Early history and founding In 1924, Harry Hoenselaar created a
bone-in spiral-
slicer that
smoked and cooked a ham. He said the idea for the
spiral ham slicer "came to him in a dream". Hoenselaar built his prototype spiral slicer using "a
tire jack, a
pie tin, a
washing machine motor, and a
knife". In the 1930s, Hoenselaar sold
honey-
glazed hams to
drugstores in
Detroit. Hoenselaar taught lunch counter clerks the proper procedure of slicing ham for sandwiches with a knife; he later bought that drugstore in Detroit from the widow of the previous owner for five hundred dollars. With Hoenselaar's commitment to his slicer, and residing in Detroit, Hoenselaar founded
The HoneyBaked Ham Company and Café in 1957.
Expansion When the company expanded nationally, he divided the country into four territories and assigned a territory to each of his four daughters. and privately owned by the Hoenselaar family. ==Accolades==