🔬 Myth check
Is Hawaiian Pineapple Ham From Hawaii?
The pineapple came from Hawaii. The ham, the rings and the cherries came from mainland marketing booklets.
By Americanized · Edited by JP Lambiase · October 20, 2026
Not really. Pineapple ham is named for Hawaii's canned pineapple, cooked on the mainland. The earliest versions we could trace are in pineapple marketers' booklets, including a 1925 booklet with baked ham and pineapple, and we found no source showing it as a traditional dish in Hawaii itself. It was printed by the 1920s and famous by mid-century.
The pineapple really was Hawaiian
Dole's company history says James Dole founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901, growing pineapples at Wahiawa on Oahu, and developed a canning technique so the fruit could travel. TASTE puts the founding at 1900, so call it around 1901.
In 1907, the company history says, Dole moved the cannery to Honolulu and ran ads in US magazines, one of America's first nationwide consumer advertising campaigns. Canned Hawaiian pineapple was headed for mainland pantries.
The ham came from mainland booklets
TASTE writer Kenzi Wilbur traced the dish in 2017. The Hawaiian Pineapple Packers Association published "How We Serve Hawaiian Canned Pineapple" in 1914, and a 1925 booklet, "99 Tempting Pineapple Treats," included a baked ham with pineapple.
Garden & Gun ties the dish to a 1925 push by the same packers' association to get pineapple into savory cooking. Dole's own history names no ham recipe, so the fairest credit goes to pineapple marketers in general, not to one company or cook.
The mid-century platter
By the 1950s, TASTE reports, Del Monte was selling a "Hawaiian Luau" booklet that promised to bring a ray of Hawaiian sunshine to the table. That is the era most people remember, which is why pineapple ham is often called a 1950s dish even though it was in print decades earlier.
The look stuck: a rosy ham covered in pineapple rings, with a maraschino cherry in the center of each, as Wilbur's grandmother made it. Our pineapple and brown sugar glazed ham is adapted from America's Test Kitchen, with the retro rings and cherries optional.
Another pineapple ham, across the Pacific
The Philippines has its own. GMA News reports that Spanish colonizers brought ham to the islands, and The Freeman (Philstar) says the pineapple-glazed ham is now the most popular Filipino Christmas ham. Other families caramelize a sugar crust instead, so the traditional glaze is pineapple or caramelized sugar. Our Filipino hamon poaches the ham in pineapple juice.
For a sweet ham without the fruit, try our brown sugar and mustard spiral ham, or browse the Christmas recipes.
Questions people ask
Did Dole invent pineapple ham?
Not that anyone has shown. Dole's history mentions canning and advertising but no ham recipe, and the 1914 booklet TASTE describes was published by the Hawaiian Pineapple Packers Association.
Is pineapple ham eaten in Hawaii?
We found no source describing it as a traditional Hawaiian dish. The recipes we could trace were written to sell canned Hawaiian pineapple to mainland cooks.
What temperature should a glazed ham reach?
USDA FSIS says a fully cooked, plant-packed ham can be reheated to 140°F in an oven set no lower than 325°F. Some test kitchens bake at 300°F; we follow the FSIS minimum. Leftover cooked ham goes to 165°F.
When should the pineapple glaze go on?
Near the end. Sugar burns over a long bake, so the recipes we used brush the glaze on during the last part of heating.
Parts of this history are disputed. Where sources disagree, we say so.
Sources
- Kenzi Wilbur, "Ham and Pineapple: A Long and Happy Marriage," TASTE (December 7, 2017)
- Dole Sunshine, "Our Story"
- Kinsey Gidick, "Why Do Southerners Eat Ham on Easter?" Garden & Gun (March 24, 2021)
- America's Test Kitchen (Cook's Country), "Pineapple Mustard Glazed Ham"
- GMA News, "Why is ham considered the star of Noche Buena?" (December 11, 2022)
- Elena Peña, "Christmas ham," The Freeman (Philstar, December 14, 2018)
- USDA FSIS, "Ham and Food Safety" (revised May 2012), Utah State University Extension copy
More food facts
Cook it
Pineapple and Brown Sugar Glazed Ham
The mid-century "Hawaiian" ham: a spiral ham pinned all over with canned pineapple rings, wrapped tight and baked low, then roasted hot with a brown sugar, pineapple juice and two-mustard glaze until sticky and golden.
Filipino Christmas Ham with Pineapple Glaze (Hamon)
The Noche Buena ham: a bone-in ham poached for an hour in pineapple juice and brown sugar, scored, spread thickly with pineapple jam and baked hot until dark and glossy.
Brown Sugar and Mustard Glazed Spiral Ham
The American holiday centerpiece: a fully cooked spiral ham heated gently under foil, then brushed twice with a glaze of dark brown sugar, grainy mustard, cider vinegar and fresh orange until it is sticky and glossy.
Crackly Honey-Glazed Spiral Ham (Copycat)
A spiral ham heated under foil with honey, then coated in a spiced sugar and melted with a kitchen torch or the broiler into a thin, crackly shell. Inspired by the HoneyBaked Ham Company's famous store ham; not official.
British Gammon Simmered in Cola with Treacle and Mustard Glaze
A mild-cure gammon joint simmered for over two hours in cola with an onion, then skinned, studded with cloves, painted with black treacle, patted with mustard powder and demerara sugar and blasted in a very hot oven.