The BEST Ham Glaze

You don’t have to have cold ham for Christmas (or anytime really). In fact, baking it in a low heated oven, whilst glazing it with a delicious ham glaze can truly change the way you think about ham. This recipe is from one of my FAVOURITE Chef’s ever – Chef John. I’ve modified it slightly to work for me, but if you want to see the original recipe, you can check it out on All Recipes.

This recipe is based on a medium sized ham, so if you have a larger ham, just adjust the recipe appropriately.

INGREDIENTS

Ham Leg
1 cup water
12 whole cloves (or more if needed)
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pinch of salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
Pour the water into the bottom of a roasting pan, and add the cloves (place around in the water) OR you can place in the grooves of the ham once you’ve completed step 5.
Place a rack (roasting rack) into the pan, over the top of the water / cloves.
Place the ham on top of the rack.
Slice the top of the ham diagonally by cutting lines 2.5 cms apart – lengthwise AND crosswise. So you end up with a criss-cross pattern across the top of the entire ham.
If you like cloves and the flavour it produces, add a clove into the diagonal intersection of each of the cuts (like in the picture above).
Bake the ham in the oven for 20 mins.
Combine the brown sugar, mustard, honey, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Whisk until the glaze is thick and has a smooth consistency.
Once 20 mins is up, remove the ham from the oven and brush the glaze over the top of the ham.
Return the ham to the oven and continue to brush with the glaze every 20 minutes – until the glaze is golden and the ham is heated through.
The original recipe says it should take about 2 hours 10 minutes (how precise!) but I found ours took around 2.5 hours.
After the ham is all cooked, if you want to crisp up the top of the ham, turn the grill on for about 5 minutes – watch constantly so that you don’t burn it!