A big baked ham is one of the easiest things to prepare for a holiday celebration. It’s economical, even a half-ham can feed a dozen people with leftovers, and a full ham typically goes on sale the week before Easter bringing the per-person cost down even more. The ham is already cooked, all you have to do is heat it to a serving temperature and if you want, apply a nice glaze. That said, the first time I tried to make a glazed ham, we did a couple things wrong. We bought an already cut (spiral cut) ham, which may be convenient for cutting, but dries out really easily when heated. We didn’t let the ham rest at room temp before heating, and we insisted on sticking with the ham guideline of an internal temp of 140°. So we ended up with an easy-to-serve ham with half of it (anything not near the center) rather dried out.

Recently I asked my friend Suzanne to come over and show me how she cooks glazed ham for her family gatherings. We baked two hams, one with Suzanne’s favorite sweet hot honey mustard glaze, and one with an intriguing honey thyme glaze Suzanne found in Gourmet. We scored the hams first in a diamond pattern, applied a glaze, cooked, basted with glaze, and finished browning in the broiler. Both hams turned out beautifully.

Continue reading "Glazed Baked Ham" »