Yummy baked ham image courtesy of http://free-stock-photos.com/
We tried this recipe for the first time this year. It was a small, quiet nuclear family Christmas this year, meaning just my boyfriend, my daughter, and myself. My boyfriend and daughter are both “well yeah we can have turkey…it’s ummmm, you know, ok” and with such a lack of enthusiasm and the prospect of being faced with huge amounts of leftover turkey going to waste (I LOVE turkey sandwiches but even I get sick of them after a while), I decided to go with something we all liked better – a baked ham.
The only hesitation I had came from a memory of Christmases gone by. When my daughter was younger and my dad was still with us (oh how I miss him), we would spend Christmas afternoon and evening at his house. My dad was never a fan of turkey so my step-mom would make both a ham and turkey (with a house full of hungry mouths to feed it was a practical solution too; I am not sure that we could have fit a big enough turkey into the oven for all of us. Oh how everyone raved over her baked ham, especially my daughter who informed me that Grandma’s ham is the best ham in the whole world and then promptly refused to eat ham again unless it was made by Grandma. Sigh.
I knew I needed a stellar recipe that was delicious enough to rival my step-mom’s. I also knew that given my health limitations I needed something that was simple to prepare. Where to go, what to do? So, I took a little journey through the Internet for inspiration and found this wonderful recipe from Martha Stewart’s 2004 Holiday Guidebook. It sounded scrumptious and looked very simple to prepare.
I got the ham all ready for the oven and began the cooking of it but then my daughter (seeing how tired I was and that I was not feeling very well) took over and made the glaze. Being the wonderful cook that she is (her specialty is baking), she played with and tweaked the recipe until it was just the way she wanted it to be. I have never tasted a better ham – it was moist and delicious and tastes just as good cold as it does hot making it great for leftovers and an ideal choice for a buffet. So, without further ado, here it is. Cyn’s – or maybe I should call it Sam’s (my daughter’s name) Super Delicious and Super Easy to Make Glazed Christmas Ham with a nod of thanks to Martha.
1 smoked bone-in ham (ours was about 6 and 1/2 pounds)
The total cooking time for the size ham that we used was about 2 1/2 hours – when cooking anything but especially pork products it is so important to make sure that they are thoroughly cooked. I went out and bought a new digital meat thermometer just to be sure. If the Christmas of 1991 taught me nothing else, it was to be sure to cook ham thoroughly as the whole family ended up sick eating under-done ham at a friend’s house. So please use a meat thermometer and make sure to cook the ham to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Farenheit. Do not glaze the ham before it first goes in the oven. Glazing should take place during the last hour of cooking and should be done about every 15 minutes. Cooking temperatures for ham should be between 325 and 350 degrees F. We cooked ours at 350 and it was perfect. Be sure to cover the ham while cooking.
The glaze:
1/3 cup of apricot jam
2 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (readily available from local producers here in Canada but if you are in a region where it’s difficult to find or cost prohibitive I have found that just regular old pancake syrup works as a substitute)
2 garlic cloves, minced
Melt the jam in a small pan over low to medium heat. Once melted, pour into a bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients. Glaze away!
Anyone with some good ideas for garnishes for this?
This sounds very easy. I love it when people post their memories around a recipe. I think it adds to the flavor!
I agree with Lori, Cyn: reading your memories of hams of Christmas past and present was very enjoyable, and this recipe sounds delicious.
My boyfriend works with food and is a massive stickler for using a thermometer to check the temperature of food (meats, soups, etc.) to make sure it’s okay for eating. I’ve always been a little cavalier about it, but from reading your post, I think I’ll respect the thermometer going forward.
I am a sucker for Christmas Ham. This past week my mother and I have been having it on our morning toast, along with a bowl of fruit salad. It would not be Christmas without some of the special foods.