How to glaze a ham
Y’know, there really aren’t too many opps during the year for showing off your baked ham moves so Christmas is open season on hamming. The Big Day is not the same without a massive, sticky haunch of smoky, succulent pig to haul to the table – and figuring out what the heck to do with the endless leftovers? You just can’t put a price on a conundrum like that! If you’re daunted by dealing with a whole ham; fear not. Our easy steps will have you glazing and baking like a real kitchen whizz; just follow them to a tee and you won’t go wrong.
1. Make the glaze. Preheat the oven to 170C. For the glaze, combine 125g (¾ cup, lightly packed) brown sugar, 170g (½ cup) sweet orange marmalade, 2½ tbsp dijon mustard and 1 tsp five spice powder in a bowl and stir to combine well.
2. Peel off skin. Use a small sharp knife to cut through the skin around the ham* shank, about 10 cm from the end. Carefully run the knife under the skin around the edge of the ham at its other end to loosen it. Gently lift the skin off by running your fingers between the skin and the fat, then lift it off and discard.
3. Skin-free ham! Taa-da! Your ham is nicely naked!
4. Score with a knife. Use a sharp knife to score the ham all over in a diamond pattern about 5mm deep, taking care not to cut all the way through to the flesh.
5. Stud with cloves. Stud the centre of each diamond with a clove, pressing the cloves right into the fat.
6. Place in tin. Place your ham in a large roasting tin. We folded the skin in half, placed that in the roasting tray, then sat the ham on top – you could also use a cake rack that fits inside the roasting tin to sit your ham on. If it isn’t sitting straight, you can use scrunched up balls of tinfoil under any low-lying parts to keep the ham sitting at an even level. This helps it glaze evenly.
7. Brush with glaze. Brush about a third of the glaze over the ham, pour 500ml (2 cups) orange juice into the roasting tin, then bake the ham for 30 minutes. Brush all over with half the remaining glaze.
8. Finish baking and glazing. Bake the ham for another 75 minutes, brushing it with the remaining glaze about halfway through cooking – the ham should be hot all the way through and the surface sticky and golden.
9. Bask in ham glory. Set the ham aside for 15 minutes to rest before carving. Decorate the shank end with baking paper, secured with ribbon and with a bunch of fresh herbs (bayleaf and rosemary are nice) if you like; this is not essential, rather a lovely touch. Just look at our pig-pink ribbon!!
We proudly used a 8-9kg Harmony Free Range Ham from Neat Meat. Cooked, 100% manuka wood-smoked, vacuum packed and ready to go, these hams are processed from ethically raised pigs in South Canterbury. Which means the animals are completely cage and crate-free. Read more about their freerange ham, grassfed beef, coastal lamb and more here.