How To Bake A Ham In The Oven With A Glaze

Hams are the pre-cooked or cured meat that falls under the category of cold meat, for example, meat loaves, sausages, slices, etc. These can even be served cold on sandwiches or salads. A pre-cooked one can be bought from the market easily and they can be prepared fairly easily. 

Therefore, cooking them is not a must but baking them gives a crust and a chance to change the way it can be consumed. That crust can be made by using different skill sets or sometimes without a skill as well, which can be done with glazes and garnishes giving an interesting twist to a simple meat with no effort.

Ingredients

• Ham: Bone in or boneless can be chosen as per personal choice.
• Water: To give the ham a juicy texture after it is baked
• Oil/ spray: Apply or spray over the baking sheet for the ham to not stick and burn while cooking.
• Vegetables (optional): To have it on the side while the ham is being baked.
• Pineapple Juice (optional): It gives a sweet flavor to the ham and also makes the glaze of the ham flavorful
• Ground spice mix (optional): Clove, anise, cinnamon, fennel seeds, ginger, garlic, carom seeds, and cumin seeds. Use these dry roast them and powder them after they cool down.
• Brown sugar or maple syrup: To make the base of the glaze. Add it with a little pineapple juice for more flavor
• Dry and fresh Herbs (optional): Herbs like thyme, parsley, and coriander. Use half of them fresh and half of them, to make a powder for the mix.

Equipment

• Oven: A general type of oven is capable enough to do an amazing job.
• Timer: To check the cooking time of the baked ham to prevent overcooking.
• Oven Mitts: Useful while taking the baked ham out of the oven without burning hands.
• Baking Sheet: Bake the ham and if needed, bake the vegetable together with the ham.
• Parchment Paper: Can be used while baking over the baking sheet for easier cleaning. But in the case of multiple reuses, its non-stickiness decreases every single time.
• Knife and Cutting board: For carving and cutting after baking is done. It can also be used if any vegetables are opted to be added.
• Meat Thermometer: To check the inside temperature of the meat to check if it is cooked or undercooked.
• Mixing Bowl: To whip up the glaze, mix the seasoning, mixing vegetables with other ingredients if required.
• Saucepan: Used to boil the seasonings with maple syrup or brown sugar to make the glaze.
• Spatula: For stirring the boiling glaze mixture continuously to prevent it from burning.
• Whisk: Mix the ingredients for the sauce, and also for the glaze.
• Plate: It is needed for serving as per the portions

You can use bone-in or boneless ham in this case. The choice actually depends on the preference.

1. Preparation

• Preheat the oven to 162 degrees Celsius.
• As for the ham, season it and pop it in the oven.
• Make an herb-spice mix of ginger powder, garlic powder, cloves, salt, thyme, parsley and cilantro.
• Take half of the herb and spice mix and make a paste using pineapple juice to give sweetness
• Make the glaze by combining maple syrup, brown sugar, pineapple juice, and any citrus juice altogether.

2. Cooking

• Stir-fry the vegetables with half of the spice and herb mix and set them aside.
• Cover a bone in ham with a paste of herbs and spices. Wrap the good herb and spice-coated ham with foil and put it inside the oven to roast.
• Take it out of the foil and glaze the ham. Repeat the process for the second time.
• Cook the stirred-fried vegetable together with the baked ham Take the well-cooked and roasted vegetables off the sheet.
• Tenderize the ham and start carving after it has rested for at least 20 minutes.

It will take about 1 hour and 45 minutes to roast 13.69 lbs. bone-in ham at 162 degrees Celsius, it will be better to calculate the roasting time according to the pound of ham, in essence, 10 minutes per pound.

Once the ham is done, a glaze is added to the meat. The temperature of the oven is then increased to 218 degrees Celsius and it is baked for 15 minutes. If you would like a second glazing period, cook the ham for 15 more minutes. As the ham is done after the second glazing, take it off the oven and let it sit for 20 minutes.

There are some tips to be followed while the whole procedure is being followed. Here are some of them divided according to the measure to be taken.

Types

• Use good quality ham, it will not be worth the expectation, time, and effort if the ham tastes bad due to its quality. Purchasing a fresh piece of meat and trying to bake it without curing and preserving will make the meat taste and look like pork rather than Ham. Therefore, directly purchase a ham of your choice.
• Precooked ham makes the work so much easier. Just heating them will do the job as no brining or marinating will go through the delicious glaze so save the effort.

Preparation

• Cut the vegetables in an even size this makes them look better and cook better.
• To bake, keep the ham with the fat side upward. This will keep the shape of the ham intact as the body that is supporting the whole ham is intact.
• Let the ham sit for 20 minutes at least before carving anything over the hot, freshly out-of-oven ham

Checking

• Use a meat thermometer to check the inside temperature. It is best to make sure that the inside temperature of the ham doesn't reach more than 63 degrees Celsius. If it reaches more it can taste a little overcooked or the outsides might burn too.

Safety

• It is a must to use oven mitts to prevent them from burning. The mitts must be used while keeping the sheet in and pulling it out as the oven is hot and even if the skin doesn't touch the metal part, it may burn the skin with the heated air-like temperature.
• A pair of gloves while all the cutting and tenderizing will keep the meat away from the dirt.
• Make sure to be careful about hygiene, as a little miss and the meat can burn the skin or if not cleanly made it can cause health hazards.

Storing tips

• Store all the leftovers of the baked ham in a refrigerator, packing it in an airtight container. This way, it can be stored for up to 3 days.
• Wrap the baked ham in a food wrap and overwrap them with an airtight foil or freezer wrap. This way, it can be stored for over a month without any freezer burn.

Reheating tips

• Preheat the oven for 3 minutes to five.
• Top a layer with brown sugar over a little seasoning.
• Pour water on the baking sheet just enough to reach ½ inch in the baking sheet.
• Bake it in till the inside temperature reaches 140 degrees F.

The very first and most important part of baking a ham is to choose the perfect ham. There are multiple types of ham to choose from. However, the choice depends on the 2 different aspects. One of them is choice due to flavor and another is the choice due to the texture. The perfect choice depends on the personal preference.

Types of ham

Four types of hams can be chosen if flavor influences the choice which are:

1. Cured Ham (wet/dry)

Curing hams is a process that preserves the meat from going bad. These are very flavorful because of being injected with smoke, sugar, and other seasonings. This method is done to remove water from meat to prevent it from being spoiled.

There are two ways to cure the ham. The dry-curing refers to the process of rubbing seasonings with salt on the outer surface of the meat, giving a more concentrated and intense flavor.

However, for wet curing, the spices are mixed in water with salt and the ham is submerged which results in the even seasoned milder taste of the ham.

2. Fresh Ham

Fresh Ham is known as uncured ham. Although still cured with salt and using natural nitrate occurring ingredients like celery extracts for the preservation these are also called 'Nitrates and Nitrites free ham'.

The label 'uncured' is attached to the ham because it has no additional flavoring agents like, chemical brine, smoke, or seasonings. The reason to still cure with salt is that if not previously preserved, the fresh meat will taste more like pork loin and be the same in terms of texture as well as flavor.

3. Smoked Ham

During the process of smoking ham, they are hung in smokehouses to absorb the smoke from smoldering fire to give flavor and color to the ham.

These hams have a little sugary undertone making them an amazing choice to pair with flavors with sweet accents like brown sugar, cloves, mustards, smoke, and even maple.

4. Aged Ham

These hams neither need to be smoked nor need to be brined but to preserve it to age well, it needs a lot of salt and seasonings. Because of the almost no or minimum water quantity in the meat, the bacteria fail to multiply.

This gives the meat a chance to age. These can be aged from six months traditionally to more than a year depending on the aging temperature for maximum flavors.

Although dry aged ham tastes earthy and robust because of the open space environment, wet aging intensifies its natural aroma as it is aged in a vacuum seal preventing evaporation or shrinkage.

Ham is a heavy meal of choice for the palate as well as the body. Therefore, there are some food choices that go very well with ham, and those are Potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, beans, biscuits, salads, etc. Here are some of the recipes that are popular choices for ham.

Baked Ham Sandwich

Toast two breads on both sides and spread mayonnaise and mustard on one side of each bread. Top one bread with lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced onion, sliced baked ham, and fennel fronds, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cover the topped bread with cheese and the other toasted bread. Serve it among your friends and enjoy. This dish can be used as a takeaway food that can be enjoyed during picnics or potlucks.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Season the evenly cut chicken cutlets with salt and pepper. Toss it in a pan of butter but cook it halfway, add the ham cut into even pieces and cook it thoroughly. Make a flour mix by whisking the flour, milk, chicken broth, and cayenne and cook until thickened.

Mix mozzarella, mustard paste, and some salt and pepper until cheese melts. Then finally add parsley and breadcrumbs and keep stirring until it's all done. Serve it hot and enjoy it with family.

Potato Skins with Baked Ham

Bake two clean russet potatoes after coating them with canola oil till nice and moist. Bake it to keep the skin crisp but the potatoes must still be soft. Once done, take it off the heat and let it cool till handleable. Cut it lengthwise and scoop the insides out, leaving a little in the skin.

Brush the mix of butter and canola oil to the potato kin from both sides and season with the salt sprinkler. Bake them again until the edges are golden brown. After done loosely stuff with cheddar, and ham and heat it to melt the cheese. Garnish green onion, serve it hot, and enjoy.