Hams are fully cooked (unless you’ve bought a fresh ham)and can be served as is, cold. They are, however, much tastier if you’ve wrapped them tightly in foil, baked them until hot, and covered them in a tasty glaze. This method will work with an uncut ham or a spiral-cut ham. Discard the glaze packet that comes with the ham and make your own. You can also skip it if sugar doesn't appeal.
Equipment
Roasting pan (or very large, heavy and deep-sided casserole dish) and foil
Ingredients
10-poundbone-in fully cooked 1/2 ham
Mustard-Maple Glaze:
½cupbrown sugar
1 ½tablespoonsyellow mustard
1 ½tablespoonsDijon-style mustard
3tablespoonsmaple syrup
PinchEACH: salt, pepper, and ground cayenne
1-2tablespoonswater – enough to make a smooth sauce
Instructions
Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Move an oven rack to the lower 1/3 of the oven. Place ham fat side up on rack in roasting pan and wrap tightly in foil. Bake for an hour.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together the ingredients for the glaze adding enough water to make a smooth, pourable sauce.
After an hour, remove roaster from the oven and carefully take the foil off the ham. (Unnecessary, but if you’d like, slice a shallow, 1/4-1/2-inch deep, diamond pattern into the fat cap of an unsliced ham -- not spiral -- before adding glaze.) Pour or brush glaze evenly over ham. Wrap again tightly in foil and return to oven.
Cook another hour or more until instant read thermometer reads 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t overbake. Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes before carving (if needed—spiral hams are presliced) and serving.
STORAGE: Ham will keep about 4 days well-wrapped in the fridge and 3-4 months in the freezer. If you slice off all of the meat from the bone and use or freeze it, you can freeze the bone separately and well-wrapped until you need it for beans or soup.
Notes
copyright Alyce Morgan, 2020. All rights reserved.