatinous, and like fake smoke. (shrug)

Annie

I guess I got spoiled from having some good hams over the years. Since I am pretty new to cooking meat and new to the area I live in, I haven't sussed out the best places to get what meats. Meijers is 30 min. from my house so I tend not to buy perishables there but I could bring a cooler if I knew I was for sure going to shop on the trip. The Meijers is right by my folks house, and I'm at their house usually twice a week. My local independent market sells local beef but I haven't checked out their hams yet. They had MI russet potatoes on sale this week so I am overdue a visit there.

I have a cooler that always loves in the trunk of my car....and meats and most other refrigerated stuff won't spoil in 30 minutes. Frozen and ice cream may need a cooler!

I also have a cooler in the trunk, mostly for trips to Grand Rapids. If I find something I really want, I can get a bag of ice for about a dollar, and that'll get nearly anything home with me, except the above mentioned ice cream...

My only tip would be to watch Smithfield/Armour/John Morell/et al. It has been purchased by a Chinese company and I haven't figured it out, quite. I think the hogs are being processed here and sent back there, but I don't know about chemicals, packaging, quality control, etc. and a couple of friends say that the meats now taste different. That may just be because they know the company has changed, or maybe it isn't.

Annie