Glazing a Ham

I have glazed hams several ways over the years.  The very best so far was when I bought a “raw ham” from the butcher which I then cooked at a very low temperature for about 8 hours on the day before and then finished off with a glaze at a moderate temperature for around 40 to 45 minutes – ie enough time to colour the glaze and warm the ham right through again.  If you were glazing at the end of the 8 hours you wouldn’t need anywhere near as long for the glaze – say 20 minutes.  But the 8 hour thing was a real mission on a hot day.  So I will stick with a cooked ham this year.

The best glazes mix something sweet, with something alcoholic and something tart/spicy.  So mixes like the ones I have listed all work well:

Brown sugar, whiskey, sherry, port or brandy, hot English mustard and marmalade

Brown sugar, orange juice, Dijon mustard and honey

Brown sugar, maple syrup, mustard and orange zest

Apricot jam, brandy and mustard

Cranberry sauce, honey and mustard

Honey and wasabi or horseradish

You could add a little ginger and/or chilli to almost all of these to add some extra kick.

One glaze I am tempted to try this year is from this blog - http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-glazed-ham-with-guinness.html

It mixes marmalade, Guinness, wholegrain mustard and pineapple juice.  I’m not sure about the Guinness but you could substitute cider or other beer.

Don’t worry too much about the relative quantities.  Glazing is pretty forgiving.  You do need about a cup and a half of glaze or more to ensure you can keep basting over the ham every 5 to 10 minutes during the glazing process.

I do stud the ham with cloves.  And I think it is a good idea to buy new cloves every year rather than using the old musty ones from the year before.  I put them either in the intersections between the diamonds of fat you have scored or in the middle of the diamonds – it doesn’t seem to make much difference.  One year I did the scoring too deeply and squares fell off which wasn’t so good.  So a light scoring is best.

Don’t forget to take the skin off before you start.  Leave a nice layer of fat because this is what holds the glaze and makes it taste great.  Even if you don’t eat fat the rest of the year, a tiny bit with a Christmas ham will be a treat.