Roast fresh ham is a delicious, flavorful, and impressive centerpiece for a special occasion meal.
Fresh ham comes from the hind leg of a pig and refers to an uncured, unsmoked, and uncooked cut of pork. It is called “fresh” to differentiate it from traditional cured hams that have been salted, smoked, and aged over weeks or months.
Fresh ham is essentially unprocessed pork – no nitrites, no smoking, no aging. You can think of it like any other raw pork roast before it gets cured, like a pork loin or Boston butt. The major difference is that fresh ham comes from the back leg of the pig, the same primal cut that gets cured into ham.