6 Boar's Head Deli Meats, Ranked Worst To Best

In my family, Boar's Head has always been one of those "special occasion" buys. We didn't grow up with name-brand-every-day money, and so, on the rare occasion we would put together a fancy spread, we'd always end up picking up Boar's Head. It has cemented itself in my psyche as the pinnacle of fancy deli meats, and I absolutely could not resist when this article came up. While I logically know that deli meat is deli meat and that there are many generic brands that are just as good as the name-brand counterpart, that little kid that still lives in my head got so excited at the concept of taste-testing all that Boar's Head had to offer.

To say I felt like a king loading my cart up with nearly $60 worth of deli meats would be an understatement. I'll say this for Boar's Head: It hasn't gotten any cheaper. I was actually really shocked by how few slices of meat came in each package. I grew up in a family of six, and one package of Boar's Head would have made enough sandwiches for everyone to have (maybe) one. No wonder it was saved for birthdays and Christmas parties. I plan on going through and ranking each of these deli meats based on their taste and texture, as well as the overall quality of the meat. I want to see if Boar's Head deserves the spot on the pedestal my childhood self placed it on.

I've never had an issue with prosciutto before. Normally, I find it on charcuterie boards or in the occasional cold cut sandwich. Considering this Boar's Head product was $7.99, I was expecting perfection. However, as soon as I peeled back the corner on the package of prosciutto, I found myself wrinkling my nose. It was fragrant! I hadn't even attempted to do a smell test, and it was already all up in my nostrils.

The extremely thin prosciutto comes packaged with little plastic slice dividers that make peeling off a single piece much easier. That is a huge point in Boar's Head's favor here, showing it understands that this particular meat is fiddly and extremely delicate. The mouthfeel of this prosciutto was perfect. It was the right consistency — not overcooked, not undercooked — which can be tricky for such a delicate cut of meat. However, the flavor just was not there. For how strongly the meat smelled, I was expecting a burst of flavor. Prosciutto should have a porky, almost bacon-adjacent taste. It's why some people use it as an alternative to bacon on their hamburgers. Unfortunately, all I was tasting was a kind of meaty salt flavor. I jokingly told my family that prosciutto must mean "salty thin thing" as I tested it. The near total lack of flavor and stinky atmosphere dropped Boar's Head prosciutto to the bottom of the pack.

This was possibly the most expensive pre-sliced deli ham I have ever purchased. It was over $10 for a package of ham that I could probably finish in three lunches if I was particularly peckish. Still, it's Boar's Head. The brand carries an expectancy of quality and flavor. So, even its uncured, non-flavored deli meats should carry that high-quality aura. Well, I hate to convey this to you, reader, but ham is ham.

The two issues I had with the Boar's Head Cooked Uncured Ham were about convenience. The first was that the slices were so delicate that it was easier for me to remove three slices at once and gently pry them apart than to peel a piece from the package one at a time. The second issue actually contributes to the first. This ham was wet. It's a prepackaged deli meat — it's not supposed to be dry, but it was literally dripping as I handled it. 

Fortunately, this ham tasted like it should, which was like unflavored, uncured ham. Unfortunately, that means that there was nothing to buoy this to a better ranking. For those unfamiliar with the differences between cured and uncured ham, an uncured ham is going to be a little less flavorful by virtue of not being synthetically salted, flavored, and aged. This is not a bad product by any stretch, but when I have to fight to retrieve a slice, I am hoping to be wowed, rather than just have my expectations met.

Listen, I ate this in the weeks leading up to Christmas, so, not to date this article, but it should put you in the mindset of where I was with my relationship with turkey. We have just finished all our Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. We were about to move another turkey into the thawing position for Christmas dinner. I was sort of sick of turkey, especially ones that I had to pay $11.50 for. I will grant Boar's Head this: The Honey Smoked Turkey Breast was a nice change of pace from leftover cuts of the bird.

I think that this turkey could use a little bit more pep. It's a good first step in making an elevated turkey sandwich, but there's a lot more you can do to really make a turkey sandwich pop. The flavor was really nice, as the honey notes were present and lasted through the whole taste test. The smoked flavor never petered out into an astringent faux aftertaste. The issues here really come down to texture and convenience. The turkey slices did not want to separate, and the few slices I was able to peel out of the pack basically turned to shredded turkey in my fingers. This is not a solid slice of turkey that I'd want to build a sandwich around. The tasty flavor put this ahead of things like prosciutto and the uncured ham, but its fragility held the Honey Smoked Turkey back from entering the top three.

I am a cold cut enjoyer. I will absolutely demolish an Italian cold cut sandwich any day of the week. I can wax eloquent on the differences between bologna and salami and which meats pair the best together on a charcuterie board or in a sandwich. But all that, and I still couldn't tell you what makes this particular salami a "hard salami." It didn't fit the flavor profile of an aged and fermented salami, especially not one that is garlic and peppercorn forward. That is what I have always assumed a hard salami to be. It was by no means bad (especially for $5.99); it was actually quite tasty. I think I just expected more from Boar's Head.

The hard salami had parted from the package easily and was holding itself together perfectly fine — a huge relief after a couple of particularly fiddly meats. Upon tasting the salami, I was surprised by how subtle the initial flavor was. It built, of course, and left me with a really appetizing aftertaste. Still, the subtleness was a bit of a shock. Salami, in my experience, is one of those extraordinarily flavorful meats. The soft and subtle taste was not what I expected. While it didn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the salami, I must say that it was a little bit disappointing. Its subtleness is the only reason this comes in at the tail end of the top three.

I had not seen pepperoni marketed specifically for sandwiches before. If I had to take a guess, I would say that this is marketed as "sandwich style" for its size. The cuts are a little large for your average pizza, after all. The slices are thin but wide, giving good coverage for a slice of bread. In fact, this is the exact kind of pepperoni you should use to make a pizza-inspired grilled cheese sandwich (one guess as to what I used the leftovers for).

The pepperoni was easy to get at and separate, a convenient and low-hassle cut of meat. The taste was a perfect pepperoni — no subtlety here. Up here in the top three, I am going to have to be pretty picky about what did and did not count as an issue during the taste test, so for the slightly gritty texture and abundance of grease it left on every surface it touched, the pepperoni will go this far and no further. It is not that it was incorrect for a pepperoni to be a little gritty and greasy; I would expect nothing less. However, when comparing the pepperoni to all the other deli meats Boar's Head has on offer, texture and grease were not factors I had to worry about with most of them. As such, this pepperoni sits comfortably in second place and is easily worth the $7.99 for the package.

I am a simple man of simple pleasures. When my only complaint about a specific deli meat is that the slices are too thin, you know that it's a good product. The Genoa Salami from Boar's Head is hands down the best deli meat that it sells prepackaged. I could eat this thing straight from the package for a snack, fold it into sandwiches, make a zesty deli grinder salad, or serve it on a charcuterie board. My confidence in this salami's quality is just that high.

Getting into the package and separating the individual slices of salami was completely hassle free. I was pleasantly surprised by the scent as I opened up this package; it wasn't a powerful smell that sent my nose spinning. It smelled exactly like a good Genoa salami should: a little meaty but without any of those sharp undertones that can overpower the palette. Tasting it was much the same way. I actually ate a couple slices in a row just to make sure I wasn't getting the wrong idea (and totally not because it was just that good ...) and am pleased to report that the Boar's Head Genoa Salami is simply great. No ifs, ands, or buts. For $5.99, the Genoa salami is far and away the best product for both its quality and its price.

As with all my taste-testing articles, I apply the same process to each individual product. I took the time to open each Boar's Head package and retrieve a single slice from the pack. This was easier for some over others, which I made note of for the convenience ranking of the individual deli meats. After isolating a single slice, I did the taste test. Each of the meats could be consumed in three bites, so I made sure to pause and aerate my palette during each bite to make sure I was tasting every note that the meat had to offer.

I ranked each meat on taste, texture, and convenience. Convenience took into account not only the aforementioned slice retrieval, but also how expensive the entire packet was. Obviously, every meat I tested was of a different variety, so I couldn't hold them all to the same flavor criteria. I had an "ideal" flavor and texture in my head for each meat, thanks to my many years of deli meat consumption. How close the meat came to the ideal flavor and texture helped make my determination in those categories. Keep in mind that even the worst-rated item on this list wasn't actually bad, just worse in comparison to the others. This is one of those rare times that my inner child was proven right — Boar's Head is worth the higher price point.