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How to glaze a ham

By mdelaney

TORONTO, ON - NOVEMBER 28 - Lamesa Filipino Kitchen chef Rudy Boquila recreates his Filipina mother's Christmas ham. First of 3-part xmas series on non-turkey dinners. November 28, 2013. (Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - NOVEMBER 28 - Lamesa Filipino Kitchen chef Rudy Boquila recreates his Filipina mother's Christmas ham. First of 3-part xmas series on non-turkey dinners. November 28, 2013. (Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star via Getty Images) /
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The holidays mean a few things: forced family interaction, potentially cool gifts, and of course, fatty foods. Here’s how to properly glaze a ham so you’re not microwaving Hot Pockets for your evening feast.

If there were ever a seasonal food Hall of Fame, glazed ham’s would be enshrined right after Thanksgiving turkey and right before July 4th hot dogs. It’s the go-to item for many American families this holiday season, yet folks still don’t how to coat and cook their hams into optimal form.

So where do you turn to get the answers for a perfectly glazed ham? A sports-based website of course! Coupled with a delicious baked ham with a brown sugar-honey glaze recipe from Food Network.com contributor Trisha Yearwood and my own simplified language so all you armpit scratching neanderthals can actually understand it, we’re here to make sure you’re wowing whoever graces your household in the coming days.

[If you want to read the recipe as is, click here. If you’re here for the translation, follow along.]

Ingredients:

  • 1 10lb bone-in smoked ham with water added
  • 1 1/2 cups packed with light brown sugar (or regular brown sugar, your call)
  • 1/2 cup of clover honey

Cooking Instructions

1. Pre-Prep

Take out the top rack in your oven so you can make room for a large roasting pan that will hold your juicy ham. Inside the large roasting pan, place a shallow roasting rack so your ham can cook without being drowned in its own juices (photo example here, but please don’t spend $200 on this or else you’re a sucker). Once you’ve done that, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Food Prep

Take ham out of packaging and rinse it all over under cold water. Then, place it on the shallow roasting rack, cover it with aluminum foil and bake it for one hour and 40 minutes. (Trisha wants you to know that if you don’t have an exact 10lb ham, then adjust your cooking time 20 minutes per pound less or more that your ham may have, so 9lbs = one hour, 20 minutes; 11 lbs = 2 hours, and so on.) While your ham is baking, add your brown sugar and honey into a medium saucepan (holds roughly two quarts, or four cups) and cook over medium heat until the mix is smooth and the sugar has dissolved (probably 5-10 minutes at the most, but trust your eyes above that time range).

3. Glazing Time!

Lift the aluminum foil off your ham (but not completely, because you’ll re-cover it when you’re done) and pour your brown sugar/honey mix over it as soon as its done. The total cook time is two hours, 40 minutes, so depending on where your ham is in the original one hour and 40-minute bake, add the difference to equal the recommended two hours and 40 minutes. Until you reach that threshold, take either a cooking brush or basting spoon and scoop up the brown sugar/honey mix that is now sitting at the bottom of your large roasting pan and smear it over the ham so you can get all the flavor in.

Once it hits the recommended time, pull the ham out and let it sit for about 15 minutes, then slice and serve and voila! It feeds around 8-10 people, depending on the size of your ham. Enjoy!