With the holidays approaching, it’s time to start thinking about your Thanksgiving and Christmas and holiday meals! What meal do you like to serve ham for? I love Roast Turkey for Thanksgiving, ham for Christmas Eve (my husband’s tradition while growing up) and Herb Roasted Beef Tenderloin for Christmas which, interestingly, is also a lot of other people’s favorite too! I also have a grown-up Orange & Bourbon Glazed Ham that is delicious. It’s got just the right amount of orange which pairs perfectly with bourbon.
How to make ham glaze
I like canned mandarins in their own juice. They blend up really well and are cooked with brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. To thicken the glaze, I simply use corn starch.
Spiced not Spicy
This glaze is spiced, not spicy. Spiced meaning it has added spices added like nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger, but is in no way spicy in the way a chili pepper is spicy!
Best ham for glazing
To make life easy, I traditionally use a pre-cooked, spiral-cut ham. It only takes 10 minutes to make the glaze and 1 hour to bake the ham. Just enough time to heat it through and caramelize the glaze that makes a delicious crispy edge on the ham slices. Crispy edges are a must (you know what I mean!). Be sure to reserve some of the glaze for serving, like a sweet gravy, if you will. I love the availability of hams in grocery stores this time of the year that are of great quality so there’s no need to buy mail order or online. Simply one of the best things about preparing this ham is you don’t have to be the best cook or spend hours in the kitchen for this glazed ham recipe. It’s a perfect balance… part homemade, part help from the store 🙂 You will be proud to serve this ham to your family and, in return, they will be proud to eat your creation! If you can only find them in light syrup, you may want to adjust the amount of brown sugar
