Honey Glazed Ham

Ham is something I have often during Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I usually keep it how my Mother traditionally does it with Pineapple and Cherries on top. But I felt like changing it up a bit and focus on a nice Honey Glaze with a citrus twist. My curiosity came out fantastic and the orange gave a pleasant citrus taste to the glaze. Pairing this glaze with a salty cured ham was a perfect combination.

Honey Glazed Ham

1 Ham of your choice

¼ cup of whole Cloves just enough to fit around the ham in the slices

1 cup light brown sugar another ½ cup to rub on the ham

1/2 cups honey

8 tbsp unsalted butter

Juice of 1 orange and zest of half

To keep this simple, you want to prepare your ham. Depending which kind of ham you have you will prepare it a bit differently but the rest of the cook is the same.

If your using a whole or half ham, you will need to scour the exterior of the ham. 1 inch squares about 1/2 inch deep.

Place your cloves in the corners of the cuts you make.

Now rub 1/2 cup of brown sugar or just enough to cover your ham.

Place the ham in a baking pan or roasting rack and cover lightly with aluminum foil.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Cured ham's are already cooked, all we are doing is heating them up and adding flavor to them to counter balance the saltiness.

Once your oven is preheated, calculate the weight of your ham times 15 minutes. (1lb = 15 minutes cook time)

So my 7 lb ham's cook time was 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Around 50 - 45 minutes left of the final cook time. You want to prepare your glaze. You want to calculate where your glaze is ready on the final 30 minutes of the cook time of your ham. Once the glaze cools, it becomes a thick sticky caramel, so you want it hot and ready for your ham.

In a sauce pan, add your butter to start melting over low heat. Once it is melted add your 1 cup of brown sugar and honey to begin dissolving the sugar. Then add the zest of half an orange and add the juice of 1 orange.

Mix evenly and reduce over low heat for 10 minutes or until the last 30 minutes of the ham.

Remove your ham from the oven along with removing the aluminum foil.

Baste your ham with the glaze as much as you can, be sure to get in all of the crevices.

Place back in the oven for another 30 minutes and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy!

Happy Holiday's!